Heartbreak Warfare
He bit my shoulder until it gushed blood. I winced and drew back with a wimper. He turned away.
"Please." I whispered.
He didn't even flick an ear back to signal he heard me.
I staggered up, choking back sobs, and fled to my bedroom. I was an absolute and total wreck.
And I was right.
He hated me.
He didn't want me.
I was alone.
The walking stick had appeared again as I screamed into my pillow. My mother rubbed my back as I kicked the bed, face down in feather-fluff from the other pillow I had ripped. My screams turned into howls that echoed through the house.
My dad came up, eyes gold from the fighting I had heard downstairs.
"Porsche, sweetie, it's okay." He soothed cautiously, walking slowly to me, worried about my reaction to him.
I bit the second pillow to stifle the noise I created.
"Sick bastard doing this to her."
"Adam." My mom hissed.
"No, Mercy, look at her! He's killing her. He's taking everything out on her and she didn't do anything. It was my fault she left and he's tearing her apart." My father fought back. "He needs to—"
"Don't hurt him." I blinked water from my eyes.
"Porsche—"
"No, Dad. If he hurts, I'll be the one who causes it." I said, sudden certainty in my voice.
He smiled for a second.
"That's my daughter."
αβΩ
I had cleaned myself up a lot.
And…slept for a few days.
"Porsche, you have a visitor." I pulled on clothes and combed through my hair with my fingers. I walked down the stairs and the scent hit me.
"JAMIE!" I screeched, bolting over and hugging my best friend ever in the Tri-Cities. We used to go to school together when I was seven and we always hung out during breaks when I lived here.
"Well, Hauptman, I only heard yesterday you were in town." He laughed, "You should've called."
"Slipped my mind, been busy with other things." I shrugged apologetically, "But I can tell this isn't purely social." I told him, as Mom left, smiling. "What's up?"
"Dexter broke his arm…" He sighed and trailed off, looking at me expectantly.
Dexter was my sort-of replacement in Jamie's band. Well, our band. We were a screwed up bunch. No lead singer among us because we swapped, depending on the song. My favorites were the ones we wrote, but we mostly did covers.
"Ah, and you need me for practice?" I laughed, it felt good to laugh.
"Um…" He grinned sheepishly, "We need you for Tumbleweed."
I froze.
"Tumbleweed? Aw, shit. That's fucked up, isn't it in, like, two weeks?" I grumbled.
"Oh, come on! Donia really wanted you to play bass again! Please?" He begged.
"Depends, are you and Donia going out yet?" God knows how hard I tried to get them together.
Not that I'm particularly religious. But, I think everyone pretty much knows I tried.
He blushed.
"Well—um—eh…"
"HA! Twenty bucks, Silverman! I told you!" I jumped up and down. "Details?"
"No, no details, Hauptman! Please tell me you'll do the gig!" He pleaded.
I rolled my eyes.
"Was there ever any doubt?"
"Um, tons of it, yeah. I'm never quite sure with you…" He laughed.
"When do I start?"
"Um…now would be best. We need a bassist for practice today." He admitted.
"Of course…" I nodded and went to get my stuff. I stopped and turned around, "Two favors?"
"And you'll drop the twenty bucks?"
I scrunched up my face.
"Fifteen."
"Ten." He shook his head.
"Fine." I muttered.
"Favors?" He asked.
"Pedals? Please?"
"You're so obsessed with those! But, fine. You can work any and all pedals the others allow you to touch." He sighed in defeat.
"Yes!" I smiled.
"And the other?"
"Tell you when we get there."
αβΩ
"Evil, I love it!" Donia grinned. She was the only other girl in the band. Her hair was bright orange, either inspired somewhat by Hayley of Paramore or possibly old pictures of my sister except with a neon twist to it that made it glow abnormally in the dark garage.
"God, woman, remind me never to break up with you." Jamie blinked in utter shock and fear. I admit, Donia and I had some pretty crazy expressions on our face.
"So I have your permission?" I asked.
"Oh, hell yeah!" She hive-fived me.
αβΩ
Haha, performance time. Believe it or not, we were the only modern-song group at this thing. I took my position behind Jamie—lead singer for this one and, as always, lead guitar—and on the left of Donai, keyboard. Corey played rhythm on the other side of the…stage is an over statement in my opinion, but okay. Tyler played behind us all on the drums. All of our songs were covers.
And we had tons of them.
