Alexander and I met on the first day of kindergarten twelve years ago. I'd been scared, as Blake had been placed in a different classroom and I felt as though I was alone and nobody would want to be around me. Then, as if he'd felt every ounce of discomfort and uncertainty in my little six-year-old body, Xander had sat down on the rug beside me, reached out, and grasped my hand. He'd smiled when I glanced his way too, the big dimple on his right cheek shining as he nodded in reassurance that everything would be okay.

I'd assured myself for the next six years that everything would be okay-as long as he was there to hold my hand through all of it. We'd made a promise on that day twelve years ago, and it was thrown away long before his amnesia.

Though I'd been hesitant to agree to whatever this plan the boys had conjured up was, I couldn't stop my eyes from finding Xander in the back of the RV with his head against the window, eyes shut, but the fingers dancing anxiously across the table top was a sure sign he wasn't asleep.

After our little moment in the hotel room, Mason had distanced himself a bit, which I was honestly grateful for given I had no idea how to approach that situation.

It was Mason who finally broke the silence, "So where exactly are we going?"

"It's a secret." Haiden said from the back of the RV, a small smile on his face. I raised an eyebrow that he brushed off with a wink. Shaking my head to myself, I leaned back in the recliner, but the moment I looked back in Xander's direction I found his eyes on me again.

Clearing my throat, I averted my eyes to Ashton strumming on his guitar. "Come on, you can't have us agree to this and not give us any clue where we're going."

Ryan, his arms stretched behind his head and feet kicked up on the small round table in front of him, shot me a wink, "I just hope you don't have stage fright."

I quickly looked to the front of the bus where my father sat in the driver's seat, fingers tapping anxiously against the steering wheel. "What's that supposed to mean? You agreed to this?"

"Of course, he did." Haiden said with a crooked, boyish smile. "It was my idea."

Though I wanted further explanation on the location of our late night adventure, I never got the chance to push and pry further, as the bus slowed to a stop and the two guards in our bus and the half dozen that had been tailing us the entire ride her moved to the doors, as if they expected the boys to be mauled the moment they stepped out.

That was not a good sign.

"Let's go! Do not answer any questions!" Jack snapped, but his eyes weren't on the boys, but me. "Any of you."

I thought about snapping back with a bitter retort, but Ryan rested a hand on the small of my back, threw a pair of sunglasses on despite it being night, and ushered me out of the bus.

I was blinded by flashes from cameras in every direction and would have most definitely ran into something if Ryan and Haiden hadn't guided me in the right direction. By the time the floaters had left my vision and my eyes adjusted, I saw we were in a club. Though there'd be a hoard of paparazzi and people outside, it was nowhere near the extent there usually was, and as I slowed to a stop near the stage, I saw that the crowd was not even a quarter of what usually filled stadiums.

This must have been some kind of secret show or something.

"You think this is a good idea?" I whispered to Mason as he approached me, but his eyes were on our best friend, staring out the open door in awe.

"I don't know yet." he was just as quiet, and after a moment his eyes met mine. "I hope so."

We didn't have a chance to conversate further as Xander limped over to join the two of us, his eyes still wide and lips parted as he made a gesture with his thumb toward the door. "They're all here for us?"

"Yep." Mason said with a smile. "We're kind of a big deal."

I jabbed him in the side with elbow and he shrugged a shoulder when Xander looked my way. "You're going to preform too, right?"

"Absolutely not." I said with a laugh. "Unless you want everyone in front covered in vomit, I'll stick to behind the scenes."

Xander shook his head. "No, Stevie, come on. You're an amazing writer and singer. You don't have to stick to writing those articles, you could be so much more than that. You've wrote about it a few times on your blog thing. How it's your dream."

Mason grabbed my forearm like an excited child, eyes darting to me for confirmation I'd just heard what he had.

"Did you just hear what you said?" I replied, stepping forward and taking his shoulders in my hand. "Alex, you remembered something! Small and dumb, but it's still progress!"

He grinned, eyes lighting up the way they had when we were children. It was a light that had been long since snuffed out, and seeing it made my chest swell up with emotions I had no desire to feel.

"I need you to learn this song." Ryan thrusted a piece of paper into my hand, disrupting our moment, and slapped a hand against Mason's shoulder to my right. "You know it already. You two are going to duet it."

Mason peered over my shoulder to see the song and color immediately drained from his face. "Where the hell did you find this?"

"We don't have time to argue right now. The boys and I are going up. You two work this out." Ryan pointed his finger back at me. "I hope you're a quick learner."

He disappeared into the wall of security guards in front of us, and I finally read through the lyrics on the page, my own cheeks starting to grow warm when I read the lyrics.

"This is a love song." I stated the obvious, afraid to see how Mason was reacting to the entire situation. "I. . . I cant perform on stage, let alone a love song I barely know."

