The Story of Us

by Rebecca Harner

  Violet

  The rest of September flew by a lot more quickly than I realized. The weather was finally starting to cool down and it didn’t feel like a hundred degrees every time you walked outside.

  It was hard to believe that Nash and I had already been dating for almost two months. It felt like just yesterday when he asked me to be his girlfriend.

  “Are you nervous?” Nash asked. He grabbed my hand and held it tight.

  “A little.” I was not a little nervous. I was freaking out inside.

  Two weeks ago Nash had asked me if I wanted to join the 26 MGMT family and go to one of their meet-and-greets. Nash was part of the family and he would always tell me about how much fun he had with the guys and meeting fans.

  This week we were traveling to Seattle to meet all of their fans up in the northern part of the country. Thankfully they asked a few famous girl Viners, Tess and Lacey, to accompany them on this event, so I wouldn’t be alone with a bunch of childish teenage boys.

  Tess and Lacey were next to me and looked just as nervous as I felt. We were the first girls to ever join the boys in one of their meet-and-greets.

  All the guys were joking around with us as we waited backstage in a hallway. “Are the little girls scared?” Cameron asked in a baby voice. Everyone laughed.

  “Shut up, Dallas,” I snapped at him, a smirk on my face.

  “You got a sassy one there, Nash,” he said.

  “That’s why I love her so much.” Nash kissed the top of my head and pulled me closer to him. One by one, Sierra announced us. All the boys had already gone out except Carter.

  “Just be yourselves,” he told us before he ran out the double doors. We heard him yelling and we heard the fans go wild.

  “Violet. You’re next,” one of the backstage managers told me.

  I took a deep breath and smiled at Tess and Lacey before I ran out.

  “All right, who do we have next? You guys know this girl. She and her boyfriend were voted Vine’s Cutest Couple. Give it up for the lovely Violet!” Sierra announced.

  I ran out and a bunch of fans were screaming my name. I ran down the railing, grabbing their hands, a huge smile on my face.

  I ran up onstage with the guys and waited for Tess and Lacey to come out. The fans were just as excited to see them. “You were perfect,” Nash whispered into my ear as he grabbed me.

  “It looks like the girls influenced a lot of guys to come today. We usually only have girls come meet us,” Hayes said.

  There were just as many boys in the crowd as there were girls.

  “You’re going to be next to me. I want to make sure people keep their hands off you,” Nash said to me. Everybody laughed and I shook my head.

  Chad came onstage and explained how the event was going to play out. Nash and I were behind him, making fun of him as he spoke. Everybody started laughing, and when he would turn around we would stop and blame it on somebody else.

  Eventually we went to our spots for the meet-and-greets. Nash and I were the very last people in the line. It was going to take a while before fans came on our side, so we decided to take some pictures with some of the fans who had general admission.

  “Violet, over here!” people screamed. “Nash! I love you, Nash.” There were so many girls fan-girling over him. I thought it was cute.

  I made my way down the railing, trying to take pictures with as many people as I could. I felt bad if I skipped people, but I couldn’t get to everyone.

  About five minutes later, Nash and I walked back to our tables and talked to fans.

  Everything was going smoothly for the first two and a half hours. We took a thirty-minute break because we all were starving and I had to go to the bathroom really bad.

  Tess and I sprinted down the hall to the nearest bathroom. We both had to go and we couldn’t wait. We ran into the women’s bathroom and quickly locked ourselves in stalls before anyone saw us.

  We were both laughing and giggling when we walked out. We were on our phones and I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going.

  I walked right into someone and fell backward. “What the hell?” the person said as he turned around.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention,” I said while I scrambled back on my feet.

  “No, it’s fine. Wait—holy shit, you’re that girl,” he proceeded to say. Tess and I both looked at each other and smirked.

  “Look, I have to get back to the guys,” I said. Tess and I were walking away when he grabbed my arm.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked. He had a smirk on his face. I wasn’t going to lie. He was extremely good-looking, but Nash was cuter. This guy had short blond hair that lay perfectly on his head. He had dark green eyes and it looked like he was staring straight through my soul. He was perfectly tan and I could see the definition of his muscles when he pulled me toward him.

  “I’m sorry, but we have to go,” I said.

  I turned around to look to Tess for help, but another guy had already grabbed her.

  “We’re going to go for a little walk.” He started to drag me down the hallway toward the elevators.

  “Let me go!” I screamed. “Nash! Nash, help!”

  I heard Tess yelling for the boys as well. “Help! Carter! Cameron! Somebody!”

  “Shut up!” they said as they shoved us into the elevator and blocked the exit.

  The elevator went up a couple of floors, and when the doors finally opened they grabbed our arms and pulled us into a dark room.

  “What are you doing to us?” I said quietly.

  The lights flicked on and I saw Ryder sitting in the corner. Flipping through a sports magazine, he looked over at us and smiled.

  Nash

  Cameron and I were walking down the hallway, getting drinks for everybody.

  A bunch of fans came up to us and stopped us for photos. We couldn’t deny them, so we took pictures with all of them and talked to them for a little bit.

