A Thousand Words -
Chapter 8

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"Julie, slow down!!" Kirri screamed. Julie decreased her speed from 120km to 80km. "God, if you kill us, i'll never speak to you again!"
"What? How will we be able to speak if we'll be dead?"
"Good point."
"Don't you think we're going a bit overboard, Kirri? I mean, Darren and Daniel would be fine, right?"
"We don't know what's happened to them. For all we know, they could be floating face-down in a river. I'm not giving up until I find them-ALIVE."
"Well, they couldn't have gone too far. Darren's still injured."
Kirri sighed. "I just couldn't believe it when I heard about it. This fight must be more serious than we thought."
Kirri and Julie drove for 20 minutes, discussing where the guys could be. Suddenly, Kirri saw a familiar number plate on the side of the road. She screamed at Julie to stop the car. When it was parked, she jumped out of the car and ran over to the number plate. Why did it look so familiar?...
"Julie!! Julie!! It's from Daniel's car!!" she screeched. Julie's hand flew up to her mouth in shock. She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw what was left of the car, the last few embers of the fire still alight. She literally dragged Kirri over to the wreck, and they stood and stared at it, trying to contemplate what had happened.
"They're not dead, are they?" Kirri asked, her voice shaking slightly. Julie shook her head slowly, stunned. "Hey, wait, who's that down there?"
Kirri pointed down a steep hill at two figures lying on the grass motionlessly. Julie squinted her eyes to see.
"IT'S THEM!!" they exclaimed in unision, running carefully down the hill and towards the lake. Daniel saw who was coming and was overwhelmed with joy and relief.
"Darren, get up!" Daniel said, gently shaking Darren. "We're saved!"
Darren sat up and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The girls ran over to them, speaking at about a thousand words a minute. The boys got up and stretched as they told the girls what had happened.
"We're so glad you're alright!" Julie said.
"So, have you boys sorted this fight out yet?" Kirri asked cautiously, raising an eyebrow in anticipation.
"No, not exactly," Darren replied, seeing everyone's faces fall. He bit his lip. "We talked - I mean, what else are you going to do while you're stranded like this? - but no, we didn't make up." He looked over at Daniel to see him looking down at his feet with a sad face. He immediately felt guilty. After all they'd just been through, how could he be so stupid?
Darren and Daniel followed the girls up to the hill and to their car, Darren leaning on Daniel hesitantly for support as he was still quite bruised and battered.
"Um, Kirri, do you have another tape?" Daniel asked. "The other one was in the fire."
"Argh! Daniel!" Kirri pulled a face and pretended to strangle Daniel. They laughed and drove off.

Darren felt as dead as a Dodi when he went downstairs for breakfast three days later. They were finally back home in Brisbane, for their final concert of the tour - but they wouldn't be home for long. They'd be jetting off in a plane destined for America, to perform Truly Madly Deeply at the prestigious Blockbuster Awards. Colby walked through the back door, with Obi running after her.
"Hello, darling!" he said, picking up Obi and scratching his head. Obi licked his nose, and he laughed as he set Obi down back onto the floor.
"Oh, and you too!" Darren laughed as he kissed Colby on the cheek.
"Ready for your last Australian concert tonight?" Colby asked as they sat down at the dining table. Darren groaned.
"I'll probably fall asleep or something during the concert," he replied, drinking a mouthful of tea. It was quite stronger than what Darren was used to, and his cheeks bloated up and his eyes bulged out of his head. He swallowed the tea and looked like he was going to be sick. Colby covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud.
"Jesus, talk about a wake-up call!!" he said. "How come you made it so strong?"
"I didn't make it that strong-Daniel did."
Darren's eyebrows raised about ten feet in the air. "Daniel did? When was this?"
"He came around earlier this morning. You were still fiddle-fartin' around upstairs. He asked me to remind you that you have to go to his house at 11am, and you two will go together to the B105 building. You have an interview to do, remember?"
"Oh yeah, the interview. Right. Did he stay very long?"
"About twenty minutes, actually."
"Is that how long it took for him to give you that message?"
"No. He stayed and had some tea, and we talked a bit." Colby looked away. Darren leaned forward in his seat.
"What is it, Colby?" he asked. Colby sighed and looked back up at him.
"Daniel and I had a long talk about the future of Savage Garden," she replied. "He isn't too confident about how things are going to turn out. He's starting to feel guilty about deciding to leave."
"And so he should. He doesn't know what he'll be missing out on."
"Haven't you talked to him about this?"
"Only every day!"
"Don't you think you should be supporting him instead of making him feel bad?"
"Hey, i'm not the one who's being an immature little brat! If he wants to leave the band, then that's fine by me. He can take his guitars and shove them up his old Chocolate Whiz-way!"
"Huh?"
"Never mind. It's disgusting to explain."
Colby rested her hand over her husband's. "Darren, everyone is worried to death about you two. Daniel may want to leave the band for a while, but nobody can see why this has to start a fight."
"Well, once upon a time, Daniel and I were best friends. But alas, he became jealous of the attention I was getting."
"He only became jealous because he thinks you're taking all the credit for the success of Savage Garden."
"Hey, can I help it if i'm the one who's getting all the glory?!" Darren asked, standing up and raising his voice. "I said from the very beginning that Savage Garden is a joint effort. Not just MY effort." He paused, his eyebrows raising slowly. "That's it. That's what I have to do."
"What?" Colby asked curiously. Darren hurriedly sat down in his seat.
"Daniel's angry with me because of that TV Hits article, right?"
"That and the fact that you're making a big deal about him leaving the band, yes."
"Just forget that for a moment. So all I have to do is get TV Hits to print a retraction. Get them to admit to the readers that they were wrong, that Savage Garden are two guys and not just one."
"And then Daniel will see the retraction, realise how sorry you are and then you two will make up!"
"See? NOW you're catching on to what i'm saying!"
"How about you write an entire letter for them to print in the next issue, telling everyone about the fight and telling Daniel how sorry you are at the same time? And also asking Daniel not to leave."
Darren paused. "That's an even better idea. Thanks, Colby, you're a doll!"
Kissing Colby quickly on the cheek again, Darren bounced upstairs to write the letter that could save Savage Garden-and their friendship.

