Muse - Fighting Fate #1 (23 page)

Chapter 37

Mia

I felt a little out of
place as I drove to school on my own Monday morning. I wasn’t used to not having Aiden with me. It was weird. The fact that it would be the same for the rest of the week didn’t sit well with me either. I only had until the end of May before they would be off touring. I didn’t want to give up any of my time.

A recording contract
though. That was huge. I couldn’t compete with that, even if I wanted to. I knew as soon as Aiden had told me the night before that they’d signed with Leighton’s I’d have to suck it up and deal. They’d been working towards that for a long time. They were finally getting their dream.

I stopped being happy for them though the second the paparazzi descended on my car. I knew they thought I was Aiden, but I still wasn’t happy about having cameras
shoved in my face and questions thrown at me first thing in the morning. They even asked me for an official statement regarding Jace and me seeing each other. Not going to happen.

The unhappiness quickly turned to annoyance the instant I became aware of all
the looks I was getting from everyone in the halls. It was obvious the news about Jace and me had spread, because that’s all I could hear being whispered as I passed.

Most of them were just curious glances from those who were intrigued, but I did catch a few glares from some girls who I assumed belonged to the ‘skank squad’.
Melissa and crew included.

By the time I reached my locker, I’d never been more relieved to see Kaeli in my life. She took one look at me and grinned. “I guess you’re big news huh?”

I huffed. “Looks like it.”

“I hear
Melissa’s pissed too. Says she had a chance with him on Friday night and you came and stole him away from her.”

I raised my eyebrows incredulously. “Does she seriously believe that?”

Kaeli shrugged. “Probably. All those girls seem to be deluded when it comes to the guys. It’s like they’re suddenly realizing it’s only three months until we all graduate and they’ll never see the guys again, so they’re all stepping up their game or something.”

“Either that, or they all just want to lay claim to being one of the guy’s high school sweethearts when they’re all rich and famous.”

Kaeli snorted. “Yeah, only you and Lila have that right. And maybe Carly…”

I closed my locker and groaned. “I don’t want to go to class. Kacey’s just going to be sitting there glaring at me the whole time.”

She gave me a sympathetic smile. “Have fun with that.”

“I’m really going to hate this week. The next time I see Jace he’s going to cop a piece of my mind. I feel like I’ve been thrown into the lion’s den or something. I mean, he reveals to a bunch of crazy, fanatical girls that he’s got his first ever girlfriend on Friday, making me one of the most hated girls in school, then he just leaves me to deal with it on Monday.”

Kaeli smirked. “I’m pretty sure recording their first ever album trumps your being leered at.”

“Shut up. I’m allowed to have a sulk. I think I’ve earned it.”

She laughed. “Oh, you’ve definitely earned it. You throw your tantrum and have your rant at him, then he can kiss it all better.”

That did it. The thought of being in Jace’s arms and kissing him instantly erased the annoyance. I sighed and Kaeli grinned.

“See you at lunch?”

“Yeah, see you at lunch,” I said, grumbling about her sarcastic humor.

I decided to take the halls so I could get to class early and choose a seat in the back. Away from Kacey. I was hoping I’d have more of a chance staying out of Kacey’s view that way.

Finding one seat left in the back row, I s
lid in next to Ryan and sighed.

He smiled at me politely. “Good news about the contract.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty excited I think.”

“They deserve it,” he said, shaking his head in awe. “They’re so good it’s crazy.”

I smiled. “I know. I’m so proud of them.”

I kept a look out on the door, watching for Kacey so I’d be prepared if she started anything.

“So, you and Jace huh…”

I turned my attention back to Ryan. “Oh, uh…yeah, I guess…” Shit. Why was that so hard?

He looked at the door, and I turned to see Kacey and Violet walk in together. “I’ve heard there are more than a few pissed off girls at school today.”

I studied the warning in his expression. “Yeah…” What else could I say?

“Make sure you watch your back.”

He didn’t say anything other than that. He didn’t have to. I watched Kacey shoot me a poisoned stare before taking her seat and leaning in to w
hisper something to Violet. If all the other members of the skank squad were going to be anything like Melissa and Kacey, I was already aware.

Hearing Mr. Bradbury call the class to attention, I flicked my mind into work mode. There was no way I was losing my GPA because I’d been distracted by the freaking Skank Squad.

Sitting in the back did help to a certain extent, but Kacey still managed to turn around every time Mr. Bradbury wasn’t looking. Between throwing me foul looks, and whispering with Violet, I wasn’t actually sure she completed any of the pop quiz we were set to do. Oh well, I guess that was why she was failing.

