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8. The Magic of Touring

Kyle couldn't believe he'd finally managed to escape his stuffy home. With tears in their eyes, his parents wished him and Jessie much luck and success and let him get out of that house with luggage and his instruments. Honestly, if they would've thrown in the Harley, he'd have absolutely no desire to ever return there.

His heart clenched at the thought of Sam, but his parents had somehow made him and Jerry magically disappear every time Jessie and her parents stopped by, as if it would be inconceivable for them to have more than once child. Kyle secretly wondered if his parents hadn't been worried that Jessie might like Jerry or Sam, who was her age on top of everything, more and not want to marry Kyle.

Well, tragedy averted. Jessie hadn't secretly fallen in love with Jerry for his brooding good looks and stick-up-his-ass charm. The family was saved and Kyle couldn't even think those words without laughing out loud.

But he could afford not to care for a few months as he and Jessie set of with only Macy for company. She was a short black woman with short hair and a short temper. Everything was short about her. But she was crazy competent when it came to yelling at various people on the phone.

Her latest trigger? They'd somehow lost all their new banners and posters somewhere between Denver and Phoenix and now she had to use the old ones which only featured Jessie. And the event company from Arizona was asking for too much money because they were apparently bring a tech person no one had asked for.

"No, I don't care. I want those banners yesterday!" Macy roared as the borrowed tour bus sailed between the airport and Phoenix.

Kyle strummed the chords of his guitar, keeping his smile in. Across from him, Jessie had headphones on and was listening to her latest song, tapping her pen against the pages filled with lyrics.

"You incompetent fuckers!" Macy yelled. She took her headset off and tossed it against the window. She did that a lot. "I'm sorry for the language, kids. I just don't know how something like this could happen."

"It's okay, Macy, we don't care," he assured her, changing the chord to a more dramatic one before strumming again.

"No, it's not! Our sales tripled with both of you in the news and on the banners."

"That shouldn't matter. We play the same music."

"Publicity, Kyle! The fans don't only love your music. They love the story behind your music. The love story that comes with the tour."

Yeah, the story... Their supposed engagement which had everyone bombarding them with requests for romantic ballads they should sing to each other. They'd only caved once and the recording of that particular performance had gone viral online. It led to an avalanche of ticket sales for the next show in hope they'd catch something like that again. It made Kyle uneasy. Singing was a very intimate experience and something he didn't feel like pretending about. Singing with Jessie was fine, fun. Singing to her however... It felt like an elaborate form of cheating. He'd rather pretend to hold her hand and kiss her forehead (which also drove the fans wild) than sing to her.

"We'll get the banners back," he said just to appease Macy.

"Damn right!" She picked up the headset again. It never stayed down for long. "Now let me see what the hell this tech guy is supposed to do. Your equipment is perfect."

"Yeah, but the venue may need him."

Macy hesitated at this, but decided to call someone and yell some more. Kyle tuned her out and focused on his chord progression. Jessie took her headphones off, her lips puckered in a pout.

"I don't like it," she declared.

"What are you trying to write?" he asked.

"I want..." Her cheeks caught fire. "I haven't really written any love songs, you know. And now everyone wants one!"

"So what? Your songs are great."

She stared at him with her eyelids half-dropped. "Bullshit."

"No, the ones you actually wrote. Not the candy floss you're singing written for you."

"Oh." She chewed on her lower lip. "I actually prefer singing your songs. You're so good with rhythm, lyrics, everything."

"Can't really take credit for that since it was the entire band."

"When we reach Texas do you think we could call on your band to sing with us?"

"I'm sure Joey will kill me if I don't." And he was actually looking forward to that. He was sure Uncaged would be more than willing to make a comeback and he'd missed his band almost as badly as he missed Kay.

Jessie nodded and turned back to the pages in her lap, looking thoughtful. She wrote down another few words, but sighed and tossed them aside.

"May I?" he asked, a bit curious about what was troubling her.

She shrugged but let him take the papers and the headphones. He placed them over his ears and let the melody play as he read the lyrics. They weren't half bad, but something seemed to be missing and she'd noticed it since she was actually good with music. The lyrics did feel off.

"Do you mind if I take a stab at this?"

She just waved as if to indicate it was all his. So he closed his eyes and listened to the melody. He would adjust that as well, so he dropped the papers and grabbed his guitar, strumming away. Yes, much better. As for the lyrics... Jessie had written about lost love, and it was so easy to think of Kay.

Her shining forget-me-not blue eyes, the waves of her golden hair, the delicate line of her jaw. The tine freckles on the bridge of her nose, the way it crinkled when she laughed, the way in which the entire room seemed to light up with her smile. And like in a dream, she could see her again at the prom in her silver dress with an open back. The most beautiful girl he'd ever seen in her life.

