Never Let You Go
Chapter 1
By: Bella
Benji Madden was minding his own business and talking on his cell phone in his front yard when, from out of nowhere, a tiny dog ran up to him and started barking at him. The dog's bark was so annoyingly high pitched he couldn't hear a thing his manager said on the other side.
"Hold on," Benji said into his phone, looking around for the owner of the yapping Chihuahua. Sure enough, a young woman could be spotted running toward him.
"Precious! C'mere Precious! Stop!" she yelled exhaustedly.
Precious looked to Benji like he couldn't have weighed more than 8 pounds. The small, tan dog had a black and silver spiked collar, big bulging eyes, a nonstop bark, and a lot of nerve to just run up to a complete stranger and let loose, in Benji's opinion. Had the dog been bigger, he might have been frightened. However, at that moment he was fighting to resist the urge to kick the dog.
"Precious? I think not," Benji said under his breath, making sure it was just loud enough for the dog's owner to hear as she reached them.
"I'll call you back," he said in an annoyed tone before closing his flip phone with a little more force than was necessary, for emphasis.
"I'm so sorry!" the owner exclaimed, picking up the dog and scolding it. "That's a bad Precious! Bad, bad, bad!" she said, sticking her index finger in the dog's face. The dog stopped barking, but didn't seem intimidated by it's owner either.
Benji looked at the young woman for the first time and quickly changed his annoyed tone. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, had medium length straight red hair, a light tan, very green eyes, and appeared to be not much taller than five feet.
"Oh, it's okay," he said lightly, as if it happened all of the time. "Don't worry about it."
"He's really anxious right now. We're moving in next door. We just here ten minutes ago," she said, trying to justify her spoiled dog's behavior. "I'm Sadie, by the way."
"Benji. Nice to meet you."
"You too."
"Moving in, huh? I didn't even know anything was for sale," he commented. "Then again, I haven't been home much lately."
"I'm just living with my aunt and uncle who've been here a while," she said, pointing to her aunt and uncle's house to the left.
"Jack and Paige!" Benji exclaimed, proud of himself for remembering their names. "I met them when I moved in here. Nice people."
"Yeah," she agreed. Her aunt came out onto the porch and scanned the street before spotting Sadie and waving at her. "I guess I better get back."
"It was nice to meet you. I'll see you around."
"Yeah, sorry about my evil little dog here. I'll see ya."
---
Sadie was from Nevada, but moved to Los Angeles to go to college. It was her freshman year.
Jack, her mother's brother, and his wife Paige had enthusiastically invited Sadie to live with them for as long as she needed. They owned a fairly spacious home and Sadie could stay in the guest bedroom. They also had three children, Cole, 10, Melissa, 7, and Brandon, 6, so they were happy to have extra help. They were even willing to let her bring her pride and joy, Precious, with her.
Sadie looked around the small room that would be hers for now. She missed home, but was excited to start something new. She would be able to visit home on holidays and breaks.
After unpacking some of the essentials, she got hungry and decided to go downstairs and find something to eat. Her aunt was in the kitchen with Cole and Melissa.
"So, you met our neighbor," Paige said, smiling. "I hear he's single."
Sadie couldn't help but get a little embarrassed and smile. "He looks a lot older than me."
"Oh, you met the Good Charlotte guy! Isn't it cool that we live next door to rock stars?" said Melissa.
"What?" Sadie said, confused.
"Please tell me you've heard of the band Good Charlotte. They're so popular. All of my friends and I, we just love them," the 7 year old gushed. "Everyone loves to come to my house and spy on him and get his autograph and stuff."
"Yeah, I've heard some of their songs on the radio. I kind of like them. I didn't know he was from that band though." So there was an explanation for the tattoos and piercings that were a little shocking to look at at first.
"He's the only one living in the house right now, but lots of people live there at various times. Sometimes some of his other band mates live there, sometimes people from other bands stay with him for a long time," Cole explained.
"Cool," Sadie replied, still a little surprised.
---
Later that month classes had already started and Sadie kept busy doing schoolwork and adjusting to college life. She would see Benji once in a while, usually while she was getting into or out of her car, and wave. They hadn't exchanged more than a "Hello" since her first day there.
Sadie sat at a small table in the corner at Starbucks with her laptop in front of her, punching away at the keyboard as fast her fingers would go as soon as she would get a few sentences thought up in her head. She would type, take a sip of her coffee, stop and think for a moment, and then type some more. During one of her thinking sessions her eyes wandered around the room. She spotted a familiar face standing in line, already watching her as well. She waved and he waved back. She watched as he ordered his drink, paid, and picked up his drink. He then made his way over to her.
"Mind if I sit here?" Benji asked politely.
"Not at all," Sadie replied, folding her laptop over and taking a sip of coffee. "How are you doing?"
"I'm good, how are you?"
"Good. Just taking a break from my cousins' bickering."
Benji laughed. "Cole and Melissa, right?"
"How'd you guess?" she replied, sarcastically. She was sure that everyone on the street has heard them arguing over something ridiculous, such as who would sit in the front seat of the car, who was splashing whom in the pool, etc.
They talked about a lot of things, the different people who often stayed at Benji's house, why Sadie was going to college there, music, hobbies. Before either of them knew it, an hour had passed. Realizing it was getting late, they stood up and started heading to the door while still carrying on conversation.
"Where'd you park?" Benji asked, planning to walk her to her car.
"I walked," Sadie said.
"Let me give you a ride home. It shouldn't be too far out of my way," he joked.
She gladly accepted and they drove home. Once in his driveway, Sadie was a little sad that their conversation had to end. So was Benji. Sadie opened her door and got out.
"Well, it's been fun. Thanks for the ride," she said awkwardly.
"Hey, some friends of mine are coming back from Europe in a few days and we're going to have a party here on Friday night. Can you make it?"
"Yeah, sounds fun!" she said and quickly headed across the lawn to her house.