short and sweet. =] you are going to love this. and if you dont. you have something wrong with you. just kidding loves. keep reviewing! they make me get all happy inside.
Chapter Thirteen: The Happiness
11:44pm
"What is going on?" asked Mitchie for the hundredth time. The urgency in Caitlyn's haste was really starting to freak her out.
Caitlyn stopped abruptly, her body blocking the entrance to the ballroom. "Now, what you're going to see I had absolutely nothing to do with. Although I wish I would have," she said to herself.
"What are you talking about?!" demanded Mo, stamping her foot angrily.
CC stepped aside allowing Mitchie to pass her to the doors. She grabbed Mo's arm and led her over the threshold. "See for yourself."
Mitchie's eyes glazed over the dimly lit ballroom looking for something out of the ordinary. Standing on her tip toes, she attempted to see over the heads of the prom goers – it was no use.
"CC, I don't even know what I'm looking for," she told her anxious friend who was now jumping up and down slightly.
"Look closely," said CC giddily.
"Are you okay?" wondered Mitchie.
"Just look!"
Being able to see closely was hindered by the fact that all the lights in the ballroom suddenly disappeared. The whole room was bathed in darkness. Murmurs traveled through the groups – what was going on?
"Can't see anything," Mitchie muttered to CC, her patience was slowly going.
"Just wait."
She hadn't noticed until right then that the ballroom was completely quiet. Save for the few murmurs a moment ago, no other sound or music filled the cavernous room. As awkwardly as it might sound, the seniors and their dates didn't seem to mind the sudden darkness. An excited vibe hushed through the crowd, something big was about to happen. The wheels were working in Mitchie's head. Her mouth slowly fell open, frightened.
"Oh my God, Caitlyn! This is turning into that movie! What if there's a killer on the loose in there?! I don't wanna go in there now!"
Mitchie backed away from the entrance, shuddering in terror. She fell into Caitlyn who had planted herself in Mitchie's way. "Oh, quit your whining. Don't you think they would all be screaming their guys out if the lights were turned off without warning?"
She had a point there. Mitchie glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye; she definitely knew more than she was letting on.
So if there wasn't a killer on the loose, then why were the lights off? And why did CC think the crowd had already known about it? Too many questions.
Movement and hushed chatter were coming from the front – the stage. Someone was definitely moving on stage. Mitchie focused on the stage but her eyes had not yet adjusted to the sudden darkness. What was going on?
The high squeak of the microphone being way too close to the speakers screeched throughout the room. Everyone grabbed at their ears and shouted their dismay.
"S-sorry!" an unfamiliar, yet familiar, voice said into the mic.
Every head turned the stage, their focus going to the unfamiliar person now on stage. Curious little buggers they all were.
"Everyone having a good night?!" Mystery Boy asked, followed by a few shouts of who-are-you?! "Sorry to interrupt your night but I fear I'm looking for this really special girl."
"We all are dude!" some senior football player yelled.
"Classy," muttered Mo, still trying to get a good look of the guy.
The voice continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "Like I said, I'm looking for this really cute girl, probably wearing yellow."
Mitchie looked at Caitlyn whose face lit up like a little girl receiving her first Barbie doll. Her friend needed to learn to lie better. Ignoring the yellow comment, Mo didn't move from her spot at the door.
"Too many girls wearing yellow dresses? How about a girl with curly hair?"
Some feeling tugged at her, something she had been trying to push away for days but couldn't. She closed her tired eyes willing her sense of sound to figure out the person on stage. Who in all that is Boston and Journey was up there?!
"Too many girls wearing yellow dresses and have curly hair? What about a girl who is probably frustrated beyond belief because she can't figure out who I am?"
Her eyes shot open. "It can't be."
Choosing to disregard CC's winning smile, Mitchie walked, almost mesmerizingly, towards the stage.
"None? I think I have a solution." Shuffling was heard on stage followed by, "Thank you man."
The soft playing of one lone guitar sounded from the stage, followed by the world's most perfect voice ever. "Every time I think I'm closer to the heart. Of what means to know just who I am. I think I finally found a better place to start. But no one ever seems to understand."
Her heart raced faster than she ever imagined it could beat. "I need to try to get to where you are. Could it be you're not that far?"
People parted like the red sea, allowing her to easily amble toward the stage. Her eyes didn't stray from the front. Lola, her date, and even Andrew passed by her in a daze. Nothing fazed her. She needed to get to the voice. Every strum, every tone of the guitar vibrated off her heart effecting places in her she never thought possible.
"You're the voice I hear inside my head. The reason that I'm singing. I need to find you. I gotta find you." Their eyes connected. Every fiber in her body hummed with thrill, excitement, and shock. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.
"You're the missing piece I need. The song inside of me. I need to find you. I gotta find you. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah," he sang softly, showing off his talent on the guitar.
The song.
Their song.
He was up there, on stage, during her prom, singing their song.
The song he wrote for her.
For his voice.
For his missing piece.
It was all for her.
Does this get anymore surreal?
"You're the remedy I'm searching hard to find. To fix the puzzle that I see inside. Painting all my dreams the color of your smile. When I find you it will be alright."
His eyes never moved from hers. She could feel the power of his words, the power of his song, through, not only his voice, but his eyes. Through the little light there was Mitchie could read his eyes perfectly. They were the easiest part of his body to read. And at this moment, his eyes read nothing but love and adoration.
