Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya. This is the chapter that was originally going to be the second chapter before I decided to add a little bit more about their individual lives into the beginning of the story.
This one is pretty long, little over 5,000 words. But I love it. And I hope you do too.
Enjoy!
"Wow. I don't think this gym has changed one bit over the last ten years," Kebo says as he and Grant walk into the gym, his wife Hannah walking beside him, their fingers laced together.
The two men are both wearing a nice pair of jeans and Henley's. Hannah is wearing a simple flowing flowery dress that goes down to just past her knees.
"You've got that right," Grant says to his best friend. "I think I can still smell all the sweat and BO that's accumulated in here over the years." He scrunches up his nose and Kebo chuckles.
"Whatever man." He puts a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go find some food and scope out all the hot, possibly still single, women."
"Kebo," Hannah scolds, hitting him in the chest with her hand.
"I meant for Grant, obviously," Kebo says, rubbing his chest slightly. "I have you, I love you, I don't need anyone else."
"No you do not," Hannah says with a smile, leaning up a bit to give him a quick kiss on the lips.
"Kebo," Grant speaks up, "you and I both know that we never had to do much searching when it came to the ladies. They always found us. Still do, in my case."
Kebo nods. "Very true. I still want to find the refreshment table, though. I'm feeling a bit puckish."
"Fine," Grant says, "we'll go and find the food. Then we'll do a bit of mingling. Alright? Hannah needs to meet all the people we went to school with and learn more embarrassing stories about you."
"Sounds good to me. Except for the embarrassing stories piece. I'm not thrilled about that." Kebo turns around and gently tugs Hannah along with him towards the refreshment table. Grant just chuckles and follows after his friends.
"You know, this place is actually kind of nice," Miles says as he walks into the gym hand in hand with Skye, sliding one hand into the pocket of his slacks, glancing down quickly to make sure his dress shirt is still nice. Skye is standing right beside him, wearing one of her nicer pairs of pants and her best shirt. Jemma and Fitz walk in right behind them, hand in hand as well. Fitz is wearing a pair of slacks and a nice dress shirt, and Jemma is wearing a very cute, yet simple summer dress.
"You think this is nice?" Skye asks her boyfriend. He nods his head. She laughs quietly. "Wow. You've obviously seen some crappy gyms then." She looks over at her best friends to see them watching the part going on, Jemma with her brows furrowed in worry. "Hey, Jem, you okay over there?"
Jemma looks at her. "Oh, yes. Just worried about Noah is all. Don't think I've ever been away from him for this long."
"What about every day at work?" Skye asks her.
"That's different," Jemma tells her. "He hardly knows your parents and I'm just a little worried that he'll be fussing all night."
A slow song comes over the loudspeakers and Fitz turns to Jemma, extending his hand out to her. "I think I have a way to take your mind off things. Would you care to dance?"
Jemma giggles and takes his hand. "I'd be honored." Fitz smiles and then leads her out onto the dance floor, pulling her close and wrapping his arms around her waist. She wraps her arms around his neck and the two begin swaying back and forth.
Skye smiles at her two friends and how happy they are. She turns to Miles and looks up at him. "Hey, wanna dance with me?"
He smiles. "Sure." He grips her hand and pulls her out onto the dance floor. He wraps his arms around her waist and she wraps her arms around his neck, the two of them beginning to sway.
"Alright alright," the reunion DJ speaks into the microphone when the song ends, "we're gonna pick the pace back up a little bit with our next song. This one comes from a guy you all probably know very well as he originated from this here very school. Straight off of his latest album, here is Hey Princess."
The music starts and Skye groans. Miles looks over at her with his brows furrowed in confusion.
"What is it?" he asks.
She sighs and drags him off of the dance floor to one of the tables lining the walls. Sitting down in the chairs, Skye turns to face him, taking a deep breath to try and calm her racing heart.
"The song they're playing right now, Hey Princess, that's my song."
"What do you mean it's your song?"
"Grant wrote that song for me back when he asked me to be his girlfriend. It's the first of many songs he wrote for me in the few years we were together."
"Wait, really?"
