Do You Feel the Same

Sarah was watching the band with Marissa and Chris, but all she could think about was Daniel. He was feeling helpless again and she knew it. She felt it. She wished that she could see him and be given the chance to comfort him. But even if she did meet him, what then? Would he feel the same as she did? Maybe her feelings were deceiving her again. She could possibly be setting herself up for heartbreak like she always did before. Memories of the past years were surfacing again and she could feel the tears starting.
"Umm, I need some fresh air," she told the other two.

Marissa shot a look at her friend. She knew something was wrong, "Umm, okay. Chris is there somewhere she can go?"

"Possibly, where there isn't anyone around," Sarah said without looking up.

"Sure, you can go out the backdoor," he pointed down the hall, "Are you okay? Do you want some company?"

"No, that's okay. The smoke is just getting to me that's all. I'll be back in awhile," she turned and headed down the hall.

When the others couldn't see her anymore, she quickened her pace to the backdoor and ran out. She started crying right away. "Go away," she said quitely to herself, "Just go away." Her thoughts were talking to her. Every bad memory was starting to consume her. She took deep breaths. Trying to calm down. She didn't want anyone to see her like this. They wouldn't understand.

She looked around, to see where she had been sent to. It's nice out here, she thought. Pleasent. A good place to calm my nerves.

There were a couple of tables and chairs around. The small area was surrounded by huge oak trees. It looked like it was used as a cafe or something. She sat down at one of the tables. She just wanted to be alone for awhile to gather her thoughts before she returned inside.

The sound of the backdoor opening startled her. She quickly wiped her tears and stood up. She turned around expecting to see Marissa or a bouncer, but that's not who she saw. She held her breath. Their eyes met and her heart pounded.

Daniel just stood there looking at her. His eyes were red and tired. He couldn't believe that she was here, standing right before him. The girl who had taken over his mind the past couple of days.

Neither one of them knew what to say.

The silence was overwhelming. Daniel knew he had to say something. "Umm, I'm sorry. I didn't know anyone else was out here."

Sarah swallowed hard and spoke, "It's alright. Umm, I'll leave if you want me to."

"No!" he exclaimed. Sarah stopped and looked at Daniel confusingly. He sighed, "I mean. You can stay out here. It's...it's okay."

She smiled and his pulse raced. She was so beautiful, but he could tell that she had been crying.

"Umm, I can leave," he said turning towards the door.

"No," she stopped him, "I'd rather you stay."

He turned to her and nodded slowly, "Okay."

"My name's Sarah Portman," she held out her hand, "Ben invited me here tonight."

He took her soft hand in his sending chills down his spine, "Oh, you're Sarah. Well, it's a pleasure to umm...finally meet you."

"Same here."

Daniel motioned to the table were she had been sitting, "Shall we?"

She obliged and followed him to the table and sat down, "That was a really great show you guys put on."

"Thanks," he smiled.

"Your energy was amazing."

"Yeah, I guess it was just one of those...nights."

She smiled again.

They sat in silence for awhile not sure of what to say anymore.

Daniel looked at her with wonder. Why was she so sad? He wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her, tell her that everything was okay.

Sarah looked up at him and saw his blue saphires piercing into her soul. "What?" she finally asked.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently.

She was somewhat surprized by the question. She opened her mouth to speak and tell him 'yes', but that's not what she wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell him everything she was feeling, but how? And, would he care? He looked deep into her intense, dark eyes. Her bottom lip began to tremble. She couldn't keep her feelings bottled up any longer and that was scaring her more than anything.

He moved his chair closer to her, "It's okay. You can tell me."

She stood up, "No, I can't," she calmly said, "I can't."

Daniel looked at her with great concern. She was right. She couldn't tell him. He didn't know how he knew but he knew that she wasn't ready to tell him her secrets.

He stood up and walked towards her, taking her hand again, "Okay. You don't have to tell me anything. Really. It's okay."

She looked at him. Was he actually understanding her? Was he willing to just stay there with her and comfort her as best he could? The look in his eyes told her 'yes'. She let out a sigh of relief, "Thanks."

"Sure," he smiled.

Sarah took a deep breath, "Umm, Daniel?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you hold me?"

He smiled warmly at her, "Of course."

She moved closer to him, burying her face into his chest. He closed his eyes and held her tightly, running his fingers through her soft, silken hair. The moment was perfect and neither of them wanted to let go.

All the bands had finally finished playing and most of the drunken audience had finally left. Chris, Ben, and Marissa were standing at the bar talking to couple of guys from the last band. Daniel and Sarah were sitting on the stage side by side talking.

"Thank you for being so sincere out there," Sarah said holding Daniel's hand, "I really needed it."

"It was no problem at all. I'm just glad you're feeling better." She smiled at him but quickly saddened again and looked down. "You are feeling better, right?" he asked.

Sarah looked up at him, "Yes. For now, anyways. It's just...it's just a lot of personal things that I'm not willing to share, you know? I mean, I know I should because I know it would help me, but it's just so hard."

"I understand. Really."

"Then you understand why I can't tell you."

Daniel looked right into her eyes. Yes. He understood.

"Okay, you two," Ben ran up to them, "Sorry to have to break this up, but Watson, says we have to go. It's already close to 2:00 and we have that meeting in the morning."

"Okay, just give me a minute," said Daniel. Ben walked away and left them alone.

Sarah smiled, "Well, I guess this is it."

"Yeah," he jumped off the stage and helped her down, "I had fun. It's been awhile since I've been able to talk to somebody like that."

"Me too," she said.

Watson walked up to them, "Hey, Sarah. Are you girls gonna need a ride to your car? We'd be happy to drive you."

"Oh, well if it's not too much trouble. We did park kinda far."

"No, it's no trouble at all," said Watson.

