Authors: Kelly Harper
The smile on my face wavered.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll try not to.”
He nodded, mollified.
We remained there, leaning over the bar for a few minutes. Idly, I wondered where Sarah had gotten off to, or if she’d just lost track of time talking to Huck. Mostly, though, I was thinking about Haden. I was considering what Scottie had said about living life with regrets. I didn’t want to go through the same pain that he had.
I gave him a serious look.
“Have you talked to Haden since he left?” I asked.
Scottie’s lips pursed together for a moment while he considered it. Then he shook his head.
“No,” he said. “But, if I do, I’ll let him know you asked about him.”
I nodded. “Thanks. I’d like that.”
I’d come to the bar thinking it would help me take my mind off everything. But now I felt even worse than I had before.
Had I made the wrong choice? Was I going to have to live with it for the rest of my life?
“Are you sure you don’t want to go?” Sarah asked. She was leaning against the back of the couch, wearing a yellow dress with flowers on it and a pair of brown boots. “I promise you’ll have a lot of fun.”
I was sitting at the little dining room table in the guesthouse. Strewn all over the table were promotional packets, pamphlets, fliers and everything else you could imagine for a long list of different Texas universities. I had spent an hour going through them, and was starting to think I needed some kind of organizational system.
I shook my head. “I can’t,” I said. “I need to figure out what I’m doing about college.” I hesitated a second. “Besides, hearing all those bands is just going to remind me of Haden.” My voice trailed off when I thought about him.
“Are you really thinking about applying to a Texas school?” she asked.
“I’m thinking about everything,” I said. “I haven’t ruled out State, yet. I just thought it might be nice to be near family for a change.” I pushed some of the packets into a pile on the corner of the table—the schools I didn’t like. “There’s nothing for me back in Jersey or New York, anymore,” I said.
Sarah watched me as I began organizing the pamphlets into different stacks.
“You know you’re going to make it a lot harder for Mom to sign off on me going to an out of state college,” she said.
I grinned at her. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t go to one, then.”
A look of horror passed over her.
“Traitor,” she said. “You’re working for my mom now, aren’t you?” I laughed along with her. “Well, I’m glad to see you’re at least making some forward steps with everything.”
I nodded. “Slowly, but surely,” I said.
She gave me another long look, as though I might change my mind about going to the Battle of the Bands. I fixed her with my best unwavering, flat stare. She let out an exaggerated sigh.
“Fine, I’ll stop bugging you,” she said. “When you get bored of all this,” she swirled her finger in a circle, pointing at everything on the table, “you’ll know where to find me.” She took a few steps toward the door. “Oh, and I’m turning my phone off. So, if you need me, you’ll have to bring your skinny butt down to the Battle.”
“Your charms aren’t working on me,” I called out when she reached the door.
“Yes they are,” she called back before leaving.
I sighed and took in everything, again. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with my future—but I was sure I was going to tackle it head on. The thought of heading back east without Mom was beginning to disgust me. I was starting to think I didn’t want to go at all. Aunt Denise and Uncle Larry were nice enough to say they’d help me with tuition if I stayed in Texas—so that was starting to look like a pretty good idea. Besides, I was rather enjoying being near the family for a change.
A knock on the door interrupted my train of thought.
“I told you I’m not going,” I yelled out, not taking my eyes off a pamphlet for Texas Christian University. I paused a beat, but there was no response, and no one tried to come in.
That’s odd.
I went to the door and opened it, expecting Sarah grab me and pull me off to the Battle with her. But, it was definitely not Sarah at the door.
“August?” I said, dumbfounded.
“Hey,” he said. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“No, you’re fine,” I said, confused.
A wave of horror passed over me when I realized I was only wearing black leggings and a t-shirt. My hair was pulled up, and I probably looked like I just rolled out of bed—which wasn’t too far from the truth. August had his curly mess of hair pulled back, and he was wearing a bandana over it. He was wearing a striped, button-up and tan cargo shorts with brown sandals. It was a pretty normal look for him, from what I’d seen.
He gave me a wide smile, but didn’t say anything.