She takes a deep breath and shifts on her seat, nodding her head. "Yeah. We'd been friends since the second grade and one of the things we really bonded over in all our years of friendship was our love for music. He wrote that song for me on my sixteenth birthday which is when we started dating. We got married the August after we graduated so we'd both be eighteen and there wouldn't be any issues legally; we already knew each other so well from being friends for so long and we thought we were ready for that next step in our relationship already. We weren't even married for a year before we got divorced.
She swallows thickly. "Even though it's been years since it happened it's still a little difficult for me to talk or think about. I was young and stupid and actually thought it was going to last forever. After we got divorced, Grant stayed here in LA and obviously started a solo career in music. Our friend Kebo who played drums for us stayed with him. I used the money I had originally been saving for college before we decided to start a band to move out to Massachusetts. I'll always love LA, but at the time I just wanted to be as far away as possible from Grant.
"Fitz came with me because he was like my brother and didn't want me venturing out on my own without anyone. Jemma came with us too, because she and Fitz had finally just started dating by that point and she and I were always pretty close. They both transferred to colleges out there so they could come with me. It wasn't too long after being in Provincetown that I found out I was pregnant with Jess, which made me really happy to have Fitz and Jemma there even though in the beginning I insisted that they didn't need to come with me. For a little while I tried to tell Grant, but I don't think any of my letters ever got through to him. Or he just didn't care. And he changed his number at some point, so I wasn't able to call him. But it's not like I didn't change my number too, so I can't say much about that."
"Wow," Miles says.
Skye sighs. "And the sad part is, after Jess was born, I'd write a letter to him at least once a month, and send some pictures so he could see her grow up, as if he'd even get them."
Miles reaches out and grabs her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Hey, at least you tried. And actually made an effort."
"I guess so. It's just hard, knowing that Jess is never going to know her father."
"Grant?"
Halting his conversation with Kebo and Hannah, Grant turns around to see a woman with jet black hair and a smile on her lips standing in front of him.
It takes him a moment to realize who she is and then he smiles. "Kara Lynn Palamas."
"Actually, it's Campbell now," she tells him, holding up her left hand to show off her engagement and wedding ring. "I'm not sure if you remember Lincoln from high school, but he's my husband now."
"Oh, wow, congratulations. And the name sounds kind of familiar, but I don't think I talked to him all too much. Is he here tonight?"
She smiles at him. "Thanks. And no, he's not actually here tonight," she tells him with a shake of her head. "There was a thing at work that he couldn't get out of. He's on his way to becoming a doctor."
"That's great for him. And I guess I'll just have to meet him some other time, then and catch up."
Kara smiles. "Yes you will. I think that would be pretty fun."
"Hey Kara," Kebo interrupts, stepping up beside Grant and waving at Kara.
She tosses him a smile. "Kebo." She wraps her arms around his neck in a hug. When she pulls away, she looks up at him. "So good to see you again."
He smiles. "You too. This is my wife Hannah." He reaches behind him for his wife's hand.
Kara smiles at her. "So nice to meet you."
Hannah smiles back. "And you."
"So how are you guys?" Kara directs towards Grant and Kebo.
"Doing pretty well," Kebo tells her. "Just been working on some music with my boy here," he says as he claps Grant on the shoulder. "Though I mostly just follow along to whatever he comes up with, I do get to have some input about the rhythm and the beat, but not so much when it comes to actual the lyrics. Those are pretty much a secret until Grant reveals them."
"Oh yeah!" Kara exclaims. "I've heard your music on the radio so many times, Grant. And I feel like I should admit that I've bought every single one of your albums when they came out. You're really good."
"Thanks," he says with a small smile. "I'm just glad people are enjoying it so much. I was a little worried about that when I was first getting started."
"Speaking of your music, are you going to play something for everyone tonight?" Kara asks him.
He shakes his head. "No, I don't think so. I kind of just want to relax and hang out tonight, catch up with everyone."
"Oh come on," she pleads with him. "Out of everyone at this school, you're probably the most successful. You have to sing for everyone."
He thinks about it for a moment. "Okay," he concedes, "I guess I can perform a couple of songs."
"Awesome!" she squeals. "I'll go and tell the DJ." Kara runs off excitedly for the DJ booth.
"You really sure you want to perform?" Kebo asks him. "We don't have any of your tracks on us."
