Lost in the Music [1] - (NEW VERSION AVAILABLE)

Chapter 33-Memories

My fingers were starting to go numb from playing the guitar for so long, but still I carried on strumming the endless songs.

Occasionally someone would walk up and drop some change into my open guitar case before drifting away and another person would come. Even though I had never gone busking before, I needed the money and this seemed to be the only legal way in which I could get it.

Since the streets were less busy now I decided to try singing, thinking that there was not as many people to hear me.

After a few songs I packed up my guitar and drifted into the nearest café where I ordered a hot chocolate to go.

As I was waiting for my drink I heard my phone bleep and when I looked at the screen I saw that it was from Colin.

Kat, please tell me where you are. Colin

Once I had stopped frowning at the message I deleted him as a contact and threw my phone into my bag where it hit the family album which I had brought with me. The pages had darkened and the sides frayed but I pulled it out of my bag and flicked through the pages.

First there was a picture of Jason and Sam with their Dad, James, (Mum's first husband) who was now in prison. I still remember the day in which he came round to our house years ago, when he was out of jail for a bit. He was totally drugged and obviously drunk. Eventually we persuaded him to go: but not after he had hit Jason so badly that Mum had to take him to hospital.

Then there was Calum and his Dad, who died in a fight with James. And finally there was the picture of mine and Liam's Dad who thought that Liam was some other man's son until Liam was two years old. When he found out that he was not only a father to Liam but Mum was pregnant with me too, he left. Let's just say that Mum didn't have the best luck with men.

There was one group photo of all the children on the other side of the page and I just stared at it for a while. It brought back so many memories and even though some of them were bad, I just remember thinking that all of my brothers seemed so great.

When Jason organised games like obstacle courses outside with us and there was no gang or anything to ruin it. Before he became like his Dad. Before he made Sam, Calum and Liam join the gang-and me as well. Where had that "great" brother gone?

The final picture on that page was of Liam holding me when I was a baby. He was smiling like there was just me and him and that was all that mattered. That was how it was for almost our whole lives, just me and him sticking up for each other.

When Mum was being hit or arguing with James, Liam let me stay in his room. There was nothing we could do, we were all so young at the time, but he put his hands over my ears so I couldn't hear the shouts and would whisper about any random thing until I fell asleep.

Now we're split apart and it was my fault. For the first time since I had left, this didn't seem like such a great idea.

"What are you looking at?" A voice asked. I jumped and looked up to see a boy I vaguely recognised; he'd been watching me play earlier.

"Family album." I replied, as the boy slid into the seat opposite me. I had no idea why he was here or who he was but right now I wanted the company.

"So who are they?" He questioned, flicking his brown hair from his eyes. "Cousins?"

"Brothers." I said in a voice that implied you-don't-even-want-to-know.

"Ouch! Tough luck having four brothers! I've only got one and he drives me crazy!"

"Tell me about it." I agreed.

"Sorry, I've gone totally off topic." He said, "What I really wanted to say is that my uncle is putting on this concert tonight at the local theatre and he's missing one act, and so I was wondering if you would like to take the place? He'd pay you and everything."

"Me?" I exclaimed, "But I've literally never performed in front of people! Today was the first time!"

"It doesn't matter about experience- it matters about talent. I saw you earlier and you have it. Here's the address if you want to play; you'll need to be there by six, as the show starts at half past seven and then there's a rehearsal beforehand."

My mouth was almost hitting the table as I stared, first at the address in my hand and then at the seemly crazy boy. He smiled before getting up and saying a final farewell of:

"See you later guitar girl with four brothers."

I watched him walk out of the café in amazement. Did that really just happen?

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*Hi all, it's been so long! I know that I keep writing that on chapters and I'm really sorry about a late update but I kind of had writers block. Not because I didn't know what would happen in this story but because I didn't know how to write the information that I needed in this chapter into this chapter. That doesn't really make sense at all but anyway!

I know that the punchuation in this is pretty bad but my editor should be able to edit it soon :-) please vote and comment if you liked this chapter!

The suspense starts building up in the next chapter so I can't wait to write it! Oh and btw the boy in this chapter isn't Colin :-)

Oh and also...14,000 reads?? What? WHAT?! Thank you all so much for still reading it after so long!

I

Charlotte :-D

Dedication: kgirl230 - for leaving such a sweet comment on my last chapter! Those of you who have also left lovely comments, more dedications coming later on :-)