Unfortunately, it didn’t all end with first period.
English was worse. Mainly because Jace wasn’t there with me, but also because people I’d never met before suddenly thought it was okay to just ask me outright what was going on between us. I wanted to text Kaeli to ask her if that was normal, or was it just because Jace was on his way to stardom that they thought it was appropriate. To me it just felt awkward.

When the bell rang, I grabbed my books and took off before anyone could approach me again.

I’d just put my books away when Corey appeared. What now?!

“Hi
, Mia…uh, apparently Coach Anderson wants to see you in the gym?” He looked confused, and to be honest, so was I. I had gym class straight after lunch. Surely if he wanted to tell me something he could do it then. Maybe it had to do with the assessment we had coming up…

“Oh…okay. Thanks I guess,”
I said, still feeling awkward. I watched him walk away before closing my locker and heading off to see what Coach wanted.

The gym was devoid of all the usual activity when I got there
, which I thought was surely a strange phenomenon during this time of year, but hey, what would I know? Deciding Coach Anderson would most probably be in his office, I let the doors swing shut behind me and started heading that way.

Hushed voices ahead had me slowing my steps, and when I
rounded the corner, I stopped short, immediately drawing in a sharp, ragged breath. My body went on immediate alert.

The gathered crowd of school outcasts all
turned to look at me, weariness and anger creeping into their gazes. I tried to will myself to back away, but the warning glare in some of their eyes seemed to be freezing me to the spot. My mouth opened and closed silently, and my eyes darted between their harsh gazes and the pile of deflated basketballs at their feet.

Shit, shit, shit. What do I do?

The outcasts, a.k.a The Grunge Guys, were the school’s biggest blemish. All of them were problem kids that didn’t really have a chance at getting anywhere in life, so they did whatever they could to make themselves stand out. Obviously, this was one of those things.

I watched them begin
to shift, moving slowly outwards to…what?

“What do we have here?” One of them said, taking a tiny step forward.

I swallowed, my eyes flickering nervously between them, catching a flash of glinting metal in one of their hands. A knife. One of them had a freaking knife! Oh crap.

I
immediately took a step back. The guy with the knife frowned and narrowed his eyes. My throat immediately went dry. I could feel the panic stirring inside me. I tried to push it back down, but it refused. It was fight or flight time.

I focused on my limbs, willing them to unlock, but the panic was rising quickly.
I could feel it building like a ticking time bomb, waiting to go off. I needed to get out of there. Like now. I didn’t know any of these guys, and I had no idea how they would react to me catching them doing whatever it was they were doing.

Using every strength I had, I forced my body into action and
turned to leave. I almost didn’t see the bench beside me, stumbling awkwardly as I sidestepped it. I’d only taken a few steps when I heard the sound of angry voices outside the gym doors. I froze again, my heart rate instantly going up to yet another level.

The voices grew louder and closer
, coming this way. They were coming to the gym. I just knew it. I clenched and unclenched my hands, my breath quickening even more, making me sound like I’d just run a mile.

The sound of the approaching voices felt like the equivalent
of a jet engine preparing for takeoff. I could feel the tension mounting, gaining strength, building into something explosive. It was almost unbearable. The Grunge Guys could feel it too. They spread out, waiting, smirks oozing across their faces.

By the time
I could hear the gathered crowd outside the gym doors, there was so much tension in the room, it felt like the air had been sucked right out of it, and when they finally burst open, I found myself faced with two full teams of wild and livid looking basketballers.

They took one look at the defensive stances of the Grunge Guys and the destruction they’d caused
, and they lunged forward, shouting and grappling with whoever they could reach and shouting abuse.

The Grunge Guys met them head on, the looks on their faces telling me they were more than willing to go at it, and I suddenly found myself stuck smack in the middle of a war with no way of getting out.

I flinched, the yelling and shouting sending shivers down my spine. They shoved at each other, shouting and grabbing at each other in angry clinches, pulling at shirts, and throwing punches. My breath began to elude me. I simply couldn’t catch it. I gasped for air, feeling the air rushing in and out so quickly it did nothing to relieve the ache that was starting to clench around my lungs. Oh god, please, no!

The sound of the anger in their voices was terrifying.
The ache in my chest intensified. I pressed my hand to it, willing the pain to go away, but it wouldn’t. It just gripped there like someone had my lungs in their hands and was squeezing the life out of them, crushing them. I needed someone to help me, to take me away from this madness.

