Kris sat in the front seat of Taylor’s car, the next morning. She was still sporting his leather jacket. The ride to Milani was virtually silent. Taylor and Kris didn’t speak at all the previous night (even though they’d ended up sharing a bed), which made everything uncomfortable.
When Taylor pulled up to Milani, a cameraman from MTV was already shooting them. Of course, this video was to be shown on MTV’s making the video. They had to re-do the entire concept before they started filming. Walker had called the director the night before, and he agreed to the last minute changes, and everything was pretty much underway. All they had to do was confirm it with the boys.
“Why do we have to wake up so Goddamn early?” Kris asked, after stepping out of the car.
“It’s noon, Kris.”
“We didn’t go to sleep until dawn anyway.” She put on her sunglasses and adjusted Taylor’s jacket on her shoulders. She looked around at the place and shivered. “I hate this place.” The camera in her face was surprisingly comfortable; she wasn’t bothered by it at all.
The three boys went immediately to the director and confirmed the changes that had taken place. “Okay! Scene one will be the accident scene…everyone go to makeup!” Misty, Kris, and the three boys went to the make-up trailer.
They found it rather amusing that Misty and Ike were the ones with the most make-up. They didn’t look damaged at all, while Zac, Taylor, and Kris were already pretty beat up. The majority of the make-up was for the aftermath of the accident—the stitches, the casts, the braces.
The white mustang convertible looked nearly exact to the one they drove the night of the actual accident. Misty, Zac, Taylor and Kris all stood close together, looking at the scene. They’d moved the shot out of Milani for the moment, and to the corner where the accident occurred. The clouds in the sky and the way they would shoot the tape would make it seem like night.
The director, David Myers, came up to them, along with the cameras. Misty was biting on her nail. “You guys look horrible! I can tell Rose did a good job on makeup.”
“I actually had the most, they didn’t really get much,” Misty said. David took a step back. “That’s why we changed the concept.”
“Are you sure you want to go through with this? You guys don’t look too thrilled.”
“It’s something that actually happened, to all of us. We have the scars to prove it.” Taylor said. “We’re going to be edgy about it.”
“Where do you want to start? Aftermath?”
“We want the accident shown; the actual collision.”
“Alright.” Misty looked around. Everything was pretty much the same as it did beforehand, the same as the night of the accident. The accident just hadn’t happened yet. “We have stunt doubles for you guys, unless you want to do it yourself,” David said, as a camera hovered.
“No way,” Taylor immediately said. “We lived it once; I don’t want to live it again.”
As the shot was being prepared, another cameraman filmed Kris saying hello. “Hi! I’m Kris.” She waved. “I’m the girl of Taylor’s affection in the video. I’m the one who gets thrown out of the car, and later I get sent into a coma. That didn’t really happen, I woke up right after surgery, but it makes a better mood if I was in a coma.”
“You were in the original accident?” the man next to the cameraman asked.
“Yes, I was actually in the original accident—the real one—and that’s where I got this nasty scar.” She turned around and showed the camera the scar on the back of her head.
Misty was standing nearby, and the camera moved to her. “Hi! I’m Misty. I was in the real accident too.” She waved, much in the same fashion as Kris did. “That’s where I got these scars. You can’t really tell cause they’re covered in fake blood, but they’re there.” She pointed to her face. “I’m the object of Zac’s affection, and instead of him watching me in a coma, I’m watching him.”
Zac and Taylor were talking when a camera came up to them, and they were asked about Kris and Misty. Zac answered, knowing Taylor wasn’t about to answer.
“They’re a trip!! It took me a while to get used to how wild they can be, but now I can tolerate them. Kris is my best friend, we’ve known her since about three months before the accident, cause her and Taylor started dating. But they’re not going out anymore because they’re losers.” Taylor smacked his arm. “Hey! You are!”
“Shut up!”
“Anyway, Misty is my girlfriend. We met here at Milani…well, over there at Milani,” he pointed in the general direction of the club, “the night of the accident. So basically in the video she’s awkward cause she doesn’t know any of us.”
