| Back to page four �Well...� Vanessa begins, by now the rest of the journalists are listening and recording what she's saying. �I was outside the GC show when out came Benji and Joel. They were just happily chatting with the fans when suddenly, out of nowhere, this lad runs up to Benji and stabs him in the stomach. I ran over to Benji and applied pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding. Someone called an ambulance. I managed to keep Benji conscious until the paramedics arrived. Then we came down here to the hospital and Benji was rushed straight through to theater. While they were stitching him up I was out here with Joel. He was really freaking out, he was so scared that his brother was gonna die. Anyway, the operation was a success and Benji was stable, so Joel and I went to see him. A while later, Benji started yelling in pain, turns out he'd ripped his stitches and had to be sewn up again,� Vanessa notices Joel come in through the hospital door. He signals at her to keep the journalists distracted so that he can get past. �Yeah, and the police wanted to know everything about the stabbing. It was only a young lad who stabbed Benji. About 15 he was. Wearing a blue tracksuit, personally I think he'd been drinking or something. Benji's gonna have a huge scar, he had to have 52 stitches. He's not allowed to eat anything yet either.� �How does it feel to know you saved Benji's life?� asks a journalist. �Oh, I'm pretty proud of myself really. I mean I never imagined I'd save anyone's life, yet alone the life of a guy I worship. I was just so happy when I saw that Benji was gonna be alright. I actually started to cry coz I was that happy.� Vanessa babbles on. She notices Benji and Joel sneaking out of the hospital door. They signal to her that they'll call her later. �Can we get a photo of you?� Asks a journalist, shoving a camera in Vanessa's face. �Yeah sure, I'm all yours.� About an hour later the journalists have finished questioning Vanessa, they've also realized that Benji is no longer at the hospital. They all leave, determined to get pictures of Benji. Vanessa flops down in a chair. She never realized that interviews were so exhausting. �Excuse me, Vanessa? There's a phone call for you.� says the receptionist. Vanessa walks over to the desk and takes the phone. �Hey Vanessa, it's Benji. Thanks for covering for us earlier. I'm really sorry, but we've had to leave town. We're getting on a flight back to LA in an hours time.� says the voice at the other end of the phone. �Oh okay.� says Vanessa. �I'm still gonna write you a song,� says Benji. �Thank you so much for everything. I'll never forget you.� he says. Vanessa feels tears welling up in her eyes. �I've gotta go now,� says Benji. �Maybe we'll meet again sometime.� he says and puts the phone down. Vanessa passes the receiver back to the receptionist. Vanessa walks out of the hospital and down the street to her apartment. She feels so numb. She sits on the sofa and turns on the TV. The first channel that comes on is MTV. Vanessa sees her face on the screen. She's all over MTV news. She doesn't want to hear about herself. She switches off the TV and cries herself to sleep. A year later Vanessa still remembers the night she saved Benji's life. She wonders if Benji ever wrote a song for her like he said he would. Well, there's only one way to find out. She walks down to the record store and buys the new Good Charlotte album. When she gets home she puts the CD on straight away. She opens the booklet and reads through it. In the thank you notes Benji has written how much he thanks Vanessa. This brings a huge smile to her face and a tear to her eye. Then a song comes on that must have been written for her, it couldn't have been for anyone else. Perhaps nobody will ever know that Benji wrote this song for her, but Vanessa knows. Now every time she hears that song she remembers what Benji said. �Maybe we'll meet again sometime.� |