Phil’s point of view

“Mr Manansala?” I was shaken awake. I instantly straightened up.
“Yes? Is Victoria out of surgery?”
“Yes, she’s out of surgery and she’s awake in room 16.” The doctor told me.
I instantly got out of my seat, muttered a thank you and ran towards the direction the doctor told me room 16 was.
I opened the door and saw Victoria sitting upright in a bed with a hospital gown on.
“Victoria, what happened?” I asked her.
“Well I had surgery,” She began.
“No, that’s not what I meant and you know it. Why have you got broken ribs, bruises on your arm and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?” I said calmly to her.
Victoria looked terrified but she knew she had no way out.
“Jared.” She whispered softly.
“What did Jared do?” I asked her.
Victoria then began her story; telling me how Jared has been infatuated with her since she first started at Rise Records as an intern. How Jared used to stalk her. Then Victoria told me that it became worse once she had signed a ten year contract. Jared would touch her inappropriately and message her non-stop. But once Jared had been promoted, making him Victoria’s boss, he then turned Victoria; saying that if she told anyone he would fire her.
“Okay.” I sighed, shocked. “What happened on this tour?”
“Well,” Victoria begun. “When I came back from the Pierce The Veil bus, Jared dragged me outside and said how he wanted to talk to me, he dragged me by my left arm off of the bus and that’s how I got the bruise. He pulled me behind the stage that was furthest away from the bus and he screamed at me things like; ‘how could you fuck Alan’ and stuff. He then punched the stage wall and kissed me. And when I fell to the ground in shock, he kicked me two times breaking my ribs. The he told me that if I told anyone what happened he would kill me.”
I sat there, I had no words for what I had just heard. I sat there just shocked. When I finally found my voice, I spoke;
“Vic, I had no idea, we had idea.” I started to say. “Jared told us that you two were together but you had a tendency of cheating a lot. First with Dan from You Me At Six and then with Alan. And we believed him, because he just seemed so upset over the thought of you and Alan. Fuck, he even cried in front of us about it!” I ran my hands through my hair and breathed out loudly.
My phone broke the silence and started ringing, it was Austin.
“It’s Austin, I need to tell him where we are.” I said.
“Phil, please no. Don’t tell them!” Vic looked at me with frantic eyes filled with panic.
“Ok. I won’t. But what do I tell him?”
“That we’ve gone for a walk” She said. I hated lying to my best friends but I knew that I couldn’t tell them, for Vic’s sake. I sighed and answered the phone, greeted by a groggy Austin.
“Hey Manansala, where are you?” Austin yawned.
“Oh Vic and I just went for a walk.” I replied.
“Aaayyyyeee” Austin said suggestively, I didn’t have to be in front of Austin to know he had winked. I heard a ‘Where’s Phil?’ in the background followed with Austin telling them Victoria and I had gone for a walk.
I quickly finished the phone call so I could continue talking Victoria.
“Why didn’t you want me to tell the guys?” I asked her, “You do know that you’re not really on their good side because of Jared? He has pinned you as this horrible cheater.”
“I figured that out after Aaron confronted me the other night.” She said, “I guess I just don’t want them knowing because of Jared, he said he would ‘finish me off for good’ if I told anyone. I’ll tell them eventually, just not now.”
“Okay.” I replied. I honestly had no fucking words for this situation. I felt horrible. The band and I had just assumed everything hearing only one side of the story, not to mention we had excluded her and acted cold towards her.
“Phil?” She asked, breaking the silence.
“Yeah?”
“How come you were being nice to me, after the other guys were cold to me?” She asked.
“I felt bad. Plus we also have a few months left of touring and I didn’t want to make everything awkward between us.” I replied back to her.
“And Phil?” I looked up at her, “Don’t beat yourself up over not knowing about what Jared was doing, he can be very convincing and I didn’t tell anyone.” She smiled warmly at me.
“Oh god, I’m just so sorry that I didn’t go to you and get your side of the story!” I put my head in my hands, whilst Victoria told me it was ok and how I couldn’t’ve known.
“Ok Victoria!” I turned around and saw the male doctor from before, “We are releasing you now. If you have any long term pain, please come back here or to another hospital and call me up so I get fax through your paperwork.” He smiled as he handed Victoria a business card. The doctor spoke to us for a few more minutes explaining how to change the dressing on the wound before he left.
I left the room so Victoria could change into her clothes so we could check out.

Notes

So Phil now knows who the real Jared is and how he treats Victoria!