21

When I arrived home from school (I didn't even bother waiting for Ronnie since I had no clue where the hell he was anyways -- but then again, he could already have beaten me here like he used to before) I quickly greeted my mom and locked myself in my room as I paced back and forth like a nervous wreck.

"Love? Love? I love Ronnie?" I asked my stuffed Pikachu doll and desperately stared at it as if waiting for a response.

No, but not only did Vita tell me that I love him, she mentioned after that I was in love with him as well.

"Am I?" I asked Pikachu again. After realizing I was asking a non-living thing a question, I threw myself on my bed and thought about it all -- all the emotions I've gone through just for this boy; This boy who has worried me so much in the last few months. This boy who always leaves me in a confused state. This boy who easily makes me smile. This boy who keeps the voice of an angel. This boy who I could never stop thinking about no matter what the case.

I groaned. "Agh, my friends are right, I do love Ronnie. I do!"

My heart has always been telling me how I felt about Ronnie -- always giving me hints and such, but my mind has never grasped the idea to figure out the truth.

"How the hell could I have been so oblivious?!" I hit myself with a pillow and laid there for a while till I heard the sound of my stomach rumbling.

Hunger got the best of me so I made my way to the kitchen and prepared myself a sandwich, all the while trying to distract myself from Ronnie but that all soon backfired when my mom walked in and asked if I had seen him.

I frowned. "No, I haven't seen him since the morning. Why? Is he missing?" My voice automatically grew to a higher pitch.

"Yeah. He hasn't come home at all nor called me to inform me if he was going anywhere," she said, looking worried already.

I too began to grow worried and an idea occurred to me. "Oh wait! I can call his friends and ask them!" In the midst of heading for my phone, the front door open only to reveal a bloody Ronnie and when I mentioned bloody, I literally mean covered in blood.

His forehead was dripping with stains of dry and wet blood, his nose smeared with more of the red fluid up to his cheeks, his lip bruised up and bloody, and his whole right eye swollen and purple. And not to mention his gray long sleeved shirt stained with spots of red and the hem teared and ripped in several places.

When he made his way in limping, my mom right away ran up to him to question and help him make his way to the kitchen. I immediately brought a chair out from the table so he could relax. Slowly he groaned with pain when taking his seat.

My mom grabbed some wet tissues to clean off his face. Ronnie winced from the pure touch. My mom groaned and asked again, "Oh, Ronnie, what happened?!"

Carefully, he pushed my mom's hand aside from his face and politely said, "I rather not speak about it, Mrs. Mae."

My mom's mouth dropped as she appeared appalled to the fact that he decided to refuse to give her an answer -- as if he had the liberty to decided that on his own, and judging by my mom's glowering stare, it didn't seem like he did. "No, no!" she began, "If you're living under my roof you better tell me what happened!" Yeah, I thought correctly.

Ronnie darted his eyes to my mom in a surprised manner. He must have not expected to have this reply come out of this tiny woman for this was the first time she's ever yelled so severely at him. He dropped his head and mumbled, "I got into a fight."

My mom scoffed and quietly told herself, with rolling eyes, "Oh, I should have known."

And I should have known as well, and judging by his appearance, it didn't seem like luck was with him this time like those other fortunate times in school.

"Was this all of Dave's doing?" I asked, angry to the thought that Dave has finally gotten his revenge on Ronnie.

He kept his head down. "No, it wasn't Dave."

"Then what happened?!" my mom anxiously and furiously asked when recognizing that he didn't have any intention on continuing to reveal why he was in the state he is.

Ronnie glanced up to my mom, then at me. He had this very serious look to his face. It made me feel a bit uneasy, but that didn't last too long because he then suddenly shifted to his side and let out a cry of pain. That alarmed both my mom and I.

My mom took action by grabbing her car keys and purse. "That's it, we're taking you to the emergency room," she called out.

"What?!" Ronnie exclaimed, startled."No, I'm alright! There's no need for hospitals!"

My mom objected. "Who do you think you're kidding? Look at yourself. you're bleeding from everywhere and my god, who knows if you've got any internal injuries..."

I agreed with her. Ronnie seriously needed some medical care and the gash on his forehead has been leaving me worried for some time already since it still hasn't stopped bleeding.

Ronnie didn't reply. I guess he must have given in and if I was him, I would too. Better to treat the wounds now than later when it's too late. He began to stand up, and groaning while at it, so I decided to help him out by placing his arm around my shoulder and using all of my body strength to help him stand. I anticipated for him to push me away and telling me he could do it on his own, but he never did. He really must have needed some extra help, no matter who it was giving it to him.

I helped him take his seat in the car carefully without inflicting more pain. I took my seat on the back behind him.

While heading for the hospital, my mom again desperately tried to get the story out of him on how this came to be.

Ronnie didn't answer right away. He took a moment of silence and quietly replied, "Mrs. Mae, would it be okay if I told you later? I'm kind not in the mood for story telling right now." He gestured to his whole appearance.

I knew my mom was getting frustrated with him but she wasn't going to spend her time arguing with him. She wasn't that type of person. She agreed to his suggestion. "Okay, fine. After you feel better, you have to tell me everything."

"Yes," he replied, as if he had no other choice.

From behind, I glanced at his reflection from the right view mirror. He was busy staring out at the sky and that made me realize that he's been doing that quiet a lot. Could he be thinking about something troubling him? And if so, what?

When arriving to the emergency room, I helped Ronnie sit on the nearest empty seat in the lobby. My mom registered him in and we waited... for quiet a while. Finally, when he had been called in (my mom went in with him), I noticed a girl -- bout my age -- across the room staring at me with a bizarre smile. Awkwardly, I turned away and took out my phone to distract myself from her stares.

