Page 49 of Ravaged From Fate

They need to learn to forget about me. I can’t go back to Los Angeles and to the band. I can’t ruin Ravaged again. The band can survive without me, and they need to understand that.

Being silent is the best thing I can do for them. For the band we created together.

I put my phone down and leave my bedroom. I really should have a shower, but that’ll mean standing in the hot water back in my own thoughts. I don’t want to confront the fact that I’m leading Elsa on. She doesn’t know who I am at all. I’m just a stranger to her; some rich guy with a checkered past who’s come into town. She doesn’t realize how dangerous being with me truly is.

Instead of doing anything productive, I stand in my living room and turn on the TV. Straight to the entertainment news like an itch I need to have scratched.

Just as I fear, there’s a lead story on Ravaged.

So, it seems like the band is still in the shit.

The news story is all about the punch I laid into that Harold paparazzi guy. All about my disappearance. The commentator is ripping Ravaged apart with glee. I don’t want to hear their venomous words. I don’t want to see my band get torn apart like this.

But then they show photos. Grimy photos of the other Ravaged band members leaving a recording studio looking disheveled and defeated. Lucas trying his best to keep the paparazzi at bay, but they’re like vultures feeding on a rotting corpse. They are loving this. Tearing down the biggest band on the planet over a stupid moment of me trying to protect my best friend’s fiancée.

They’re dealing with the fallout of my assault. Nothing legal is happening, but the press is merrily dragging the band’s good name through the mud.

A knot tightens in the pit of my stomach as I watch this car crash unfold on my TV a million miles away from LA.

I brought this on. All this is my fault.

“What are you watching?” Elsa appears in the doorway, making me jump. I feel like I’ve been caught stealing or something.

I switch off my TV.

“Nothing. Just stupid celebrity gossip.”

She rubs her eyes, still sleepy. She looks so damn adorable.

I want to tell her the truth about myself. I hate this weird kind of lying I’m doing to her. She deserves to know who I am.

“Last night was nice,” she says quietly.

I nod. “Yeah, I liked it.”

We smile at each other.

I really can’t help myself around this girl, can’t I? I’m like a different man.

A happier man.

It’s been a long time, if ever, I could legitimately say that.

And I’m lying to her.

“What are you up to today?” I ask her.

“I gotta go into the clinic. I helped deliver a baby the other day and I need to check in on how the mother is doing, plus there’s a whole load of things I need to get sorted on. No rest for the wicked and all that.”

“Wow, the town really does rely on you, doesn’t it?”

Elsa rolls her eyes. “And what are you going to do today, next heavyweight champion of the world?”

I shrug. “Maybe go to the gym. Punch out this hangover.”

“That sounds good. Say hi to Cyrus from me.”

“What’s your number?” I ask, ignoring all the warning alarms going off inside my head. “Let’s organize a time to meet up again.”