In my mind
my memories swirled, mixing past and present together, and I could suddenly smell the acrid tinge of smoke in the air and hear the sound of gunshots reverberating around me. I whimpered.

A
sickeningly familiar lightness came over me. It confused my panicked brain. I gulped for air again, but it still didn’t ease the burn in my chest. My lips started to tingle. Then my face. It spread down my arms, reaching my fingers, freezing them until all feeling was gone.

The noise around me grew louder. More bodies pressed in around me. The room started to
sway like the floor was in motion. My vision blurred and I realized I had tears in my eyes. A body went flying past me, connecting with another body, sending them both crashing to the ground where they continued to wrestle with each other. My stomach crawled.

I
gasped, looking out through the bodies, trying to blink away the blurriness and the darkness that was quickly closing in around the edges of my vision, hoping, praying I would find a safe haven. Jace. Please let me find Jace.

I
didn’t.

The room
swayed again. Voices roared. Someone beside me was shoved, and I was jostled.

Then I was falling
.

A
nd the darkness took me.

Chapter 38

Jace

Being in the recording studio was the most surreal experience of my life. It was the first real taste of what was to come, and I fucking loved it.

We spent the first few hours being introduced to everything and everyone, and learning
what was involved during the whole recording process. Then we set up our equipment and did all the necessary sound checks and testing.

That was when the
real fun began, and before we knew it, we’d recorded our first two songs. It was fucking unreal.

I
’d had my doubts whether we could get the whole album cut in one week. To me, that sounded impossible, but after recording the first two songs after only a few run throughs, all my doubts were gone. Thanks to our rigid playing routine over the last few months, we found we could play every song we were cutting as close to perfection first time around.

We were halfway through the second take of our third song when Aiden froze. His hand slipped on the strings
of his guitar, making the chord blare out loud and highly off key.

We all stopped and stared, confused.
Aiden rarely made mistakes. His hand went to his head and he squeezed his eyes shut tight like he was in excruciating pain.

“What the fuck
, man?” Matt said, sounding a little pissed.

Aiden looked up, his eyes finding mine. The look of panic in them scared me. “Mia-” was all he said
, and my world stopped spinning.

Two seconds passed as I processed his words then I bolted from the room like a man on fire. I grabbed my phone, seeing eight missed calls from Ryan. Fuck!

“What’s going on?”

I heard Mr. Thom
as’ voice but I couldn’t focus.

“Jace?” he said again.

I was just about to hit call when it began to ring again. I answered immediately. “Ryan-”

He cut me off. “Mia’s been hurt man. You need to get here.”

His words had me walking for the exit before I knew what I was doing, Aiden fast at my heels. “What the fuck happened?” I yelled.

Looking
back at Aiden, I saw him repeatedly dialing someone and holding the phone to his ear while he got no response. Mia. My stomach dipped. Nausea hit me hard. “What’s going on?” Aiden demanded, still panicking.

Ryan’s voice barked in my ear.
“A huge fucking fight broke out in the gym. I don’t know how Mia ended up in there, but she was right in the fucking middle.”

I jumped in the car and cranked the engine, barely waiting for Matt and Dean to jump in the back with us before peeling out onto the road. Aiden snatched the phone off me and glared at my livid expression “You fucking drive. I’ll talk.”

“Ryan,” he said into the phone. “What the fuck happened to my sister?!”

I drove like a fucking maniac. I hoped the police weren’t around because I wasn’t stopping for anyone. I kept glancing over at Aiden, trying to gauge how bad things were. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were hard.
My stomach roiled.

A phone rang from the back and Dean picked up straight away. As soon as I realized it was his dad, I tuned out. If it wasn’t anyone who could give me any information on Mia, I didn’t want to fucking know.

We were almost to the school when Aiden ended the call. He looked pale.

“Well?!” I barely refrained from yelling the words.

“Ryan thinks she got knocked over.” His voice was scary fucking calm. It caused a chill to go down my spine. “She hit her head on the corner of a bench on the way down. She’s unconscious.”

My hands tightened on the
wheel. Unconscious. The word echoed through my head like a motherfucking nightmare.

I turned into the school p
arking lot with the car almost sideways, and pulled up in a no parking zone. What the fuck did I care if they towed my car?

The school was in fucking chaos. People were scrambling everywhere, teachers flustered and angry, forcing everyone to stay away. We ran straight for the gym, pushing past anyone who tried to stop us.

The second we burst through the doors, we froze. It looked like a fucking warzone. People were still fighting, and it looked as though every male teacher in the school was there, trying to break them up.