"Yeah, besides," Daniel added, "I'd feel better if we took you ourselves."

"Okay, great," Sarah agreed.

"Alright then meet us out by the van....BEN! Don't you even think about going behind that bar."

The van parked by Sarah's car and the three band members walked out with the girls.

"Thanks, again, for inviting us, Ben. It was really great."

"No, problem," Ben hugged Sarah, "Happy to do it."

"We'll give you girls a call and tell you when the next gig is," Chris said hugging the two young women.

"Yeah, that'll be great," said Marissa.

"You two drive carefully now."

"We will."

Sarah opened the car door when Daniel came walking up to her, "Sarah."

She turned to face him, "Yes?"

"Here," he handed her a piece of paper, whispering, "It's my room number and phone number. If you ever need to talk or anything."

She smiled, "Thanks." She and Marissa finally got into the car and drove off.

Ben walked up to Daniel, "That was her wasn't it? The girl."

"Yes it was," Daniel nodded, "Yes it was."

The next day, Saturday morning, the meeting went by quickly. It was decided that the next apperance would be at Babe's Stageside on Monday night.

Walking outside of the building back to the van Ben jumped up, "Hey, let's call Sarah and Marissa when we get back to the hotel. We can get them to show us around Austin."

"Yeah, that sounds cool," Chris agreed.

"What do you say, Johnsy?"

"Well...," he looked at his two bandmates and when he saw the childish looks in their eyes, he couldn't help but laugh. "Alright, alright. I'll give Sarah a call, when we get back to the hotel."

Sarah's eyes opened slowly. She squinted at the bright sunlight that flew through the window. She turned over on her back trying to get out of sleep mode. She closed her eyes trying to think about last nights occurances and a small smile formed on her lips. "Daniel," she whispered under her breathe. A knock suddenly broke her thoughts.

"Hey, sleeping beauty," called a voice from the other side, "Get your lazy ass up."

Sarah groaned loudly, "Shit, Kelly! Why can't you sleep late like NORMAL people?" She got up from her bed and threw on her robe. She opened the door to see her pretty, blonde roommate standing in front of her.

Kelly smiled, "Because I'm part of the weirdos you call 'preps' and you're part of the normal people I call 'freaks'."

Sarah looked at her intently trying to stare her down until a smile broke the gaze. She laughed, "You're a bitch, Kel."

"I know," she smiled.

Sarah walked to the fridge and pulled out the orange juice, "So did anyone call me last night?"

"Mmm, hmm," Kelly took a sip of her coffee, "Your brother. He just wanted to know if you wanted to go to the Ivory Cat. I told him you went to Bob's with Marissa."

Sarah sat down at the kitchen table, "What did he say after that?"

" 'Why the hell would she go to Bob's?' "

"Hehe, oh well. I guess I better call the big dork."

Sarah picked up the cordless and dialed.

***Hello?*** ***Tony?***
***Hey, Sis. Where were you last night? Everyone was asking about you.***
***Sorry, I took Marissa over to Bob's. There was this really cool band playing there.***
***That's cool. Are you up for tonight, then?***
***Ummm, I don't know. We'll play it by ear. I'll call you later about it though.***
***Alright. Well, I better go. Heather will be home soon.***
***Hey, I meant to ask you. How is she? I mean about her ex...***
***She's better, but we're thinking about putting a restraining order on his ass.***
***Good. Tell her hi for me.***
***I will. Laters, Sarah.***
***Bye, bro.***

Sarah hung up and stood up from the table, "I'm going to take a shower. If anyone calls tell them I'll call them back." Kelly nodded never letting her eyes leave the newspaper.

A little later Sarah came out of the bathroom wearing a robe and drying her wet hair with a towel. "Did anyone call?"

Kelly stood at the stove fixing breakfast, "Yeah, some guy. He said his name was Daniel. Said to call him back," she looked at Sarah questionably, "I didn't know you knew anybody with an accent."

Sarah smiled, "No one you know anyways." She reached for her purse and pulled out a piece of paper. She looked at it for awhile before picking up the phone and dialing.

***Hello?***
***Daniel?***
***Yeah?***
***Hey, it's Sarah.***
***Oh, hey. What's up?***
***You called me.***
***Oh, yeah, yeah. Umm, the guys and I were wondering what you had planned for today.***
***Hmmmm, nothing. Why? Were you three hoping I would show you around or something?***
Daniel laughed. ***Yeah, if that's okay. I mean, if you don't mind and all.***
***I'd love to. Umm, I'll pick you guys up in about an hour?***
***Alright. See you then. Bye.***
***Bye.***

Sarah was walking to her car to pick up the guys when she suddenly felt someone behind her. She quickly turned and was face to face with a middle-aged woman, with faded red hair, and beautiful sea green eyes.

"I'm sorry dear. I didn't mean to frighten you."

Sarah sighed and then smiled, "Oh that's alright. Umm, may I help you?"

"Oh. Are you Sarah Portman?"

Sarah furrowed her brows slightly, "Yes. Why?"

The woman's eyes wided slightly before she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pouch, "I was...told to give this to you."

Sarah stared at the woman and then down at the bag for a moment, "What is it?"

"Please. Just take it. It will help you. I promise."

Sarah still confused, carefully took the pouch from the lady. She opened it slowly and poured out the contents onto her hand. "Oh my God," Sarah whispered to herself when she saw the item. It was an extravegant piece of jewelery. A necklace infact, possibly hand made. It was a very old gold chain with a celtic knot pendent hanging from it. The knot, that was gold as well, held a green stone in place. It was definitely priceless. "Why are you giving this to..." Sarah looked up finally only to see that the woman had vanished. She looked around everywhere but she was nowhere to be found. Sarah just shrugged her shoulders and carefully put the necklace back in the pouch and into her purse.

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