Zac looked past the camera. “I think we’re shooting now, and I want to see this, so bye.” They walked over to Misty and Kris. “So, are we ready yet?”
“They’re just about to do the crash right now.” As the words left Kris’s lips, the white mustang convertible sped into the intersection and was hit on both sides. The car spun around four times, hit the telephone pole and phone booth, flipped over, sending someone into the air and landing thirty feet away. The car stopped, right side up, the windshield shattered and smashed, the three souls lifeless.
“Cut!”
The four stood, watching. It was exactly the same to what had happened. They couldn’t believe they went through that and lived. A camera had been placed on them the whole time, filming as the cringed in fear and shifted uncomfortably.
“Okay, Taylor, Zac, and Misty, get into the car. Kris go to the street,” David said, through a megaphone. No one budged, their eyes shining with tears as they looked over the accident. Misty swiped at a tear that fell from her eye. “We don’t have all day here!”
Kris took the first step to the road, sniffing and wiping her eyes. The other three went to the car. Before anything happened, Taylor turned from the driver’s seat to look at Zac and Misty behind him. “Did you see that? Oh my God.”
“That’s what we went through?” Zac asked. “I thought it wasn’t that bad.”
“Neither did I, but we had a few witnesses come in and say what happened.” Zac had his head in Misty’s lap, and she was looking onto the road where Kris was.
“Hey Misty, you have a little something on your face,” Zac said. She looked down at him.
“You are such a dork.” He laughed.
“I know, I just had to say it.” Taylor turned around and put his head against the steering wheel. The shot was fairly simple, just a view of who was in the car and what damage had been done to them.
After the shot, Taylor and Kris were in makeup for their next scene, which was coming up next. They began to talk, trying to make it seem like they weren’t still pissed at each other. Zac, Misty, and Isaac were there, waiting their turn.
“I can’t believe that accident. I had no idea that was what actually happened,” Kris said. “Did you see that, Ike?”
“I can’t believe the four of you lived through that.”
“We almost didn’t,” Zac said. “And we’ve got the scars to prove it.” Taylor looked at Rose, who was trying to figure out what she was supposed to do.
“Rose, the scars are there, jut make them look like stitches.” Taylor held up his arm to her. “See?”
“Oh my God.” She grabbed his arm. “How many stitches did you get?”
“166. That’s the majority of them.” Rose grabbed a few things and started working. A few others worked on various places around him. “Anyway, I almost couldn’t get in that car.”
“It was your idea, Taylor,” Kris said, closing her eyes so the rest of the makeup artists could do their work.
“I wasn’t planning on getting beat up yesterday.”
“I wasn’t planning on being here at all, but I have to be. You know the entire video is about me.”
“Shut up.”
“Well the song is about me.”
“That’s true, but still shut up.” The video was for the song Save Me, set as a single after If Only. Taylor did write it with her on his mind, and it turned out to be a beautiful love ballad.
“The whole album’s about me.”
“Half the album was recorded before I met you.”
“It’s still about me.”
“Now you’re just being stupid.”
“Shut up.”
Zac and Misty exchanged glanced. “What was that about?” Taylor asked.
“Nothing,” Zac said. “It’s just the two of you are bickering. Again.”
“We are not bickering.”
“Yes you are,” Rose said. “Taylor looked at her. “Well you are.”
“At least you’re not screaming at each other anymore. You two are hell,” Misty said.
“We’re past screaming at each other. For now. We’ll probably start up again later,” Kris said.
“Yeah. I don’t feel like yelling right now.” Taylor looked at Kris, and for the first time noticed that she was wearing her skimpy dress. “What the hell are you wearing?”
“Welcome to later,” Zac muttered.
“Taylor, this is the dress I wore to the club. I had to wear it for the accident scene. I haven’t changed yet. I hope I don’t have to speak in retard for you to understand.”
“Why didn’t you pick something else to wear?”
“Why didn’t you? I thought we wanted to be exact here, Taylor. You are so overprotective.”