"I'll just do some acoustic stuff, then," Grant tells him with a shrug. "Wanna run down to the student lounge and see if there are still some guitars down there that we can use?"
Kebo smiles. "Of course. Let's go."
"Okay everybody," the DJ says, "we're gonna switch things up a little for a minute. We have a very special treat for all of you here tonight. You may remember him from when he was here in high school with all of you, and now he is one of the biggest names in music. And he's agreed to perform a couple of songs for all of you. Please welcome to the stage, Grant Ward!"
Everyone cheers as Grant walks out onto the stage, an acoustic guitar in his hands. He takes a moment and plugs the guitar into one of the amps on the stage, slipping the strap over his neck.
"Hello Shield High Class of 2005! Who missed me?" They all cheer again and he smiles and lets out a small laugh. "It feels so great to be back here. But also a little weird. It's been so long."
"Your cheekbones are still amazing!" someone shouts from within the crowd.
Grant ducks his head slightly and laughs. He looks back up. "Thank you very much for that. I try." He takes a deep breath. "Alright, so tonight, I will be playing a few of my songs acoustically for you, because this was all pretty last minute so I didn't have much time to get anything together. But because I went to school with all of you I was willing to make an exception." He smiles and they cheer. "Okay, here we go." He begins strumming the guitar for a few measures and then opens his mouth to start singing. Most of the people in the crowd, having recognized the song, begin singing along with him.
.
.
.
"You guys are so amazing," Grant says to the crowd with a smile. "Unfortunately, this next song will be the last for tonight." The crowd boos playfully. "I know, I know," he says into the mic with a small laugh. "But I promise you that this is going to be a good one. This is actually one of the songs off of my newest album that just came out back in April and I've uh, I've had it tucked away for quite a long time but decided to finally bring it out into the open for everyone to hear. This song is extremely personal to me, I wrote it years ago at a time in my life when I lost the one person I ever really cared about and the entire thing completely crushed me. This is called Always, I hope you enjoy it."
He looks down and gets his fingers on the right frets, begins strumming softly, and then looks up to see the crowd smiling brightly back at him.
After a few measures he opens his mouth and sings.
This Romeo is bleeding
But you can't see his blood
It's nothing but some feelings
That this old dog kicked up
It's been raining since you left me
Now I'm drowning in the flood
You see I've always been a fighter
But without you I give up
Now I can't sing a love song
Like the way it's meant to be
Well, I guess I'm not that good anymore
But, baby, that's just me
And I will love you, baby, always
And I'll be there forever and a day, always
I'll be there 'til the stars don't shine
'Til the heavens burst and the words don't rhyme
I know when I die,
You'll be on my mind
And I'll love you always
Grant swallows thickly to get rid of the lump forming in his throat and then blinks back the tears he knows are welling up in his eyes. This song always gets to him.
Now your pictures that you left behind
Are just memories of a different life
Some that made us laugh, some that made us cry
One that made you have to say goodbye
What I'd give to run my fingers through your hair
Touch your lips, to hold you near
When you say your prayers, try to understand
I've made mistakes, I'm just a man
When he holds you close, when he pulls you near
When he says the words you've been needing to hear
I'll wish I was him 'cause those words are mine
To say to you 'til the end of time
Yeah, I will love you, baby, always
And I'll be there forever and a day, always
If you told me to cry for you
I could
If you told me to die for you
I would
Take a look at my face
There's no price I won't pay
To say these words to you
He shifts on his feet and steps back from the mic, plucking the strings with ease for an instrumental solo as he lets a few tears escape and roll down his cheeks, his head lowered so no one will see.
When he reaches the end of it he steps back over to the mic and continues singing with every ounce of passion and emotion that he can, wanting to finish off strong.
Well, there ain't no luck
In these loaded dice
But, baby, if you give me just one more try
We can pack up our old dreams and our old lives
We'll find a place where the sun still shines
And I will love you, baby, always
And I'll be there forever and a day, always
I'll be there 'til the stars don't shine
'Til the heavens burst and the words don't rhyme
I know when I die,
You'll be on my mind
And I'll love you, always
Always
Once he finishes the song, plucking the last few notes, everyone claps and cheers, causing him to smile a little through his sadness. As he's looking out into the crowd, that's when he sees it. It's very brief, but he still notices it. He sees a woman standing near the back of the room turn and rush from the room, her short brown hair billowing out slightly behind her.
