Disclaimer: Not mine, all Disney's...well, okay not all of it belongs to Disney. The song belongs to Evan and Jaron, and guess what?! The girls belong to me! LOL!! So I guess something IS mine...hmmp! Who'd a thought!? Well, anyway, this is the beginning of a quartet of song fics--be on the look out for "Here With Me", "Hanging On a Moment" and "Breathing". Yes, "A Mother's Pray" will be out soon, but I couldn't tell you when--but I'll get it written as fast I can! Anyway, with out further ado...
Crazy For This Girl
The ringing of the mellow acoustic guitar reverberated through Jamie Waite's room. The lights were off, allowing only the waning light of the afternoon to filter through the open window, the curtains blowing gently in the fresh spring breeze. The wind ruffled the stacks of papers, some written on, some not, stacked haphazardly through out the room, picking them up gently, then allowing them the fall back into place. The radio played softly in the background, adding a just a touch of harmony, and sometimes discord, to the beautiful music the young man was creating.
Jamie himself lay on his unmade bed, his guitar cradled gently in his big hands, plucking at the chords, allowing his thoughts to speak through the music he played. The slow, melodious tune betrayed his inner most mind, the aching need and unrequited love making itself known to the world, even if it wasn't known to the lover himself.
The black haired young man leaned back against his pillow, humming the tune he was plucking on the guitar to himself. Suddenly he stopped humming, and sat up straight, narrowing his eyes.
"Not again..." He groaned out loud, before flopping back onto his bed, still holding onto his guitar.
For weeks now, all he seemed to be able to write anymore were ballads about unrequited love and longing, usually about a friend that would never see the singer in the same light. Growling in frustration, Jamie sat up and unslung his guitar, setting it gently in his case, and stood up form his bed.
Sighing, the frustration gone as quickly as it came, the young man walked to his window, leaning his palms on the window seal and looking out across his yawn and the house across the street. Mrs. Philips was watering her roses, he noted to himself absently, his dark eyes scanning everything and filing it away in his brain.
Roses...rosy cheeks...smooth pale skin...beautiful dark-hazel eyes...
Jamie physically jumped at the turn his thoughts had taken, turning from the window to flop down on his bed, face first. For a second, he considered allowing himself to suffocate, just to get away from these FAR to disturbing thoughts about his best friend, Catie Roth.
What was UP with that, Jamie wondered to himself. Since when did he think about Catie in those terms--he had never wanted anything more from her then just friendship. Sure, she was pretty, and she was smart, and she was fun to be around, and she was...
Okay, that line of thinking was going to get him into trouble, Jamie realized quite quickly. Yes, she was smart, and she was pretty, but really, when did he start waxing poetically about her features?
And, there he went again!
"AGH!" Jamie groaned, burring his face in his hands, digging his fingers through his spiky dark hair, making it stand on end even more so then it normally did.
"Agh, what?" A voice sounded from his doorway, and Jamie peered through his fingers to see a flash of red hair and a familiar looking smirk.
"Hi Crimmie." Jamie mumbled through his fingers to his twelve-year-old sister, using the nickname he had given her when she was just a baby. The younger girl rolled her eyes, and put her hands on her hips, the slight smirk on her lips pulling into a true smile.
"Hi Romeo. You gonna tell me what your AGHing about now?" The girl demanded, and Jamie groaned out loud. And Val thought that BROOKE was nosy...
"Don't call me Romeo."
"Don't call me Crimmie. Anyway...are you going to answer my question or not?" The red haired girl demanded, moving from the doorway to his bed, flopping down uninvited next to him.
"Umm...not." Jamie groaned, laying back on his bed and covering his eyes with his hands.
Crimson didn't say anything for awhile, though Jamie could feel her eyes on him. Suddenly she began to laugh, her giggles getting louder by the minute. Her brother, wondering what in the world she thought was so funny, peered up at her from behind his spread fingers again, before dropping his hands altogether.
"What?" He demanded, finally not able to take her seemingly sourceless amusement any longer.
"YOU! You crack me up!" Crimson managed to choke out between giggles, her dark brown eyes, so like his, shining happily.
"Well, I'm glad that you get so much enjoyment out of watching me suffer." Jamie groused, sitting up and glaring at his beloved little sister with annoyed eyes.