The words flowed easily, as did his pen on the pages. He'd give his life to see her again. Have a few sun-filled moments with her. Kiss her one more time.

And he was done.

The melody still lingered inside his head, but he took the headphones off, the pain in his chest much too real.

Jessie stared at him, her eyes wide and curious. "Holy shit, what was that?"

"What?" His voice shook the slightest bit.

"That was... Amazing!" She leaned across to his seat and grabbed the stray pages, taking in the lyrics he'd jotted down. "This is perfect."

Perfectly painful. "Glad to be of assistance."

"Assistance?" Jessie's expression turned sad. "This is yours now."

"It's still your song."

She shook her head and pulled back into her seat, hugging her knees to her chest. "No. You poured your soul out into it and that's why it's so good. That's also why I suck at it."

"You most definitely don't suck at it."

"How can I write about love, Kyle if I've never felt it? It's so obvious when it comes to you, so..." She looked away.

He felt bad now and made sure Macy was in the front, yelling at the phone, before coming over to her and wrapping and arm around her.

"You'll find love, Jessie."

"How? How when I could never be with people I liked and now I'm engaged to you!"

"Yikes, you're acting as if we're actually getting married."

She bit her lower lip and looked away. "I'm sorry. I know that once I turn eighteen I'd be technically free to do whatever I want. But the thing is, if I'll want to make a living for myself, I'll need to keep doing this, at least for a while longer. And you know what the odds of meeting honest people are in showbusiness?"

"A bit lower?"

"I'm afraid everyone will want to take advantage of me and that I wouldn't be able to protect myself and I'll just spiral."

"That doesn't have to happen. Look, I can teach you how to defend yourself."

The misery on her face turned to curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"How much do you know about fighting and shooting?"

The grin on her face was filled with excitement. "Fighting, quite a lot. Shooting, not so much."

"You can fight?"

"Yep. Trained in martial arts."

"We need to spar!" And holy hell, why did this girl keep getting better? Well, not for him, but in general. It was such a waste that she didn't have an amazing guy loving her and backing her up through all this.

"Oh, we will. As soon as we get to Phoenix. I want to impress you!"

"You're already impressing me quite a lot."

Her smile suddenly turned sad and her gaze returned to the lyrics of the newly written love song. A boulder plunged into Kyle's stomach as he became aware she was probably thinking the same thing as he did.

Why?

Why couldn't they work out? Why when they seemed perfect for each other? Kyle knew the answer as far as he was concerned. He had found someone more perfect for him than Jessie was. In her case, it was still a mystery, because even if in the moments when she seemed sad and craving for love, she didn't look at him any differently.

There was no longing there, no secret hope. She didn't back away from her promise to help him find Kay, brought her up almost as often as he did when Macy was not around, and continued on the path they'd picked with resilience.

It was obvious that she didn't want him. As obvious as it was that she liked him.

And for Kyle, that made her perfect.

"Oh, well," she said, breaking out from under the spell of repressed frustrations. "We don't really have any space to maneuver here, so  let's focus on the music, shall we? We'll be reaching Phoenix in about an hour and then it's back to work."

Kyle groaned. It was the only bit he didn't like about this tour. When he was out in Asia with Uncaged, they'd always taken care of their equipment, so they five of them would unload it, set it up, test it. It was another chance for bonding, teasing and just having fun.

Here, Macy didn't let them lift a finger, employing armies of strangers to move everything around. After trying to get involved once, Kyle had given up because he'd been seconds away from smacking someone for touching his stuff wrong. So, instead, he spent the setup hours in his hotel room getting bored out of his mind.

Jessie however went all in, getting angry, yelling, giving instructions. It had been funny to see her at it, with her flaming hair and blazing eyes, her fists propped against her hips, yelling about her equipment. It was like she became an entirely different person in that instance. A funny, tiny demon hellbent on destroying those who wronged her.

He couldn't be a funny, tiny demon, but a raging monster, so he preferred to sit it out, make up more music or read or something. Or sleep. He'd become a huge fan of sleeping over getting bored. Though now the prospect of sparring to occupy his time was a huge silver lining. Maybe he could convince Jessie to go to a shooting range. He really wanted to see what she was capable of.

So as they entered Phoenix, he did so with a little excitement. And it wasn't only the prospect of not getting bored, but the fact that after they were done in Arizona, they'd be heading for Texas.

And that was one huge step closer to finding Kay.

🌗🌗🌗

And here we are, bringing the parties together. Don't be shocked that the next part might have a new POV just to make things a bit more fun. Shall we?

Yes we shall!

Don't forget to vote and comment for support. I would love your thoughts on this little side project of mine. Especially if you're having fun and what you'd like to happen next.

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