Disclaimer: I do not own the song/characters.
BEST SHOT
I'm just flesh and bone, heart and soul, and I earned a couple of scars. Those scars run far deeper than the surface, straight through the fleshy muscle of my heart. Rose Hathaway cut me far deeper than I like to admit. I love, loved, her and she played me like a fiddle. I knew I didn't stand a chance when he was alive, but even undead she wouldn't let him go.
I struck out more times than I can count on her, eventually having to take my ass back to the bench and call it a game. She was with him and I had to move on. Easier said than done. No amount of alcohol, cigarettes or hookups erased her from my mind. Everywhere I went I saw her. In a passing stranger whose hair flowed like ocean waves. A bouquet of red roses in a storefront window. Or even the billboard for a Chinese restaurant. The donut shop the corner, to the pizza place across the street.
Everywhere.
Until her.
When I saw her for the first time, I heard angels sing. I saw the most heavenly creature to walk the earth. My heart swelled three times its size in my chest. Pulling at the stitches that barely held it together after Rose. I have never believed in love at first sight, but with her, I wanted too. I wanted to give her everything I could possibly offer. Though I didn't have much nowadays, I would do whatever I could to claim her heart.
When she smiled, I saw the sun sink down on the coast of California. Bright, beautiful, more than anything captivating. I had to see it again, and again. Her heart laid in that smile, in her eyes.
She was far more guarded than I. Holding dear to her beliefs that I am nothing more than a blood-sucking monster. But Rose had once said that she wasn't like the others. That if you talked to her long enough, she would loosen up. So that's exactly what I planned on doing.
Finding any way possible to spend time with her. Buying that damn mustang, though I prefer a dodge, just to see that smile. Taking self-defense classes with Wolfe- scary mother fucker- just to have a reason to touch her. Anything that gave me five minutes to chip away at the towering walls around her.
Over time, she pushed and I pulled. Then she pulled and I pushed. She saw more in me than I saw myself. She could see the man that lay beneath the brooding exterior, the guarded heart. She pushed me to be the man she knew I could be. I pulled back, not wanting to admit my faults. She pulled me into her heart, offering a small piece that only I was allowed to have. I pushed her to challenge herself. To put her age-old beliefs and superstitions behind her and live a little.
Give and take. It was our thing.
I gave up the smokes, the alcohol, the women, all to prove to her, and myself, that I could be the man she deserved. I didn't do it because she asked me too, because she wanted me too. But because she deserved better. And frankly so did I. She let go of her fears and walls. Learning to live a life for her, not for her father or their fucked up society. Embracing what laid within her, becoming the person she was meant to be. Not who they told her she should be.
I look back on the last year of our lives. The scrutiny, the ups, and downs, ins, and outs. And there is no doubt that I made the right choice. That she is the reason I am not the man I was before. In no way, shape or form am I perfect. But I love her with everything I got. And for now, until forever, I will give her my best shot. And I know she will give the same in return.
"Adrian, what are you thinking?"
"Just how much I love you, Sage."
Best Shot: Jimmie Allen
