Savior
By
Molly Shanahan
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PUBLISHED BY:
Savior
Copyright © 2013 by Molly Shanahan
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Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
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Any of the lyrics used in this story are not mine and I am not in any way trying to pass them as my own. All lyric credit goes to its respectful owners. I do, however own the rights to the plot and all original characters.
I want to dedicate this story to all my online readers on my main writing website who helped make this story so popular to begin with.
*****
SAVIOR
*****
Ch. 1
Leave the dreams to the dreamers.
At one point, Lily thought she could have been a dreamer. She could shoot for the stars and dream big. Not anymore. Not since he left her.
She had met the one person who had ever understood her. She cursed herself every day for not going with him. She told herself how stupid she was for having dreams of her own. She should have just gone with him and none of this would have happened.
Once the letters stopped coming, she knew he had forgotten about her. So she began to forget him. Hayden who? She didn't need him anymore, she told herself. But really, she did. Her parents were never around anymore. It seemed the house was always empty. Her friends had abandoned her and now she had no one. She did the best she could to get by at school and then would come home to an empty house and cry out of loneliness.
She tried to do other things to get her mind off being lonely. She joined the school's drama club and learned to dance. Because of how much time rehearsals took up, she began to forget about being lonely—until she went home again.
Once she graduated high school, she decided this was it. She was putting her foot down. She was moving to L.A. to become someone. She was tired of being a nobody here in Ohio. She wanted to go where no one knew her name. She wanted to go to a place where she could start all over and actually become known as the person she wanted people to know her as.
L.A.—Hollywood—that was the perfect place for her to become someone.
Of course, thoughts of Hayden never passed through her mind. She had forgotten all about him and where he went. Now she was moving to where he was and she didn't even realize it.
Hayden and the guys have taken the band a long way since the start. They've come out with an EP and two very successful albums with a third on the way.
The life of a rock star was a little crazy at times. Hayden felt like he was constantly recording and writing music if he wasn't on the road with the guys. Even when on the road, he was writing music or reading fan mail.
But the rock star lifestyle was what he had wanted since he was sixteen and first started the band. He always felt a little melancholy when he thought about the early days of the band. It made him think about Lily.
Not a day had gone by since he left Ohio that he didn't think of her. He missed her, but it was clear that she didn't miss him. She had never written back to him so he stopped writing to her. She had made it clear with her silence that she obviously didn't want to talk to him anymore. She had moved on and he decided that he should, too.
Six years had gone by and Hayden still thought about Lily every day. But he had Juliet now and she made him happy.
He would never say this aloud, but Juliet didn't make him as happy as Lily had. He didn't think anyone could make him as happy as she had.
It didn't matter anymore, though. He was never going to see her again so he should just move on.
But he couldn't.
Ch. 2
She threw the last few things she needed into her bag and rolled her other bags out to the living room. She jotted down a little note to her parents:
Mom and Dad:
I'm sorry I was such a crappy daughter. I'm writing to let you know that I'm leaving. I'm going to Los Angeles to try and become someone. It's obvious that I'll have no future if I stay here. You both are always away and I'm lonely here by myself. I'm leaving to make some new friends and start all over. I've packed up all my things and I am leaving my house key here with you. I'm taking my car and you both can forget I was ever here. I just want you to know I love you both. If life intends for us to meet again, then so be it. For now, this is goodbye.
—Lily
She set the pen down next to the letter and grabbed her bags. She stuffed them in the trunk of her small car before going back inside for one last time.
She looked around and breathed in the familiar smell of her home. She sighed, running a hand through her wavy, black hair and turning towards the door. She made sure the door was locked before shutting it behind her and shutting herself out of the house.
This was what she wanted. There was no turning back now. She got in her car and pulled out of the driveway, turning down the street and heading towards L.A.
*****
The city was so different than Ohio. There were so many tall buildings and not to mention angry people on the road.
"Get off my ass, you jerk!" Lily shouted to herself at the guy behind her, flipping him off out the window.
The nerve of some people.
He honked at her and swerved into the next lane to get by her.
"Jesus Christ... Got somewhere to be?" Lily grumbled, turning up the volume on her stereo, blasting A Day To Remember. One thing that stayed the same about Lily was her music taste. She loved bands like A Day To Remember, Pierce The Veil, Motionless In White, Avenged Sevenfold, Sleeping With Sirens, Green Day.
