No Holding Back

by Dresden, Amanda

  “How come you didn’t tell me you were gonna to play blindfolded?!”

  Chris beamed with pride. “That’s nothing! Wait’ll you see my next trick! It’ll be even better!”

  Wade stopped in his tracks while Chris slipped out of his arm. He didn’t know what amazing feat she could do that could trump the competition, but he was dying to find out.

  “Whoa! Whoa! Trick!? What trick?” Wade said in a panic. Whaddya mean ‘trick’?! When am I gonna see it?!”

  But Chris’ reply was just as cryptic. “You’ll see.”

  “What the!? When will I see?!” Wade asked on the verge of throwing a fit.

  Not wanting to put Wade through anymore guesswork, she reached up and held both sides of his face. She stood on her tiptoes and buried her mouth into his ear.

  “Well, you did say you wanted to have kids someday, right?” she teased.

  Wade became limp when she pulled away and winked at him. He felt like someone threw an ice-cold pail of water on him.

  She looked at Wade and unleashed another killer smile – placing mind-numbing spell over him. She moved further away from him and into the welcoming arms of fans, but Wade made no attempt to move – he just couldn’t. The sudden shock of her words sent him into a delirium and a warm, down-to-earth feeling surrounded him entirely.

  His feet felt as heavy as concrete and he could just barely made out his agent’s voice in the background.

  “Wade! WADE!” came Mike’s voice.

  He called his name over and over, but who the hell wasn’t in this place? Then, he felt a firm pair of hands on his shoulders and they were shaking him back into reality.

  “Wade! Hey, Wade!”

  “Huh? W-What?”

  “Where the hell is my car?!”

  Wade almost forgot about Mike’s Jag. But he knew that it was perfectly safe, even if it was parked in a neighborhood a few states away. But the car was the furthest thing from his mind.

  Suddenly, Wade grabbed Mike’s shoulders in return and shook him – all while he laughed like a raving lunatic. Before he could react, Wade grabbed onto Mike and picked him up off the floor.

  “Gah! Man, what the hell ‘er you doin’!? Lemme go!”

  He did, but not before he planted a fierce kiss on his cheek.

  “I love you, man! I’ll get your car back, I promise! Hell, I’ll buy you five of ‘em!”

  “What the hell has gotten into you, man?!” Mike asked, holding Wade at arms’ length.

  Wade turned to see Chris smile back at him seductively from underneath waves of black hair. While signing autographs, she definitely looked like she was holding some big secret. But all Wade wanted to do was shout at the top of his lungs. He felt like his heart was going to explode when he tried to get one simple fact through his head.

  He was going to be a father.

  “I’ll tell you later!”

  Wade shook his confused agent one last time and left him to get swallowed by more bodies. He made a mad dash to Chris but she never saw him coming. As she was signing her name for one of Heretic’s fans, he picked her up - making her laugh and squeal uncontrollably.

  Cameras flashed all around them while Wade spun Chris around in the air. After carefully setting her back down on the ground, his lips found her ear.

  “Marry me! Say you’ll marry me! Right now!”

  When she pulled away, she looked on the verged of tears, but Wade couldn’t hear her say yes over so many voices. But he saw her nod. And that was good enough for him.

  Heretic’s members started a new chapter in their lives - all of them. And Wade knew that from now on, nothing would stop them from going all the way to the top.

  Chapter 25

  Wade recalled the last time he sat in that exact same spot. He remembered being hounded and grilled like a criminal, and this time was no different. At least now, the circumstances were completely different.

  He sat in the overly-crowded TV studio playing guest to the host of Metal Madness again. But unlike last time, he was the one in control. This time, he was confident and felt ten feet high. And who wouldn’t be?

  Axel sat to his left, feeding Wade one question after another, but Heretic’s front man was far more interested in Chris, who sat to his left. As Metal Madness’ host talked on and on, asking questions about where Heretic was going, Wade stole yet another glance at his lovely wife. He looked down at the rock for a wedding ring that was wrapped around her finger and squeezed her hand. He could hardly believe that they had been married for four months. He couldn’t help but notice the glow she carried with her since then. Christine Griffin looked nothing short of amazing.

  Wade knew he made other men jealous just by the way they looked at her. She used to dress like a guy. Now, she was a shapely woman who rocked audiences all while wearing clothing that complimented her attractive features.