“I am not.”
“You are and you have no reason to be. We’re not dating anymore.”
“Yes, we are dating, Kris.”
“Shh…”
“You guys are dating again?” Zac asked. “You are and you never bothered to tell me? Fine! You always disinclude me!”
“I don’t think disinclude is a word, Zac,” Isaac said.
“It is now.”
“Well I don’t know how long this relationship is going to last—Taylor has a way of pissing me off lately,” Kris said.
“If you would just listen to me every now and then, then maybe I wouldn’t piss you off. You just have it in your mind that I’m against you. I’m not against you, I’m only trying to help.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“And then you go and say that every time. I don’t know what the problem is. I don’t know why you won’t let yourself register that.”
“I just don’t want to get hurt again.”
“That’s why you went back to Brian, right? Cause Brian would never hurt you…”
“He wasn’t always like this, Taylor, and you know that.”
“But he was still pretty bad.”
“Listen, I don’t need you telling me how to run my life. I’m perfectly fine.”
“Yeah right.”
“We’re not discussing this now.”
“We already started, we might as well finish.”
“Not now.”
“We’ve got time. We’re not going to be done anytime soon.”
“Fuck you,” she said, turning away.
“Already did, and it all went downhill from there.”
“Somebody needs to shoot you.”
“Maybe you could get Brian to do it; when he’s not beating your ass.” Kris leaned her head against her hand, tears filling her eyes.
“I can’t believe you just said that.” She got up, shrugging off the make up artists and ran out of the room.
“Oh God I’ve done it again.” Taylor got up, interrupting Rose, and ran after Kris.
“How am I supposed to work if he leaves?” Rose asked. “Come here, Zac, I might as well get a head start on you.”
Taylor finally caught up with Kris some 200 feet away. “Kris, I’m sorry.”
“Taylor, there’s a camera in there. You just could have told the entire world that my boyfriend beats me. You could have told the entire world that we had sex! They’re probably going to air that!”
“They won’t…”
“They could.” She wiped at her tears that fell from her eyes. “And to make it worse, you said it with all those people in the room. Now this won’t air for a while; I’ll be done with Brian by then, but those people know now.”
“Kris, I’m sorry. I really am, I wasn’t thinking about the camera or the people at all. It’s just I love you and you never listen to me when I’m saying something that could very well help you out.”
“But I can change him; I know I can.”
“No, you can’t. You can’t change anyone unless they’re willing to change themselves. He isn’t going to change, and it’ll only end up hurting you more.”
“I don’t know how to get rid of him without hurting myself. He’ll come after me…”
“I’ll help. We’ll do what we can, but you just have to be willing to do it.”
“I am.” She hugged him. “I’m sorry too.”
“It’s okay. It was all me.” He kissed her. “Can we go back to makeup now?”
“Yeah. The truth is, I just needed to get out of the chair.” They walked back over to the makeup.
“We’re better now.”
“Alright, just don’t do it again. I need to finish,” Rose said. “Zac, get up.”
“That didn’t take very long, guys,” Zac said. “Normally it takes forever for you two to calm down.”
“We’re getting better at it.”
“You’ve had enough experience.”
“Hey! We never fought before three days ago, so you need to shut up.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Kris sat down on the chair. Taylor sat next to her, and waited for Rose to finish. Sure, it’d take a while, but he had his friends here to amuse him. Kris looked at him. What hell this video was going to be.
Taylor linked his hand with a lifeless Kris. A tear came to his eye as he looked at their joint hands. His was covered in stitches, while hers were delicate and clean. The tears in his eyes fell as he brought her hand to his lips and softly kissed it. He put her hand down and stroked her hair. He bit his lip, holding back the rest of the tears in him. The bruise on her face was illuminated by the bright hospital lights, but her eyes remained gently closed. He looked over her pale, lifeless body, and sighed. He mouthed an ‘I love you’ to her, then took his hand away from her cheek.
“Cut!” Kris turned and opened her eyes.
“Ugh, this bed is so uncomfortable.” Taylor wiped at his eyes.
