DISCLAIMER: The characters in this story are all real unless noted, but the story is fiction. If something happens in the story, or something is said in particular, then certainly you'd know better than to take it seriously and spread it around. I don't want to start rumours...there are enough of those...I just want to entertain. Oh, and another thing:This story is COPYRIGHT. Ya see that? I'll say it again for old time's sake: COPYRIGHT. If you decide to steal my ideas, you'll have hell to pay. If you wish to link to this story on your own site, please ask me for permission.
But on a better note...enjoy the story, really, and please let me know what you think of it. I feel as if nobody really gives a damn about it anymore. I hope someone can prove me wrong. I'm not exactly the happiest person in the world right now. Forgive me.
I'm currently planning a new page called "ATW - The Alternative Endings". If you didn't like the ending I wrote, please write your own version and send it in. Who knows, it could turn up here!
Decaying friendships almost dead
And hide behind a mask of lies
We twist and turn and we avoid
All hope of salvage now devoid
I see the truth inside your eyes
So take all this noise into your brain
And send it back again
I'll bear the cost, shed my skin, call you up and then...
I'll say the words out loud...
You could resurrect a thousand words to decieve me more and more
A thousand words will give the reasons why I don't need you anymore
Time manipulates your heart
Preconceptions torn apart
Begin to doubt my state of mind
But I won't go down on what I said
I won't retract convictions read
I may perplex, but i'm not blind..."
Brisbane had never been this dull. Sure, dull, but not THIS dull. As Darren Hayes looked out his car window, he saw the black clouds that rolled overhead. Storms weren't rare in Brisbane, but it still seemed like this storm was an unusual one. Like it brought anger and fury inside its darkness. Petty jealousy...hatred...
Getting bored, he turned on the radio to hear "Discotheque" by U2. He smiled to himself, turned up the volume and started tapping his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the music. After a verse and a chorus, he started softly singing along to the song, in his unique, smooth voice. He got so wrapped up in the song that he didn't hear his car phone ring. On the third ring, Darren finally came back to earth and answered it.
"Bueno," he said. There was silence on the other end. "Bueno!"
"...Bueno?! What the hell is that?!"
"Of course you wouldn't know, Daniel! Uneducated fool!"
"Oi! Shut up, you!"
Darren laughed. "Where the hell are you? I went to pick you up but you weren't home!"
"I'm at Michelle's place. Are you going to come around and pick me up, or are you going to do these Cairns concerts by yourself?"
"I don't think I could do it alone!" As he said this, Darren turned the car down a long road, breaking away from the Pacific Highway. "I was going to go to the newsagents on my way to Michelle's. Do you want me to pick you up anything?"
"Anything to do with music, Daz. You know me." Darren heard Michelle's voice in the background. "Listen, i’d better go. I’ll see you in twenty, okay?"
"Alright. Bye."
"Bye. See you soon."
Darren sighed as he hung up the phone and pulled into a carpark. He got out of the car, locked it and walked to the newsagents next door. As he walked, he uneasily looked around him for anyone who might recognise him. He liked fans, but he desperately wanted his space sometimes.
As he opened the newsagents’ door, a bell clinked above the door. The manager looked up from his 'Migitating Circumstances' book and smiled.
"Hey, Darren!" he greeted him. "Haven’t seen you around here for a while!"
"Yeah, well, i’ve been busy," Darren replied as he picked up a guitar magazine, deciding to buy it for Daniel. After stuffing it under his armpit, he walked over to the Teen Magazines rack. The manager smiled.
"You’re way out of THAT league, Darren, i’m sorry!" he said.
"I know," Darren said, flipping through a new issue of TV Hits. "I’m just checking to see if any of our recent interviews are in here."
"You’ve sure kept yourself busy, haven’t you?"
"Yup. What did you expect? I’m in a band that’s touring worldwide, i’m about to start a national tour..."
The manager whistled in awe. "I extend my sympathies towards you."
Darren smiled. After flipping through the pages, he finally saw a page in TV Hits where there was a feature interview with Savage Garden. Smiling even wider, he started reading the interview thoroughly, checking for any mistakes. (Hey, it’s a habit.) His eyebrows crinkled in confusion when he saw one particular part of the interview.
"So, you’ve contributed to a lot of the band’s success, haven’t you?" the journalist said.
