I didn't bother panicking; as soon as I heard the gun, I swung the door open, pushing whatever was blocking it out of the way.
I found Cassie on the bed, her hands and legs tied together and her mouth taped shut. The window was shattered. I was relieved to find that was what the guy had shot at.
Cassie's POVThe boys had taken him by surprise, so Tom had no problem getting the gun away from him and throwing it across the room. He slammed him against the wall, punching him in the jaw. Danny worked on untying the knots, while Harry helped Tom pin the man against the wall and Dougie was probably calling the police.
Finally, I was free. Tom and Harry were still struggling with him, so I grabbed the gun and pointed it at him. He immediately froze.
"Hey, hey, you know I didn't mean to hurt you. No hard feelings, right?" He said. I narrowed my eyes and tightened my grip on the gun.
"Oh don't worry. After today there won't be."
The police arrived quickly. I dropped the gun and immediately ran into Tom's arms when they had the other guy in handcuffs.
"Tom!" I gasped. "How could you just take on a guy with a gun by yourself? What were you thinking?" I wanted to slap him and kiss him at the same time.
I told the police my side of the story, but let Tom, Danny, Dougie and Harry handle the rest. As soon as the cops were gone, the guys started questioning me.
"What did he mean by 'No hard feelings'?"
I knew I had to explain, so I took a deep breath and told them the whole story.
When I was 17, the guy, Peter Smakenheiser raped me. One of the guy's buddies confessed up, lucky for me. But they hadn't been able to find him. So every day up until eleventh grade I'd lived in fear.
When I finished, just barely holding tears back, Tom came over to me and wrapped his arms around me. "I'm glad you're okay," he whispered. Danny kicked Dougie and Harry out, and I changed into my pajamas and brushed my teeth. I could barely keep my eyes open, I was so tired. I'm pretty sure I actually fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Despite being so tired, I kept waking up during the night, scared out of my mind. A couple of times I screamed. And each time Tom would comfort me, and I'd fall asleep, only to wake up a couple hours later and repeat the whole process. Eventually I did fall asleep and stay asleep, but that didn't keep me from feeling awful in the morning.
Tom and Danny tried and failed to wake me up. Tom knelt down next to the bed, stroking my cheek.
"Cassie you have to get up and face the world sooner or later," he said softly.
I groaned. "Let's make it later."
He sighed. "Let me rephrase that. Cassie, get your bum out of bed. Richard's not going to be too happy if you don't show up for work today," he said. I figured someone had called Richard last night. "Besides, we have to go to the police station today."
This made me cringe. I finally sat up groggily. "I'd rather jump out of a plane with no parachute." I rubbed my eyes.
Tom pulled me to my feet. "Let's hope you never have to," he joked. That's when I realized Tom had gotten just as much sleep as I had, and he was dealing with it. I decided to make an effort to be more cheerful that day. Hey, I said effort. Doesn't mean it'll happen.
I looked over at the window to make sure that last night had really happened, and sure enough, there was a piece of cardboard over the window. Of course I doubt Tom would be talking about the police station if nothing had happened.
Surprisingly enough, the police station wasn't that bad. I answered more questions, and before I knew it we were standing in the recording studio, about to sing 'I'll Be Okay'."
I still doubted it, but once we got through the first chorus, I started enjoying myself.
When I heard the playback, I was shocked. It wounded way better than I expected.
We took a break and got some lunch. "So what time did I fall asleep, exactly?" I asked curiously.
"About six," Danny replied.
"Oh wow. I got more sleep than I thought." I took a bite of my turkey sandwich.
"Mmhm." Nothing much else was said. Guys. As long as they have food, nothing else matters. Nothing except American Idol.
Not much happened over the next few weeks, other than having a show nearly every night. I dreaded Smakenheiser's trial. It wasn't too bad though. That whole week went by in a haze. Nothing much happened at all until the concert in.
We'd just finished sound check when Danny suddenly turned pale, and rushed over to the nearest trashcan. Tom closed his eyes. "That can't be good," he said, following him. He came back a few minutes later. "Danny's way too sick to perform," he told us. "Cassie, we need you to take his place for the rest of the show."
My eyes widened and I searched for a response. "B-b-but…" I stuttered. "I don't…I mean I can't…"
Tom interrupted me. "Cassie, we have no choice. We can't do the rest of the show without you." He held out Danny's guitar.
I gave in and took the guitar. "Fine, I'll play, but I'm not singing about some girl I met."
Tom laughed and shook his head. "I can handle most of Danny's parts. We'll just do the remixed versions of 'I'll Be Okay' and 'I've Got You,' okay? You know the music. You'll be fine."
I nodded, but wasn't at all sure. We'd decided not to sing the remixes until the next show, so we'd have more time to rehearse and stuff, but I realized we really didn't have a choice.
"How's everybody doing?" Tom asked the crowd. The roar was deafening. "Alright, but before we start, I have just one quick announcement. Danny's gone home sick-" at this, about half the audience seemed to become less enthusiastic- "but we have Cassie filling in for him, and so we're going to release our new – well, half of it anyway – versions of 'I'll Be Okay' and 'I've Got You'."
Amazingly enough, I was more nervous playing than I was singing. I took a deep breath and started singing.
"When everything is going wrong, and things are just a little strange. It's been so long now you've forgotten how to smile."
It basically went okay. I slipped a couple of times, but nothing too noticeable.
It was when we came to our last song, 'I Wanna Hold You' that got me really worried. See, I just remembered that for the live shows, I was supposed to do the guitar solo in the song. Tom glanced back at me as we started playing, and I nodded, reading his mind.
I actually did okay. According to Tom, Dougie and Harry.
"I'm exhausted," I said, falling into bed as soon as we got back to our rooms. The TV was turned on and Danny was sitting up in bed, watching it.
"How'd it go?" he asked me, as I kicked off my shoes.
I sighed. "Really well, according to them," I replied. I studied his face for a moment. "You don't look that sick," I concluded.
His face turned red and he fiddled with the remote. "I get over stuff quickly," he mumbled.
I raised an eyebrow, but didn't day anything. Tom looked just as embarrassed. I shrugged and started gathering my pajamas and toothbrush.
A few minutes later I was lying in bed alone. For once, Tom was sleeping on the pullout couch. But for some reason, I couldn't fall asleep. I kept seeing his angry face when he'd seen what Smakenheiser had done to me. I also felt guilty for not giving them the entire story about how I'd been raped. But how could I? They knew me as confident Cassie Richmond. If I told them what had really happened, I would break down and then a vulnerable side would be shown; a side I couldn't afford to show just yet.