“This better be it; I don’t know how much more I can cry,” he said. “God, how many times do we have to do this?”
“Okay you two, that’s it.”
“Finally,” Kris said, and got out of the bed. “I can’t wait to get out of this hospital gown. Can I go home yet?”
“That’s a wrap guys, see you tomorrow.”
“Alright,” Kris said, and grabbed her clothes. She quickly changed and met Taylor in the makeup room. “Oh man, I have to get this stuff taken off, don’t I?”
“Some of it,” Rose said. “The stitches can stay on, it’s just the initial makeup. Sit down.” She plopped into the seat and waited to be finished. Taylor tapped her arm.
“There’s the shot over there,” he said, pointing to a screen not far away. Kris looked over. The shot was just starting out. For some reason, she nearly cried. It was perfect; the hours it took for all the angles really paid off. It was looking great so far…she couldn’t wait to see the final copy.
“I want to see Misty’s scene.” Just a few minutes later, the scene with Misty and Zac came on the screen. “Alright!” Misty was standing next to the bed, her scars now covered in stitches. She looked very uncomfortable, constantly fidgeting while looking over Zac. After a little while, she ran out of the room and started bawling in the hallway.
“Oh my God this is an emotional video.”
“And we still have over a half of the song to go.”
“Yay,” Kris said, then groaned. “I don’t have to be in all of it, do I?”
“I think we’ll be done by tomorrow.”
“Really? Already?”
“Well, yeah. We’ll be working late, though.”
“How late is late?” Kris asked.
“Until the video is finished. We’ll probably be finished with it by dawn.”
“Dawn?”
“Our last video we worked for a good 20 hours straight before it was done, not including makeup time. We finished the last scene as the sun was rising.” Kris made a face. “Yeah, they tend to spoil you the first day. You don’t do very much, you get there at noon and can leave at nine…tomorrow we have to be here at six.”
“Well, shit.”
“Welcome to my world.”
“Okay guys, you’re done.” Kris quickly got up. She lost her balance immediately from the sudden weight shift, and ended up right back on the floor. “Are you okay?”
“Remind me never to jump up again.” She sat on the floor, then slowly stood up.
“What’s up with that?” Rose asked. “Bad balance?”
“Brain damage,” Kris said. “Did you see the shot of the accident?” Rose nodded. “The one who flew out of the car and landed on her head was me. The part of my brain that I damaged controls my balance, so it’s pretty shot. I’m lucky I can walk.”
“That’s gotta suck.”
“It does, but I’m used to it by now. It’s just if I get up too quick, I pull one of those and fall over.” She straightened herself out. “See you tomorrow.”
“Bye guys.” Taylor and her walked out, finding Zac and Misty walking from a different direction.
“We saw your scene…that’s pretty intense,” Taylor said.
“Yeah, well, I cried in yours so I think you won,” Misty said. “That was upsetting. That’s how I was able to bawl in my scene! I was just thinking about you guys.”
“Well, that’s my wonderful acting skills…” Kris said, laughing.
“Yeah, you just laid there with your eyes closed. You even fell asleep!!”
“I did not.”
“Yeah, that’s why you all of a sudden turned over and started snoring.” Kris laughed. “That was a very emotional scene! You made me laugh!”
“Shut up. I want to go.” They got into the car. “Can we stop off at my place? I’m sick of wearing the same clothes over and over again. I feel like a hobo.”
“Okay. Just make sure there’s no Brian there.” Kris grabbed the cell phone from the ground and dialed home. “I swear, you people have phones laying everywhere.”
“Oh well.”
Kris waited for her mother to pick up. She knew she was home, she didn’t work this late anymore. “Hello?” Cynthia said, a bit breathless.
“Hi Mom.”
“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you! I called everyone, where are you?”
“I’m with Taylor.”
“Like I would know to look for you there.”
“Don’t say anything to Brian, though. I’m kinda hiding out from him and I don’t want him to know where I am. I guess he figures I’m with them anyway, but he might con you into saying where they’re staying.”
