Love Amongst Destruction

Bella’s POV -

“Thrasher.” I whispered once again, slowly trying to wake him up to give me the key to get out of the back lounge.

“Thrasher!” I said, my voice now starting to rise.

“Kevin!” I finally just yelled.

“What the hell?” He groaned.

“I need the key to get out of here.” I told him.

“Wait, how in the hell are you not hungover as all hell?” He asked me.

“That’s not the issue at hand, let me out of this room.” I demanded.

“I can’t wait to fucking give you an attitude adjustment.” Thrasher growled under his breath.

“Bite me.” I scoffed.

Once I was at the door Thrasher tossed me the key and I was quick to make my way to the front of the bus and out the door. Just as I had almost left I grabbed my phone and made a straight dash through the bus parking lot and trying to get to the regular parking lot.

I saw my car and my heart fluttered with excitement.

Screw what I had promised about staying for 3 days. Chance was obviously getting worried and I was not going to risk him having to get involved with this once more. I knew the second that I left here it was game on, the chase would once again resume.

There was a good chance it would get ugly and quite frankly scary at times. I learned though in the last few months that the cost of freedom was high, extremely high.

It came down to myself versus all of them. That meant it was a 1 on more 50 fight.

The odds were not in my favor, but I was determined to fight hard.

I admit, I was on the edge of giving in these last two days. The thought of fighting just to lose not only this battle but lose myself in the process of it too was scary. I’d rather live though as half the person I am today with Chance opposed to being the full person I am, hating every second of my life as a slave at their house.

Just as I was close to my car, I ran into a problem I was truly hoping to not have.

“Good Morning, my alcohol loving dear.” DJ cheered.

Letting out a deep groan, I mentally cursed him straight to hell.

“I just needed to grab something from my car. I’ll be right back to the buses.” I lied.

“Do not fucking lie to me, is that understood?” He growled, coming around the car and towards me.

“Get the hell away from me.” I snarled, slowly baiting him away from my car.

“I guess all of those lessons from William weren’t enough. When you’re back at the house with us I’ll have to have him over, I know he’d kill to see you again.” DJ chuckled, as I continued to walk backwards, away from my car with him following.

I just had to get him far enough away from my car so that there was enough room to quickly bolt and get back to my car with enough time to enter the key code and lock myself in there.

“Don’t even try, it’s fully useless.” Aaron Pauley said, jingling my car keys from his hand as he walked into the parking lot with us.

Shit, once again there went that plan.

“You won’t be so smug when I take those tomorrow and run far, far, away.” I told him.

“Well, you won’t be that smug either when you’re back at the house with us with a cage for a bed.” DJ Replied.

“I suppose that makes me a dog. I’d be careful though….this bitch bites.” I growled.

“Oh my love, I dare you to try that.” Aaron said.

“You’re really not going to let me go right now?” I asked, turning serious.

“You said 3 days Bella, that wasn’t us. So no, you’re staying until tomorrow morning.” Aaron told me.

That was very far up on the list of things I regretted.

“Would you at least be willing to drive me to go and get some coffee and food?” I asked.

“We’ve got tons of food in all the buses, Bella.” Aaron stated.

“Do you seriously think for one second that I’m going to trust you enough to eat something in your buses? In case you’ve forgotten, more than once I’ve been drugged via food and drink by you guys.” I replied.

“That’s fair enough, but I’m still not giving you the keys. Chris might let you drive with him to go and grab something so you’d have to talk to him first.” Aaron said.

I huffed in frustration, but turned around still and went to find Chris.

“I’ll see you later, baby.” DJ called to me as I left.

What an annoying ass.

Walking back to the bus parking lot was strangely scarce but also lovely and quiet. Most bands were still fast asleep, and it was early enough in the morning that the sun was just starting to give us a peak of its vast beauty.

In the midst of all this chaos and insanity, it was the few brief moments of beauty and serenity that you had to take in and enjoy like no others. Just from the little walk from the parking lot to Motionless’ bus I took in as much of that beauty as possible.

Taking the 3 steps up on their bus I gave a couple short yet firm knocks on the door.