But she never listened to Thriller Equinox since Hayden left. She had heard people talk about them at school but she didn't think it could be the same Black Veil Brides she had once known. And honestly, she didn't want to find out.
****
"Jesus Christ... I have somewhere to be!" Hayden shouted at the cars in front of him.
It didn't help his temper that some bitch had flipped him off earlier. If only he had realized that bitch was Lily.
L.A. traffic was always horrible and he had learned to drive extremely aggressively.
He was already late for their recording session and now he was going to be even later.
He groaned as the familiar white car pulled up in the lane next to him. It was the girl from earlier. How did she catch up to him so fast?
He looked over at her. He studied the side of her face and her big, black plugs that matched her wavy, black hair.
Suddenly, the girl looked over at him. He looked away, embarrassed to be caught staring at her.
He slowly raised his eyes back up to find her still looking at him. The front of her face was just as beautiful as the side of her face. She smiled at him and it hit him like a ton of bricks. That smile. The girl in the car next to him was Lily.
He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Her smile dropped to a flat line and she saluted her middle finger to him once again. She looked ahead to see that traffic had begun to move. She glanced back over at him once more before zooming off down the lane.
Hayden was confused. He thought Lily was the one who had stopped writing the letters but why did she hate him so much?
Okay, I was tailgating her earlier... But I thought what we had was special. I just don't un
derstand.
Feeling satisfied with herself, Lily continued onward. She had no idea who that guy was and honestly she didn't care. She had given him what he deserved and she never had to see him again. L.A. is a big city and she figured her chances of seeing him again were slim to none.
But they weren't.
Ch. 3
Finally, she was in L.A. No one here knew her. This was her new life and she couldn't be happier.
As she drove down the busy streets in her old, beat up car among all the shiny, new ones, she couldn't help but think that maybe she didn't fit in. But she promised herself she would. She was going to do whatever it took to get herself to the top.
With the little money she had left from her trip up, she checked herself into a hotel for the next couple nights so she could find a job.
Finding a job was harder than she thought it would be. She was constantly flipping through newspapers for job openings and asking around the hotel. She applied for seven jobs and not one of them would take her. They all said she didn't fit "the part" but she really knew it was because they were being judgmental of her plugs.
She applied for a bunch of performance and dancing jobs but they all rejected her because she didn't have a degree in theater or she hadn't danced at a real studio; just for a couple years in her school's drama club.
She even tried to become a stripper. That would have gotten her a decent amount of money. But of course, they refused to hire her unless she got rid of her gauges.
She was just about to lose all hope. She could see it now: her dreams of becoming someone new being crushed to bits, living on the street in a cardboard box with a bunch of druggies.
As she walked along the sidewalk to get back to her hotel, she spotted a small restaurant on the other side of the street.
The bell on the door jingled as she opened it. For a Saturday afternoon, they seemed to be having slow business.
"Table for one?" The woman behind the podium asked, holding up a menu.
"Oh, no." Lily shook her head. "I was actually wondering if you were hiring."
The woman's eyes sparkled as her lips turned up at the corners in a toothy smile. "Ay, Rob!" She called back without taking her eyes off Lily.
A medium tall man with very short brown hair and hipster glasses framing his eyes walked out from the back. "What's up?" He asked, standing by the woman and catching a glimpse of Lily.
"Doll face here is lookin' for a job." Wow, did this woman have a thick New Jersey accent.
Rob looked back at Lily. "How soon can you start?" He gave her a charming smile.
Lily was at a loss for words. She couldn't believe he was actually hiring her. "Oh, well I can start tonight." Lily responded.
"Perfect!" Rob exclaimed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name."
"Lily." She told him.
"Hm, that's very pretty." He complimented. "I like your gauges."
"Really?" Lily was surprised. He was the first employer that actually liked her plugs. "They've gotten me turned away from a lot of jobs."
Rob shook his head. "Not here." He pulled his sleeves up to his elbows to reveal both forearms, front and back, covered in tattoos. "We're a little different here."
Lily smiled. She was finally starting to find people she fit in with.
"Ronda, here, can help you with basic training right now and a few of the other girls will be here later for the dinner shift. I think you'll like them. I can tell you'll get along with them well." Rob said before turning to go to his office in the back.