"Oh gosh," Skye groans when her brain analyzes what Grant meant by his statement to the crowd.
"What is it?" Miles asks, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"I think the next song is about me," she tells him quietly.
"Are you sure?" he asks.
She nods her head when she hears the opening chords. "Yeah. I mean, I had my suspicions when Jess had me put the CD in when we were in the car after she got it and this song came on, but I wasn't sure. Now I'm really sure."
Skye watches as Grant looks down at his guitar as he plays. And then he starts singing. As he sings she starts to remember one of the reasons why she fell for him so hard. Not just for his looks. But how much passion and emotion he puts into his music, especially when he's singing about or to her.
And all of it makes her heart start to ache once again.
During the moment when it's just his guitar playing, she can see the way his body curls in on itself ever so slightly and how his shoulders shake just a bit. Even after all these years she still knows him so well. She knows how emotional the song is making him.
"I'm sorry," she whispers to Miles as Grant gets closer to the end of his song. "I just…I can't be in here right now. I need to go and be alone somewhere for a little while."
"Where are you going?"
"Don't worry. I'll still be in the school; I just can't be in the same room as him. Not after that song. It's so much more different hearing him sing it live than it is hearing it on a CD."
"Okay," he says with a gentle hand on her arm. "I understand. I'll be here when you're ready to leave. Just come find me."
"Thank you," she says with a small smile, leaning up to give him a kiss on the cheek. Then she turns and walks quickly out of the gym, making her way down the hallway.
Walking through the school building, she doesn't think about where she's going. She just lets her feet carry her to a place, any place away from him. As she's running, she eventually comes to a stop just outside a familiar door.
Looking up at it, she runs her hand across the red painted wood of the door, so many different memories rushing back into the forefront of her mind.
Twisting the doorknob and finding it unlocked, she pushes the door open to reveal the student lounge.
Taking a deep breath, she steps inside, every happy moment she ever had in that room with him washing over her.
Moving slowly into the room, she runs her hand across the back of the faded green couch as the tears slowly starting to form in her eyes. When she reaches the other end of the couch, she falls to the floor and leans back against it, letting the tears cascade down her cheeks.
After he watches the woman leave the gym, Grant turns his attention back to the crowd and pastes a smile on his face. "Thank you so much everybody. I had such a great time playing for you all tonight and it's been so great to see everyone again. But I am now going to pass the musical gauntlet back over to the fantastic DJ. Thank you so much." Unplugging the guitar, he makes his way towards the edge of the stage and down the steps, his face falling again.
Kebo meets him at the bottom. "Nice job, man."
"Thanks," he says back. "Listen, I have to go and do a couple of things but I'll be back in a little bit."
"Where are you going?"
"Don't worry about me, man, I'll be fine. I'm just going to go return this guitar and then walk around a bit, see my old locker, stuff like that. You stay here and mingle, alright? Introduce Hannah to some more people; reminisce with them about the good old days when you thought you were cool."
"I was very cool," Kebo retorts. "And I still am."
Grant chuckles. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. I'll see you later. Don't wait up for me, just head out whenever you want."
Giving him a quick pat on the back, Grant turns around and begins walking through the crowd of people in the gym towards the entrance and out the doors.
Making his way down the hallway, he heads down to the student lounge to replace the guitar that he borrowed and maybe just relax for a little while. Singing that song always takes a lot out of him, more than he'd care to admit, and he just needs to let himself get things together again.
As he gets closer to the room, his brows furrow together when he hears sniffling and soft crying coming from inside. He notices the door is open and can hear the crying becoming louder as he moves closer.
Stepping into the room he removes the guitar from around his neck and sets it down right inside the door, leaning it against the wall.
"Hello?" he calls out softly, hoping he doesn't startle them. The crying stops immediately.
"Who's there?" the other person calls out in a shaky voice. They're sitting behind the other end of the couch and he can only see the top of their head.
"Grant. Grant Ward," he replies.
"Grant?"
"Yeah," he says back, somewhat hesitantly. "What's your name?"
They don't reply, and instead, slowly start to stand up. Their back is to him, so he can't see their face just yet.
