You and Me
Inspired by the life and times of a great person and an even greater story.
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Brady's POV.
"Elizabeth Nichole Tombs, will you do me the honour of being mine forever? Will you marry me?"
The last thing I heard before my heart completely stopped, was Ashley's screeching voice and the dry sobs. "Brady... Brady, I-I'm p-p...pregnant."
Chapter Five: Flashback
Nicky's POV.
"Miss? Are you here alone?" the voice was warm and concerned, but I didn't care, I had had enough of being fooled. Thanks to a warm voice, now, here I sit by a pouring fountain on a cool summer's night playing a guitar I had damaged so many times I had lost count. With a torn voice and singing a song that made no sense, I felt as if I were the only person on the world. And though it was lonely, the feeling was still tempting.
As I stopped strumming, I refused to turn and sighed, clearing my throat, a sudden anger overtaking my body and rage pouring through my every thought and emotion. It was unexplainable, every time someone came towards me, or spoke to me directly… it was like I had no control, and I didn't. My emotions were a wreck and I couldn't control them either way. It was a nightmare, and my personnel hell. "Life is an ass. Did you know that? Life is all about ass. Everyone's either covering it, laughing it off, kicking it, kissing it, trying to get a piece of it, or simply just being one. You just can't win!" anger blasted through my body, so throwing my guitar off my lap and sanding from my position, I turned to an unexpected face. One I wasn't sure I wanted to meet so soon, but was gladly standing in it's presence.
His eyes shown a molten gold colour, suddenly shifting to black, and his hair blew slightly in the wind. He towered over my figure and his skin was almost pasty white. He was tall and muscular, with a crooked smirk and handsome face. It was like looking at one of those airbrushed photos that you drool over, but know the models don't exist. There was only one explanation for him, vampire. That, or maybe he was just a freakishly good looking man. Or it could be that he's simply got a really good plastic surgeon. I mean we are in the twenty first century.
"If your gonna kill me now, I'm just telling you… this is your loss. I could sit here and complain to you for hours and you'd absolutely love it. I mean, just look at the people swarming around me! They all want to hear about my problems, they all care!" ever since I left, it's been like someone is constantly on me. Somebody always wants something, and something that I can't give them. It annoys me to no end just thinking about it. "Oh wait, hold on. No one is here, because no one really cares! Well isn't that a shocker?"
Recovering from my sudden outburst, he looked slightly amused and I felt as if I were running short on breath. Like the air wasn't enough. My emotions were a jumbled mess and I couldn't decide weather or not to run, or cut my wrist, praying he would take me away from this life.
Leaving La Push may have been the best, or worst decision I ever made. I felt tired and weary all the time and it was like there was a giant rain cloud hanging over me all the time. My heart had tore from my body, and my mind had disappeared, leaving me senseless and utterly disconnected from the world. People say that they find their emotion through music, my only explanation seemed to be that I found myself through my words. And that seemed to work for me all the time.
"Do you always talk like this? Or are you just anxious from your flooding emotions?" his voice was warm and captivating. Like a heated jacket on a cold winters' day. It wrapped around me and filled my body with different emotions, ones I hadn't felt in a long time. "I'm David."
"Nicky." I stated, testing him wearily. I couldn't bare to put my life in someone else's hands. I had learnt my lesson once already, and I wasn't in any position to begin the foolish task once again.
"Oh I know who you are Miss Tombs. You've swept the nation. Touched the heart of millions. I think, that maybe you might be one of the most wanted artists across the globe." he smiled crookedly, making my breathing hitch and change like nothing had before. He reminded me of Brady, our first encounter, the way he made me feel just with his eyes alone. It scared me, it scared me to know that he had an effect, that he made a difference.
"You and I are very much alike Nichole. I believe we could learn to like each other."
"And how is that David? You know nothing about me other then what you've been told on TV." I hissed, venom in my voice, wrapping my arms around my torso. Being pleasant would get me nowhere and I wanted to get away from him, and fast. He had no understanding, no interpretation of what it was like, how it felt to be completely and utterly alone.
"I wouldn't be so sure…" he faded off, giving me a knowing look as I turned away. Maybe it was his voice that set me off, or the fact I felt as if he were driving me insane just with his eyes on his back.