Lily was overjoyed. It wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she first arrived but now it was perfect. A job, friends, people who were seeing her as the person she wanted them to see her as. It was everything she wanted.
After a few hours of training, the other two girls, McKenna and Carolina, showed up for work. Rob was right. McKenna and Carolina were almost just like Lily. They both had gauges and each girl had a few tattoos, unlike Lily. Although, Lily had always wanted a tattoo.
McKenna and Carolina took the first few customers who came in and let Lily follow them around to get an idea of how to deal with customers and put all her training to good use.
The bell on the door jingled and she knew this was it. Her first customers.
"You'll do fine, girl." McKenna encouraged.
"If they give you a hard time, don't be afraid to come get one of us, or Ronda, or even Rob. We're all here for you." Carolina assured.
Lily nodded and took a deep breath. She walked over to the table nervously, looking down at her notepad the entire time.
"Hi, I'm Lily. I'll be your server for this evening." She said.
When she looked up, her eyes locked with a very familiar pair of ice blue ones, framed by loose strands of that unmistakable raven black hair.
Ch. 4
Why? She thought. Why him again?
"Lily?"
The sound of her name brought her attention back to the people sitting at the table in front of her.
"It's me. Hayden. Don't you remember?"
She stared into his piercing blue eyes and all the memories she had let drift away came rushing back to her. Her knees became weak and she gripped the corner of the table to steady herself. She remembered now.
She couldn't speak. All her words had disintegrated in her mind. She just stood there and stared at him with her mouth hanging slightly open. It had been six years and she never thought this day would come.
As fast as the shock paralyzed her body, it went away and was replaced with anger. Fire coursed through her veins as she remembered how he so carelessly forgot to write to her. Not even a goodbye letter.
She had loved him and he had just forgotten her like she meant nothing.
"Oh, yeah. Hi." She said flatly.
Hayden frowned slightly at her tone. "Well, uh, what are you doing in L.A.? It's amazing to see you. You look so different. But a good different." He secretly hoped her answer would be she came to see him.
She looked from him to the girl next to him who was giving her the stink eye.
Ignoring his question and the girl sitting next to him, she said "Are you gonna order something or what?" She was so fed up with people treating her like she meant nothing. It made her feel like nothing.
After taking their orders down, she retreated to the kitchen to find Carolina and McKenna. She needed some moral support and some good friends to vent to. Even though she had only been working for a few hours and just met these girls, she already felt like she knew them so well. She felt like she was with her family; the family that actually paid attention to her instead of how her real family had treated her.
She pushed the door to the kitchen open, leaving it to swing back and forth behind her. She gave the order to the chef and set her elbows down on the stainless steel counter, resting her head in her hands.
"Lily, are you okay?" Carolina stood next to her, placing a hand on her back and rubbing it in circles.
When Lily looked up at her, Carolina stepped back. "Oh my god, are you sick? You look like you just saw a ghost."
Lily's face had been drained of all color, leaving her complexion a pasty white.
Lily shook her head. "No, I'm fine." She stood up straight and looked at Carolina. “Can you take over table five for me? I-I can't do it... I'll take over one of your tables if you want."
"Maybe you should go home..." Carolina suggested. "You really don't too well."
"I'm fine." Lily insisted. "I just can't go back to table five..."
"But why?" Carolina furrowed her eyebrows.
"I'll explain later." Lily said. "So what table am I taking over?"
*****
"Who was she?" Juliet snickered.
"Just an old friend." Hayden said, staring at the green cloth napkin on his lap.
"Sure..." Juliet rolled her eyes at him.
"Come on, Juliet. Don't be like that." Hayden threw his napkin onto the table in front of him.
"Whatever." She rolled her e
yes again.
He sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. He didn't understand why she was feeling so threatened by Lily. She never acted that way around any of his other girl-friends.
A different waitress came by and dropped off their food. "Just let me know if you two need anything else, okay?" She smiled at them before turning to leave.
"Wait." Hayden stopped her. "Where's Lily? Can I talk to her?"
"She might be in the back, let me go see." Carolina said before turning to go back to the kitchen.
"The guy at table five is asking for you." She said as she walked into the kitchen.
Lily groaned. "Tell him I went home sick or something. I really just don't want to see him right now."
"An ex?" Carolina guessed.
"I'll explain it later." Lily said impatiently.