"You're the woman who ran from the gym just a few minutes ago," he points out when the realization hits him.
She laughs kind of sadly. "Yep. That was me. I couldn't handle being in the same room as you. Especially after you played that song."
"What are you talking about?" he asks her, his brows furrowed together.
"I know that your song was about me," she replies.
He shakes his head. "No, you must be mistaken. That song was about someone who left me a long time ago. Someone I really cared about."
She nods. "Yeah, I know. Like I said, you wrote that song about me." She slowly turns around and in that moment it's as if the whole world around him stops spinning. Her hair is different, which is why he didn't recognize her from behind, but now that he sees her, everything else he tried to keep buried down comes rushing back.
His breath catches in his throat as he stares at her. "Skye?"
"Hey, Grant."
"Wh—what are you doing here?"
"I'm here for the reunion. Just like you are."
He shakes his head slightly. "Right. Um, how are you? Are you doing okay?"
She shrugs, brushing some of her hair behind her ear. "I'm doing alright. Moved to Massachusetts after I…left, made a pretty good life for myself out there. I even own a little music shop that sells instruments and sheet music and other things music related."
He nods. "That's good. That's really good. I'm glad you're doing well."
"No need for me to ask you how you've been, though," she says. "You're pretty much everywhere these days."
There's a moment of silence as the two just stare at each, and before either of them can say anything else, a loud trill breaks them out of their trance-like state. Skye reaches into her bag and pulls out her cell phone, answering the call.
"Hello?" she says into the receiver. A small smile crosses her face. "Hey, angel. It's late, what are you still doing up?...What do you mean you can't sleep?...But you need to, baby. If you don't go to sleep now, then you probably won't be able to get up tomorrow morning and go out to Hollywood with me…Yeah. We can…You're welcome. Now go to sleep, okay?...I promise...I love you too, baby girl." She hangs up her phone and slips it back into her bag.
"Who was that?" Grant asks her.
She takes a deep breath. "My daughter. Her name is Jessica."
"You…you have a kid?" She nods her head. "How old is she?"
She hesitates. "She turned eight in March."
"Wow. That's great, Skye. I'm really hap—" he trails off and furrows his brows when something starts to click in his mind. "Hang on. If she's eight, then that means you had her not that long after you left me. That also means when you left you met some else and got pregnant pretty quickly or she's—" he trails off again, not being able to finish his own sentence.
"She's yours," Skye finishes for him, in an almost whisper.
"She's mine?" He shifts on his feet. "And you kept her from me?" he asks through gritted teeth.
She narrows her eyes at him. "Well I didn't exactly intend to do so. But you really weren't the easiest person to get into contact with."
"What are you talking about? You could have called me."
"You changed your number."
"Well you could have written me."
"I did!" she shouts, tears welling up in her eyes. "I wrote to you every month for two years after she was born! Two damn years, Grant! I even sent you pictures of our daughter so you could see her grow up. You never wrote me back! Not once! Eventually I just gave up. Figured you didn't care enough about your own flesh and blood to want to have anything to do with her!"
"Didn't care?! Skye, I didn't even know she existed!"
"That's not my fault!" she screams at him. "I tried to get into contact with you! You're the one who didn't have the decency to answer me back."
"I would have answered you back if I had gotten any of your letters! Which I didn't, by the way. I have people who help me sort through all of the letters I get and toss out any junk mail that they find. They must have seen your letters and tossed them before I got the chance."
She places her hands on her hips and raises her eyebrows. "So my letters were just junk mail to you?"
He groans in frustration. "That's not what I meant and you know it."
"Sure as hell sounded like that's what you meant."
"They probably thought you were just another person who was trying to claim that your baby was mine. It's happened to me before. Not too often, thank goodness, but it has happened."
She crosses her arms in front of her defensively. "Well this time around it was actually the truth."
"I know that now," he says, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down. He shifts on his feet. "Look, you have to believe me, Skye. If I had known you had written me, if I had known about our daughter, I would have dropped everything to read your letters. I even would have flown all the way to Massachusetts to see the both of you."
"Really?" she asks him, uncrossing her arms.
"Really." He takes a deep breath and then steps towards her. "You have to believe me when I tell you that our divorce was the hardest thing that I ever had to go through in my entire life. I never wanted any of that for us."