"Bullet With Butterfly Wings" was simple. I ran over to hit a few buttons on our system and stepped on a couple of pedals—my favorite part, put Dexter was actually in charge of it. Turns out you can work sound with only one arm.
Ke$ha, not my favorite singer, but Donia begged and she was helping me out big time so I never bothered to refuse to sing "tiK toK" with her.
"Disturbia," The Cab version with some minor adjustments here and there, nailed it!
Every song pretty much worked out.
"Imma Be," blame Corey, just blame Corey.
"Let it Rock," Jamie edited that and I think it was supposed to piss me off the way he did it. I mean it was either about me or Donia, but whichever, it was completely true for both of us.
"Now the girl's disgraced. She who knew her father when she cursed, his name, turned and chased the dollar. But it…"
Now was the time for some fun. Corey adjusted his mic and Jamie stood next to me for a couple of…special songs. I looked back. Donia smiled evil-y and nodded, I tried not to laugh at her face.
First verse, easy, the boys, including Tyler, swapped per part. Chorus? Too simple. I danced with Jamie as we played.
My part was up, Donia as back-up.
"Okay, I get it, let me think, I guess this might turn." We had been…editing for younger children who—for some reason because I'd never been allowed to come until I was thirteen—were watching. "Maybe it's time to put this on your side burns. He say I'm bad…" I unbuttoned Jamie's top three…buttoned buttons. "Pressin' me like button-downs on a Friday night." I giggled.
Donia took over.
"I'm so pretty like, me on my pedal bike, me on my low starch, me on my egga-whites. He say 'Donnie, don't stop, you da bestest…" Her accent was pretty damn good.
Corey picked up and we stood back-to-back for his line:
"Girl, I gotta watch my back, 'cause I'm not just anybody."
That's when some real fun took place. Jamie didn't pointedly look at the target, but I did, smiling and cuddling Jamie.
"Oh that was your girl? I thought I recognized her!"
The song ended and we changed to "Meet Me Halfway."
"Master of Disaster."
"Welcome to the Family," another request of Donia's because we all can harmonize well when we have an actually excuse to try.
"Misery Business." Donia and I had fun "fighting" on that one.
"Right Round," "Low," and "Sugar" were interesting.
Who sung 'em?
Ha, who do you think?
Yup, me and Jamie, Donia just rocks like that. I love having her as a revenge partner.
We hugged, we laughed, we cuddled. Nothing was really too complicated, I mean he knew what I was doing and why and I could tell he was madly in love with Donnie.
Corey really wanted "On to the Next One," so we pretty much only sang a really small portion of it because cleaning that would mean no lyrics at all. So we—meaning Donia and I—hit record and recorded our voices so we didn't have to keep singing in the background.
Donia and I both hate Cyrus with a passion that burns with the heat of a million-gazillion suns, but because of the little midgets present, we sang "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home," because…it's true. Then we forced Jamie to sing Jonas Brothers for us because we were going to do that anyways. Everyone had learned the song behind his back. Donia could play lead pretty well so she stole his guitar and played that instead for that number. Poor Jamie, thank God he had a younger sister so he heard the words to "Live to Party" everyday.
Haha, he loved us.
"Womanizer" and "Piece of Me" were fun!
We ended with "Please Don't Leave Me," having played Prima J's "Rock Star," Kat DeLuna's "Unstoppable," and "Never Miss a Beat" by the Kaiser Chiefs.
The P!nk song was a very emotional duet-type-thing with me and Donia singing, obviously.
A lot of songs, we'll admit, but well done songs.
And the crowd agreed.
Of course, the whole of my father's pack had been there, but Ben was gone I noticed happily. He had put on sunglasses in Bedrock and gotten quite huffy when I danced with Jamie in the Jonas Brothers song. When I nipped Jamie's ear in "Sugar" he was pissed though.
Serves him right.
I sat next to Mom.
Ben better be hurting, he deserved it.
A little piece of me broke all the same.
"Good job." Mom commented, "Could've chosen better songs though."
"I chose 'em on purpose." I shrugged.
"I figured. The little 'nip' sent him over the edge." She frowned, "And I wasn't too happy with it either. I could see what you were doing, but I wasn't happy."
I rolled my eyes.
"Don't tease wolves, Porsche."
"I didn't tease him. I simply proved the point that I didn't need him." I disagreed, "Where's Dad?"