Knowing this band in particular I knew they’d all be awake by now. They weren’t the type of people to sleep in and just not do stuff, they got up early and got straight to work. Well, maybe Vinny was the exception, he definitely wasn’t like the others though.

I was surprised when no one answered.

Knocking three more times, I finally heard someone coming to the door.

The door opened up and I was met with a shirtless, beanie wearing Balz.

“Good Morning, Bella.” He smiled, opening up the door and waving me into the bus.

“Morning.” I replied.

Ricky was to my right making coffee, Ghost and Ryan were at the table eating breakfast and Vinny and Chris were nowhere to be seen.

“What are you up to this morning?” Ghost asked me with intrigue in his voice.

“Looking for Chris. Aaron wouldn’t let me go grab coffee by myself and since he’s got the keys to my car…...I need someone to come with me.” I explained.

“What’s this I hear about coffee?” Chris wondered, coming out from the back room.

“I was hoping to go and get some coffee and some breakfast. Aaron has my car keys though and he told me if I wanted to go I should come to you.” I told him.

“I’ve got two little conditions and then I’ll say yes.” Chris stated.

“What would those be?” I asked.

“First of all that someone else comes with, and secondly that you go out to eat with Danny, Craig, and I.” Chris said.

“As long as I get to choose who else comes with.” I replied.

“Sure, but Tyler’s down for the count today. He’s not feeling well.” Chris told me.

Well there goes that.

I was seriously hungry though and dying for caffeine, I guess I’d take my chance and go with.

“Would Beau be available?” I wondered.

“He actually is today. Let me grab my phone and one more thing and I’ll be ready to go.” Chris said, quickly heading to the back.

“Please don’t do anything stupid.” Ghost groaned.

He wasn’t talking in general, he was specifically talking about me not blowing my cover. His fear was of my screaming to someone out in public that I was Bella Noel. Unfortunately he didn’t have to worry about that.

“I haven’t done anything close to that yet, I’m not starting now.” I replied.

“That alone is a mystery to me. However, it’s a mystery I’m perfectly content with.” Ryan chuckled to Ghost.

“Are you ready to go?” Chris said, walking back into the room.

“Yes, for about a year now.” I said, jabbing in a joke I knew he’d be annoyed with.

You could actually feel the eye rolls in the room, what could I say? I knew how to annoy them.

“Yeah, yeah, shut up and get outside if you still want to go.” Chris stated, irritation present in his voice.

I raised my eyebrow at him, almost as if I was challenging him.

To be fair, in a very slight way I was.

“Get a move on you two, I want some coffee too.” Ghost chidded Chris and I.

“You heard the man, get a move on.” I told Chris, opening up the door for him.

Chris chuckled and gave me that frightening grin that normally snapped me right back into line.

I really didn’t care, at least for today he couldn’t scare me anymore.

Chris glared at me the entire way out of the bus, and I was right behind him, quickly closing the door behind us.

“Where are you going?” Chris suddenly asked me as I started to take off to Bless the Fall’s bus.

“To go and grab Beau.” I explained.

“No need, he’s already meeting us at your car.” Chris told me.

Hearing that I quickly turned around and now followed Chris to the regular parking lot.

“So what’s up with wanting me to go with you , Craig, and Danny later?” I questioned him as we walked.

“The four of us need to sit down and have a serious discussion about the future. Plus we figured it would be easier to wine and dine you than just talk.” Chris said.

“Fair enough.” I stated.

“Well hello my coffee crew!” Beau practically yelled as we neared my car.

Come on, no one could possibly have that much energy, especially this early in the morning without coffee.

Chris pulled out some car keys and unlocked my car for Beau and I.

“Woah, woah, woah. That’s my car, which means that I drive it.” I quickly said, just as Chris was opening the door.

“The fuck it does.” Chris chuckled, quickly jumping into the driver’s seat.

“In the back.” I growled to Beau, who was taunting me by slowly reaching for the car door.

Luckily for him he did as I asked.

I slipped into the front seat then, buckling up as Beau did the back, except in the backseat.

