The pact

Vic's POV
There’s no proper way to describe the feeling that performing gives you. It feels ten times better than winning the lottery must feel like. It’s like music forms an invisible connection between the crowd and you. At first it had felt uncomfortable, I wasn’t used to so many people looking at me at once. But as it went on, I was swept along in the music, forgetting everything but the music and the crowd.
I think I didn’t even do that bad. I was quite on tune and the only song I didn’t know all the words to was runaway. I don’t think anyone noticed though.
Iris was the most amazing to sing. It felt like letting out everything I had felt at once. Everything I had felt about my school situation but also everything I felt for Luna. I couldn’t help but look at her during the first part of the song. It was like my eyes were sucked towards her.
I even saw her smile at me when I was singing it, her round blue eyes lighting up with surprise. Did this mean she liked me too? Sure we had been flirting a bit the last few weeks, but that was just as a joke right? And then that moment we had at her house earlier. We were about to kiss right? I wanted to do it, but I was doubting, because it might’ve ruined everything we had if I did. Not that it mattered, before I could make a decision her alarm went off.
Me and the guys walked off stage and back to the classroom we had prepared in. All the way in the hallway Jaime, Mike and Tony were yelling, cheering and jumping of excitement, getting out all the adrenaline of the show. I even joined in sometimes.
‘’This was the best set we have ever done!’’ Jaime yelled as we walked into the Spanish classroom throwing his hands up in the air.
Tony was loudly agreeing with him and they started talking about the crowd and the songs. Mike walked over to a seat in the back, took out a towel out of his bag and wiped his sweaty hair out of his face with it. He sat down and his remained quiet. I hadn’t talked to him for years, but I knew that if Mike was quiet after something like this, it meant he was worrying about something. I wanted to ask what it was, but I figured it would only make things worse.
Suddenly I felt a hand hit my shoulder. It was Jaime, who was standing next to me and smiled at me. ‘’You rocked man! I can’t believe you can sing like that.’’ He said.
I shrugged it off, but couldn’t help a smile growing on my face. ‘’I loved doing this so much.’’ I said, thinking back at my half hour on stage.
‘’Welcome to the drug that is called making music.’’ Tony said smiling widely. ‘’There’s no turning back now.’’
I laughed. ‘’I don’t think I ever want to.’’
‘’Well after I have learned you to play the guitar, you’ll be able to perform yourself. You should really keep doing it, like I told you, singing is a gift.’’ He said as he put his guitar in his back and started to untangle the cables.
‘’Well, if you ever want to replace me again, go ahead.‘’ Jaime said. ‘’I like playing bass way more and you’re way better at singing than me anyway.’’
I heard Mike scoff from the back of the class, but I ignored it. ‘’If you ever need me, just say so. I would love to fill in.’’
Then the door went open and Luna came running at me in flew in my arms. I hugged her back smelling the light strawberry sent of her hair. When she was hugging me, I didn’t want to let her go.
She let go of me and looked at me smiling. ‘’Oh my fucking god. I can’t believe you just did that! You were amazing!’’
‘’Hey! Why don’t we ever get a hug after performing?’’ Jaime said pouting with his arms crossed.
Luna rolled her eyes and looked over to Jaime. Not saying anything, but just looking at him with judging eyes.
Jaime’s smirk slowly faded of his face and his arms fell next to his body. He looked around the room to find the words to say, or maybe he was hoping that Luna would say something.
‘’Sorry?’’ He eventually said. It sounded like he didn’t like apologising too much.
Slowly a smile crept on Luna’s annoyed face and she walked over to him to hug him. I knew this meant a lot to her. She had missed Jaime really bad, they had this connection I had never truly understood.
‘’So, how did we do?’’ Jaime grinned at her as he let her go.
‘’You guys were honestly amazing. You always are, but this was even more amazing.’’ She said unbelievably shaking her head.
Jaime laughed. ‘’You’re such an exaggerator sometimes.’’
Luna playfully punched his arm. ‘’I’m not! You wanted to know what I thought and well this is what I thought.’’
‘’She is honestly right though.’’ Tony said and he shrugged. ‘’We have never played better and Vic fitted the band really well too. Maybe you should just join us permanently.’’ He said grinning at me.
Luna was just opening her mouth to say something as a furious Mike marched to us. ‘’Okay, this is the last straw. I already feel kind of betrayed that you contacted Luna and Vic, Tony. And that you made up with them, Jaime. I almost threw up at the sight of you guys being nice to them, but I contained myself. But if my brother joins the band, I’m out.’’ He said he was making his words stronger by making hand gestures like he always did.
Jaime rolled his eyes and sighed. ‘’Mike, you are exaggerating. Can’t you just-‘’
‘’I am exaggerating?!’ Mike yelled pointing at himself.
‘’Yes.’’ Tony said without any emotion.
