Face Down ✓ | Patrick Stump

Chapter Three

I've always hated inspirational quotes.

Seriously, they're so easy to prove wrong.

"Fall seven times, stand up eight." What If I fall six times? What if I fall eight times? What if I never fall? What if I can't get back up? What about when you die? When you fall and die, can you still get back up? I think not.

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." False. When you're being loud, you can hear the sounds around you, as well as the sounds you are making. When you are quiet, there are no sounds that you make, so you can only hear the sounds around you.

And how is that last one inspirational? What is it inspiring me to do, be quiet? Oh hey, I just got abused by my mother for four or five months, should I just do nothing about it and keep quiet?

Yes.

"Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger. The person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger."

I stuck by my promise that I would listen to Save Rock and Roll as soon as possible. In fact, the next day, I walked around Chicago, looking for a music store. It took almost an hour, but I finally found one where you could listen to full albums, not just snippets of them.

It was a small store, yet it was very comforting. The navy blue carpet matched the color of the walls, yet they were hardly visible, as they were lined with musical instruments, including some of the most beautiful basses I had seen. The center of the store was filled with rack upon racks of CDs and vinyls. I spent a good ten minutes rummaging through them, looking at all the records I wanted a copy of, but never had the money to afford.

Once I broke my trance of fangirling over the records, I quickly found a CD of Save Rock and Roll. I went over to a small machine in the corner of the store, right by the basses.

I was currently in the middle of Miss Missing You when I heard that line. The thing that I loved about this album was that it sounded all happy go lucky, but some of the lyrics were darker. For example, "C'mon make it easy, say I never mattered." or "Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger. The person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger."

Although I said I hated inspirational quotes, I absolutely loved them in music. Probably because they weren't always inspirational, they were just extremely relatable. Just as the song Death Valley came on, I realized my siblings were running around the store, screaming. I groaned in frustration, I loved them to bits, but they were a handful.

"Hey Ryan, Rose! Do you wanna listen to some music?" I asked them as soon as I got to calm down. They nodded. I led them over to the CDs and watched as they picked one out.

"Skye, can I listen to Justin Beiber?" Rose asked. I snatched the CD out of her hand.

"No!" I almost shouted. "Justin Beiber is a terrible artist. You'll be wasting your time. I'm not raising you to like him. Now go pick something else out." I put the CD back where it came from. I rolled my eyes. Three year olds, am I right?

I turned around once I heard a soft chuckle behind me. "I'm glad you're one of the few people that still has good taste in music." Stumpy said. Wait, Stumpy?

"Can I call you Stumpy?" I blurted out, as his cheeks turned a light red. "Sorry, it was just a random thought. You don't have to answer that."

"No it's okay. I kinda like it." He said, looking down again.

"Stranger danger!" I heard Ryan yell as he grabbed on to my leg. Rose soon followed and did the same thing. I winced, I had some bruises there. I hope Patrick didn't notice. I pulled down my sleeves a bit, just to make sure no bruises or scars were showing.