“Gosh, I’m so rude,” I said. “Please… come in.”
He grinned, and I stepped back to let him in to the guesthouse. He stood a few feet inside the entryway, and looked around.
“This is a nice place you’ve got here,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said. “It’s not really
mine
. I’m just crashing here with my Grandma for a while. My aunt and uncle own it.” His smile let me know he as just being polite, and I felt the heat of embarrassment rushing to my cheeks. I shook my head, hoping he didn’t notice. “Sorry, sometimes I talk to much,” I said. “Be lucky you’re not up here with me.” I pointed at my head, and he laughed.
“I hope you don’t mind, I got your address from Scottie,” he said. I waved a dismissive hand and nodded.
“I heard Seth is back with you,” I said.
He cracked a smile and nodded.
“Yeah, we made amends,” he said. “We had to have a very serious conversation with him, but he promised to play nice.”
“Well, at least you’ll still be able to do the show,” I said, giving him a hopeful look.
“That’s actually what I wanted to come talk to you about,” he said.
“Oh?” I said, curious.
He nodded. “Scottie mentioned that you weren’t planning on coming out to the show,” he said. He let the unasked question linger.
My smile faded a little.
“I just have a lot going on around here,” I said, motioning at the mess on the table.
He nodded, eyeing the university pamphlets.
“Yeah, looks like you’re pretty tied down over here,” he said. August looked around for a second, and then he turned to face me again. I gave him an awkward smile. He let out a sigh. “Look, it would really mean a lot to us if you could make it out,” he said. “You brought us in on this, and we’d really like it if you were there for the show.”
I shrugged. “I really didn’t do much,” I said.
He fixed me with a serious look. “All I know is that, if you hadn’t come around, we wouldn’t be playing the gig,” he said. “So I’m pretty thankful that you did whatever it is that you did.”
I smiled at him.
A part of me did want to go to the show. I loved the way the band sounded, and it would be fun to see them playing on the stage in front of a huge crowd. But, I just didn’t know if I could handle being there without Haden around. He had been every bit a part of getting
Fighting Forward
to play the show as I had. In fact, he’d done even more than I had.
It hurt to think about him. I missed him. And that was why I didn’t want to go to the show.
August had a nervous look on his face. “You’re still not sure you want to go, aren’t you?” he said.
I shrugged. “It’s just complicated,” I said, not wanting to explain everything.
He waved a hand. “So un-complicate it,” he said. “If nothing else, do it as a favor to me. I promise you’ll have a good time.”
He had a certain hope in his eye, like he really wanted me there. I thought about it for a while longer, and I thought about how I’d promised myself that I was going to start facing my fears head on. Maybe this was another one of those mountains that I had to tackle.
“I suppose it would be nice to get out for a bit,” I said.
His smile widened.
“It’s going to be a great show. You’ll never forgive yourself if you miss it.”
I smiled, and nodded.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be there.”
When Sarah got back home, later that night, she couldn’t believe that August had come to see me. At first, she thought I was making it up, and then she was convinced he had some ulterior motive to getting me to the show.
“You’re sure he doesn’t have a thing for you?” she said.
“No way,” I said. “It’s strictly a professional relationship.”
She gave me a wry look.
“It sounds pretty convenient, doesn’t it?” she said. “Now that Haden’s out of the picture, this other guy starts coming around…”
I blushed a little, but refused to believe it.
“Is he cute?” she asked.
“You’re horrible,” I said.
Her eyes went wide with delight.
“You think he’s cute,” she said. “Admit it.”
I rolled my eyes and promptly ignored her for the rest of the night. It wasn’t that I didn’t think he was cute—sure, he had a particular way about him that was attractive—but I just wasn’t interested in anyone.
Except Haden
, I thought.
I still couldn’t believe I’d agreed to go to the show. I’d been telling myself the whole time that I wouldn’t—I’d promised myself that I was done with everything related to the Battle of the Bands. It had caused too many headaches over the past couple of weeks, and I didn’t want to get caught up in anything. But, I also knew that if I didn’t start doing things that felt uncomfortable, I wasn’t going to get anywhere in life.