"Went to give Ben a piece of his mind for leaving before you finished." Warren drawled, "He heard the 'I'm sorry' in the P!nk song, cursed something, and left. He had no control, thanks to you, the entire time."
I was satisfied with the report.
"Good."
"Not good." Warren shook his head. "I think he hates himself for what he did and wants to fuck you until you can't see straight to prove you're 'his.'"
Mom glared at him.
"I'm simply stating a fact, Mercy. It seems to be what he was planning." Warren shrugged.
"Ha, yeah." I scoffed. He'd better not touch me.
"Porsche, Ben wants you." My father was back. "Warren, go with her."
We got up and walked to where Dad had come from. We were walking for quite some time before we found Ben. He growled at Warren for touching me.
"Ben, anyone can touch me who I let touch me, I'm not yours. You don't want me anymore."
"That's not what I said." He disagreed, his eyes were a wild blue.
"No, you're right. That's not what you said, because you haven't said anything to me in two weeks, Ben. I assumed it's what you were thinking." I agreed.
He moved quickly and I wasn't paying enough attention to see it coming. I felt pain shoot through me as my head slammed into the side of the building he pinned me against.
Even faster, Warren had pulled Ben away.
"I wasn't going to hurt her!" He fought.
"You already did, her head is bleeding." Warren hissed. Ben went rigid.
"I'm sorry!" He gasped. I felt the back of my head, touching sickly sweet, warm, red blood. "I didn't mean it."
"Yeah, okay." I whispered.
"Ben, don't lie to her." We both knew he wasn't lying.
"I really mean it! I didn't mean any of it! I'm sorry I'm a (and here's where we substitute profound words I have never heard in my entire life for a good word) who hurt you so many times. I'm sorry!" He told me.
I sighed.
It was the truth.
"Let him go, Warren."
"Porsche—"
"Please."
He compled.
"I accept your apology." I said simply. Ben took a step towards me. I took a step back. "I didn't say I accept you."
Warren grinned behind Ben who looked fairly pained.
"Porsche—"
"Jamie has a lot of potential, I think. He's a damn good kisser, you know." I smiled innocently.
Ben froze.
"Stop teasing the poor guy." Warren laughed. I sighed.
"Fine."
Ben wrapped me in a hug. I snaked my arms around his neck and stood on my tiptoes, pressing my lips to his.
Warren coughed.
I ignored him and licked Ben's bottom lip, begging like a puppy.
But he was the one who stopped it, laughing when I pouted. He leaned in and his lips were next to my ear.
"Warren's right there, Porsche." He breathed softly.
"And I'll share what I've seen with your parent's in a heartbeat." Warren agreed.
"Just take the fun out of everything." I grumbled.
"Kissing is not classified as 'fun.'" I spun around to see Kyle, what the hell was he doing here? "Adam wants you all back." Ah, that makes sense.
"Oh, okay." I followed he and Warren, to see that Ben wasn't coming. "Oh come on! I don't bite."
"Your performance on stage says otherwise, sweetheart." Kyle laughed.
"…hard…" I muttered.
"Well done by the way. You have a great voice." Kyle added.
"A girl can only try!" I laughed and turned back again, "Ben!" I rolled my eyes. He came back down from wherever and caught up to us quickly.
"Your acting is pretty good too." Kyle continued, "I think I was the only person who knew it was planned."
"I guessed." Warren disagreed.
"I said person, not wolf-man."
I laughed.
"Had me fooled." Ben whispered in my ear. Until that moment, I hadn't realized he was that close.
I stopped, his hands were on my hips from behind. I turned my head to face him.
"Good.
He nibbled my ear.
"Not good." His hands griped me tighter to him and he moved down to my neck with his kisses and nips.
"Mmm…my parents will throw a fit, Ben."
"Mine."
Whoops, not Ben. I lied. It was not Ben. Wolves make everything so much more confusing.
"But you won't kiss me." I had to start that myself, quite breathlessly, might I add.
Warren and Kyle had…disappeared so I was expecting one, if not both, of my parents fairly soon.
I clawed at Ben's T-shirt though, suddenly desiring to be closer, needing to be closer, to feel his skin on mine.
He took both my hands in his, pulling away and frowning. The human was back in control.
"I kind of need that to convince your father nothing happened, Porsche. It being shredded on the ground wouldn't help my case."
I looked at him and sighed.
"Now you want to be responsible."