Never Say Goodbye
summary:
AU after Big Time Break Up. Samantha "Manth" Summers, is a childhood friend of Kendall, his best friend from the time of his birth until she moved to Texas when they were seven. The one thing that Manth and Kendall shared the most as children was the love of music, writing silly songs together, and watching Power Rangers. After Kendall and Jo break up, Kendall falls into a rut that he can't seem to get out of. The BTR boys don't know what to do, so they call Manth, who happens to be planning to head to LA soon to try and get a record deal. It turns out that Manth is exactly what Kendall needs.
1. When We Were Children
Work had been long and hard today, and I was looking forward to snuggling up with some Ben & Jerry's and watching some TV. The only problem was, our TV was out. Dad had said he was going to get it fixed, but he had yet to call the cable company so they could come and fix it.
I scrounged around our DVD and video cabinet for a few minutes, trying to find something worth watching, by some miracle I stumbled across some old home videos, they were from when we still lived in Minnesota. I laughed at the labels on the tapes, Kendall and I had written them ourselves, and our handwriting was sloppy and messy. I didn't know about Kendall, but my handwriting had drastically improved since we had labeled them ten years ago. I grabbed the DVD labeled 'Kendall's sixth birthday, Manth's sixth birthday, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.' Our families had been so close when we lived in Minnesota, or parents had been best friends throughout high school and college, so Kendall and I grew up together.
I popped the DVD in, went and grabbed some Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia and a spoon, sat down on the couch and pressed the play button on the DVD player.
"How old are you turning today Kendall?" Jen asked her son on the old home video.
Kendall and I were running around the Knight's back yard in Minnesota, it was July, and it looked like it was incredibly hot out. Kendall and I were both in bathing suites and were running in and out of sprinklers, or we had been before Jen had caught our attention.
"I'm turning six Mommy." Kendall said with a toothy grin.
"I turn six in two weeks." I butted in sticking out my tongue at Kendall.
I remembered this scene as I watched it on the DVD. That was just the way that Kendall and I were, and always had been. Trying to one up each other in subtle ways, we had both behaved that way until Mom started to get sick, then it mellowed out a bit, and that was when we became closer than we had ever been. But when it came to birthdays, our behavior never changed. Kendall was born two weeks before me on July 25th. Our mom's had been pregnant together, Mom always ranted to Jen (Kendall's mom) about how she took the easy way out instead of waiting for her actual due date two days before my birthday, August 9th. Us joking about our ages and our birthdays was our one way of keeping normalcy when Mom got sick.
"Samantha Sabrina Summers, be nice." I heard Mom say sternly from the other side of the camera.
"Kendall, are you excited to turn six?" Jen asked her son.
"Yes Mommy, and Katie turns one a few days after Manth." Kendall answered his mom with a smile. Katie was sitting in a baby pool covered in floaties. I couldn't believe how little she was. It was hard to believe that she was now 11 years old.
This part of the tape continued for awhile, soon the image faded to black, and another image popped up. This one I recognized right away. It was my sixth birthday. Kendall and I were playing with the mini guitar that I had gotten for my birthday singing random gibberish songs.
"What are you singing Manth?" Dad asked me behind the camera. I always remembered my sixth birthday, it was the day that I got my first guitar, and it was the week before Mom officially got diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer.
"I'm singing a song that Kendall and I wrote daddy. Here listen." I said in my small six year old voice. I looked at Kendall and started playing wildly on the guitar.
"I love my mommy, and my daddy too, so won't you help me buckle my shoe." The two of us sang together loudly and obnoxiously.
Kendall and I continued to sing on the video tape, and I couldn't help but laugh at all of the random songs that Kendall and I had come up with when we were only six years old. There were however a few good lines, that I typed into my phone's notepad to keep for future use.
The scene faded to black once again and came back into few as Halloween of that same year. Kendall and I were both dressed as Power Rangers. I was the Pink Pterodactyl Ranger, and Kendall was the White Tiger Ranger. Looking back on it, I found the humor in the fact that I was the Pink Ranger and Kendall was the White Ranger, the characters that were those rangers were a couple, no wonder Jen, Mom, and Dad had taken so many pictures of us and put them everywhere that year.
"Hey Manth. How was work?" Dad asked as he entered the house, threw his keys in the boy and kissed my forehead.
"Hard and long. The music store was crazy today, there were kids coming in looking for instruments, and guitar lessons every ten minutes, and there was a kid who started his lessons on the drums today, he was horrible, my ears are still ringing." I laughed as Dad headed towards the kitchen.
After Mom had died, Dad and I moved from Minnesota to Texas. We now lived in a small town, in a two bedroom house that was five minutes away from everything, including Dad's work, down the street at our small town's even smaller newspaper. I hadn't seen Kendall, or any of the other guys (James, Carlos, and Logan) for years, but I still texted Kendall from time to time, and we all had each others numbers. Facebook is a wonderful tool.
"I'm sorry babe. I'm gonna order some Chinese, you want the usual right?" He asked me as he walked back into the family room with a carry out menu and the home phone.
"Yeah Dad, that's fine." I answered as I watched Kendall and I pose for a billion pictures and spread out our candy on the middle of the Knight's living room floor, in front of a TV that was playing some kid friendly Halloween movie.
"Alright, I gotcha. I will also call the cable company, we really need to get the TV fixed." Dad began with a laugh. "I actually need to get back to work on my story for work, when the guy comes to deliver the food just pay with the money in the jar, and come get me." Dad finished as he walked to the point that he was standing right over where I was sitting.
"Gotcha dad. Love you." I added and gave him a little almost upside down hug.
