Rockin'

At Misty’s prompting, Carson tightens his grip around her a little, offering a slight grin. “Sorry. I just don’t want to hurt you.”

Lifting his eyes to meet hers as she tilts his face upward, he withholds the look that would tell how deeply he was hurting. She didn’t need that now. She said he could talk to her…that it was okay…but it wasn’t okay.

He forces a smile. “It’s nothing. I’m just tired. I guess work has been getting to me lately.” He shakes his head with a dry chuckle. “Look who’s worrying about who? You’re the one recovering from a bullet wound, missy.”


Con comes around the car to take Jamie around the shoulders and head toward the entrance of the building behind several more people. Most were there already, and there weren’t an awful lot of seats left, but Con spots two somewhere in the middle, and makes his way through the small crowd, people automatically moving out of his way.


Laura does slap Nate….hard on his shoulder, followed by her sticking her tongue out at him. “Look who’s talking. You’re the one that’s getting close to the top of that hill, not me!”

Bantering on the way, when they get to the community building, Laura is already having fun, and even ready for more.


Wyatt chuckles a little at Aerith’s comment, and just lets the silence reign until she speaks again. “Yep, I’ve heard ‘em. Got a friend who’s the lead singer. He’s been gone for a while, so this will be his first night back – great voice…I bet you’ll like him.”

Sensing a sudden nervousness in Aerith, he pauses, a grin making its way to his lips. “You’re in the lead on this one though. If you can’t stand JetStream, we’ll go out somewhere else.”


Once again, Katie’s words strike deep. They are words that speak of truth…of feeling, saturated with her raw emotions. Jason had known all that to be true…he had known she didn’t hate him…he had known she missed him…he had known she wanted their friendship back. But hearing it now…it was a reinforcement that perhaps he needed. Perhaps he just needed to hear it to believe it.

Receiving Katie’s hug comes as a slight surprise, and his return is awkward without a whole lot of feeling. He doesn’t know how to hug without conveying something wrong…without giving his heart away again. He needs to learn…needs to grow…needs to find where he fits once again. His niche had changed…and he needed to figure out just where it was.

As Katie pulls back and her words die away, Jason stares into her eyes. Though not allowing the depths of his own emotions out, he searches hers, finding the truth within. And he finds it. Her words were the truth…they were her heart. Friendship was what she longed for. Nothing more, nothing less. She had found another…right or wrong, the closeness she had shared with Jason had been given to another, and it was now a simple fact. And now…it was a rekindled friendship she was begging for…the very friendship that his own heart was lacking.

Reaching up slowly, Jason takes his thumb to wipe away a remaining tear from her cheek. “No…you’re not confusing me,” he replies quietly. The pain was still fresh, but he forces the words out. “You’ve found out where you belong…you’ve found your place and your happiness…that much is clear.” A sad smile plays at his lips. He knows his own words imply that he understands she’s found in Scott what she used to share with him. “I guess…I just need to find mine own place again. I…I miss our friendship too.”

Kyle lets out a howl as a speaker lands on his foot. “Ahhhhh!”

Jason’s concentration is diverted and seeing Kyle unable to get himself out of his clumsy situation, he leaves Katie to help. “What did you do?”

“I don’t know!” Kyle’s foot is released and he hops up and down on the other one. “Ooooh, that smarts!”

Setting everything up from there on out goes smoothly. People start to filter in, and Mike and Phil go to change their clothes, Kyle satisfied with his own.

Soon, a crowd has gathered, and the guys are backstage, ready to go on. After a quick exchange of encouragement to one another, they make their entrance, to a round of applause.


Scott slips in through the doors, purposely a little bit late. The music had already started, but he hadn’t wanted to get in the way or be forced to see Jason offstage, so he’d opted to be just a bit later than planned. Scouting out the rows of seats, he sees Katie up front close to the young woman who was running sound. Making his way quietly through the crowd, he slips into an empty seat beside her, tossing her a wink and a smile.

Jason starts in on his electric guitar, trying to find his groove, but it’s hard. It’s been so long… Glancing out through the lights, he sees the sea of faces and tries to pick out people who seem interested, who he could make eye contact with. But one of the first people he spots is Scott, who is just sitting down next to Katie. And for a moment, he loses his concentration. His fingers automatically find the right chords to play, but he misses his own cue to sing and the band has to play another several measures of chords before he has another opening. Knowing it was his own fault throws him off just a little, and he starts out worse than he’d like. The audience wouldn’t know the difference, but he did, and he closes his eyes for a moment as he sings, trying to regain composure. With each word, his voice strengthens, and finally he looks out at the audience again, rising to the stage presence that had been waiting to come forth for so long.