"Yeah, well, I do my bit," he had replied. The reason why Darren was so confused is because in the original interview, he had added, "But Savage Garden isn’t just me. Daniel’s really important to the band too. We can’t have one without the other. We can’t have Savage Garden without each-other."
Darren bit his lip. If Daniel saw this, he would definitely get upset. Although Daniel usually stayed cool, and he was his best friend, Daz knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his feelings to himself about this one. He threw the magazine back on the rack and walked out of the newsagents, not even pausing to say goodbye to the manager. When he got to his car, the phone rang. He picked it up on its fifth ring and put it to his ear.
"Bueno." There was a pause on the other end of the line.
"Darren?" Daniel’s voice said, sounding quiet. He really didn't talk like that unless something was weighing on his mind.
"Yeah. Who else would it be?"
"I don’t know...We need to talk. When are you going to be here?"
"Um, let’s see..." Darren looked at his watch. "Probably about another fifteen minutes. What do you want to talk about? Is something wrong?"
Pause. "...Have you seen the article in TV Hits?"
"Yeah. I was just looking at it a few minutes ago."
"Then I assume you’ve seen some of the questions that were asked. The questions are what we need to talk about. I’ll see you when you get here. Hurry up."
Click. Daniel had hung up.
Shaking his head, Darren put the phone down and drove out of the carpark. Looking up at the sky again, he silently prayed that the darkness in the clouds was only bringing rain, and wasn’t trying to imply anything...
The very second that Darren knocked on Michelle's door, he knew that something wasn't right. The whole atmosphere seemed darker than it usually was. The clouds continued rolling overhead, and Darren hoped that they wouldn't ruin their 1st concert that night. He knocked on the door, and Michelle answered.
"Hey Michelle!" he said.
"Hi," Michelle said in a low voice. "Daniel's on the phone. Listen, um, I have to warn you...he doesn't show it, but he's actually quite upset about this interview thing."
"Upset? Why?"
"He says he never gets the credit he feels he deserves. Tell me, Darren, was that interview edited? Like, were little bits cut out of it?"
"Yeah," Darren replied. "There were a few edits. In one of the edits I mentioned Daniel. I don't know why it was cut out. I don't want him to get upset over it. Do you think you could explain this to him? Please?"
"Why don't you tell me yourself?" Darren looked over Michelle's shoulder to see Daniel standing in the doorway, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. "Let him inside, Michelle."
Michelle did as she was told and stepped aside. Darren walked into the house, removing his jacket and hanging it near the door. Daniel stood by the window, looking out at Daz's car.
"Is there enough room in there to carry all our stuff?" he asked. Darren nodded.
"I had to make some space, but yeah, it should be enough. Um, what's this that you need to talk to me about?"
Daniel paused. "The interview," he said in a soft voice.
"Oh, God. Daniel, the interview was edited. I mentioned some very important stuff about you in it, and for some stupid reason they edited it out."
"Are you sure?"
"Hey, have I ever lied to you?"
"I don't know...Have you?"
Darren rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his thick black hair. He knew that Daniel gets really hard to deal with when he is like this.
"Do you think this is just your band?" Daniel continued. "That Savage Garden is just you? And not me? Your best friend?" Darren sighed.
"Daniel, of course not. It's not my fault the stuff was edited out. I didn't think you would get so upset over this."
"Well, what did you expect?" Daniel said, raising his voice. His eyes were full of anger. "I try as hard as I can, but it just never works. When people think of Savage Garden, they think of Darren Hayes. Not 'Darren and Daniel'. Just Darren. The big star. I'm fed up with it!"
Darren looked at Daniel and felt immensely guilty. Even though he knew that he hadn't done anything wrong, he wished he could do something to calm Daniel down and make everything alright. He always felt like that. But they'd had arguments before.
He walked up to Daniel beside the window and gently squeezed his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to get upset."
Daniel wriggled away. "Forget it. We'll talk about this on the way to Cairns. Right now we have to pack the car more than anything else. Come on."
Darren watched Daniel walk out of the room. He felt as if Daniel had taken his sensitive heart and stomped all over it. He was crushed. How was he going to make it up to Daniel? It would have to be soon--or else the Future Of Earthly Delites tour was definitely NOT going to be enjoyable for either of them...And if Daniel was in such a bad mood, how were they going to handle the interview they were going to do that night before the concert?...