"Run that by me again," Carolyn Stewart said into the phone on her desk. She was the Feature Editor of TV Hits magazine. On the other end of the line, Darren groaned, not too loudly as Carolyn would hear it.
"I need you to print a retraction," he replied.
"A retraction? Darren, we haven't printed a single retraction for over a year. Besides, we have to send out the new issues TOMORROW. We're past deadline as it is. What could be so important that we just HAVE to sacrifice a retraction over?"
Darren told Carolyn the complete story, everything from the article to what they had to put up with during their tour. Carolyn listened carefully, writing down everything that he was saying.
"And so if, in your magazine, you printed a letter that i'm writing to you, there would be a better chance that Savage Garden would keep going. You want us to keep going, don't you?"
"Of course we do! Savage Garden are practically all that the readers ask for! Well, besides Hanson, of course, but let's not get into that."
"So i'm faxing it to you now. Can you PLEASE print it in the next issue of TV Hits? It's really important that you do this!"
Carolyn tapped her pen on her teeth as she thought about this. The tapping was making Darren become impatient.
"Of course i'll print it," she finally replied. Darren let out the breath he was holding with a huge whoosh.
"Thanks heaps, Carolyn. I owe you my life. Oh, but please don't tell everyone all the stuff I told you. You can tell them a few little things, but not EVERYTHING."
As Carolyn hung up the phone, she looked down at the notes she had taken-and soon an idea developed in her mind...