‘’He is not.’’ I said and they all looked up to me. I shrugged. ‘’He has all the right to be mad at me.’’
I meant it. Although, I had never really wanted to hurt him, it was better like this. He was too attached to me. He wouldn’t have had this normal, safe life if I wouldn’t had broken him.
‘’I can’t believe you say it like it doesn’t mean anything to you. It disgusts me.’’ Mike said. ‘’I looked up to you and you just threw me away like trash! For no reason!’’
Now I got mad. The fact that he so easily thought that I didn’t care about it, was making me really angry. Sure, I thought he had the right to be mad at me, but I knew my wrongs from rights. ‘’Oh you think it was for no reason, Mike?’’ I yelled back at him. ‘’Get your damn head out of the clouds!’’
Jaime, Tony and Luna were silent, like they didn’t want to upset us more than we already were. They looked kind of surprised about my sudden anger outburst. I usually never really got angry.
‘’What fucking reason makes it alright to verbally break your younger brother of eleven years old?!’’ Mike screamed and he got closer to me, trying to intimidate me. He was taller than me, so I had to look up at him, but I wasn’t afraid of him. I was still his older brother.
‘’You were following me like a lost puppy, Mike! You think I don’t know you looked up to me? Of course I did! That was the reason why I did it.’’
It didn’t matter anymore if I told him now the reason, why I left him. He was so stubborn he wouldn’t ever forgive me anymore anyway.
‘’So you got annoyed of me following you around.’’ He said with a disgusted look.
‘’That’s not what it was …’’
‘’THEN EXPLAIN IT!’’ he was screaming, but he almost sounded desperate. Like he had wondered what the answer to that question was for years.
The desperation of his voice pushed me over the edge. ‘’I was protecting you!’’ I screamed. ‘’You were looking up to someone who wasn’t worth looking up to! You didn’t listen to me when I told you to be careful because of the pact. People were getting beat up! They were bullied! I couldn’t let that happen to you! I never wanted to hurt you. It hurt me the most that you believed me so easily.’’ The volume of my voice went down a little at the last two sentences.
Mike’s face looked like he had just seen someone being struck by lightning. He backed away from me a little. Why didn’t he ever see this himself? Did he think so low of himself? Or so low of me?
For a moment the silence was piercing through the room. It was so silent, it almost hurt my ears. Prom must’ve been over, because I couldn’t even hear music.
Mike looked away from me, to the ground. After a few seconds he walked towards the door and walked out.
The silence continued. Jaime, Tony and Luna were all looking at their feet. They were probably afraid they would say something wrong. Or they just didn’t know what to say.
But actually I just wanted the silence to be over. Because of the silence I was able to think and thinking was never a good idea for me. I didn’t want to feel the pain that usually came after a fight. Right now I was numb and I wanted to keep it like that.
After what seemed like forever, I realised neither one of them was going to talk so I started walking towards the door too. ‘’I’m going home. I see you guys tomorrow at school.’’ I said mumbling.
‘’Vic?’’ I heard Luna say as I was already standing outside the door. I opened again and looked inside the classroom. ‘’Yeah?’’
‘’You drove me here. It would be nice if I didn’t have to walk home.’’
Oops, I had forgotten about that. Jaime and Tony chuckled.
‘’Yeah…’’ I said and she followed me out the door.
The entire walk to the car, just like the entire car ride, we remained quiet. It was weird how half an hour ago, I had been the most happy I had ever been and now I was just empty. I didn’t know what emotion was going to come from this argument with Mike, but I knew it wouldn’t be a good one and I hoped it never came.
When I stopped in front of her house she spoke up. ‘’You know this is going to change things between you and Mike, right?’’ She said her blue eyes looked comforting.
I shook my head. ‘’I don’t believe that. Mike is too stubborn. If he is mad, he stays mad.’’
‘’No one is that stubborn. Not even Mike.’’ She chuckled.
I looked out of my front window. At the faint street lights, lighting up the dark street. It was a relaxing view.
‘’I don’t know if I even want it to change.’’ I said softly.
I felt her hand on mine and I looked up to her. ‘’You can’t protect everyone, Vic. I know you’re trying to do that, but you don’t have superpowers, you’re not made of kryptonite.’’
I chuckled at the song reference. It was sort of our song. We had listened to it so much.
‘’I know. I wish I was though. That would not only be extremely useful, but also very awesome.’’ I said.
‘’What would you do if you had superpowers?’’ She asked.
I sighed and thought about it for a while. ‘’Fly around the world with you.’’ I smiled at her.
She blushed. I loved how she blushed. It made her look so cute. ‘’Only me?’’
I had always wanted to travel the world. And travel it with her would be a dream coming true
I nodded, not taking my eyes of her. I wanted to kiss her, but I knew this wasn’t the moment.. ‘’And I would give Ryan and Peter a wedgie with my super strength’’ I said and she laughed.

