Obsession Starts with a V

Chapter 8

After locating a water fountain, Victoria's coughs receded and she caught up to Sam. 

"Where did David go?" She asked.

"Why do you care? And why are your eyes all red and watery?" He squinted his eyes and peered into her face.

"I choked on my spit and stopped breathing for a second," Veronica quickly retorted. She looked over Sam's shoulder for David and the other boys. It was hard to see with everyone crammed in so close and the limited light coming off the tiki torches scattered across the beach. 

"Who are you looking for, Miss V?" Michael came up behind her with a slight smell of alcohol radiating from him.

"I can smell someone has already hit up the bar," Sam sneered. "I really hope you're not driving us home. I'm too young and beautiful to die."

"Beautiful? Don't lie about yourself, it's unattractive. And I'm not planning on getting wasted, Mom." Michael sneered back.

"Have you seen David and the others?" Veronica asked, ignoring the small bickering going on between the brothers. "David said he could get me a spot up close to the stage."

"Yeah, Star went with them. I think they're somewhere by the bar." Michael pointed a thumb behind him to indicate where it was. 

Veronica nodded and headed in that direction, leaving the two brothers to duel it out by themselves. By the time she weeded her way though the crowd, only David and Star were at the bar, standing relatively close to each other. David saw Veronica approach out of the corner of his eye and backed away from Star a few inches.

"They're about to come on stage, ready to find a spot?" David asked when Veronica came within earshot.

Star looked at David with a worried expression. "How are you going to find a place close up? It's already crowded near the stage and I don't want Veronica to get hurt." 

"Trust me, I'll find a way." He gave her a flat look and grabbed a beer off the counter. With his other arm, he put it around Veronica and led her toward the stage. Star was not far behind.

"What are you doing?" David stopped and looked at Star, making it obvious he was annoyed.

"I'm not letting you take Veronica up there alone. Someone has to watch her and make sure she doesn't get lost, kidnapped, or hurt." Star responded with an irritated look. "Plus, I don't fully trust you."

There was no emotion on David's face. "She's not a baby Star, let her be. Besides, I didn't invite you." He quickly walked off with Veronica in tow. Veronica looked back and saw a look of hurt on Star's face.

"I'm okay with her coming along." Veronica quietly said. David looked down on her with cold eyes. 

"Nevermind." Veronica quickly changed her mind.

"I hate the bitch, she's only good in-never mind." he cut himself off, realizing he was not in the presence of his buddies, but of a young girl who seemed to like Star.

"Why do you hate her?" Veronica stopped following and looked up at him with surprised eyes.

"You're too young to know or understand. Maybe when you're older I'll explain it."

"You just said I wasn't a baby!"

"Yeah, but that was just to irritate Star. You're only 11 years old, that's still baby territory."

"Yeah, well how old are you?" She interrogated him as they started walking again.

David gave a deep chuckle. "Older than you think I am."

Veronica's heart stopped for a minute, but she decided to play it cool and continued, "Well, I think you're in your twenties."

He gave a rumbling laugh that sounded more like a growl as he lead her into the crowd. David grabbed onto her hand and led her behind him to move through the mob of people better. Veronica began to feel light headed again when she comprehended that she was holding David's hand. Sure, it was more like him roughly grabbing her wrist and dragging her along, but it was close enough. 

They came to a small area cleared out of people except for Laddie, Paul, Marko, and Dwayne. David put Veronica next to Laddie and went over by the others. Veronica was half-tempted to follow him, but everything around her seemed to fade away when all the lights went out and five men stepped out on stage. The lights flashed on with the sound of a guitar. Veronica couldn't even remember her name as she was carried off into a musical heaven.

Halfway though the concert, Michael came and joined the boys. He panicked when he didn't see Veronica, until Paul pointed out that she was pressed up against the stage with a bunch of other people, happily singing her little heart out. Veronica was so busy fulfilling one of her lifetime goals, that she didn't notice a bottle being passed around to the boys and Michael. If she would have paid extra close attention, she would have noticed the liquid in that bottle was very dark and very red.                                                                                            

                                                                                         ()()()()

Almost two hours later, the concert was over and Veronica felt a stabbing ache in her heart as she watched the band members walk off stage. To her surprise, the guitarist came to the edge of the stage where Veronica was and got on his knees. He personally handed her one of his used guitar picks and bent down to whisper in her ear. 

"Someone told me you had a crush on me, and I was highly flattered. I couldn't resist meeting you. You're adorable and don't let anyone tell you any different."

Veronica was unable to do anything but stutter out a thank you and stare at him with big eyes. He flashed her a bright white smile before heading backstage. Saying Veronica was overjoyed, delighted, and thrilled would be the understatement of the year. She wasn't sure how long she had been rooted to that spot, but by the time David came over and put his hand on her shoulder, a quarter of the crowd was already gone. 

"Hope that didn't give you a heart attack." He said. 

Paul walked up next to David and laughed. "Nah, it looks more like she had a stroke."

Marko joined them and added, "Nope, that's a look of love."

Michael was not far behind the Boys, but did not join them in taunting Veronica. "Ready to go home Miss V?" Michael examined her face and noticed she was about to break out in tears.

"Yeah, I think I am," she finally muttered before sniffing away some tears of joy. "Mom won't believe what happened."

Michael took over the responsibility of guiding Veronica back to the parking lot. Veronica felt like she was floating on air. Sam barely broke her out of her cloud of love when they arrived at the car. 

"What happened to you? Veronica?" He asked a few times, poking her in the arm to get her attention.

Veronica slipped into the backseat next to Sam and simply answered, "Something magical."

Sam shrugged and Michael told him to make sure she did not leave any drool on the seats. Michael hit the gas and took off at a high speed, but Veronica did not notice. She was focused on the unreal moment that had just taken place. All the David events that had happened earlier were completely overridden. For now.

☢ ♥‿♥ 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒇𝓸𝓻 𝓻𝒆𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰! 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝒇𝓸𝓻𝓰𝒆𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓿𝓸𝓽𝒆 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝒇𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀 𝓲𝒇 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒆𝓷𝓳𝓸𝔂𝒆𝓭 𝓲𝓽 ♥‿♥ ☢