"What would you know?" I asked under my breath, cursing to myself as I once again let emotions take my body to places I had tried so hard to avoid. Anger, it only lead to pain later on.
But suddenly, when his voice stayed silent, I prayed a quick thank you considering the fact maybe he let off and left. For I couldn't bare to stare into his eyes again. It was like I was falling for another man all over again and though I deserved happiness. I refused to let myself fall down to the standards the love held.
But as fast as I was moving, I stopped. I wasn't walking away from a towering fountain, and I wasn't walking any longer. Suddenly, as if I had changed myself, I was in a different place, a different scene. It was an apartment. Two stories high and top of the line expenses. With a winding staircase and lateral scenery windows.
"What the hell?" I yelled as I felt alone once again.
"You're a girl, pretty but smart, athletic with a tom boy side and you lost your parents at a young age. You feel pain that you believe no person will ever amount to and as all the years passed though you've always craved to be unique you've wanted nothing but to blend in and be apart of the crowd for a very long time. You mask over a pain you wish no one else to see on a daily basis and you stand strong for the honour that your parents truly are… were, excuse me. At around seventeen you fell in love and were so scared you pushed him away, afraid of commitment most likely. You hide it well but your pain shines through in every song you sing no matter what. He was strong and protective, the faint but permanent marks upon your body tell me that and much more. You loved him but let him go and he hurt you like you were nothing. Treated you worse then you could ever imagine." everything became a blur as his words sunk in. I had lived with the pain before, and I needn't a reminder of what it had been like.
"Stop it!" I screamed out in agony as his voice demanded my attention again whilst he continued.
"He cheated on you and now you sit and watch your life pass by everyday and wish you had made a different decision. You made friends with one of his old comrades and you felt a family connection like no other with the boy… he made you feel again. Sick of the hurt and turmoil you felt everyday you left the small town in pursuit of something bigger and better, and found the only way for your first weeks of fresh pain was to change who you were completely. So out came the hair dye and makeup, changing the way you looked, but not the way you felt. You walk with confidence and arrogance but a hidden pain drags you down like no other and when you play you look as if you are going to cry. And then… the world cries with you."
"You believe you are the only one in the world and you feel as if your life is falling down around you and there's nothing you can do to hold it up. But your wrong. You are young and free and there's nothing better then a fresh start. The pain of loosing something you pushed away kills you and because you refuse to let go of the past, you will never succeed in creating a future. You need someone to patch up the wreck you've created out of yourself but you're to afraid to find someone to do that for you despite the pain you feel. The idea of loosing something you love once again drives you crazy. Now… your sitting here pooling in your own pain because I have reminded you of everything that you wanted to forget but know you must over look to move on."
I sat in silence, there was nothing I wanted more then to sink and die right on the spot. Nothing I wanted more then to disappear for my heart, and soul had been ripped out by this stranger and I couldn't help but cringe as I thought of all the possibilities. "That's not true." I gulped, finding my voice even though I knew how shaky it truly was. "I-I…"
"You, dear beauty… are truly in pain and there is nothing you can do to stop it." by this time, David had sat down beside me and pulled my chin to face him. Now I sit here with tear stained eyes starring into the man that had taken everything I was and torn it apart because he forced me to listen to the truth of reality.
Looking anywhere but his eyes, I slowly and silently sobbed as he just starred at me, waiting and watching as I poured out in front of him. For a moment, I had forgotten who I was, what I was. In an instant, I had left what I assumed was his apartment and was suddenly sitting my mine, welcoming the cool feeling of freedom again and loving the idea of being home. But his voice followed me.
"You cannot run away from me. I may be a vampire but I am also just like you. In an instant you can run away from here in a jump but as long as you leave that jump scar open, I can follow you to wherever, no matter what you do."
"What do you want from me?" I yelled, running through my apartment trying to escape from his warm but hard voice and towering figure.
"I want the chance to make it right. I want to be the one to make you feel because we are the last ones of our kind and if you decide that you don't want anymore of this one day, then jumpers will disappear from the face of the earth and never again will we get the chance to rule. I know how you feel, I have made the same mistakes you have and I want the chance to fix you, because there was no one there to fix me when I was broken." he was sincere and honest. But I couldn't force my body or mind to say the words I wanted too. I couldn't let myself fall again only to be stepped on when I was down.
