/ this chapter is a flashback /
"Dude, things are finally starting to come together for us. It's only a matter of time until we're at The Orpheum and then arenas and then stadiums." Luke said as we lay on the beach.
"I know right. Girls are finally starting to notice me." Reggie said next to me and I snickered.
"Yeah, well guys still don't care about me." I said to them.
"Um, the only guys that should be caring about you is us." Alex sat up on the other side of Luke and looked at me.
"Okay, dad." I laughed at his overprotectiveness and stared up at the sky. There was no hint of stars in the gloomy night sky, but I could see the full moon peeking from behind the clouds. It casted a nice glow onto the beach we were laying on. It wouldn't be long until the high tide completely covered the beach, but we liked to lay out here as long as we could.
"Guys, this is all starting to feel real. We're really gonna make it. I just know we are." Luke took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze before resting it on his chest. I smiled and took Reggie's hand in mine lacing our fingers together.
"Not long now til we're out of my garage, now." I turned my head to look at Luke.
"You know we'll always love your garage and your mom's cooking." Reggie said and I turned to look at him.
"I'm sure the garage will miss us dearly when we're off on world tours." I sat up and looked at the waves crashing into the shore. It was crazy to think that beyond this shoreline was the rest of the world. There was so much more to Earth than Los Angeles and it was only a matter of time before we were being thrown into it on massive tours.
"What time is it?" Alex asked.
"Almost midnight." I replied after looking down at my watch.
"Reg, we gotta go. We told your mom we'd be back by midnight." Alex said. Reggie sighed and stood up brushing the sand off of his jeans.
"See you at practice." Alex said. He and Luke did their little bro handshake and he leaned down to plop a kiss on the top of my head. Reggie did the same and he and Alex were off. Alex had just come out to his parents as gay so they were still in denial and things hadn't been great for him at home. He was spending a lot of time between our houses and spending the night. I hoped for him that his parents would learn to accept him for him, but things were looking so rough right now.
"What time do you have to go home?" I asked looking at Luke who was still laying down in the sand.
"I don't think I'm going home tonight." He said keeping his eyes up at the sky.
"Problems with your mom again?" I asked, placing my hand on his chest.
Luke placed his hand over mine and squeezed my fingers as he nodded, "Yeah. She just doesn't get it."
"She will. She'll realize it when we make it big time. She's just a mom, she's worried about your future." I said to him.
"Can I stay at your place tonight?" Luke asked as he sat up. Always quick to change the subject.
Luke never really opted to stay with Reggie or Alex, he always stayed at my house. He never would admit it but I knew it was because my mom would always tell his mom when he was there. Our moms were best friends and they always kept each other updated about us. Luke may have problems with his mom, but he still wanted her to know when he was safe in a bed and not in the streets.
"Always." I nodded.
"Do you think this will ever end? Like... when does it end?" Said Luke as he looked at the waves. They were slowly inching their way up to where we were sitting, so I figured we had at least an hour left before they were at the top of the beach.
"I don't know. It kind of seems like we have the rest of our lives to do this. We're all so invested." I replied softly. "I don't think I want it to end."
"What happens when we start to get married and have kids and stuff? Do we still do this?" He asked.
"Well, yeah. There's plenty of musicians that do. Who's to say we won't?"
"Do you want to get married and have kids?"
"Do you think anyone would want to marry me?" I laughed and played with a handful of sand between my fingers.
"Why wouldn't they?"
"I don't know... I have my reasons to think that anyone wouldn't." I shrugged.
"Well, I think you're spectacular."
I looked over at him and he was already staring at me. I gave him a smile and placed my hand on his cheek, "Aren't you just the kindest?"
"Let's make a pact."
"A pact?" I gave him a sideways look and he simply laughed. A laugh that I loved.
"If we're thirty-five and neither of us are married yet, let's just marry each other. Whether we're still Sunset Curve or not." Luke jumped up to his feet and faced the waves.
I found myself standing up as well, staring at him with a soft smile on my face, "I don't think I'll say no to that."
"Come on, our parents would be so happy, you know they've planned our wedding since we were five." Luke turned and stepped towards me putting his hands on my shoulder.
"Alright, then. We have ourselves a deal. Thirty-five and single, we'll get married just to put ourselves out of our misery." I laughed and held my hand out to him.
I didn't hate the sound of this crazy idea Luke had sprung upon us. He was always full of bizarre ideas and this didn't even sound like the craziest one yet. If we were thirty-five and single, the least we could do for ourselves is marry each other.
"Alright then, Jay." He took my hand in his and we shook on it. Luke didn't let go after a reasonable time to let go, and I found ourselves looking into each other's eyes.
I cleared my throat and pulled away from him, "We should probably get home. The tide is gonna be high soon."
"Yeah, you're right." He finally let go of my hand and we brushed the sand off of each other and began the walk back to my house.
Once we got there, we took turns showering and then found ourselves laying in my bedroom upstairs. Luke always left clothes here and I always ended up washing them and folding them in a drawer in my dresser for him.
"Do you wanna do some writing? I've had this melody stuck in my head for a while and I wanna get it out." Luke said suddenly into the silence.
"Sure, let's go to the studio." I rolled off of my bed and grabbed my journal off my nightstand. We headed into the garage and Luke picked up his acoustic guitar and we sat on the bean bags in the loft.
