Three weeks later…

Our little road trip was over. Practicing was done. The performance was now. I ran my fingers over the ends of my black and silver hair. One week before Halloween and I had to go on and do a little performance in San Jose, California.

All or nothing, one armed and deathly afraid.

As we waited backstage, I pondered over what had happened. Mark had expressed his regrets for the accident I had been in, Austin and I hadn’t kissed yet, we had gone through run through practices of songs, and Inferno had yet to blast me with flames for messing up. It hadn’t been easy, but I had worked hard so that I could play chords with my right hand. Most of my piano work had just been degraded from beautiful melodies in my right hand to simple chords with few fancy finger tricks.

“Ready to go on?” A voice asked me from behind. It was Mark, our manager. He patted my shoulder. Today was not just about my first time playing with only one arm, it was also the time for my little surprise.

Yep, it was the surprise Austin and I had been planning since the day he dyed my hair.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I took in a shaky breath. He smiled and gave me a quick side hug before moving on. Infernal was out there, anxious to be played. Her silver beauty was just staring in front of the crowd of anxious fans.

“We’re ready.” A stage hand signaled. Austin came near me, looking at me in the dim lights of backstage. The crowd roared.

And suddenly, I felt ill.

All that month on Warped, all those performances with Of Mice and Men, and all of the practice sessions had built up my confidence. These men had been the ones to help me get to where I was at now, to help me get the strength to perform in front of thousands.

And now it was all crumbling down.

I felt all my will, all my pride, all the strength, and power in me were being torn down. I had one arm, who would love a one armed musician? I was an outcast, a freak, someone who was gawked at.

I was a Throw-Away once again.

“Austin, I don’t know about this….” I muttered nervously. I had a long sleeved jacket on over my MUSIC, LOVE, REPEAT tank top. Tino came up to the singer’s side.

“You’ve got this, R-Girl.” He smiled, teasing me slightly. His sticks were clutched in his hand, but his smile was wide. I hoped I could be infected by his happiness. I nodded, gulping down my fear. I could do this. I had to.

Austin took his cue, turning away from me with worry in his eyes. We were going to start out with Repeating Apologies, then Second and Sebring, Would You Still Be There, and end with The Depths.

As soon as I followed Alan on stage to stand behind Infernal, I could feel all the eyes turn towards me. We would start with the song, but I had my surprise quickly after our first piece. Hot beads of sweat ran down my forehead as I pounded out keys, my hand partially hidden with my jacket. As long as I kept the left sleeve on top of my keyboard and acted like it was all natural, I would be fine.

All the while, the words kept running through my head. They were not words to the song, but to my surprise.

The song ended and I took a shaky breath. Everything wanted me to tense up, to run away. No, I was better than that. I was a professional musician. This wasn’t some cheesy fanfiction or imaginary dream where I would run off stage in a ball of tears. This was life. You don’t just RUN OFF. You face your problems like a man.

Err, woman.

“So as you guys know, Raven recently lost her dad in the car accident.” Austin spoke into the mic. I bit my lip from the memories, closing my eyes for a moment. The hushed whispers of the crowd faded out as everyone fell silent. It seemed like half the attention of the crowd was on Austin, and the other half was on me.

“R was also injured in the accident. We haven’t released an official statement about Raven’s injuries yet, so we decided that instead of giving everyone words on a social media site, we’ll tell you in person.” Austin stepped aside as I got from behind my keyboard and slowly walked towards the mic.

I was standing in front of the world.

Everyone, including me, held their breath in anticipation.

There was a swell of clapping and whistles as I got to the mic. With arms limp at my sides, I looked at the faces awaiting my news. It was all or nothing.

“Hello everyone. As you know, I was involved in the car accident and it was sad that my dad passed,” I choked a little on the words, but managed a quick recovery. “That day, I was put in the hospital for about four days. Let me tell you that nothing made me feel better than GETTING LETTERS FROM ALL OF YOU!” I screamed into the mic, hoping to bring joy into the crowd. It would only prepare them for what was next. Everybody clapped and cheered, whistling their form of encouragement. It brought me a little courage to keep going as they smiled.

“So I got a lot of tweets from fans asking what had happened to me. I’ll tell you that my entire left side was bruised and bloody. I got stitches on my stomach to hold me together. But my father wasn’t all that I had lost that day…” I drifted off towards the end. Everyone’s eyes widened with what I was about to show them.

Tino did a light drum roll in the background as I took a step back. Planting my feet firmly, I used my only arm to quickly unzip my jacket and shrug it off. The fabric fell to my feet as everyone gasped. All I could do was wait for their reaction.

It seemed like everything became colder for an instant, like time had literally frozen over. A thousand pin points of vision were trained on my left nub. Small trembles shook my body in the anticipation.

That’s when someone held up the horns.

Hundreds of hands in the packed space of the crowds raised their fists in the horns as a silent sign of strength. It felt uncomfortable in the silence, but reassuring with the silent signs of strength.

“We love you!”

“WOOHOO!”

“Go, R-Girl!” Everyone started to scream out. I smiled, feeling tears prick the corners of my eyes, I rubbed them away before bending down and getting my jacket. I tucked it under my arm and held up my one hand. Glancing over, my eyes widened.

Jake the pug was wandering blindly around, a stage hand trying to corral him. Aaron took notice and signaled for the stage hand to look up.

“So, yeah. That’s kind of a big thing, I guess. I’m getting a prosthetic arm in November, but I’m stuck with Nubby the nub for now. Go ahead and write your fanfictions on THAT.” I laughed, feeling the unease ebb away. It was reassuring to know that a thousand people had your back. People whistled, screamed, and clapped.

This was my surprise, and it certainly was shocking!

“Okay, I guess you have probably heard already, but we have another member to Of Mice and Men.” I looked to the side. Austin gave me the thumbs up and smiled. This was the first time we were doing this and I had no clue to how he would react. Mark waved from side stage. The crowd went nuts.

“You have to be quiet for a second.” I asked, not sure if they would follow my direction. They were loyal, though, and had fallen silent in two seconds.

“Jakey, come here!” I whistled. His attention perked up and he followed my voices out onto the stage. His little tail was wiggle and he panted heavily. Little paws trotted out as he bumped into my leg, looking up in my general direction.

A big AWWWW went up through the crowd as Jake da Pug wiggled his pudgy tail. I stooped over and grabbed a hold of his blue collar before he could bolt off. His blind eyes looked out over the crowd.

“So this is Jake da Pug. He is our newest member. Before you call him fat and ugly, he will sit on you and crush you under the wrinkles. JAKE’S GOT FLUB TO LOVE AND IS PROUD OF IT!” I yelled into the mic. The crowd cheered and Jake sneezed.

Man, I loved my dog!

Whistling a little, Jake followed my high note as I went back to the piano. Throwing down my jacket, Jake sat on it, right next to my keyboard. Austin went back up to the stand. Looking down at the tawny pug and back to the crowd, I saw that Jake was right where he needed to be-at my side.

“JAKE! JAKE! JAKE!” The fans roared. I laughed a little as Aus winked. My blush was covered by the layer of perspiration.

“If you guys want to make fun of R-Girl or Jake, you’ll have to go through us! We’ll sic Jake on ya! HE’S THE MOST METAL PUG EVER!” Alan laughed as Austin yelled to the crowd. They all screamed as we started our next song. Jake never barked as I pounded out the notes with my right hand. All he did was lie there with his nose tucked between his paws and wiggled his tail to the beat.

Notes

SURPRISE! This was the surprise I was talking about a few chapters back!!!

Also, we get to see JAKE. DA. PUG!!! I know you all love him!