The next day, Daniel parked his Mazda Astina in the small carpark behind the newsagents, took his INXS tape out of the car stereo and got out of the car. He looked around, then walked into the back entrance of the store, trying not to look conspicious. The manager-on-duty, George, saw him walking up to the counter.
"Hey, Daniel! What's the skinny?" he greeted Daniel, who smiled and leant against the counter.
"The usual stuff, G. Found any good articles about us lately?" 'Us' was he and Darren. George smiled and handed Daniel a colourful magazine from under a shelf.
"This just came in this morning. You're on the cover, at long last!" he said. Daniel looked down at the magazine. It was the new issue of TV Hits. Sure enough, a promo picture of Darren and Daniel was on the cover. He flipped the pages of the magazine until he found half of a page dedicated solely to them. His smile fell when he saw the page.
"The Gardeners Are Getting Savage!" the title said. He continued to read, growing more and more shocked by every sentence. Darren had told Carolyn every single little detail of their fight, not sparing any facts whatsoever. He even had the nerve to mention Michelle in the interview, when before this fight began he had promised that he wouldn't say a word about it. Daniel trusted him back then. But not anymore. How could he present personal details of their private lives in a magazine? Darren was always the one who felt so strongly about people sticking their noses into their private lives...but now, in Daniel's view, he'd gone and done what the press were doing all along.
Daniel payed for the magazine and raced out the back door of the store. Jumping into his car, he turned the key and revved the engine, then pulled out of the carpark and drove onto the highway at 110km/h. He was more furious than ever. As he sped past cars, trucks and buses (and wasn't that a police car he saw a few minutes ago?), his anger increased. He had to get to Darren's house before they went to the B105 station for their interview.
Daniel stopped the car outside Darren's house, crawled out of the car and walked up to the door at top speed. He knocked on the door loudly.
"Hold your horses!" he heard Darren call from the other side of the door. Darren turned the key and pulled open the door. Daniel barged into the house without a word.
"How could you do this?" he said furiously, diving into the couch in the living room. Darren sat beside him.
"What are you talking about?" Darren asked innocently.
"What do you mean? Have you lost your mind? I'm talking about THIS!" He slapped the new issue of TV Hits into Darren's lap, and Darren picked it up and read the article carefully, his eyes growing wider and wider. Carolyn had promised that she wouldn't add every single detail. But she'd broken her promise and printed it all, word-for-word. He shook his head in shock and handed the magazine back to Daniel.
"Why did Carolyn do this?" he asked, more to himself than to Daniel.
"Why did YOU do this? Why did you tell them what's happening between you and me? I thought we weren't supposed to let the press know about it!"
"I only told her to print a few little details and a retraction. I thought that if you read the retraction and realised how sorry I am, you would considering staying in the band and making up."
"You're sorry?" Daniel said in disbelief.
"Of course I am. I don't want to fight anymore. It's just blown way out of proportion."
"Well, you should be even MORE sorry now! It's more out of proportion than it was before you blabbed to Carolyn!"
"I thought I could trust her!"
"I thought I could trust you!" Daniel threw his arms out in frustration. "I just don't understand you anymore, Darren. You've turned into even more of an arsehole than you were in the first place."
Colby walked into the room, not looking too sure whether she should interfere.
"Um, guys? B105 just rang. They need you to be there in half an hour," she said in a quiet voice.
"Alright, thanks, Colby. We're on our way," Darren said to his wife, who walked out of the room.
"Come on, let's get out of here. You can go in your own car."
"Huh? But I thought we were going together!"
"Well, you thought wrong, didn't you? I don't even want to look at you right now, Darren. You just...God, you make me sick."
Daniel gave Darren a filthy look, then walked out the front door, slamming the door behind him loudly. Darren stood in silence for a few seconds, wondering how everything could've gone so wrong. Carolyn had gone back on her word, and now Daniel hated him more than ever. How much more could he take of this?
Shouting out a goodbye to Colby, he grabbed his car keys and walked out the door. He got into his car, started it up and began pulling out of the driveway. Daniel's car drove up behind him and nearly slammed into him.
"Shit!" Darren muttered. As he drove further out of the driveway, Daniel wound his car window down and shouted out in disbelief, "Jesus Christ, Darren, wake up to yourself!" With that he drove off, with Darren following behind him. Darren looked down at the CB radio. He picked up the mouthpiece, turned it on to the channel that he and Daniel shared and spoke.
"Daniel, is your CB turned on?" he asked. He heard a click, then nothing. "Daniel? I know you're there. Just pick up, okay?" He heard an even louder click.
"Piss off, Darren!" He heard Daniel's voice boom out of the speaker. Darren sighed.
"I know you're angry with me right now-"
"How long did it take to figure that out?"
"Not too long, actually. Is there any way that we can work this out?"
"I don't want to talk to you, Darren. Just stop harassing me."
"I'm not harassing you. I just want to talk to you. Look, i'm really sorry that things turned out this way. I only told Carolyn to print the retraction, a few details and my apology. And my question that I asked to be printed for you."
"What question?"
"The question of, if we can work things out, will you stay in the band?" Darren waited for a response. He looked into Daniel's car and saw him shaking his head and laughing.
"You've got to be joking! You just don't give up, do you?"
"I'm not joking. I mean it. I want you in this band. I'm sick of us fighting. I want us to be friends again."
"Listen, Darren, I told you my reasons for deciding to leave the band and it seems as if you didn't listen."
"Well, just don't think about that for just a second. Please. I want to know if we can be friends again."
Daniel remained silent for a few seconds.
"No," he finally replied. Darren's heart sunk. "Not yet, anyway. There's a lot of things that we just can't work out. And I don't really want to be friends with someone I can't trust."
"But you can trust me! Look, whatever you want me to do, i'll do it!"
"Sorry, Darren."
Click. Daniel turned off his CB Radio. Darren stared blankly at it for a few seconds. He, too, turned the CB Radio off. He sunk lower into his seat and sulked. What was he going to do now?

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Chapter Nine
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