My Salvatore Heart

Chapter 8

In Damon’s car, we drive up to a building that I’ve noticed having work done the past few weeks. I’ve seen things being brought in or taken out. But, it never wasn’t busy here.

“What are we doing here?” I ask as we walk up to the door.

“I told you, Kitten. It’s a surprise.” he smiles like a little boy hiding a huge secret and opens the door for me.

“You know my curiosity too well, you know that?” I smile, slug him in the gut and walk in. I’m in a hall with posters of….me. Posters of me on stage in various poses. Me, rocking out with the crowd. Me, looking like an angel in the midst of a ballad. Me, doing my thing on the guitar. I guess it surprises you when you don’t Goggle yourself at all. I turn to Damon in complete shock and awe. 

He holds up a finger and points further down the hall, “Not yet. Keep going.” he says and I continue down the hall. I start to hear my song “No Better Pain Than Love”, the first song that I wrote in completion when I left Mystic Falls. I reach a door at the end and I turn back to Damon. He nods that I’ve reached my destination. I open the door and walk into a mini-heart attack.

“Surprise!” All the people I’ve grown to love wholeheartedly shout out to me, filling a rather large recording studio.

“A studio? My own studio? You did this?” I turn to Damon with excitement in my eyes.

“Well I know you’ve dissolved your business with the record company you were working for. So we all thought that you could make a new start here.” he smiles and turns me to the room.

“That’s not all we have for you.” Elena says.

“This is amazing. What more could I ask for?” I shrug looking around.

From the crowd emerge Biri and Bonnie, “The B Click” I call them, holding what looks like a poster from the hall.

“I swear, if that’s a poster of”

“Nope.” everyone says in unison.

“Remember when I told you I’d always be here for you if you made it big or not?” Biri asks in her little quirky way.

“How could I forget, you little fangirl?” I smirk at her.

They rip the paper off and my mouth immediately drops.

“Boom. Platinum.” Tyler says fist bumping Matt. Caroline slaps him on the back and Jeremy just laughs at them.

“Rock Redemption reached platinum status?” I say holding the award.

I receive a number of congrats and hugs from everyone. As everyone goes about chatting with each other I hear over my shoulder.

“It’s quite a sight to see when you know you’ve done something great, isn’t it? Damon observes.

“I see me writing about my pain really pays off?” I nudge him.

“Maybe I should piss you off more often then.” he smiles.

“Don’t you dare.” I say grabbing him and kissing him. Everyone takes notice and awes and we all fall into laughter.

“You think I can run a record label by myself?” I ask, remember his “make a new start” comment.

“I know you can. Kitten you have all the talent in the world. I’ve heard you sing. I’ve seen you dance, and you can dance.”

“I gave you a run for your money in that department.” I cut him off.

“You never gave me the chance to really dance with you.” he laughs.

“Stop that. We dance all the time and I still dance circles around you.”

“I could dance circles around you if you weren’t so domineering.” he nudges me.

“Stop saying that. I am not domineering.” I leer as I backhand his chest.

“Let’s not forget the designer of this crafty studio.” I hear Charlotte’s voice behind us. Turning around to hug her, I notice she has to bottles of champagne. Bollinger, now that’s a champagne I’m familiar with.

“Char, what don’t you do? You’re planning my wedding. You designed the studio. What don’t you do?” I ask taking a bottle from her.

“I’m a florist too, if you must know. I went to college. I’m well taken care of.” she says smiling. “Check this out.” she says walking over the far off wall revealing a keypad. She presses a code and stands back. Our mouths drop as a full bar rotates from the wall. “Who’s ready to party?” she says with her sexy little voice.

__________________________________________________________________________

After hours of drinking and dancing, they all convince me to do an impulse recording. I explain how the sound board works in a simple way, and I take advantage of the one thing I don’t have for my wedding and I call Caroline into the booth with me. She follows suit and soon we have a pretty decent track for being done on the spot. While the others are listening to it again and tweaking it to their liking, I pull Caroling to the bar.

“I wanted to ask you something important.” I say pouring us each a Margarita that Ric made.

“Anything. You know that.” she says.

“I want you to sing at the wedding. What we just did was, you proving to me that you can sing cold. Would you do it?” I ask.

“Kit, I don’t know. You want me to sing at your wedding? What if they’re cameras and paparazzi there?” she freaks.

“The paps won’t be anywhere near the wedding. Caroline, I know you can do it. We’ll come in here every week, just you and me. We’ll pick a song and you’ll learn it. You’ll condition it and you’ll sing at my wedding. Please Car, I don’t want anyone else.” I give her the puppy dog eyes.

“You do know it’s not fair being that I went from ultimate fan to.”

“To a very cherished friend. Please Car.” I beg.

“Okay fine. I’ll do it. Only because I love you.” she smiles.

“Fan love or friend love?” I tease.

“Both. You know that.” she laughs. Tyler pokes his head out of the recording area.

“I thought you two ran off. What’s going on here?” he asks pacing toward us and taking Caroline in his arms.

“She’s agreed to sing at my wedding.” I smile.

“Awesome. Is she singing as a fan or friend?” he smirks.

“We’ve already covered that. Remember how we met?” I poke at him.

“You almost kicked my ass that day.” he laughs.

“You shouldn’t be so handsy.” I laugh. Thankfully, Caroline already knows the tale of our meeting.