Release (A Shefani AU)

Chapter 10

To say Gwen was nervous was an understatement. Here she was, a 45 year old woman who thought that she clearly looked like a old lady, getting into a handsome man's car. He opened the door for her, and helped her in like a true gentleman. Gwen was certainly not used to this treatment, but she kind of enjoyed it.
Her arm still hurt like hell, but she forced herself not to let out a sob. The thought of crying triggered those awful memories.

"Crying is for the weak." Gavin one day after he had hit her. This was the first time Gavin had ever shown any sort of physical abuse, and Gwen was sobbing.
"If you want to act like a baby, I'll really give you something to cry about. You hear me?" He rose his arm again and-

"Gwen?" She snapped out of her flashback, and turned her head to a worried cowboy.

"Sorry, what?" He gave him her best fake smile and turned to look at him.

"I was saying maybe we could ditch the traffic and maybe go somewhere if you feel up to it." Blake said, his eyes boring into hers.

He had been trying to read her eyes, but she had a guarded expression, and her eyes held no emotion. It was almost as if she wasn't alive. But no, as he looked closer, he could see a sense of brokenness, and with a shock, he realized it mirrored his own expression.

"S-sure. That would be fun cowboy." Gwen said as she tried to get away from his stare. Something about Blake was unnerving to her, he seemed to get into her head. You know what? She told herself, no one will ever know my secret. On impulse, she turned the radio on.

She expected to hear some country-jumbo, but instead she heard an all too familiar tune. 'Don't Speak' blared through the speakers.

"Sorry," Blake said sheepishly, trying to remove the 'No Doubt' CD from the music player. "I was listenin' to some songs of yours to see what you sounded like, and I kinda liked them." He quickly added, "Not in a stalkerish way though." He blushed, looking at her.

Gwen couldn't help but laugh at his cute face, (wait cute?) and she giggled.

"Don't be sorry, I happen to like them too."

Blake was soon laughing along, he loved to hear her laugh.
" I would hope you'd like them, seeing as you wrote them and all." He turned down a side street, as they made their way across town.

Gwen looked out the tinted window, and softly spoke. "You know, when I first started playing music, I loved just being there, singing my heart out, like I could finally be myself. But after a while, I felt drained like-"

"Like you were being pushed to live a different life." Blake finished. "But after you sell a couple songs, and make a name  for yourself, you get sucked into this unknown world, where it's do or die, and you don't know how to live anymore."

Gwen reached out, and grabbed Blake's hand, and looked at him intently. "I know exactly how you feel, but there's not much to do is there."

They stared into eachothers eyes again, and felt a since of solitude within eachother, and everything seemed perfect.

They leaned in and-

"HONK"

They quickly broke apart, Gwen leaning all the way to the right, trying to get away from him. The two shared an uncomfortable laugh, and continued on their journey.

This has not been edited. Sorry for  the wait, and the errors. Chow.