If You Ever Get Lonely

chapter 18

*** Kennedy *** 

         Tonight I would watch Jason sing for hundreds of people. I haven't seen Jason perform in years but I'll never forget the first time I saw him on a stage. he'd been practicing with his band for weeks and the school was allowing them to play at a dance. The band was off key on every song they were horrible, Jason was perfect but it wasn't enough to stop the other kids from screaming at them. So Jason told them to get off the stage and grabbed a guitar. He played a few songs acoustic and a few on the electric without his band backing up. He killed it up there, Totally rocked it so much I think everyone in the room forgot about dancing and just watched him I know I did. It was almost a year before the full band did another show but they completely blew everyone away this time. it wasn't possible to see Jason on stage and not walk away smiling. Then after the show I would tell Jason that I want to go to Nashville with him and see how he takes it. I'm hoping he's happy and wants to be with me. If not I know it's my fault for not following him the first time but if given the chance I'd never make that mistake again. I climbed out of bed to get dressed and ready for the day and whatever it held in store for me.

 *** Jason ***

       While Kennedy was in the shower I told Stephen to cover for me and I left. I had a few things I needed to get done real quick. I didn't even have to practice with my band we had this down we'd been playing together for 10 years. I had sound-check in a few hours though so I really needed to hurry. I drove into the city I knew they wouldn't have what I was looking for in town. I passed a lot of really fancy high end stores. I knew that if I wanted to I could walk into those stores and make a purchase and for once in my life I wouldn't have to worry about whether or not my card would go through. the first year I lived in Nashville I struggled just to make enough to eat and keep a roof over my head. In a way I guess it was a good thing Kennedy stayed behind she didn't have to go through all of that with me. I saw a store that looked like it might have what I was looking for. I hoped so. I felt like I was looking for a needle in a haystack and I had a very limited window of time to find it. I found a parking spot and went into the store. It was a pawn shop. I got lucky the store had exactly what I was looking for. Today must be my lucky day. The man behind the counter was counting out my change when I noticed a cowboy hat sitting on the counter. I jokingly picked it up and set it on my head. As I turned to look at myself in the mirror the man says to me "I think it looks good on you. Tell you what, Since you made such a large purchase how bout I throw in the hat for ten bucks. It's real leather and in almost perfect condition, what do you say?"  Do I really want to buy a cowboy hat? I always kind of wanted one and if Kennedy thought I looked ridiculous I just wouldn't wear it out of the house. So I bought it. What the hell right? Today was a day full of chances and hopefully they'd all work out in my favor.

*** Summer ***

         "Kennedy's going with Jason for sound check then they're going out to dinner before he has to set up so It looks like it's only the two of us today. We should go to the carnival and just hang out"  

I turn to look at Stephen to see why he hadn't answered me and saw him staring over at me. I'm pretty sure I turned 5 shades of red when I noticed how intently he was staring at me. I nudged him. "huh??" he looked away and shook his head as if trying to clear it. "yeah the carnival sounds good. let's go"  So we got up and got dressed and headed out the door. It was an almost perfect day. There were families setting up picnics on the beach and everywhere in town you could smell people grilling BBQ. The smells were intoxicating. We got to the carnival and Stephen said he didn't feel like going on rides today. Really I just think he somehow knew they freaked me out. So we went and started playing the games. I won a goldfish on a ring toss. What the heck was I gonna do with this thing? after playing a few games we grabbed some carnival food and sat down at a table to eat. The food wasn't really that great, but what do you expect from a carnival. When we were done eating we just felt like walking for a few to enjoy this beautiful day. We walked by this vendors stand that was selling hand made jewelry and there was this necklace that caught my eye. So I stopped to look at it. It was a simple necklace with a hand-carved wooden horse dangling down. Stephen saw me eyeing it and bought it for me. I tried to protest but he wasn't really taking no for an answer. 

      The rest of the day was perfect and finally it was time to go to the concert area to see Jason play. We pushed our way through the crowd to get to the front where Kennedy joined us minutes before Jason took the stage. The show was everything I knew it would be. We were dancing and having a good time and surprisingly we even knew most of the songs he sang. I guess since Jason didn't actually write his own songs he didn't have much to go on. Half the songs he sung were actually wrote by me and Kennedy as teenagers. As good as those songs were Jason was going to need some new material. When the show was almost over Jason calls Kennedy up on the stage and says "for this next and final song I want to dedicate it to the love of my life. It's the very first song I ever played live. It was wrote by 5 best friends who thought at the time that they'd always be together"  Jason sang a song wrote by 5 pre-teens around a campfire one night. A song about friendship. And about forever. Stephen asked me if I wrote this song. I just laughed and said yeah along with Kennedy and sometimes a few others I wrote most of the songs in his set list. Stephen gave me a look like he was impressed but I really didn't think it was a big deal. The song ended and the crowd started cheering. Then right in front of all these people Jason dropped down on one knee and asked Kennedy to be his wife. and of course she said yes. Jason picked her up and kissed her just as the first firework went off.