The Phoenix {Book Three of Hey Youngblood Chronicles}

Chapter 22- Shatter Me

Jasey's POV

~Saturday~

I stood in front of the mirror, staring at myself. I looked exactly the same as I did in the mansion with the other me. My hair was pinned up high behind me and cascaded down my shoulders in blonde curls. My dress fit perfectly, as if it was made specifically for me. I wore a pair of elbow length gloves to cover up the rose on my right arm.

Pete's words from yesterday kept ringing in my ears. What he said about Luke, the warehouse, all of it. It couldn't be true, there's no way. But there was a small voice in the back of my head kept telling me that it was all true.

Suddenly, the door clicked open and snapped me out of my thoughts. My dad stood in the doorway in a black suit with a white rose on his lapel. His salt and pepper hair was gently combed over, making him look like a jazz singer from the 50's or something with his glasses pushed up to the bridge of his nose. "Hey Princess." He smiled. "You look stunning."

"Thanks Dad." I smiled, giving him a small twirl.

"Are you ready for this?"

My heart immediately began screaming "YES! YES LETS DO THIS! YES LET'S GET IT OVER WITH!" But there was something in the back of my mind was telling me to wait and hold off for as long as possible, the same voice that nagged me about Pete, the same voice that led me to the girl in the warehouse.

"Uh, could you give me five minutes? Please?" The words fell out of my mouth.

My dad gave me a confused look. "Jacinda, are you okay?" He only used my real name when he was worried about me.

I laughed, "Yea. It's just cold feet." I explained. "I hope." I added under my breath.

"Okay." He consented. "Five minutes." He closed the door behind him, leaving me to my thoughts.

I spun back around and stared at myself in the mirror. A singular thought ran through my head 'Can I really do this?' I began to get scared. What if Pete was right? Suddenly, a sharp stabbing feeling shot through my arm. I screamed in pain and ripped the glove off my arm, revealing that the rose was glowing! I began to freak out.

"Jasey?" My dad called out behind the door, "Are you okay?"

"Yea." I managed to say. "I'm fine." My head throbbed and I stifled another scream of pain. What was happening to me? I closed my eyes and tried to block out everything to try and make it go away, but it wasn't working. It got wore and worse until it felt like someone took a sledgehammer to the side of my head several times. I shrieked so loud that even a banshee would be impressed. But then, all the pain flushed away, along with everything else.

I opened my eyes carefully and saw that I was no longer in the church, but on what appeared to be the back of a tour bus. "What the hell?" I muttered. There were voices and laughter echoing from the front of the bus. I tried to open the door, but my arm went right through!

"Whoa." I gasped, pulling my hand back. "This is insane." I walked through the door down to the narrow hall to an open living room area. Two people were laying on the floor, both rapidly clicking the buttons on their Xbox controllers. One wore a plain black tee shirt and batman pajama pants. His honey brown hair was messy and stuck up all over. The other guy wore an old Metallica tee shirt under his black zip-up hoodie and black gym shorts that showed off his colorful leg tattoos. Gears clicked in my head and I realized that it was Patrick and Andy. A girl in rolled up black shorts and a teal hoodie climbed out of the bunks and plopped onto the couch behind them. She pulled down to reveal her short red hair. It was me, or at the me that Joe showed me in that hospital bed.

"Hey Princess." Andy smirked.

Jasey rolled her eyes. "Morning Hurley." She grumbled. "Why do you keep calling me Princess?"

Patrick laughed. "Because you're the only girl on tour."

She smiled. "Well, you three are the ones who picked me to be your bassist. Being a girl just comes with the talent." She joked. "Okay, where is JoeFro and what are you two playing?"

"One- He's back in his bunk, and two- Halo." Patrick answered.

"Who's winning?" She asked, crossing her legs under her.

"Patrick's kicking my ass." Andy muttered as his character got blown up by a rain of plasma grenades.

Jasey and Patrick laughed. "You two are total nerds." She giggled.

"Yea." Patrick looked up with her, grinning like an idiot. "But we're your nerds."

She ruffled his hair playfully. "Yea, you may wanna grab that grenade before Andy flattens you like a pancake." She pointed to the television.

"No!" He exclaimed, jumping back into the game, but not before he was flattened by a tank Andy managed to obtain.

"Yes!" Andy grinned. "Take that Stump!" Jasey leaned back on the couch, laughing at the two musicians.

Then the whole scene dissolved around me. Gears began to spin at full speed in my head. I remembered that morning, not from just seeing it, but when it actually happened. It was the morning after our show in Chicago, one of the first shows of the tour. Wait OUR SHOW! A lightbulb went off in my head and everything made sense. Meeting the guys was no accident, I was not a small town girl who worked in a coffee shop, I was the bassist of a world famous rock band-- Fall Out Boy.

Everything began coming back into focus around me. I was back at the wedding, about to get married. My dad knocked on the door. "Jasey, are you ready?"

I began to panic, I had to do this. "Uh, yea." I called out, grabbing the bouquet of roses on the table beside the mirror. He opened the door and offered his arm to me, which I accepted. We began walking toward the isle and I could feel myself shaking. Once the bridesmaids, which were my sister and Monica, reached the end of the isle, everyone stood up and faced me.

I began walking down the isle with my father, one foot before the other. But then I heard a soft, melodic voice singing in my head, "Don't Panic, No not yet. I know I'm the one you want to forget." I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Patrick." I gasped under my breath. Everything I knew and felt about him flooded back to me. The fear I felt when I saw him on the operating table, the safety I felt with him when we were trapped in the back of the van, the adrenaline rush every time I got close to him onstage, and the security I felt whenever I heard his voice.

I realized that I couldn't do this. I couldn't walk down the rest of the isle to someone I didn't love. I did the only logical thing that felt right at that moment.

I ran for my life.