"I can't." was my only reply. But a whisper in the wind, barely audible.
"Everyone deserves a shot at happiness Nicky, even if you've been deprived of it for this long. You still deserve at least a chance. So I am here to make sure you get it, weather you like it… or not."
End of Flashback
That was how it started, weather I wanted it or not, he was here to stay until he saw that when I sent him away, I truly didn't want him with me anymore. At first it seemed like a bad idea, but as time passed, I learned that maybe, I didn't want David to leave. He was tall and strong, he reminded me of the love I once shared and lost, and his presence became a necessity. It hurt me to be away from him, he made me feel hole. It was like gravity pushed me weather I liked it or not. He made me feel like I was suppose to be there, like I belonged.
He was an artist, an athlete, he knew me better then I knew myself and maybe that was what I liked about him. He was the soul I never had, the hidden person within me. Like a twin. He became my podium to life. Leading me in the right direction. He was my Brady in other words, and the more I tried to deny it, the more I began recognized my mistakes.
We were going out, it was my birthday today. And though it had been such a short time, after my delayed aging, I forced myself to forget what it was like to age, to celebrate becoming a year older. But I couldn't deny tonight, it was named Gigg's. A dinner for two at a five star restaurant, I couldn't turn the offer down. It was undeniable.
I was wearing a short, strapless black dress with a white over coat and a small purse. Even a short amount of time here had taught me enough about presentation that I never left the house without looking over myself at least five times. People were just waiting for the chance to tear me down, and I wanted to hold that off for as long as possible.
"Are you okay?" his voice was honey and caring, like the angel in my darkest nightmare, and the knight in shining armour come to save me from my darkest moments. He was the sun, my sun, he was all mine and every time the thought occurred, I couldn't help but curse the emptiness that reminded me. I could fall into the arms of a thousand of men, and never, never would I feel the whole person I wanted too. Never would I feel completely and utterly happy or content.
"Yes David. I'm fine." I smiled falsely. He was an empath, one of few, but powerful. He would sense my discomfort but touch nothing on it. He was the savoir I needed, the truth I would slowly wake up to. He was my laughter and my comfort, the feelings I had thought I had lost. And without him, I would still be sitting by the fountain strumming a guitar and singing a song I knew not of what really meant to me.
"I have a surprise for you." he smiled suddenly before charging from his seat and behind the door that read employees only. The curiosity that swept over me was overwhelming. I wasn't one for surprises, and the amount of times I had told him that amazed even me. But he needed to know I suppose, even in a proper state of mind I had never been able to handle surprises as well as anyone else.
"The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight, maybe it can stop tomorrow, from stealing all my time…" the voice was intoxicating and demanding. Like the sweet rings of pleasurable bells in my darkest hour. His voice called to me like a beacon and begged me to come closer and closer. To make him mine and never give him back.
I am here still waiting
Though I still have my doubts
You're damaged at best
Like I've already figured out
Your falling apart
Your barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
There is healing
In your name
I find meaning
The broken locks were a warning
You got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded
I'm an open book instead
And I still see your reflection
Inside of my eyes
That are looking for purpose
They're still looking for life
Your falling apart
Your barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
Is there healing
In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm barely holding on to you
I'm hanging on another day
Just to see what you will throw my way
And I'm hanging on to the words you say
You said that I will
I will be okay
Broken lights on the freeway
Left me here alone
You may have lost your way now
You haven't forgotten your way home
Your falling apart
Your barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
There is healing
In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm barely holding on to you
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm barely holding on to you
I could feel the pressure of overwhelming sadness break out inside my head, but my posture and expression remained soulless, I was lost, speechless, anything but normal. And as the spotlight began to shine through his golden hair and his eyes met mine. We weren't surrounded by people in a restaurant anymore, there was just David and I, here… tonight.
Sadly, even the most realistic dreams have to end, such as this one. Starring into his eyes, here… now, realization struck fast and hard. I didn't know who or what David really was. He had handed me basic and obvious information I could have gathered myself, but he had never told me who he really was, or how he came to find me. Even the fact he knew me better then I new myself scared me, I had neglected to tell him anything of my past. How could he possibly know.