  They told us they only had general admission and wanted to meet us so badly. Well, I guess their dreams came true. They also were really enjoying the event and told us that we should come back sometime.

  We eventually separated from them and headed to the soda machines. Cameron and I were just talking when one of the girls ran back to us with a frantic look on her face.

  “Nash! Cameron! Some guys took Violet and Tess in the elevator!” she said.

  “What!?” I said, dropping the drinks on the floor. I ran down the hallway to the elevators, but they were already gone. Seconds later, Cameron ran up to me and said that the girl saw that they went to the fourth floor.

  I quickly hit the button to call the elevator. A couple was coming out of one of them and we ran in, practically running them over.

  As the elevator went up, Cameron called the guys. They were on their way up as well. My dad told them that he would grab some security guards and notify the guests that they would have to wait a little bit longer.

  When we finally reached the fourth floor, it was silent. I heard nothing except an elevator beep. All the guys stepped out and Lacey was hiding behind all of them.

  We gave each other confused looks as we silently walked down the halls. There were so many rooms up here, we had no idea where the girls would be.

  “How the hell are we going to find them?” Cameron whispered to me.

  I gave him a shrug and kept on walking up and down the hallways. I was really worried about Violet. I had no clue who would do this to her, besides Ryder. He wouldn’t be here, though.

  “Guys. I have a plan,” Lacey whispered to all of us.

  Violet

  Ryder came up to Tess first and started running his fingers through her hair.

  “Get away from her,” I yelled at him. He just looked at me and started moving his hands down her b
ody. One of his friends was holding her there so she couldn’t move.

  I somehow wriggled my way out of their grasps and jumped on Ryder. I backhanded him across the face and kicked him in the crotch.

  He fell to the ground in pain. “Get her!” he screamed.

  Before I knew it, four more hands were grabbing me and tossed me on the bed. They threw Tess next to me and grabbed some rope from one of their suitcases.

  Tess and I tried to scramble out of the bed but were interrupted by someone screaming in the hallway.

  “Tess! Violet! Where are you? It’s Lacey. C’mon, guys!” Lacey was yelling while walking up and down the hallway. I saw the boys look at each other with smirks on their faces. “Looks like we are going to have another guest, boys,” Ryder said.

  Two of them walked out of the room. “Oh, shit!” one of them said as they ran back in.

  We saw them trying to shut the door but it was pushed open by Carter, Hayes, and Cameron. Tess and I ran into their arms while they pulled us away from Ryder.

  “Violet!” I heard someone say from down the hallway.

  I pulled away from Cameron and turned around to see that it was Nash. I ran into his arms. Tears started running down my face as he cradled me.

  “Where do you think you girls are going?” Ryder said as he walked out into the hallway. Nash let go of me and tackled Ryder to the floor.

  I saw Ryder’s friends start to attack Nash, but Carter and Cameron came to his rescue. Hayes was holding Tess, who was hyperventilating.

  By this time, the security guards and Chad had come up and took Ryder and his friends away. “This isn’t the end, Violet!” Ryder yelled before the elevator doors closed.

  Nash ran back to me and pulled me into his arms. We stayed like that for what felt like forever. He eventually picked me up and carried me bridal-style back to my hotel room.

  The rest of the group went back down to the meet-and-greet.

  “Nash. You can go back out. I’ll be fine in here,” I told him. I wanted him to stay but he had fans to go meet.

  “No. I’ll see my fans tomorrow. Tonight, though, I’m not letting you out of my arms,” he told me as he picked up my chin. He leaned in and gave me a small but passionate kiss.

  “I love you, Nash,” I told him as we pulled away.

  I rested my head on his shoulder and he put his arm around me, pulling me close to him. “I love you too, Violet,” he said.

  Nash

  I didn’t get too much sleep that night. Violet fell asleep on my shoulder. She was so close to me, I could feel her breathing and her heartbeat. I matched my breathing with hers so that we were in sync.

  Why do all these things keep happening to her? Ryder had attacked her twice now. You would think that he would’ve gotten over her and moved on already.

  I reached down to pull up the covers and saw that Violet’s shirt had inched up a little bit. I tried not to stare at the bare skin showing, but I was in shock.

  The bottom of her shirt was up to about the bottom of her rib cage. I saw a long scar travel from her waist further up into her shirt. It was completely healed; it looked like whatever happened had happened a couple of months ago.

  Even though the scar was not the most appealing thing in the world, I was not disgusted by it. I was more worried about her than I ever was before.

  It made me realize that even though we were dating, we still didn’t know a lot about each other. I knew she had had some problems before, and she’d told me she wasn’t ready to talk about it. It had been weeks since that night she bawled her eyes out on my shoulder. Did she think that she still couldn’t tell me?

  Violet

  “Oh-h-h-h my-y-y. Look up in the sky and you will see me fly. / I said oh-h-h my-y-y. No I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid to die.”

  “Hello,” I said angrily into the phone after my The Party­squad & Boaz ringtone woke me up. Who the hell was calling me this early in the morning?

  “Hey, Violet, it’s Cameron. Are you feeling any better?”

