A/N- Yes, I realize that it has been twenty billion years since I posted chapter one. I hope you will forgive me, though, because the chapter is super awesome? Pretty please don't kill me. This fic gets updated every two weeks on Sunday, but if you want to read any of my other fics, you can go check out my profile, which has my complete Update Schedule, along with the rules for my birthday competition (my birthday is on Tuesday, just so you know).
The first song (which is incomplete, by the way, the rest will be used later in the story) is "Diamonds Are Forever" by The Cab, while the second is "Calling" by Sebastian Ingrosso and Alesso featuring Ryan Tedder. Links, along with the link to the song used in the first chapter, are also on my profile.
Disclaimer- I do not own Bleach. Sorry.
Neliel walked out onto the stage, rain falling and plastering her hair to her forehead through a crack in the warehouse roof. "Nnoitra!" she screamed, "Nnoitra, please listen to me!"
"What!?" Nnoitra screamed back from where he stood in the middle of the empty stage, "What is there to say, Neliel? You're the one who left me standing in the snow all night, you dumb ass bitch."
"I didn't mean to," she replied quietly. "It wasn't my fault."
Nnoitra crossed the stage to where she stood, and leaned down so that his face was right up in her's. "Listen up, Neliel. Stay away from me. Don't talk to me, don't touch me, don't call me. Lose my number, Neliel, because the next time you call will be the last time you see me."
"B-but, Nnoi-"
"I don't think you get it yet, bitch," Nnoitra said, straightening up, "The only reason I'm not leaving the band right now is because for some inane reason, my fame relies on your stupid ass."
Neliel jerked back like she'd been slapped, "I did just as much as you for the band. I gave up my life, my friends for this!"
"Funny," Nnoitra replied, brushing past her like she meant nothing to him, "Not a single person seems to realize that you didn't do everything. In fact, no one notices that you just float on the work of others."
Neliel whirled around, "I do-
-NOT!" Nel shouted jerking up in bed. For a minute she sat there, panting on her bed with eyes wider then she'd ever felt them. Suddenly, she felt the muscles in her abdomen release and just collapsed backwards onto her bed, still panting. With a huge exhale, she turned her head to glance at her alarm clock reading the time as she pushed her bangs out of her eyes.
4:52
"Great," she whispered to herself. She knew that there was no way she was going to be able to go back to sleep – not after her nightmare. She'd been having it for weeks now, and each time she had been forced out of bed after because she couldn't sleep.
It was really fucking her up. She had enough trouble getting enough sleep to function as it was. Ever since she was about fifteen, she literally could not fall asleep before midnight. Some nights she couldn't fall asleep until one, or two, or even three occasionally. Last night had been a two a.m. kind of night. With a sigh of resignation, she pushed her weary body up out of bed to stumble the five feet to her kitchenette. She pressed the on button on her coffee pot – it used the regular amount of grounds, but made a third as much coffee, because that was the only way for her to stay awake – before stumbling on to the bathroom. For a minute, she stared at her exhausted face in the mirror, hating herself for just a moment. She stared at the innocent looking face with it's old eyes, the dyed green hair – she'd done it thinking that if she dyed her hair a color that looked happy, it would make her happy – and the thick group of freckles across the bridge of her nose and along her cheeks. She sighed and turned the water on in her shower, hoping that it would be warm enough by the time she got in. After peeing quickly, she walked back to her bedroom, grabbing the dark red plaid sleeveless tee she saw first, along with a pair of dark skinny jeans.
After a quick shower and all the coffee she'd made this morning, she walked to the desk, shoved into her bedroom, because it fit nowhere else in her shitty little apartment.
She sat down, looking at what she already had for the song she was working on. The melody was all created, but the lyrics were giving her trouble. She'd figured out the first verse, but had no idea where she wanted to go with the rest of the song – especially the refrain.
Don't stop [Bridge:]
Just gotta face it
Too Young
And living a lie
Eyes lock
Can you taste it?
Heart's numb
Cause you've been paralyzed
Here's two words
For You
Break Up
She sat there, tapping her pencil for two hours, only getting up to get herself more coffee, and got exactly zero work done, only stopping when she glanced over at the clock and saw that it read seven thirty. She dropped her pencil, glancing outside at the rain and pulling her coat on before grabbing her bag and leaving.
She walked the two short blocks to the subway station, shoulders hunched to keep as much wind out of her jacket as possible, and got on the train that would take her to a block away from Arrancar Records.
With only two minutes until eight, she stepped into the building, taking the elevator up to the recording studio where she met her band. After a completely predictable lecture from the guy that was working in the recording studio, they each went their separate ways to produce the tracks that would later be morphed to create the song. In the room Neliel was in, she grabbed the headphones that would play the (very shitty) recording of the music to the song, so that Neliel could make sure she had the correct timing.
Placing the bulky headphones on her head, she nodded to the random girl who was working out there. The girl pressed a button, and the beat filled her head, the sound slowly building up to where she was supposed to come in.
Closing her eyes, she started to sing, pretending that she was far away on a stage somewhere.
"Can we freeze, come and surrender our rights and wrongs? Can we just for a night let the stars decide where we belong? Maybe heaven right now is a devil or angel away, that won't change. Together we vow that our colors will sparkle the faith," she sang, starting out quietly.
"And I will find you, I will find you, I will reach you, or I, I, I will lose my mind! Lose my mind! Lose my mind! Lose my mind! Yeah!" she continued, voice getting louder as the beat got faster.
The beat pounded in a hypnotic way for a while before her voice came back in, "I will lose my mind, yeah! Lose my mind, yeah!"
The beat pounded for a just a short while before she came in, louder then she'd been the rest of the song, "Maybe heaven right now is a devil or angel away, that won't change. Together we vow that our colors will sparkle the faith."
At the end, she was practically yelling, "I will lose my mind, yeah! Lose my mind, yeah!"
Her voice dropped out a split second before the music ended, leaving a ringing silence in both her ears and the recording room.
Slowly, she opened her eyes to see the girl who was running the equipment starting at her with wide eyes. Only then did she realize that she was crying.
Because this, singing these songs, was the closest she would ever be to Nnoitra.