Luke's fingers plucked and strummed the strings of his guitar and I nodded my head in approval, "I love that. What kind of song do you wanna write off of it?"
"Maybe we should write a love song?" Luke replied.
"A love song? That's not very Luke like. Or Sunset Curve like."
"It'd be fun. We always write like fun songs, we don't have anything that's like truly mushy gushy. I think a love song would be a good way to branch out our writing abilities." Luke said flipping open his journal. I noticed as he flipped through the pages there was a picture of me that he had taken two Christmases ago.
"I thought Bright was pretty mushy gushy," I said, "Hey, where'd this come from? I thought you lost it." I asked reaching for the square polaroid.
"I found it. I keep it in here for inspiration." Luke replied, "It's one of my favorite pictures of you."
"How do I help with inspiration?" I laughed and rolled my eyes. I found it silly that it was the most specific reason he kept that photo in his journal.
"You make me a better writer, you know? Sure we butt heads every once in a while, but it's like when we're writing together, everything flows so effortlessly. It's like we're some miraculous perfect harmony or something. Everything is so easy with you- life is so easy with you in it." Luke looked up at me and flipped to an empty page, "Plus, you're like my best friend in the entire world and a lot of our songs are about happy sappy friendships so..."
"That's sweet of you to say, wow. I didn't know you felt like that." If it were possible my heart would implode on itself from how full it felt after hearing those words come from Luke's mouth. If I didn't love him before, I most certainly did now. I think this was the exact moment I knew that I was in love with Luke Patterson.
"So, love song?" Luke tapped his pencil against the blank page of his journal.
"One little problem, we haven't ever really be in love." I said. I could write a million songs about my feelings for Luke, but it wouldn't ever do it justice; the things I feel for him. I don't know if Luke had ever been in love, he only had one girlfriend and they dated for 2 months and called it quits. I had one boyfriend who was Zach Johnson and we all know how that worked out.
"I mean, I think I am- have. I think I have." He corrected himself as he looked at me. I didn't bother asking him what he meant or even if he meant it, because sometimes talking to Luke was like talking to a brick wall. He was stubborn and he knew it, that's why he usually got away with weird comments.
"What did you say earlier? About us?" I asked.
"What, that life is easy with you in it?" He said and I shook my head, "We're a perfect harmony?"
"That's it." I snapped my fingers. "Write that down."
We were about two hours into writing Perfect Harmony and we only had a few lines to fix. The song sounded great and I didn't think it'd be possible for us to write such a heartfelt song considering both of us had been in two short and failed relationships, but it was coming together so nicely.
"The truth is finally breaking through, everything is so right when I'm with you." Luke sang and I shook my head.
"How about..." I hummed the melody a few more times and clapped my hands together, "Two worlds collide when I'm with you." I sang to him.
"That's brilliant." Luke nodded and scribbled the words down in his horrible messy handwriting. How he was considered the writer in the band, yet had the worst handwriting was a mystery to me. "Now this lyric still sounds a little weird, what should come after the music in your hands part?"
I thought for a moment and reflected on how things were between me and Luke. I imagined what things could be like if Luke maybe reciprocated the feelings I had for him, though it was pretty obvious that was a reach. I hummed the melody and replayed different lyrics in my head tapping my fingers against my thigh.
"We say we're friends, we play pretend, you're more to me, we're everything." I sang softly to myself to hear how it sounded, "Then we could just do the our voices rise part again."
Luke cupped my cheeks and leaned forward leaving a sloppy kiss on my forehead, "You're a genius."
"Ew." I wiped my forehead as I giggled, watching him scribble the words down.
"We're done. Those were the only parts left to fix and it's done. Let's run it, yeah?" Luke said and with that we grabbed our journals and his guitar and climbed down from the loft. I sat at my keyboard and he sat on the stool with his guitar.
"I don't see how Alex and Reg would fit parts into this." I said, staring at the lyrics in Luke's journal. I played a few keys on the piano trying to find one that fit with the song and what Luke had played on the guitar.
"Maybe it could just be an us thing... I mean I'm sure we could find a way to fit their instruments into it, but just in case you know. Piano and guitar are great moves for this song." Luke adjusted the strap on his guitar and then put it over his shoulder.
It took no longer than a few minutes for me to find the right melody on the piano for the song and we began singing it. The entire time we sang directly to each other and not once did we break eye contact. This entire process made me fall even more in love with Luke.
"Sounds like a ballad to me." Luke laughed and set his guitar down. "I'm tired, we should sleep, but let's show the boys at practice tomorrow."
Luke fell asleep pretty quickly, but I stayed awake that night. My mind racing with a million thoughts. I was only, what, fifteen? Did I really know what love was? Did someone as young as me know what love really was? I mean my parents fell in love at sixteen and got married at eighteen, was it really that much of a difference?
All I knew was that after that night, it was hard to stop thinking about Luke all hours of the day. I knew I was better with Luke in my life. I adored him, cherished him being in my life. That's love right? I love Alex and Reggie. But I could feel in my chest that I was in love with Luke. What would I be without Luke in my life?
Like I said, this was the night that I truly realized I was in love with Luke Patterson.
hi everyone
another little flashback for you, they're not really in order, i just write them as they come to me
i cry at jake? is that their ship name? lol
all the love