The next day, Sarah and I spent the whole morning planning out what we were going to wear. She told me that my city clothes just weren’t going to cut it. She picked out a nice dress, similar to the one she’d worn the day before. It was an inch off my knee, and was light blue. She said it helped accent my bright eyes. She lent me a pair of her boots, too. They felt awkward at first, but before long I got used to them.
In the mid afternoon we piled into her car and headed off for the show. The Battle of the Bands was held at a huge fair grounds a few miles outside of town. There was a huge field across from the fair grounds that doubled as a parking lot, and when I climbed out of the Volvo I promptly stepped into a slick of mud.
“See why I had you wear the boots?” Sarah laughed.
“What can I say?” I said. “I don’t know why I ever doubt you.”
“I don’t either,” she said, with an innocent look.
Huck was already waiting for us at the entrance. He wore tight blue jeans, boots, and a starched, light yellow shirt. He had his white cowboy hat on, and looked especially handsome. Sarah practically squealed when she saw him.
The Battle of the Band was a much larger event than I had imagined. The fair grounds were huge, and reminded me of a carnival. There were portable booths setup all over selling merchandise and concessions. There were three stages total. Two smaller, satellite stages were on either side of the fair grounds, and then the main stage was located opposite the entrance, in the back.
“This thing is huge,” I said, marveling.
“It gets bigger and bigger every year,” Sarah said.
“So where are all the bands playing?” I asked.
Huck chimed in. “Today is just the main event. It’s down to the two finalist bands, and they’ll be on the main stage in an hour.”
I nodded. “Sarah told me you guys got eliminated yesterday,” I said. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Huck’s eyes narrowed, and he gave his head a sharp shake.
“I can’t believe those hicks from Boerne beat us,” he said. “We had that thing locked up.”
Sarah laughed at him. “They were pretty good,” she said. His eyes narrowed in a scowl. “Don’t get all butt hurt,” she continued. “You guys sounded like it was your first time playing together.”
The creases on Huck’s face receded a bit and he blew out a breath.
“Well I guess it was,” he said, almost to himself. “Well, don’t look at me like that… we had a hard time getting our schedules together. Brad was supposed to be practicing on his own—and he obviously wasn’t.”
Sarah laughed and shouldered into him. He wrapped his arm around her, and they clung to each other as we walked around. After we’d been to one of the booths, we’d basically been to them all. There was little to see aside from the stage areas, but Sarah said that would all change when Scottie started getting more corporate sponsors.
The afternoon was getting late, and we decided to head over to the main stage to wait for the competition and
Fighting Forward’s
show. The main stage was much larger than the two others, and a guard rail blocked off a couple tents that made up the backstage area. Huck’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the tents, and he muttered something about how he was supposed to be back there.
“Do you think we could get backstage?” I asked Sarah.
She shrugged a shoulder. “Probably, if we could track down Scottie,” she said. “Not that you’d want to, I was there last year and it’s pretty boring.”
“Yeah, but it sounds cool,” I said with a grin.
A huge, black backdrop divided the stage in two. A stage crew was busy setting up for the final part of the competition, and we settled ourselves to the side of the stage near the guard rail.
Slowly, the area in front of the stage began to swell with people. Within a half-hour the placed was packed with people waiting for the final competition to begin.
A table was set out in front of the stage and three chairs were positioned next to it. Name tags labeled who belonged in each seat, and Sarah told me it was for the judges. The crowds grew louder, and a cheer erupted when Scottie took the stage.
“Good afternoon,” he yelled into a mike. His voice boomed over the speakers. Another cheer went up.
He thanks everyone for coming out, and went on to introduce the two bands that had made the finals. It was The Boehrne Connection up against crowd favorite, Avarice. Scottie introduced the panel of judges, and I was surprised to recognize one of them. Lisa Goldstein sat on the far right of the table. She was the manager that Scottie had set me up with in San Antonio. She got me in touch with Stacey Meyer,
Fighting Forward’s
agent. I wondered if she had already known that
Fighting Forward
would be exactly what we needed when she had referred me to them.