His eyes glance over the faces. They land on Con first – he spots his larger frame among the others, and for but an instant, locks eyes with him. It was hard…so hard… but it was an instant that foretold more was to come.

As the words come forth from his mouth, he looks and sees more friends. His gaze drifts and lands on Aerith. A surprised look passes through his eyes, but he then sees Wyatt and understands. A slight smile quirks the corner of his mouth.

His concentration slowly returns, and he’s able to regain enough control to block everything else out, throwing himself into his role…forced or not…fake or not…it was what the audience loved.

Several songs are played, bringing the audience in and winding up those on stage. At a natural break, Kyle starts conversing with the people.

“Are you all glad to be here tonight or what?” He grins as the audience cheers. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Hey, and if you hadn’t noticed….we got Jason back with us tonight!”

The clapping and shouting, causes Jason to smile a little, giving a teasing tone. “Aww, y’all missed me? How nice of you.”

Laughter spreads throughout.

“Sounds like these three back here have been doing pretty well on their own though. What do you say?” Jason receives the clapping he was looking for, and glances down, strumming a chord on his guitar. He lowers his tone to a serious one. “Kyle, they love you, man.”

More laughter is contagious. Kyle raises his arms in the air and bows dramatically. As he does, his hand knocks his cup of water off the edge of the keyboard, splashing down into a strategically clear spot on stage. “Oops.” Reaching over, his elbow catches his music stand, sending papers flying. “Ohh.” The audience’s laughing keeps him going as he bumbles around for several more seconds, somehow winding up tangled in chords and knocking over a separate stand.

The other guys just wait and stare at him, no one offering any help. Jason puts his hands behind his back and glances out at the audience, quirking an eyebrow at them to make them smile, then looks back at Kyle. “Hey, smooth-mover are you finished?”

“Well don’t anybody help me,” Kyle retorts.

“Okay.” Jason shrugs.

“I think he was being sarcastic,” Phil comments.

Jason thinks for a couple moments, again, bringing in the audience with his facial expressions. Finally seeing Kyle back behind his keyboard, he starts to clap. “Let’s give it up for the best showman of the stage tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Kyle Mitts! Master of musical messes!”

A fast drumbeat suddenly hurls the stage back into a song, Kyle joining in, and finally Jason, his fingers moving expertly along the frets of his guitar.

Flying High gets the audience tapping their toes and leads into several more upbeat songs. Jason’s performance is that of one who has never left the stage, his talent showing through the skilled mask he was wearing…or was it genuine?

“Getting tired out there?” Kyle chuckles and takes a swig of water. “Say yes, or I’m going to feel old.” He wipes the sweat from his brow. “How ‘bout you, guys?” He turns around to the rest of the band, only to receive shrugs and head shakes.

Jason doesn’t let his own fatigue show and glances out at the crowd. “He’s getting old, y’all.”

“Heey.” Kyle smirks at him. “If you’ve got so much energy, you think you have the capability to tone it down enough to give us a nice soft tune once?”

“Oh, I think so…” While talking, Jason is already switching from the electric guitar to his acoustic. He begins strumming a softer melody, bringing the mood back down to a mellower level.

More songs are played. The tone is brought back up to a toe-tapping level one again, and finally, the evening ends with a bang. The audience is on their feet, and the band waves their farewell, despite the begging for more.

Making their way offstage, the guys head to the back, body’s tired, minds hyped up, and fingers and arms sore. But laughter remains.

“Woo! We sounded good tonight!” Kyle gives his brother and friends high fives.

Mike lets out a sigh and sinks down in a chair in the back room away from the milling crowd. “Mmm…I think we earned our audience’s favor tonight.”

Phil laughs. “Me too. I’m pooped.”

“But not too pooped for pizza!” Kyle throws his arms in the air. “Who’s going?”

“Me!” Jen raises her hand as she wheels back to them. “And I saw a bunch of people here that should come too, like Con and Jamie….and duh, Katie, you’re coming along too!”