"Nicky Tombs. I know we haven't known each other for long, but I can't help but feel like you're the one I'm suppose to be with. And though it sounds stupid and utterly ridiculous, the only thing going through my mind right now is what you've told me from day one. A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe and leaves before she is left. Well I have a proposition. Elizabeth Nichole Tombs, I promise to love you forever… so lets be unwise together. I'll never ask you to kiss me, just love me forever. I'll never ask you to listen to me, just believe me when I say I will give up everything for you. And I never want you to leave me, because you are the girl I want by my side for the rest of my life." I couldn't handle my overwhelming sadness and realization, he had spoken the words I had always wanted to hear, but from different lips, and with different meaning.
"Elizabeth Nichole Tombs, will you do me the honours of being mine forever? Will you marry me?"
It was so tempting, the obvious passion and lust laced with is voice called to me like never before as I yearned for those exact words to be spoken to me on a day sometime soon. But is this what I wanted? My mother and father had married due to real and pure love, I couldn't help but feel I was filling a hole I could deny no longer… I couldn't help but feel I was trying to replace Brady.
Two Weeks Later
"I thought I smelt something in the air." the husky voice from behind me jolted my adrenaline into overdrive and as I sat listening to his voice, an immediate smile crept it's way onto my face. Though I may have tried to hide it, there was no denying what his voice could do for me, the way his words struck the air, the way his eyes brightened my very day.
"I wouldn't know." I replied back quietly. This was an unthinkable act of immature selfishness, but I couldn't put it off any longer. I suppose the graveyard wasn't the best place to celebrate in, but my parents, my real parents, should be aloud to see me happy at least once more.
Whirling on my heel, I bound forward and leapt into his open arms. Laughing as he swung me round and round. Placing me on the ground, I pulled back to star into the eyes of the real reason I had returned. "It's good to see you again Seth. I've gone crazy missing you in the past while!" my body vibrated on the spot as I couldn't begin to control the excitement sweeping through my entire body. A questioning look tore me from my foolish act, countering my motives and demanding an explanation.
"Why the sudden change in heart?" his voice was curios, and though I cringed from the forward remark. I owed him the truth if nothing. "You seem happier, like… I don't know. You just seem happier all of a sudden." his quizzical look changed my overall thinking. I was happier, maybe it's here to stay. I could begin to like being happy, it seemed to brighten up my day for the most part.
"Well, after I left. And you wrote me back those letters, at first it was hard to find bearings. I couldn't feel anything anymore. Like my whole heart had been ripped out and stomped on. But you see, two weeks ago, someone sang me a song that seemed to wake me up. I knew nothing about anyone around me. I was taking people from my new life, and replacing past memories with them. Like my body guard, he was my Paul. And my manager, she was my Kim. I'm sure you heard about David, well… I wanted desperately for him to be my Brady. But I couldn't make him fit. Life was good, I was happy. But there was something missing." I let my words sink in, leaving them to trail whichever way he assumed this was going.
"I had lost my Seth Clearwater. I had lost my reason to get up every morning, and go to sleep somewhat happy. You were my happiness Seth. And I will travel to the ends of the earth to make sure you find yours. I want you feel he same way I do when I'm around you. So I decided, that maybe I deserve to smile too, that maybe I deserve to have some fun also. And this seems to be one way that I smile. Being with you. Even if I have to bleed for the rest of my life, I won't leave you like I did before."
"Whatever makes you happy Nick." he smiled and placed a warm arm around my shoulders. It felt good to see him smile. It felt good to make him feel. It was something I had gone without for a long time, and I loved being able to make a difference. Being able to make someone else smile for once.
"Well, I have one condition." I smiled as the smile wiped from his face and suddenly he stopped and starred at me shocked. "I have a new roommate." I could see the dials turning in his head.
"You may not like his at first, but I know you'll learn to love him. He's dominating, kind of like you. And you're both very protective of your property. But I found that he's stolen my heart, and though I tried to deny it at first, he really is like Brady in some ways. Only we share a talent together like no one else."
I could visibly see Seth's face grow suspicious and as he peaced the puzzle together, the sudden emotions running through his eyes were tremendously difficulty to understand. Fury, rage, pity, happiness, fear, anxiety and a sudden flash of realization, he knew what was happening. And as his head turned towards my truck, in an instant everything changed before my eyes.
Who do you think awaits Seth's eyes in the truck?
Now the real question...
Should I write another chapter?