Only two minutes had passed and I felt someone sit on the empty seat next to mine. It was that smiley girl.

"Hey," she said.

I gave her a confused smile. "Hi." I began to question if I knew her from somewhere.

"I know this may be totally random but can I ask if that was Ronnie Radke with you just now?" She appeared to be getting excited.

"Uhh... yeah, it is." I really began to question where I knew her from now.

"Oh my god!" she squealed.

I stared at her in a surprised manner.

"I can't believe it! I knew that was him!" she squealed some more.

I finally figured it out. "Oh, so are you a fan of his?" I asked.

She eagerly nodded. "Yes! I just love Escape The Fate!"

I smiled at her. It was amusing seeing a fan girl go crazy for someone you've been living with for a few months now. I mean, I forget how Ronnie has fans and knowing how his band's going, I'm pretty sure he will have thousands of fans soon, but right now, I couldn't grasp that idea. He was still Ronnie, the boy I loved.

"But--" she calmed herself a little, "what happened to him? He looked so bad!"

I shrugged. "I have no idea either. He just arrived home looking like that."

She started at me. "Oh, so are you his sister?" she assumed.

I let out a little laugh. "Oh no, I'm not his sister -- he just lives in my house."

She frowned and obscurely asked, "What do you mean?"

I knew this sounded pretty strange so I explained how my parents adopted him and whatnot till he was out of high school. I didn't want to get too deep into details. After all, it wasn't my place to explain Ronnie's private life to others.

"Oh wow, lucky!" Lightly, she pushed my arm. "If that boy lived in my house... whoo! Who knows what I would do!" She laughed.

This time I gave her a fake smile. I wanted her to leave me alone already. She was becoming irritating and the way she was thinking about Ronnie was pissing me off.

"Oh! So I never bothered to introduce myself; I'm Charla." She gave me a wide grin.

"I'm Aracely," I replied but didn't bother to smile as wide as her. I was, in a little way, trying to hint for her to leave me alone but, she never got that hint since she then began to talk even more.

Already she was talking to me like if I was her best friend. Telling me about what school she goes to, where she lives, her siblings, her own friends, the shows she attends -- Escape The Fate being one of them -- her boy dilemmas and a bunch of other insignificant stuff I couldn't care less about.

The while she was talking, I would occasionally scour the room for a relative or whoever she came here with, to make the signal that they would be leaving already, but unfortunate I couldn't find such a signal. She must be here waiting for someone as well.

Charla finally paused and that got my attention. "Oh, I just realized that I've been here speaking only about myself. How selfish." She appeared embarrassed but I didn't buy it.

"No, it's alright." It wasn't alright but at the same time, I didn't want to tell her anything about myself. I rather have her talk than give her my life story like she has been doing this last hour.

"No, no, please," she insisted, "go ahead. What school do you attend?"

I wanted to have Ronnie and my mom walk out of from the emergency room. I just wanted to leave this place already.

"Well, I--"

"Oh my god! Here he comes!" Charla pointed to the front desk.

Oh, thank god! My mom stood by the front desk while Ronnie headed in my direction. He was covered in so many bandages but at least he looked better, though he still did limp a little.

I stood up when he arrived. "How did it go?" I asked.

He pouted his lips. "Meh, I could have been worse. The doctor said I didn't have any serious internal injuries, just a lot of bruises all over my body. He said I need to rest for a while and let my body heal." He turned to Charla, who happened to be standing behind me, feeling too shy to show her entire face to him. He rose an eyebrow to her.

"Oh, Ronnie, this is Charla, one of your biggest fans," I told him and pushed her out to him.

Charla gave such an obnoxious laugh. "Oh, my god! It's such an honor to meet you!"

Ronnie smiled at her, but he didn't seem to comfortable to be meeting a fan right now, especially under these circumstances. "Thanks," he said.

Charla groaned. "Oh man! I didn't bring a camera nor a pen! I mean, what are the chances that I would be meeting you here?! In the emergency room?!"

Ronnie abruptly gave her a disappointed look. "I know what you mean."

"Oh! But maybe I'll see you again!" She grabbed my arm. "Since Aracely and I have become friends, maybe we can all hang out sometime?!" She smiled again and my mouth dropped open.

What?! When the hell did I agree to actually being her friend?

Ronnie made a small smile. "Oh, really?" He appeared uncertain about this.

My mom went up to us. "Okay, well everything's done here. Let's go."

Ronnie looked at Charla. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you sometime later then." I can tell he wasn't so pleased about this and neither was I.

"Okay!" she exclaimed and let go of my arm when he walked out of the building with my mom.

Immediately I realized I haven't given her my phone number so I decided to take this chance to dash. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Charla, but I gotta go now... so, bye."

"No wait!" she called out before I took a step out the doors. "What's your phone number?"

"Damn!" I cursed under my breath and faced her. I thought about giving her a fake number but I realized that wouldn't work out since it's very likely that Ronnie and I would run into her in another of their shows again and then how would I explain about the fake number?

While grinding my teeth under my lips, I nodded and told her my real phone number.

When heading back into the car, I found Ronnie smirking to himself. "Did you really become friends with that girl?"

"No!" I shot back. "She decided that on her own. She's just using me to get close to you! I know it." I began to mutter under my breath. "She's so fucking annoying. I would never be friends with a girl like her..."

"Good luck," Ronnie spoke, with a sarcastic tone. I could tell he was finding this extremely amusing