Trusting Again (5SOS)

Seventeen

Michael

We were finally in Tennessee! I figured Savannah would be happy to be back home, but she didn’t go anywhere without freaking out. At our concert she almost refused to sing at the beginning. She heard the crowd shouting to hear her, so she did sing some. The One Direction boys came out and we rocked! I dragged Savannah out for the half time Twitter feed thing.

We were reading through Tweets and doing some dares when suddenly everyone got really quiet. I had to read the Tweet on screen about five times before my brain processed what it said.

@MichaelClifford- You do know that you’re dating a psychopath, correct? Savannah was locked up in the mental hospital since seventh grade. Goodness only knows why they let her out! ~@ToatsStell

I looked over at Savannah along with all of the others. Her eyes were wide and full of tears. She was visibly shaking. She started backing off the stage while shaking her head. She gave me one last sad look before turning and running to who knows where.

I got up to follow her, but when I got backstage management stopped me. “Go back out to the concert. We’ll look into this and get it all cleared up. You know the stupid crap jealous girls can come up with,” one of them told me. I hoped that he was right, that they could clear this up, but part of me knew it was real. Psycosis, the nightmares, not wanting to talk about her past, and the comment about getting away when we first met, it all added up. I knew she wasn’t a psychopath, but then what had caused her to be put in an asylum? Surely she could explain the whole thing when we got back to the hotel.

The rest of the concert went on with less enthusiasm from all of us. I practically ran the whole way back to the hotel, and couldn’t even be bothered to wait for the elevator. I threw the door open and searched around the room. She wasn’t here, and her bags were gone. The only thing left of the girl I fell hopelessly in love with was her now finished drawing of me. It was a perfect mirror image, right down to my always messy hair. I took the picture in my hands and noticed that there was writing on the back.

“Michael,

               Now you know what I wanted to hide. Now you know about my past. I promise you I’m not a psychopath, but why would you ever trust me again. I had really bad nightmares in sixth grade and I told my parents about them because I trusted them. They thought I was crazy and had me locked up in a crazy house against what all of the doctors told them. The doctors knew that I wasn’t crazy, but my parents wouldn’t listen. They were convinced that I wasn’t fit to actually live my life outside of those walls, so every year when the doctors reevaluated all of us my parents told them to keep me in no matter what. I only got out because when I turned 18 they told me I could leave before my parents could force them to keep me another year. I moved to Australia because it was a fresh start in a place where nobody knew about me. I love you and I always will, but it would be better for you if you forgot I ever existed.

                                                                                                                          ~Savannah Lowe”

By the end of the note the tears were free falling down my face. The girl I loved and could never forget had just ran out of my life, possibly forever. I could never forget her. I thought, no, I know she’s the one. I could never forget her, never. She would forever be etched in my memory and my heart.

The guys came in and saw what had happened. They all read the note and reacted similar to how I had. I lost my one true love and they lost their little sister. I swore that I would never stop looking for her, even if it killed me.

I couldn’t sleep that night or for the rest of the month. My dreams were haunted by her figure and voice. I always heard her crying or screaming for my help, just like that first night. I saw a terrible version of her in every nightmare. Her hair was all matted, she was terribly pale and scary skinny where she had once been perfectly tanned and had an athletic form. Her eyes had faded from their natural bright green to the color of dying grass. I had to save her, but after they found out it was true management wouldn’t even let us talk about her. We still did, and we ended up getting kicked off of the tour. I wasn’t the same. The real me left with her. I was just a shell of who I was with her.

***Did anyone see that coming or did I do a good job of keeping it secret? ~A.BC AUTHOR***