"You'll do great." Xander said with an encouraging smile. "You're Willow Stevens, you're great at everything."

*

Turns out my stage fright didn't magically decide to go away. The minute I watched Ryan set a bar stool beside the piano Mason would be at a few feet away, I felt my heart plummet into my stomach and my nausea intensified. Mason, though he wasn't overcome with horror of walking out on the stage, was still pissed that Ryan had invaded his privacy, and even more so that he was having to perform a personal song in front of people.

"We have a special guest here with us tonight." Mason's voice brought me back to reality, his arm outstretched in my direction. "Willow, come out here."

I don't want to. I want to disappear in a giant gaping hole in the ground, thank you.

All it took was one look at Xander hugging his arms around himself in a chair behind me to inhale deeply and head out to join Mason on stage. The crowd erupted in gasps and clapping, though I wish they would have just remained silent so I could pretend they weren't there.

As soon as Mason had gotten situated, he leaned forward and whispered, "Just look at me. Pretend it's just the two of us. When I started preforming when I was a kid, I used to imagine I was alone in my bedroom or shower, it made it easier. Not as intense or scary. You got this."

I nodded slowly, thanking one of the staff members as they rested a microphone in my hand. Mason, cleared his throat, took a deep breath, then started playing the piano, my eyes roamed his fingers as they danced across the keys, both amazed and in a trance over the beautiful melody.

He took his boss and band mates words seriously as the moment he fixed the microphone to be positioned in front of his mouth as he played, his eyes burned into mine with such an intensity I was sure I wouldn't be able to focus on the lyrics I'd tried to memorize.

"I don't want it all. I just want a little bit of your time. We can take it slow, you could ask and I'd go. And baby, I love your smile, I know it's not right, but I'm claiming it as mine. Can we just lay here for a while? I need it now, baby, I need a sign."

I'd never sat and listened to Mason's parts in any of the boys songs long enough to hear just how beautiful it was. Melodic, just enough rasp, and so intense the entire crowd had grown silent.

"Every night I try to hide it, but there's just some things you can't fight and. . ."

He pulled away from the microphone for a second and changed the keys before he continued into the first chorus.

"I'm falling faster every day. It always comes back to you and me. Do you feel it too? I'm falling faster every day, falling even more in love with you."

Against my will, tears were burning the back of my eyes and I had to blink rapidly to keep them from falling. Bringing the microphone to my mouth, I kept my eyes trained on Mason and did exactly as he'd told me a few minutes ago.

"As hard as I try, I can't help but see everything in you. All your beautiful imperfections, it's all I do. I wish you could see them too. All these years and I still don't know who I am without you. And every night I try to fight it, but some things you just can't hide and. . ."

There was something so beautiful about the way Mason's voice blended into mine as we repeated the chorus. We repeated it once more before Mason started to speed up the melody and slipped right into the bridge of the song.

"I've waited for this for so long. I know I should give up, I know it's wrong. But I'm not that strong and every day I try to fight it, but I'm tired and I don't want to deny it.

We went into the chorus one more time before we traded off single the last verse of it, and Mason ended the song by taking the microphone and moving so he was only inches from me and sang, "I'm falling faster every day. Falling even more in love with you."

For a second I truly forgot we were surrounded by people and the moment the crowd erupted with screams I jumped and threw my hand over my chest. Mason just laughed and helped me to my feet. We stood and bowed, but I was so lost in my thoughts and what the hell that entire song was to come to my senses until we were backstage and the boys were all bombarding me.

"Masey's got a crush." Ashton taunted on his way back on to the stage, winking at me before he and his brother headed back out.

I turned to Mason, sure we'd have a minute to talk about what just happened, but the second he opened his mouth I heard a chair squeal against tile and we both looked to where Xander was standing, grabbing a crutch to keep himself upright. It wasn't him standing that was concerning, but the irritated expression he wore.

"Alex, wh—"

"I remembered something else watching you two out there." Xander stated, and by the way Mason tensed, I had a feeling he had a pretty good idea of the blow that was coming. "I've been trying so hard to understand all these emotions and fragments and pieces of broken memories for the last couple weeks. But sitting there, I remembered it clear as day. Or should I say I felt it."

"Xander." Mason warned with a shake of his head.

"He can write all these beautiful little love songs to you, but I was doing it six years ago. I loved you long before he did. Every single song in my song book, they were about you, Willow. You were the girl. I was in love with you and I don't think I ever really got over it." Xander made a gesture toward the boys on stage. "I named the band after you too. Eleven Eleven. Your birthday is November eleventh Willow."

I blinked, staggering back into Mason, but he didn't look as if he were surprised by the reaction, or maybe he was still unsure of the memories that were surfacing and didn't know how to act.

"You know," he started to back away from us and toward the security guard by the door. "I guess some things really are better left forgotten."