An awkward silence plagued the car as we pulled out and headed out onto the highway.

It was some serious deja vu, driving in a car with them, spending just one more day in their presence. Yet at the same time….it was so very different.

I knew I was leaving tomorrow, no matter what they said now, later, or even at that dinner I had agreed to go to with them later. I couldn’t live with myself if I just gave up.

That simply meant the fight was still on.

“What’s up with not wanting to ride in back? It seemed to really get to you.” Chris stated.

“Do you want a bullshit cover answer or the real deal?” I chuckled, looking over at him.

“Let me into that head of yours, I want to know what’s really going on in that thought process.” Chris said, a light coming into his eyes.

“First of all I did want to drive, I hate other people driving my car. Secondly though...if both you and Beau had been up there it would have left me back there, behind you. Being behind you is practically just being under you, it means I wasn’t above Beau to be up front. Even though to you it may not have seemed like a lot for me to be in back…..to me it would have been like losing a tiny battle.” I admitted.

“You should let us in more, it’ll not only help us but it’ll help you as will.” Chris told me.

“Well after tonight you’ll be left with two ghosts, because I’ll be long gone.” I smirked.

“Hey, don’t you ruin our coffee date. I am determined to have Starbucks and be happy this morning.” Beau playfully snapped at Chris and I.

“If it’s in the name of Starbucks, I’ll back off her.” Chris chuckled once more.

Once more I rolled my eyes (my gosh do I do that a lot when around Chris and all of the band guys) but sat back in my seat and rested my head against the headrest.

After 15 minutes in the car I figured Chris was taking us to one that was a tiny bit out of the way. Either that or we were making one other stop.

I honestly didn’t care, it was actually nice, not to mention extremely rare, to be around them and not have to verbally deal, fight, or talk to them.

The silence was quickly cut by myself when I decided that we needed some music playing to cut this silence.

I unbuckled my seat belt to get a better reach of my center console and browse through my large collection of cds. I mentally let out a chuckle, all of these cds were created by the same people who abducted me.

What a crazy world.

“Anything good?” Beau asked.

“Nope, just some shit cds called Infamous and to those left behind.” I chuckled.

“Hey now, tiger.” Chris tisked me.

“This one’s pretty good, their rhythm guitarist is a fucking asshole though.” I said, pulling out a copy of Ungrateful.

Chris smirked, shaking his head back and forth.

None of that should come as a surprise to him though, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that I still hated TJ and most likely always would.

I slipped the CD into the player and once more buckled myself up and rested against the seat as Craig screamed out the first verse

“Trying to tear me apart
Breaking me down to the bone
So listen closely, 'cause what you don't see
Is there's still blood inside this bleeding heart.”

The irony behind his words shook me to the core, here’s a man belting his lungs out, letting the world know that sometime, someone or some group of people had beat him down and he wanted to show everyone that through all of that, he still survived. No one outside of the bands and I could have ever guessed that that same man would kidnap me.

Every single word Craig sung, I related to.

It just made me further question how the hell we had gotten into this predicament.

“Earth to Bells.” Beau cackled from the back.

“Yeah?” I asked.

Before I got an answer, I figured it out myself, we had finally gotten to Starbucks.

If there was one thing Chris and I were likewise with it was our teenage girl love for Starbucks Coffee, sad but true.

“I need to trust you Bella, can you be quiet if we quickly drive through or do I need to shut you up in advance?” Chris questioned me.

“Have some faith Cerulli.” I taunted him.

Once again I was given the glare that could kill.

I slipped on my sunglasses, looked out my window and sat quiet as Chris ordered us all a coffee, as well as some coffees for everyone else in his and Beau’s trailer, and a couple small bites to eat as well.

We managed to get everything in the car without spilling, and finally with my wonderful little cup of Joe in my hands our car took off down the highway.

“Thanks.” I softly said, half hoping that they wouldn't hear me.

“You're welcome…...and I'll thank you in advance for going out with Craig, Danny, . I later.” Chris replied.

“Oh yay, can't wait.” I sarcastically groaned.

Notes