“Okay, whatever. He was here looking for you last night.”
“Yeah, I know. Listen, Ma, we’re gonna stop by in a few minutes and pick up some clothes and stuff. I’m going to stay with Taylor a few more days, then I’ll come home. I’m giving Brian some time to cool off. He isn’t there, is he?”
“No, he’s not.”
“Good. We’ll be there in a few.”
“Okay. See you then.”
“Okay, bye.” She hung up and threw the phone back on the floor. “No, he’s not there.”
“Good.” Taylor drove to Kris’s house, instantly checking around for foreign cars. It was just Kris’s and Cynthia’s, which was a great relief to him. They all got out and went inside.
“What the hell happened to you guys?” Cynthia immediately asked, looking at the four of them. “Get into a fight or something?”
“We’re shooting the video,” Kris said, “and we’re supposed to look beat up and everything.”
“Oh, alright.” She looked around Kris. “Misty? I haven’t seen you around lately. Come here.” Misty walked over to Cynthia and gave her a hug. Cynthia looked at her. “So these stitches here are fake?”
“Yeah.”
“I have to compliment the makeup artist. They look real.” She let go of Misty.
“K, let’s go. The sooner I pack the sooner I can get away from here,” Kris said.
“Kris, you’re wearing that jacket again? Whose is that?” Cynthia asked, looking at Kris and her leather jacket.
“Taylor’s,” Kris said. “Partially. I steal it every time it’s around.”
“You know what, Kris?” Taylor said. “Keep it. You like it more than I do.”
“I got a leather jacket.” She grinned and ran up the stairs. The other three watched her go.
“Good for her,” Cynthia said, then looked back at Misty. “Are you still dating my man?”
“Unfortunately,” Zac said, squeezing Misty’s hand. She smacked him. “Ow! She abuses me.” Zac caught what he said and was happy Kris wasn’t around. “Face it, Cynthia, we just can’t be together. It’s just that you and me, it’s statutory rape.”
“Yeah, I figured that out a while ago.” Taylor walked upstairs and into Kris’s room. She was throwing some clothes into a backpack.
“Hey, how long do you think I’m gonna be there?”
“Three days? Maybe four?” he guessed. “I know we’re leaving in five days.”
“I’ll pack five outfits, just in case.”
“Okay.” She looked through her drawers and her closet, picking out random outfits and putting them in her backpack. “What, may I ask, is that?” Taylor asked, pointing to a collage of him on her wall. She’d had it up for a while, but Taylor had never noticed before.
She looked over. “Oh, that. Yeah, ever since we broke up I became an obsessed fan.”
“I’ve noticed. But most of these aren’t open to the public,” he said, walking over to get a closer look. She came up behind him and put her arms around him, looking over the pictures she’d had for such a long time. “What does Brian think about this?”
“I don’t let him in my room.”
“Then I guess he doesn’t know about them.”
“And I’m hoping he never does.” Taylor turned around and looked down at her. “You better finish up.” She nodded and let go of him. He sat down at her computer. They weren’t going to be there long enough for him to play a game, or even turn it on. He sighed and looked over the computer. He noticed a light on. The computer was on, the screen was just shut off.
He turned on the screen and waited the picture to come on. Microsoft Word was up, and in big, bold, black letter was the sentence I’m going to kill you. Taylor immediately closed the window and turned off the computer. Kris looked over. “I shut off your computer for you.”
“Oh, thanks. I didn’t even know it was on.” She ran into the bathroom and grabbed her makeup and toothbrush (which was hell living without). “Okay, I’m ready.”
“Okay.” She grabbed her backpack and they headed down the stairs. “K, we’re done.
“That was fast,” Misty said. “I hardly get to say hello and we’re leaving.”
“Yeah, well, I pack fast. See you, Ma,” Kris said.
“Bye Mom,” Zac and Taylor said in unison, then gave each other looks.
“Does that mean I should call you Mom too?” Misty said. Cynthia shrugged. “Okay then, bye Mom.”
“Bye guys.”