The Butterfly Effect

𝖝𝖎𝖛 | 𝔞𝔠𝔱 𝔬𝔫𝔢: 𝔰𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔢 𝔣𝔬𝔲𝔯𝔱𝔢𝔢𝔫

"I wrote a song about you," Nathan said as he sat on his bed.

"Oh yeah?" Kelis smiled as she descended to land on his lap. "What is it called?"

"Renee's song." He answered.

"After my middle name? Why not name it Kelis'?" She asked.

"Because in the future, when we have kids," he started, smiling as he noticed her blush. "I want one of our daughters to be named Renee. So the song can be dedicated to my wife and daughter."

"Can you sing the song for me?"

"I can, but you have to play the guitar for me." He said as he picked up his guitar and grabbed her hands. "You need to play one chord. I'm going to teach you how to play the G chord. Put your finger up here."

"Don't I need a guitar pick?" she asked.

Nathan's lips curled into a playful smile, and he gently placed a finger on Kelis' lips. "Shh, just listen," he said, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Put your finger up here," he led her hand up to the second fret. "And pull on the last three chords. Now try it."

She dramatically exhaled and applied pressure on the strings. "Oh, look at me. I'm Jimi Hendrix in this bitch!"

"Relax, you played one note," he deadpanned. "I'm going to play the other two notes, so you'll play that note twice. Then I'll play my notes twice, and you'll play that note twice again Got it?"

"I don't know if I completely got it, but we'll see when we start." She said. "C'mon, I wanna rock out!"

Nathan laughed and grabbed his guitar. "There's a song I like to sing. It says your name. I love the ring, so come here, so come here. I may be broken by my past. But I know my worst days, they won't last. If you come here, so come here." He sang while he kept complete eye contact with her.

Kelis' fingers froze on the guitar strings, her eyes widening as Nathan sang. Slowly, she lowered the guitar to the floor, her breath hitching with each heartfelt lyric.

"Oh, isn't it beautiful? Watching the cards unfold? Oh, I want you to come here. Oh, I want you to come here. Touching you loving you, touching you loving you. I've been touching you loving you, touching you loving you."

Nathan carefully placed his guitar on the bed. "How was that?"

"That was so beautiful," she said, then dabbed the corner of her eyes. "Oh my god, I'm actually about to start crying." She fanned her face.

"Goddamn, the song is that good? "he chuckled as he pulled her back into his lap and hugged her tight. "I'm so sorry."

"Bitch, you didn't tell me it was gonna be like that." She hit his chest. "I thought we were finna be on some rockstar shit. Instead, you got a bitch crying." She dabbed a napkin under her eyes and sharply inhaled. "C'mon, Kelis. Bad bitches don't cry."

Nathan awed and kissed her forehead. "I love you, bubba."

"I love you too. I'll love you forever." Kelis grabbed his cheeks and softly kissed his lips. "Nathan?"

"Nathan!" He heard a couple hundred times more.

Just then, the sound of enthusiastic fans outside the tour bus became more pronounced, effectively pulling him out of his daydream. He opened his eyes, but instead of Kelis' pretty brown skin meeting his vision, a barricade of fans crossed his eyes, serving as a reminder that he was no longer in the past. Instead, he was here, in the present, the timeline where Kelis hurt him.