Aiden saw her first. The second he darted off, I saw where he was headed and my heart fell into my
stomach. All I could see was blood. There was so much blood.

We both slid down to
the ground beside her.

“Don’t touch her!”

Aiden and I both looked up at Miss Waters who was positioned at Mia’s head, holding a blood soaked towel over her forehead. She had another towel, also blood soaked, resting under Mia’s head.

Aiden looked ready to explode, but Miss Waters gave him a hard stare. “I
’m not trying to be mean,” she said. “She just shouldn’t be moved right now. The paramedics should be here any second.”

That was when I heard the sound of wailing sirens outside. They were loud. Close. I looked down at Mia. She looked so pale. I didn’t think I’d ever seen anyone look that pale before. Her skin almost looked translucent. A lump formed in my throat.
I wanted to fucking kill whoever did this to her.

I reached out and softy took her hand. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I sighed with relief when I felt its warmth. I heard Aiden talking to her softly, saying reassuring words, encouraging her to hold on, but I
couldn’t. Everything inside of me was locked in tight. It was scary. All of a sudden I felt so fragile, like I could crack and fall apart at any moment. My fucking life was lying on the floor, bleeding.

The paramedics arrived the same time as the police
, shoving Aiden and I out of the way as they swept in. I moved like I was no longer in control of my body. Dean and Matt lingered near us, their faces set with the same dread and concern.

I glanced over at Miss Waters, standing beside Aiden, Mia’s blood all over her hands and shirt.
My eyes stung and my chest ached.

I forced myself to watch the paramedics. I needed to see their faces as they assessed her. I needed to see that they weren’t too concerned. All around us I could hear the sounds of the police calling everyone to order. Student
s were being escorted outside, some willingly, some in handcuffs, but I didn’t care. I was only concerned about Mia.

With my fists clenched at my sides, I watched the paramedics work. Determination was the only emotion on their faces, making it impossible to get a read on the severity of her injuries. They worked fast to check her
vitals and bandage her wound, then they quickly fitted a brace to her neck.

One of them pried each of her eyelids open in turn, shining a torch in her eyes before giving his partner a bleak look and muttering something under his breath.

I tensed even more. What the fuck did that mean?

The cracks of my fragility splintered with each passing second, spreading inside me like tiny spider veins, ready to shatter at any given moment. I didn’t know how to stop it. I didn’t know how to make this better. Turning away, I clasped my hands together on the back of my head and paced, squeezing my eyes shut tight. I wouldn’t look at Aiden. I couldn’t. If I saw once ounce of lost hope in his eyes, I was done for.

“All of you need to vacate the premises immediately.”

I opened my eyes to see a police officer standing before us, scowling menacingly.

I saw Aiden glare at him from the corner of my eye. “I’m not leaving her,” he said through clenched teeth, looking down at Mia.

“Neither am I,” I said, looking him in the eye to show him I was serious.
I was surprised by the roughness of my voice.

The officer’s glare grew icier. “If you don’t leave now, you will be forcibly removed.”

Aiden looked ready to explode again. “I don’t care. I’m not leaving my sister.”

Miss Waters stepped forward. “Officer-” His gaze swung to hers with surprise. “These boys had nothing to do with what went on here today. In fact they only arrive
d two minutes before you did. This young girl here,” she said, gesturing to Mia. “Is Aiden’s twin. I’m sure their mother would feel better if she knew he was with her.”

The officer’s expression softened a little, but his resolve didn’t waiver. “I
’m sorry Ma’am, but we have protocol to follow.”

Aiden’s phone started ringing, and he snatched it out of his pocket, blatantly ignoring the officer’s request. “Mom,” he said, his voice not entirely solid.

The paramedics started lifting Mia onto a stretcher.

“I don’t know…
” Aiden growled into the phone. “She’s unconscious...Yeah, the paramedics are here...No, they’re loading her on the stretcher now...” Turning back to the police officer, he asked, “Do you know where they’re taking her?”

The officer, not looking too sure for a minute, suddenly snapped out of it and rushed to speak to the paramedics. Looking back at Aiden, he called. “Mercy.”

“They’re taking her to Mercy, Mom...Yeah, Jace and I’ll meet you there...”

I watched them start wheeling her out then looked at Aiden
, not knowing what the fuck I was doing. It was like my sanity had left on the stretcher with Mia. Aiden looked at the officer defiantly.

“I asked you all to leave. Why are you still here?” he said.

We didn’t need to be asked twice. All four of us ran from the room like our lives depended on it. I actually thought mine did.