"Well, if you weren't so funny when you were sad..." A new, younger voice piped up from the door. Turning their heads simultaneously, the brother and sister saw both two more of their sisters, fourteen year old Jazz and Molly, who had just turned eight.
Molly was the one who had spoken, and Jamie stuck his tongue out at her. The little girl giggled, and ran into the room, clambering up onto the bed to sit in between Crimson and Jamie, making herself comfortable. Jazz hovered at the doorway for a second, before Jamie waved her in. The only dark haired girl in the entire family paced across the floor carefully, before reaching the chair that sat beside Jamie's bed. With delicate fingers, she scooped up the clothes laying there, hanging them neatly on the back, before sitting down carefully, crossing on leg over the other.
Crimson watched her sister for a minute, before opening her mouth to make what Jamie knew was going to be a rude comment. However, somehow she managed to force it back, turning her mischievous eyes on her brother again. Molly soon followed suit, and even Jazz got into the game, her lips pulling into the Mona Lisa smile she had perfected over the years, and Jamie had learned to associate with trouble.
Before his sisters could put whatever devious plot from him they had in motion though, the door banged open, and the sound of little feet running as fast as they could be heard. The foursome turned to look, just as their youngest sister, Samantha Desdemona Waite, age four, came running into the room, took a flying leap, and somehow wound up snuggled in Jamie's lap.
"HI!" She giggled, hugging her brother around the neck, and beaming at her sisters. "What you all doin'?"
"Well, we're going to tease Jamie." Crimson started, and Jamie groaned, trying to drown out the rest of his sister's comment. "About what we told you about, yesterday. Remember?"
Sami scrunched her face up in thought for a second, and then her sunny smile was back. "About CA-TIE?" The girl's name was said in the sing song tone all children used when teasing others about like-liking someone.
"WHAT!?" Jamie shouted over his little sisters laughter. Turning his glare to the older girls, he growled "What exactly did you TELL her, guys?!"
"Just...that you..." Crimson trailed off, laughing helpless.
Jamie sighed, and looked down at the baby in his lap. "Sami, what did they tell you?"
"That you LIKE-LIKE Catie! Whoever Catie is..." Sami mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully, her big brown eyes sparkling.
Jamie's head snapped up again, his brown eyes almost black as he shot daggers at Jazz, Crimson and Molly with them. The girls just smiled benignly at their brother, lounging in their assorted positions.
"Would you MIND telling me how you found about my FRIEND Catie?" Jamie asked through gritted teeth, putting heavy emphasis on the word friend. The other girls all looked at Crimson, who stood up and walked calmly to a stack of papers, rifling thorough them with easy until she came across the one she wanted. Turning back to her brother, she smiled, holding up the sheet of paper so that he could read what was written on it.
I'll always follow
Wherever you lead
I need you
In my life
Catie...
You are everything...
To me...
Jamie blinked, and then swallowed, running his fingers through his hair. For the life of him, he couldn't recall writing that particular verse, but it WAS in his scrawling handwriting, something none of his sisters had learned to mimic--yet--so the chances that it had been forged were pretty slim.
Crimson caught his expression, and grinned, lifting an eyebrow.
"Am I right, or what?" Crimson laughed, her dark eyes sparkling.
"No." Jamie held on to his stubborn belief that he felt nothing more for Catie then just friendship, even though the proof that his feelings were FAR from friendly was right in front of him.
"It no good to LIE, Jamie." Sami informed him primly--she couldn't read the paper, but she could read her brother's face, and she could tell that what he was saying wasn't the truth, and he knew it.
"She's right. Plus, that was really pretty Jamie. You should let her see it!" Jazz suggested, her dark eyes glittering happily. Her older brother groaned, and hid his face, his cheeks burning.
"Are you OUT of your ballerina mind, Jazzy? I can't let her SEE that!" Jamie groaned, his cheeks still burning.
"And why not?" Jazz asked, innocently.
"Because, then she would know how I..." Jamie trailed off, the innocent tone in his sister's voice fooling him into falling for her way with words. She and Catie both had that uncanny knack for getting him to admit things that he didn't want to, Jamie thought to himself, grimacing.
"I KNEW IT!" Crimson crowed, hoping off the bed, her long red hair billowing out behind her and her dark eyes dancing. "I knew it, I knew it! You love her!"