Luna’s POV
I opened the front door silently to not wake up my parents. I tried to get to the stairs without bumping up to something in the complete dark. I eventually found the stairs and started to walk up. Our stairs were always screeching and the high sound pierced through my ears as I prayed to not wake up my parents.
As I was at the top of the stairs I walked over to my parents room and put my ear against their door and listened. I heard my dad silently snoring and my mom slowly breathing. Thank god, I didn’t wake them up.
I walked to my own room and closed the door behind me. I was tired, but I didn’t want to go to bed yet. I looked around my room to find something to do. Then I saw the letter Casey had given to me the day she left lying at my desk. I walked over to it and took it into my hands.
I let myself fall on my bed and opened the letter to reread it again:

Dear princess,

You’re probably now wondering what to do without the amazing person called ‘Casey’ in your life. I know, it’s gonna be hard.
But in all seriousness. I’m gonna miss you so bad. Our time in America together was amazing and I will never forget the experience. Do you remember going to that theme park and you told this creepy guy who was hitting on you that you were a lesbian? I’m sure you do, I’m gonna remind you of these awkward little things for the rest of your life, just because it’s funny.
I also wanted to say that I noticed the scars on your wrist. I know I acted like I didn’t see them, but I did. It disappointed me a little that you never told me, but I trust you. So I think you would’ve told me sometime anyway. I hope you don’t think of doing that more often.
I know this is hard for you, Luna. Moving, fights with your mom, having confusing feelings for one of your best friends… But you gotta keep your head up. It will be okay darling.
I want you to pick up this letter and read it whenever you feel down. You can also read it if you’re happy, it’s your choice
I will always be here for you darling and I know you will always be there for me too. Hang in there. I’m only a phone call away.

Lots of kisses,

Casey.

I smiled as I put down the letter on my desk again. I read it at least one time a week. Not that I had cut since Christmas day, but it just cheered me up a lot.
The fact that I hadn’t hurt myself didn’t mean I didn’t think about it, a lot. Especially now the group of Jessie, Peter and Ryan were so hard on me. It didn’t exactly help my confidence.
But the promises I made to Vic and Casey seemed to haunt me. Whenever I picked up my blade to put it to my wrist I had imagined their disappointed faces and I had put the blade down.
I just couldn’t see them disappointed. I knew they wouldn’t be, but for some reason it still helped to stay clean.
I put my head on my pillow and lay down. I fell asleep with my prom dress still on.

The next days at school were incredibly weird. Not much had changed but still everything felt different. Jaime and Tony didn’t talk to us at school to keep the act up, but the fact that Vic had performed with them had made it quite clear to people at school that they didn’t mean it. We had met up a few times after school, mostly jamming and Tony teaching guitar to Vic. Who of course played with the guitar I had given him. He had written ‘Vic’ on it with black fine liner.
Mike acted the same, but he looked different. His face had softened every time we walked by and somehow I knew he had felt guilty about what happened. Not that he should, he didn’t really know how things were.
The rest of the school had changed too. The fact that Vic had sung on junior prom had spread across the whole school and people were constantly talking about it. I guess it had people questioning the pact, because me and Vic found notes in our locker all the time saying things like. ‘This has gone too far, I’m behind you.’ Or ‘I realised how wrong this is. We need to start standing up for each other!’
It made me think about a revolution even more often. I needed to find out who these people were. I made plans for myself to start with all the alternative kids of the school. If we had enough people behind us, we actually had a chance.
Of course we had Jaime and Tony by our side, but I knew they couldn’t do anything until Mike changed his mind. I didn’t think that would take long though.
I was getting really serious about that revolution thing. I hadn’t told Vic yet, because I didn’t know how he would react. He didn’t like it when people sacrificed themselves for him. I would tell him though. After I had made an actual plan.
I had met up with Leah a few times. She had updated me about what all the kids at school had talked about. She told me that the performance at junior prom had a big effect on a lot of kids. The fact that popular kids like Mike, Jaime and Tony had broken the pact, made them less afraid of Ryan and Peter.
We also did a lot of research on revolutions. It might sound weird, but we could really learn things about the revolutions in the past. Like the French, Russian and American revolution. They contained a lot of violence though, And I wasn’t planning on doing that. But the people in those revolutions always did exactly the opposite of the people who were putting them down. The people on top couldn’t do anything about the big groups refusing to follow their lead and well….most of them ended with their head chopped of.
Me and Leah had laughed a lot about the thought of a Ryan without a head. I was happy I had met her. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone at this.
Little did I know that something horrible and confusing was about to happen, leaving little room in my head for thoughts about a revolution…

Notes

oeeeeehhhh. cliffhanger!!

Sorry this chapter is shit XD I just really miss you guys already ( although I only updated two days ago) So yeah...I really needed to update.

Sooo....what do you guys think? Are you excited about this story? I kinda am!

xxxx

Nicky