"Love you too Manth." He replied and headed upstairs with the phone to order our Chinese food.
I continued to watch the home videos. After much Halloween humor (involving Kendall and I singing many random childhood Halloween songs), the video switched to Thanksgiving. At first it just showed Kendall and I sitting with Mom watching the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. I watched in awe as Kendall and I commented on every single float, not just the ones that were made to appeal to six year-olds, the ones that were meant to apply to parents and teenagers.
My very generic ring tone rang as I watched the old home movies. No one should've been calling me, so I was confused, I looked down at my phone, and saw that of all people Logan Mitchell was calling. Logan and I had been friends when I still lived in Minnesota, from what I had gathered from Kendall's facebook, and his own facebook, Logan, Kendall, James, and Carlos were now inseparable.
"Logan?" I asked curiously as I answered the phone.
"Hey Manth." He replied courteously in the fashion that I remembered from Kindergarten and first grade.
"So, is there a reason that you are calling me?" I asked him curiously again.
"Yeah, Kendall just had to break up with his girlfriend, and he has been in a rut for the past month, his Birthday is coming up as you know, and we thought if there was one person on the face of this Earth that could get him out of it, it would be you. Is there anyway that you can come up to LA to visit?" Logan asked.
"Not really, not unless you can find some way to pay for all of it, and get my Dad to come to. I have a job, and he has a job, I can't really just up and leave, I am only sixteen years old." I replied. I paused the home video to make sure I wouldn't miss anything.
"Wait, I have an idea. Let me get back to you. Hold on a sec." Logan said and then hung up.
"That was really strange." I said to myself, all the while thinking, I hope Kendall is okay. While I was thinking about this the doorbell rang. I walked over to the door, paid JJ for the Chinese (he is always our carry out deliverer). I took my phone and the take out, and walked up stairs to Dad's office. "I've got the Chinese." I said with a smile as I handed him his boxes and chopsticks.
Dad and I started eating, joking, and talking about our days. This was our usual dinner bonding, take out, or some frozen dinner, eaten in Dad's office while he was haphazardly working on a story for the newspaper, talking about our days. Dad was in the middle of telling a story about how he had to track down an old lady for just about all day today to try and get a quote about a break in that happened three months ago, that he was doing a follow up story on, when my phone rang again. I looked down and saw that it was Logan.
"Go ahead Manth. Answer it. I'll wait." Dad said with a smile as he ate more of his fried rice.
"Hello again Logan." I answered.
"Hey. So I have something that might work, is your Dad there?" Logan asked.
"Yeah, we're eating dinner." I replied.
"Okay, can you put your phone on speaker, your Dad is going to want to hear all of this."
"Hold on a second." I said, putting my phone over the microphone and speaker of my phone. "Dad, it's Logan." I began, I quickly filled my Dad in on the situation, and he nodded saying he was ready to hear what Logan's master plan was. "Alright Logan, go for it." I said.
"Well, Kendall is a rut, and we were hoping that you could help him get out of it. However, as you mentioned you can't really just up and go to LA for a few weeks, so with a lot of begging and a little bit of pleading, we have established a plan that could work. You are still an aspiring singer/songwriter yeah?" Logan asked over the phone.
"Yeah, I have been since I got my first mini-guitar when I was six, and I have a bunch of videos on youtube." I answered.
"Good, I figured as much, Kendall still is the first one to comment and like everyone of your videos." Logan laughed.
Kendall and I may have drifted apart ever since I moved to Texas, but there were still certain things we always did, we always called each other at midnight on our Birthdays. Every Halloween we would text each other Power Ranger quotes, and every Christmas we still send each other presents.
"It turns out." Logan started up again. "That Roque Records, the actual owner of it, not our producer has been trying to get you on the label for quite awhile, so convinced our producer to offer you quite a deal. For the next three months, if you accept, Roque Records would like you to come and live in the Palm Woods Hotel, with other rising talent for three months to work on you're demo, if you're demo gets picked up then you can stay at the Palm Woods full time, and work on your CD. This way, you can follow your dream, and help Kendall." Logan finished.
I looked over at Dad before saying anything. Dad looked pleasantly surprised. "What do you think Daddy?" I asked him.
"Hey Logan. Can you give us a minute to discuss this please." Dad said into the phone.
"Sure Mr. Summers, I'll just wait on hold." Logan answered.
Dad clicked the hold button on my phone and then started to talk. "I think that this is a great opportunity for you Manth."
"I think it is too. But if we were to do it, what about your job? What about the house?" I asked him.
"We can easily rent the house out, and I am sure I can figure something out at work, maybe a blog or a column about risking everything to follow my daughter's dream." Dad said as he leaned over the table and kissed my forehead.
"So is that a yes?" I asked Dad curiously.
"Yes, it is most certainly a yes. Tell Logan to get this producer guy of his to fax us all of the contract information stuff, I'm going to go and call work." Dad answered.
"Thank you Daddy." I said with a huge smile giving him the biggest hug I could muster before he left the room. I clicked off the hold button and held my phone back up to my ear. "Logan. Are you still there?" I asked.
"Yeah. Did you guys reach a verdict?" Logan answered.
"Um yeah. Dad said yes. So I can come. He wants you to get your producer to fax all of the contract stuff to my house. I can text you the information."
"Okay great." Logan said. "Bye, I'll see you when you come."
"Bye."
a/n: so this is the first chapter of my latest BTR fic, if you read BTT at any point this is not related to it at all, and I just got the idea for this after watching Big Time Break Up. I hope y'all enjoyed! And REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!
xoxo,
Lexi