"I do not!" Jamie shot back.
"Do too!" Molly chimed in, grinning like a Cheshire cat and bouncing on the bed.
"Do not!" Jamie snapped back.
"Do TOO!" Jazz sang out, still sitting primly on the edge of the chair.
"NOT!" He yelled as loudly as he could.
"What's wrong with being in wove with Catie? Is she not nice? " Sami asked in her baby voice, looking up at Jamie with large brown eyes.
"Yes--no! She's very nice, and very smart, and very pretty, and fun to be around, and she's just...wonderful...and I..." Jamie trailed off, finally allowing the realization that had been bubbling at the back of his brain for months now finally coming to the surface. His sisters looked at him expectantly, and Jamie smiled sheepishly. "I love her."
"See. I toldja so." Crimson teased, crossing her arms over her chest.
"How did you figure it out before I did?" Jamie demanded, a hint of a smile, playing on his lips.
"Easy. You always play what you feel, even when you don't REALIZE your doing it." Jazz told him, smiling and grabbing Molly's hand. "Come on, little bit, time for supper."
"How do you know?" Crimson asked, following the to as they headed for the door, her red hair swinging with each step she took.
"I can smell it." Jazz laughed, making her siblings groan.
"Isn't someone ever gonna tell Mom that she just CAN'T cook?" Crimson's voice faded away, leaving just Jamie and Sami alone in his room.
"Are you coming to dinner, Jamie?" Sami asked, looking up at him and flashing him the smile they had both inherited from their mother.
"In a minute. You go on." Jamie shooed the child out of his room, setting his chin in his hand. The little girl reached the doorway, and then turned back to him, her smile still creasing her face.
"Mommy once told me that it's never wrong to love somebody, Jamie." Sami told him sagely, her eyes still sparkling with the light he seen in her eyes before. Jamie looked at her for a long second, and then smile softly, running his fingers through his hair as he did so.
"Yeah, Mere told me that once too." Jamie smiled at the little girl, and she smiled back. Sami turned to leave, and headed downstairs, to suffer through their mother's cooking. Her brother watched her go, letting the smile fall from his face. "Just wish it was that simple, little one."
The young man stood up and walked to his window, watching the waning sun set behind the horizon, sighing softly as he did. The opening chords of a song singing softly from the radio caught his attention, and he reached for the knob, turning it up slightly.
She rolls the window down
And she
Talks over the sound
Of the cars that pass us by
And I don't know why
But she's changed my mind
Jamie blinked, his mind placing where he had heard the song from. Jazz had a new obsession with a couple of guys called Evan and Jaron, and this was her current favorite song--"Crazy For This Girl" or whatever.
However, this the first time he had listened to the lyrics, and he blinked. The girl's action sounded like something Catie would do, he had to admit. A slow smile pulled at his lips, and he tilted his head to the lift, listening to the rest of the words.
Would you look at her
She looks at me
She's got me thinking about her constantly
But she don't know how I feel
And as she carries on without a doubt
I wonder if she's figured out
I'm crazy for this girl
"Have these guys been spying on my life?" Jamie muttered out loud, his mind pulling up an image of Catie.
She was the one to hold me
The night
The sky fell down
And what was I thinking when
The world didn't end
Why didn't I know what I know now
He blinked, the words hitting a sore spot. He remembered the first time he had ever seen someone die while he was on call--an old woman who had suffered a massive heart attack in front of her four year old granddaughter. He had brushed it off while on duty, masking the horror he felt with a facade of cutting sarcasm and jokes.
But that night, he had been a wreck. Unwilling to wake up his mother or one of his sisters, he had instead turned to Catie. She had comforted him when no one else could have, giving him the strength that he had needed to make it through.
A small smile touched his lips--that was the night he had first fallen in love with her.
Right now
Face to face
All my fears
Pushed aside
And right now
I'm ready to spend the rest of my life
With you
Jamie took a deep breath, the bridge putting into words the exact emotions that swirled through him. He was ready to spend the rest of his life with Catie, as scary as it seemed. He was only seventeen, but he knew, he was sure, that she was the one that he was meant to be with for the rest of his life.
The young man gasped for air, the immensity of his revelation stealing his breath. He loved Catie.
But the problem was, how was he suppose to tell her that?