  Wade counted his lucky stars as his eyes passed over the audience who whistled and hollered at his wife. But he was far from jealous. He chuckled in bemusement when several male audience members held up homemade signs that read, MARRY ME, CHRIS! or I LOVE YOU, CHRIS! Such hype made him grin from ear to ear.

  “So Wade,” the host said, snapping him out of his daydreaming “Tell me how the hell you’re able to keep your hands off that hottie when you’re on stage!”

  Everyone in the audience laughed along with Axel. A few loud whistles surfaced as well, making Chris blush.

  Wade pondered his response. “Well…some nights, we just can’t get back to the bus fast enough,” he pulled off casually.

  The audience was ablaze with thundering laughter and whistles again as Chris playfully smacked Wade on the shoulder. She blushed even more.

  “So what’s next in line for you guys?” Axel continued.

  Wade noticed that the host of Metal Madness had a difficult time keeping his eyes off Chris and her long, slender legs. But so did Wade.

  “Heretic plans on taking a short hiatus from touring-,” Wade started, but boo’s broke out like wildfire. “Only so we can work on our new album that we’ve named ‘Titan Reality’.”

  The audience reversed its response and Axel had a difficult time trying to get them to calm down so that Wade could continue.

  “And at that time, we’ll also be back with a new band member.”

  Unable to take so much news at once, Axel had a hard time controlling his own excitement level. Wade couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. Just a few short hours ago, he ran the announcement through Mike before getting the ‘okay’ to continue. He still couldn’t get his agent’s facial expression out of his mind.

  “C’mon, man! Tell us! When do we get to meet him!?”

  Axel sat at the edge of his seat, but Wade remained a picture of perfect tranquility. He may have appeared calm to everyone else, but he was a dizzy fool on the inside, still reeling from the news after Chris’ last doctor’s visit.

  “Actually,” Wade said. “It’s a girl.”

  All was silent for a brief moment before the entire studio erupted into cheers and hollers. Axel was the first out of his seat and the rest of the audience wasn’t far behind. Wade watched as complete strangers held and hugged each other while they jumped up and down.

  As the audience fixated on the news, Wade squeezed Chris’ hand for the hundredth time, knowing it would be a cold day in hell before he ever let her go.

  On May 8th the following year, Heretic welcomed Sara Renee Griffin as their newest member.

  Epilogue

  Wade sipped lazily at his beer, enjoying the taste of the brew as it fizzed down his throat. He inhaled the fresh spring air as the tantalizing smell of burgers and brats wafted in his direction.

  No one would have guessed that they’d see this picture just a year and a half later. It certainly wasn’t one Wade thought he would see, especially not after what Heretic had been through. He couldn’t believe how far they had come in such a short amount of time. And on one breezy afternoon in Clarksville, Michigan, Wa
de caught himself smiling - again.

  Heretic made good on their promise to fans. Titan Reality was a hit and stood number one on the music charts for months.

  He relaxed casually in the folding lawn chair and watched as ‘the Colonel’ tended the meats carefully on the grill all while his brother, Os, fed Sara her food from a baby jar. His little girl was already one year old. He tried to stop himself from laughing as she playfully flung food back into her uncle’s face. A stunt that he’d seen on more than one occasion but it never got old.

  When the Colonel had enough of Joe’s odd mannerisms, Chris challenged him to a game of one-on-one basketball to which he was defeated badly.

  After he was stuffed with food and beer, Wade watched proudly in the distance as little Sara beat relentlessly on her play drum set while Chris cheered her on. Sometimes he would catch the Colonel staring at the two of them in utter silence while a coat of moisture settled in his bottom eyelids. But then, he would turn to Wade and ‘clink’ beer bottles again in a mute toast.

  Wade knew Heretic’s place was on stage - that would never change. But he also knew that at the core of any band was family - not just music and lyrics.

  A bond had been forged between the two men - a common thread that held them together in the form of their families. And like Wade, he knew Chris’ father would hold on to it like a pit bull.

  The Colonel rebuilt his relationship with his daughter. They both apologized to each other over and over again in the months that followed until every emotional wound that Wade knew of had been healed.

  Wade even connected with Chris’ father on a level that made the memory of losing his own much less painful. He thought back on all the times he told Chris to let go of the past and hold nothing back when he was the one doing it all along.

  But not anymore.