"If you didn't want it then why didn't you fight it? Why didn't you fight to have me stay?" she asks him quietly, the tears threatening to spill over.
"Because I knew you weren't happy," he admits. "I knew you didn't like where our life was at, and if I had made you stay then you would have been miserable."
"Maybe things would have changed," she says. "And you would have been able to see your baby girl grow up into the beautiful little girl she is today. And let me tell you something, she's amazing and looks so much like you."
All of the anger leaves his body at hearing those words. "She does?"
"Yeah," Skye says with a nod. "She looks so much like you a little piece of me breaks inside whenever I look at her because all I see is you and it just reminds me of what I lost when I left." She swallows thickly. "Do you, uh, do you want to see a picture of her?"
He can't find his voice to say anything so he only nods. Skye pulls out her phone again and unlocks it, tapping on it a few times before holding it up for him to see.
"C—can I?" he asks, holding his hand out and gesturing to the phone. She nods, so he takes the phone from her and looks at the screen.
Staring back at him are two beautiful, big brown eyes. The eyes of his daughter. Looking at the picture more closely, he can see that she has the same long brown hair that Skye does. But she has his cheekbones and his eyes. And his complexion as well. Skye was right, that little girl looks so much like him.
"She's beautiful," he says, looking back up at Skye.
She smiles. "Yeah. She is, isn't she?"
He hands the phone back to her. "When's her birthday?"
"March 8th," she tells him, pocketing her phone again.
"That's…that's the day we first met."
She laughs quietly. "I know. I went into labor on the 7th but she was born early morning on the 8th. She was actually due a few days before that but I guess she wanted to wait."
"Wow," he says. "So, uh, where is she tonight?"
"With my parents. They haven't seen her in a while and she was really excited to see them again."
"That's nice. And does…have you told her about me? That I'm her dad?"
Skye shakes her head. "No. I mean, she knows she has a dad somewhere, obviously, but she doesn't know that it's you. I didn't want her to know."
"Well why not?" he asks, raising his voice. "I'm her father, Skye. Even if I can't know about her, why can't she know about me? What would be so wrong about that?!"
"Because she idolizes you, Grant!" Skye shouts at him. "She knows every one of your damn songs by heart and has each and every one of your CDs and singles! She even has an autographed poster she got in a magazine of you on her wall! She's just a little girl, who pretty much worships this man who is actually her father, but I can't tell her!"
"Why the hell not?"
She sighs. "Because, Grant, while she would be excited upon first meeting you and knowing you, she would become completely crushed later on. She would go around telling all of her friends about you being her dad and none of them would believe her and she'd come home crying. And I'd have to live with the fact that my little girl can't know her father because I can't get into contact with him."
"Well you can now," he tells her.
"What?" She gives him a confused look.
"You can contact me now. I'll give you my new cell number, and I'll make sure everybody on my team knows that whenever anything from your address comes in, it comes straight to me, no one else touches it."
She sighs. "That's really sweet of you, Grant, but—"
"But nothing," he cuts her off. "I want to be able to stay updated about my daughter's life, Skye. Actually, I have a better idea. Since she's in town, I can just meet her now before you guys go back."
She shakes her head. "I don't think that's a very good idea."
"Why not?"
"I don't know, it's a mother thing. She looks up to you so much as a singer, I don't know if she'll be able to handle it all."
"Maybe you're right. But shouldn't I be allowed to see her at least? I haven't been a part of her life for the last eight years. Just please give me a few minutes with her. That's all I'm asking you for."
Skye just looks at him, weighing the decision in her mind. "Fine," she relents. "But we do this on my terms, alright? And at the first sign of trouble, or anything else, you are gone."
"Understood," he replies, somewhat of a smile on his face.
She nods. "Good. You can come by sometime tomorrow, if you want. Jess and I aren't leaving for a couple more days; she really wants to see a few things in town. My parents want to take her into town during the day tomorrow, so you can come by at night before she goes to bed. Is that okay with you?"
Grant nods. "Yeah, that sounds perfect."
So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Phew, okay. Their first meeting is done and over with. Now the ball can really get rolling. Got some really great stuff coming up in future chapters.
Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!