His Saving Grace

Chapter Ten

"You're gonna do great, okay?" I said, patting John's back. We were at the backstage, dressed up for the talent portion of the show. The boys were up first, and John was the second to perform.

"I don't know why I'm so nervous, shit," he said, running a hand through his hair. He'd been plucking quite hard on the strings of his guitar for the past few minutes, and I was a getting a little scared that probably he'd cut his finger. "I've performed this already..."

"Shh," I said, giving him a hug. He was shaking so badly. "You'e a great singer, John, and also a great guitarist. You'll do fine. Trust me." I felt him nod into my hair.

"Contestant number 8!" the emcee announced, and John breathed in. "Singing Roses by OutKast! Give it up for John O'Callaghan!"

~~

Yep, now it was my turn to shake like it was below zero degress backstage. The boys had finished performing 30 minutes ago, and I was the first to perform among the girls. My competitors were not only pretty--they were extremely talented, too. It was intimidating hearing or seeing them practice around me, doing all these special stuff whereas I was going to sing and play the guitar.

"Good luck, Katie," Arianna said, giving me a hug. I bit my toungue, trying not to call her 'bitch' in front of everyone else. After John had told me everything about Arianna earlier, she morphed into an evil bitch-whore-slut-hoe. No wonder she was so skinny. Being a slut burns a lot of calories.

My number was called. I made my away awkwardly through the curtains, trying my best to look calm and collected. I sat on the barstool, facing the crowd of two thousand, while they all fell silent.

~~

"FUCK YES!" Pat cheered, skipping up and down the pavement of the Celeberity Theatre parking lot. Jared, Kennedy, and Alahna joined in, waving their banners for everyone to see.

Guess what? We won.Could you believe it? Well, I couldn't.

The boys where overjoyed when the judges announced our names as the new Mr. and Ms. Arizona. I was shcoked myself. Everyone else was prettier and all that and then I had won. It wasn't required that both boy and girl won, but they still chose me. Not that I'm gloating but...yeah.

While the four of them (Garrett was, of course, purposely trailing behind) I was left alone, still wearing the coral blue dress and the insanely heavy Ms. Arizona crown on top of my head of tangled curls. Then my phone rang.

"Hello?" I said.

"I fucking hate you, Katherine Lawrence. I hope your ass rots in hell where it belongs," the voice from the other end snarled, and then hung up. I blinked, my jaw hanging open. And if my jaw could go so low and touch the ground, it would've when I saw Bianca's name on the caller ID.

~~

The next three weeks after the pageant dragged on. Everything seemed so slow and pointless, like a day lasted for a week. School became harder and harder as the finals were once again nearing, and then we'd go for spring break. I saw Bianca almost everytime and she wasn't really happy about that. I've never seen her looked so pissed in her entire life. She ignored me through and through--she even refused to tell me the procedure of our Botany lab work.

To add to all that best friend drama, John was still sulking everyday about Arianna. He was all he ever talked about and it was getting really tiring to drag him back to his room when he'd drink himself to sleep every night. Thanks to my two "best friends", I life for the past three weeks has been an absolute hell.

I stormed off out of the school gates, thankful that another week was over and I had the weekened to sleep in and forget about everything. Dairy Queen was filled with more customers than usual--not surprising as it was a Friday. There was only one seat left in the entirety at the store which was near the bathroom, but what else could I do? I was starving.

I felt a pair of eyes on my face.

"Yeah, it's me. Plain old me." I removed the long plastic spoon from my ice cream and stuck it back in again, stabbing the Blizzard repeatedly. I got the 16 oz one--something I never dared do before. But I couldn't care less anymore. 

"Life sucks," he said. I glanced at him, watching him stab his own Blizzard with his spoon. His hair was the usual messy and he wore one of his zombie slayer shirts John told me he used to collect. He looked messier than usual, and I guessed that by the way his skin was so pale and how his back was haunched, he was having restless nights like me. 

"Not surprising, coming from you," I said in reply, finally deciding that my Blizzard was melted enough to almost drink. "You look terrible, by the way."

There were five excrutiatingly long and awkward minutes of silence. I people-watched for those minutes, and when I saw a girl with honey brown girls walk down the street, I just had the nerve to ask.

"So who is she?" I blurted out, and I instantly regretted it. 

"It's none of your business," he said, though he didn't snarl. His voice seemed softer. I knew he saw the girl, too, though I was pretty sure it wasn't her. 

"Why are you always so depressed?" I asked.

"Because shit happens a lot," he said, his voice getting an edge. I turned to face him. He looked worse from the front than from the side--he had bags under his eyes, his skin was so pale it was almost translucent, and he got a lot thinner than I could reckon. There were white bandages wrapped around his nuckles, stained by spots of red and brown. "And it's none of your business."

I felt the anger start to boil inside me--anger with a mix of hurt and sadness and sympathy for him. But it was mosty anger.

"What if I want it to be my business now?" I asked. "I hate it how you're always like this. You're so cranky and rude every single time I talk to you, and your friends have to put up with your attitude for the sake of the band. It's obvious that you're hurt, Garrett Daniel Nickelsen, and maybe I just want to do something about it."

"I don't need your help," he snarled, slamming his Blizzard cup down. Heads started turning and I could hear people whispering around us. I couldn't care any less. I slammed my Blizzard cup, too, glaring striaght into Garrett's electric blue eyes.

"You're so stupid, Garrett. You're stupid and selfish and insensitive. Have you ever thought about the outcomes of acting like you're the unluckiest man alive? You're selfish because you never considered what the boys would feel, and you're insensitive because you just let John, who happens to be your best friend, get drunk every single day when you knew it was bad for him."

"I was so stupid for even kissing you," he growled, hopping off his barstool. "You're nothing but a spoiled bratt with rich parents." The whole ice cream parlor was silent now, and all eyes were on the two of us. I wasn't an attention whore but right now it didn't seem to matter whether someone saw us fight or not.

"Ha," I said, my voice breaking. I've been called a bratt for countless times because of my dad's insane amount of money, but none of them had ever stung as bad as Garrett's. I felt my heart sinking and sinking to the pit of my stomach. "And you know what, I was stupid for thinking it actually meant something."