Right Back to You

8. The Magic of Touring

"So what? Your songs are great."

She stared at him with her eyelids half-dropped. "Bullshit."

"No, the ones you actually wrote. Not the candy floss you're singing written for you."

"Oh." She chewed on her lower lip. "I actually prefer singing your songs. You're so good with rhythm, lyrics, everything."

"Can't really take credit for that since it was the entire band."

"When we reach Texas do you think we could call on your band to sing with us?"

"I'm sure Joey will kill me if I don't." And he was actually looking forward to that. He was sure Uncaged would be more than willing to make a comeback and he'd missed his band almost as badly as he missed Kay.

Jessie nodded and turned back to the pages in her lap, looking thoughtful. She wrote down another few words, but sighed and tossed them aside.

"May I?" he asked, a bit curious about what was troubling her.

She shrugged but let him take the papers and the headphones. He placed them over his ears and let the melody play as he read the lyrics. They weren't half bad, but something seemed to be missing and she'd noticed it since she was actually good with music. The lyrics did feel off.

"Do you mind if I take a stab at this?"

She just waved as if to indicate it was all his. So he closed his eyes and listened to the melody. He would adjust that as well, so he dropped the papers and grabbed his guitar, strumming away. Yes, much better. As for the lyrics... Jessie had written about lost love, and it was so easy to think of Kay.

Her shining forget-me-not blue eyes, the waves of her golden hair, the delicate line of her jaw. The tine freckles on the bridge of her nose, the way it crinkled when she laughed, the way in which the entire room seemed to light up with her smile. And like in a dream, she could see her again at the prom in her silver dress with an open back. The most beautiful girl he'd ever seen in her life.

The words flowed easily, as did his pen on the pages. He'd give his life to see her again. Have a few sun-filled moments with her. Kiss her one more time.

And he was done.

The melody still lingered inside his head, but he took the headphones off, the pain in his chest much too real.

Jessie stared at him, her eyes wide and curious. "Holy shit, what was that?"

"What?" His voice shook the slightest bit.

"That was... Amazing!" She leaned across to his seat and grabbed the stray pages, taking in the lyrics he'd jotted down. "This is perfect."

Perfectly painful. "Glad to be of assistance."

"Assistance?" Jessie's expression turned sad. "This is yours now."

"It's still your song."

She shook her head and pulled back into her seat, hugging her knees to her chest. "No. You poured your soul out into it and that's why it's so good. That's also why I suck at it."

"You most definitely don't suck at it."

"How can I write about love, Kyle if I've never felt it? It's so obvious when it comes to you, so..." She looked away.

He felt bad now and made sure Macy was in the front, yelling at the phone, before coming over to her and wrapping and arm around her.

"You'll find love, Jessie."

"How? How when I could never be with people I liked and now I'm engaged to you!"

"Yikes, you're acting as if we're actually getting married."

She bit her lower lip and looked away. "I'm sorry. I know that once I turn eighteen I'd be technically free to do whatever I want. But the thing is, if I'll want to make a living for myself, I'll need to keep doing this, at least for a while longer. And you know what the odds of meeting honest people are in showbusiness?"

"A bit lower?"

"I'm afraid everyone will want to take advantage of me and that I wouldn't be able to protect myself and I'll just spiral."

"That doesn't have to happen. Look, I can teach you how to defend yourself."

The misery on her face turned to curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"How much do you know about fighting and shooting?"

The grin on her face was filled with excitement. "Fighting, quite a lot. Shooting, not so much."

"You can fight?"

"Yep. Trained in martial arts."

"We need to spar!" And holy hell, why did this girl keep getting better? Well, not for him, but in general. It was such a waste that she didn't have an amazing guy loving her and backing her up through all this.

"Oh, we will. As soon as we get to Phoenix. I want to impress you!"

"You're already impressing me quite a lot."

Her smile suddenly turned sad and her gaze returned to the lyrics of the newly written love song. A boulder plunged into Kyle's stomach as he became aware she was probably thinking the same thing as he did.

Why?

Why couldn't they work out? Why when they seemed perfect for each other? Kyle knew the answer as far as he was concerned. He had found someone more perfect for him than Jessie was. In her case, it was still a mystery, because even if in the moments when she seemed sad and craving for love, she didn't look at him any differently.

There was no longing there, no secret hope. She didn't back away from her promise to help him find Kay, brought her up almost as often as he did when Macy was not around, and continued on the path they'd picked with resilience.

It was obvious that she didn't want him. As obvious as it was that she liked him.

And for Kyle, that made her perfect.

"Oh, well," she said, breaking out from under the spell of repressed frustrations. "We don't really have any space to maneuver here, so  let's focus on the music, shall we? We'll be reaching Phoenix in about an hour and then it's back to work."

Kyle groaned. It was the only bit he didn't like about this tour. When he was out in Asia with Uncaged, they'd always taken care of their equipment, so they five of them would unload it, set it up, test it. It was another chance for bonding, teasing and just having fun.

Here, Macy didn't let them lift a finger, employing armies of strangers to move everything around. After trying to get involved once, Kyle had given up because he'd been seconds away from smacking someone for touching his stuff wrong. So, instead, he spent the setup hours in his hotel room getting bored out of his mind.

Jessie however went all in, getting angry, yelling, giving instructions. It had been funny to see her at it, with her flaming hair and blazing eyes, her fists propped against her hips, yelling about her equipment. It was like she became an entirely different person in that instance. A funny, tiny demon hellbent on destroying those who wronged her.

He couldn't be a funny, tiny demon, but a raging monster, so he preferred to sit it out, make up more music or read or something. Or sleep. He'd become a huge fan of sleeping over getting bored. Though now the prospect of sparring to occupy his time was a huge silver lining. Maybe he could convince Jessie to go to a shooting range. He really wanted to see what she was capable of.

So as they entered Phoenix, he did so with a little excitement. And it wasn't only the prospect of not getting bored, but the fact that after they were done in Arizona, they'd be heading for Texas.

And that was one huge step closer to finding Kay.

🌗🌗🌗

And here we are, bringing the parties together. Don't be shocked that the next part might have a new POV just to make things a bit more fun. Shall we?

Yes we shall!

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