Carpe Aestatem (original)

Chapter 30

Jenna

"And we're all here now, so let's get started!" Bojan said as Jan and Oliva got their guitars tuned up.

Jure had shown Sam his drum kit and let her experiment with it. She had loved every second with it because she had the same model back home. We arranged the setlist and ran through a couple of songs. Then we had some breakout sessions. I was with Bojan, Sam with Jure, Avery with Nace and Olivia with Kris and Jan. "So, I feel like I want to go over some small guitar parts in 'Carpe Diem' as you know we recorded the day after we got the news."

"Hold on, I'll grab the other guitar."

Five minutes later, he came back. "Okay, where's the rough spot."

"The music right before Prvi dež odplaknil ves bo blišč, that part."

"That part! It took us a while to nail that part." He laughed, showing the smile I knew so well (I love Bojan's smile so much if you don't already know)

I pulled out the sheet I had printed before we filmed the video. "See where I have circled there? I seriously stumbled there. I hate the F#-minor chord. It took me the longest to master."

"Like a version of G-Major. It's F#-minor, D Major, B-minor, and repeat. Wanna try?" (When I had done guitar at my summer camp, one of the first chords I learned was the G-major, and I HATED that chord because I had to arch one of my fingers that my other fingers hurt so bad)

I got my fingers positioned for the bar right before. "Is it okay if I do the pickup to it?"

"Go right ahead!"

I put my fingers on the frets for the B-minor, and Bojan began to sing. "Preskakovali bomo gore, da nas objame nebo. Now!"

I started strumming away as he kept the beat. "Hold on, hold on." He grabbed his guitar. "For the F#-minor, your fingers are supposed to be over strings 2 and 3." He strummed his guitar. "Like that."

I strummed it again. "Try to arch your finger."

"Maybe that's what I'm doing."

"Try that. Preskakovali bomo gore, da nas objame nebo."

I managed to arch my finger for the F#m chord. "You got it! Keep going!" Bojan said, clapping excitedly.

"I kind of want to work on the F#m chord a bit this afternoon."

"That's what I wanna do with you later. Keep working at the chords you might struggle with."

"Can you teach me a few songs? Please?"

"Of course, Jenna. C'mere."

Bojan then wrapped me in a hug. I felt tears forming in my eyes. Don't cry, Jenna. Don't cry. And then I broke. "I'm not letting you go. I'm right here." Bojan whispered into my ear, holding me tighter.

All I could do was hold on tighter and just cry. Bojan started rubbing my back, which felt nice, but I didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry I messed up..."

"No, no, you did fine after you fixed that one chord."

"Really?"

"Really. I am so proud of you, Jenna. You're passionate about guitar and singing. I can see it in your eyes."

"I'm so glad I met you, Bojan. I don't know what I'll do without you by my side."

Then after lunch, Bojan and I met up with Martin at a bookstore in downtown Ljubljana. "What's your favorite book?" Bojan asked as we walked into the store.

"I love realistic fiction, fantasy, science fiction, not much of a horror book person. My favorite book right now is The Summer I Turned Pretty and To All the Boys I Loved Before."

"So you're a rom-com kind of girl."

"Oh, and Harry Potter. And The Hunger Games."

As I was browsing the shelves for some English books, I stumbled upon an English-to-Serbian dictionary. "Bojan! Look what I found!" I exclaimed.

He then looked at it. "I could teach you, if you want."

"You're teaching me some guitar, now Serbian? Of course! Thanks Bojan."

"Of course, my star guitarist."

I then looked at a couple of bookmarks, then wandered over to the CDs. I wantes to look for some Big Foot Mama or Måneskin CDs, but on the display, with only two of each left, were the Umazane Misli and Demoni CDs. I snuck them into my pile of books (namely, the dictionary, a few guitar books and a bookmark with the letter J on it). "What did you get?" Bojan asked as we were about to check out.

"I got the English-to-Serbian dictionary, a couple of guitar books, a bookmark and two CDs." I held up the CDs. "There were two of each left."

"Do you want me to autograph them?"

"Later on the tour, but I do want them autographed."

He then ruffled my hair. "I'm so glad I get to tour with you."

"Same here, Jenna. Now, guitar?"