  “Oh, hi, Cam. I was fine until you woke me up,” I told him. I was still on Nash’s shoulder. I rolled over and hopped off the bed.

  “Sorry about that. It’s already nine and the event starts at eleven today. Are you guys going?” he asked.

  “Holy shit. It’s that late already? Well, thanks for waking me up, then,” I told him, laughing a little bit.

  “No problem. So are you guys coming today or nah?” He laughed with me.

  “Yes, we are coming. I have to wake Nash up, though,” I told him. I walked over to him and poked his face until I saw his blue eyes open.

  “What . . .” He rolled over and pulled the covers over his head.

  “He’s up,” I told Cameron.

  “Whoa. You guys slept together?” he practically yelled. I heard the rest of the guys start yelling and whistling in the background.

  “No, Cameron, we did not.” I started to giggle and that grabbed Nash’s attention.

  “Who are you talking to?” he asked.

  “Cam,” I mouthed to him. He nodded and rolled back over.

  “We are gonna believe whatever we want to believe,” Cam said. The rest of the boys were still hollering and making noises in the background. They were so mature.

  “Whatever. I have to get ready. See you guys in a little bit.” I hung up on him before he and the rest of the group could say anything else.

  “What did he want?” Nash asked. He finally pulled himself up out of the bed and walked over to his phone.

  “Just reminding us about the meet-and-greet today. It starts at eleven,” I yelled as I made my way into the bathroom.

  “Oh, okay. I’m going to head over to my room and get ready. Be back in a little bit, babe,” he said as he walked out of the hotel room.

  Nash

  I walked quickly over to my room. You could hear the guys yelling all the way down the hallway. I was surprised we hadn’t gotten kicked out already.

  As I walked into the room, all the guys stared at me with wide eyes. “So how was it?” Hayes asked, moving his eyebrows up and down.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked them.

  “Did you guys do it?” Carter yelled out from the back of the room. He had his face in his phone, like always, and didn’t even bother to look up.

  “No! Why would you guys think that? We’ve only been together for a couple of weeks,” I told them. We were all around the same age, but I swear some of them acted like they were still ten years old. I grabbed some clothes and a couple of other things so I could get ready. I walked straight out of the room, slamming the door shut.

  I headed back down to Violet’s room and knocked on the door. A couple of minutes later she opened it with a smile on her face.

  “Well, you’re back early,” she said as she headed back into the bathroom. She must’ve just gotten out of the shower, because her hair was all wet.

  “Yeah, well, the guys were acting like douchebags and I’m not in the mood for them right now.” I pulled my shirt and shorts off and threw them in a corner.

  “When I was on the phone with Cam, he and the guys thought that we did it last night.” She started giggling as she told me.

  “Yeah, that’s what they were talking about when I went in. Hey, do you mind if I take a quick shower?” I asked her.

  “Umm . . . well, I’m still getting ready in here.” She walked out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth. Her mouth dropped open when she saw me.

  What was she looking at? I glanced down to see if anything was wrong with me. Oh. I was standing in front of her with nothing on, except my boxers.

  “Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Violet.” I reached down to grab some shorts to make it less awkward.

  “No, it’s fine, Nash. Just caught me off guard a little bit,” she said frantic
ally. I saw her face turn red as she looked down at me one more time before turning around. “You can take a shower while I’m still in here. Just”—she peeked her head out of the room—“keep your boxers on until you close the curtain.” We both laughed before I headed into the bathroom.

  I walked in and noticed that she was trying to avoid eye contact with me. Smirking a little bit, I walked past her and put my towel on the hook next to the shower. After I closed the curtain I pulled my boxers off and threw them out of the shower.

  “Hey!” I heard her say. “I know you’re excited that I saw you, but try to watch where you throw things.”

  I chuckled. I wondered if she enjoyed what she saw. I mean, I still had boxers on, I wasn’t completely naked. “Sorry,” I said before turning on the water.

  Violet

  After seeing Nash almost naked, I was definitely embarrassed. I had seen his abs before, but never this much. I don’t know. Maybe I was overexaggerating. He still had boxers on, covering, well, you know.

  I tried to quickly finish getting ready before Nash finished, but I’m a girl. It always takes us quite some time to get ready.

  The water shut off and I saw his arm reach out and grab his towel.

  “Umm . . . I’ll leave for a moment, to let you get dressed and stuff,” I told him as I shut the bathroom door behind me. About two minutes later I heard a loud bang and felt the room shake. I walked over to the door and knocked a couple of times.

  “Are you okay, Nash?” There was no reply. “Nash!” I yelled, now pounding my fists on the door. “Nash, this isn’t funny. Are you okay?” Still there was no reply.

  I reached down and opened the door slowly. “Nash. If you are planning anything, I swear I’ll hurt you,” I yelled at him. By now the door was completely open and there was no Nash.

  I slowly took a few steps in before I saw his arm hanging out from over the tub. “Nash?” I whispered before moving any closer.

  I forced myself forward and pulled the curtain open. “Oh my gosh, Nash!” I yelled, falling to the ground.

  He was at the bottom of the tub, and his body was not moving at all. There was blood. So much blood, seeping out from behind his head and running down the length of the tub.