"I need to try to get to where you are. Could it be you're not that far? You're the voice I hear inside my head. The reason that I'm singing. I need to find you. I gotta find you. You're the missing piece I need. The song inside of me. I need to find you. I gotta find you," he belted into the microphone.
So powerful was his meaning. So powerful that no one else in the ballroom probably knew the exact effect this was having on her.
"Been feeling lost, can't find the words to say. Spending all my time, stuck in yesterday. Where you are is where I wanna be. Oh next to you, and you next to me. Oh, I need to find you… yeah!"
She was so close yet she stopped in front of the stage. No one else stood between them now. It was just her, twenty feet, the stage, and him. In the midst of all that was occurring, people quickly understood what was taking place. Someone from behind her pushed her forward slightly, egging her to go on stage. She didn't move, she couldn't move. She was enthralled by his voice and eyes.
"You're the voice I hear inside my head. The reason that I'm singing. I need to find you. I gotta find you. Yeah, yeah you're the missing piece I need. The song inside of me. I need to find you. I gotta find you. I gotta find you," he sang softly, ending his sweet song. His guitar continued to beat out the beautiful melody.
She was onstage now. Someone had picked her up and placed her there – right in front of him. Along the way a mic had been thrust into her hands. She looked at it as if it might bite her. With an encouraging nod, he glanced to her hands and smiled.
Slowly yet confidently she brought the device to her mouth. "You're the voice I hear inside my head. The reason that I'm singing. I need to find you. I gotta find you. You're the missing piece I need. The song inside of me. I need to find you. I gotta find you," she sang quietly.
"Yeah, yeah. I gotta find you," he concluded with a whisper, allowing the guitars final strum to echo throughout ballroom.
For an eternity, the pair stood onstage – just gazing into each others eyes, both of them not wanting to break the moment. He broke the tension first by pulling her into his firm waiting arms. A feeling of completeness burrowed in them both – this feeling had been present for days.
"I've missed you so much," he whispered in her ear – only she could hear.
"I'm so sorry."
"For what?" His voice was puzzled.
"For ever doubting you."
He drew back from her, staring into the depths of her eyes again. "God, you're beautiful," he murmured appreciatively.
"Just kiss her already!" someone cheered – someone sounding very much like her friend Lola – and everyone yelled their agreement.
Mitchie flushed with embarrassment, remembering for the first time in minutes that there were other people in the room with them. His crooked smile warmed her already heated face. He brought one calloused hand to graze her cheek, sending more shoots of fire and shivers through her body. When would she stop feeling like this when he touched her or even looked at her?
Hopefully never.
In the background, a chant had started. "Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!"
"Let's give them a show," whispered Shane, inches from her face.
12:27am
Prom 2009 was over, but the excitement and giddiness had yet to subside from inside Mitchie.
Once the dance ended, Mitchie, Lola, and Caitlyn returned to Lola's house to change into something more comfortable. Caitlyn wore jean shorts and a red tank with a white jacket over top. Lola picked out a rather short green skirt and a white fitted shirt. Mitchie decided on a pair of white soft Bermuda shorts and a loose purple tank. After-prom apparel as Lo liked to call it.
The girls met back up with the boys including Shane's brothers. Mitchie had a feeling that the dates were going to be snubbed aside by the rock stars. They all sat around a table outside of a small ice cream shop.
Mitchie sat down between Shane and Nate. "Didn't you guys have a concert tonight?"
Jason nodded. "The tours been postponed until further notice."
"Why?" Lola asked incredulously, not believing her ears.
"Well, we decided we are going to take the summer off," Nate said. "Then we will start back up with a new tour at the end of summer."
"Why?" asked Caitlyn, licking her mint chocolate chip ice cream cone.
"We want a little break for awhile," said Shane. "We want to be able to have a real summer for once."
Mitchie smiled as Shane's eyes fell on her. The group instantly fell into a conversation involving all the things the brothers needed to do this summer. Shane leaned towards her and asked, "Would you like to go for a walk?"
She nodded shyly. "I would love too."
The pair excused themselves from the group to knowing smiles from their friends. She ignored every single one of her friend's enormous grins.
They strolled along silently for a minute, each intent on their ice cream. Shane broke the silence. "So I have a question to ask you."
"Shoot," said Mo, her eyes lifting to gaze at the stars.
"I know I asked you this before, but hey, it never hurts to ask again," he said with a laugh. "What I'm trying to ask you is... would you like to go on tour with us next fall?"
"Yes," she agreed instantly.
"I understand if you don't want to with college and everything," he said as if he hadn't heard her answer.
"Shane, I said yes!"
He stopped walking. "Really?" Shock registered in his voice. "Are you sure about this?"
"I've never been more sure about anything."
He let out a huge sigh of relief. "That was almost too easy."
"Well, I've had a lot of time to rethink my answer to last time. I think at the time I wasn't ready. You caught me off guard and I panicked. I don't do well in situations like that. But I've had a lot of time to think, and I think I will be ready by fall."
Without warning, Shane scooped her up and twirled her around whooping gleefully. "I know you are ready. You could tour right now you are that ready."
"Don't get ahead of yourself now," she giggled.
Shane stopped spinning her and smiled at Mitchie in a way that gave her Goosebumps.
"What?" she asked awkwardly.
He ran a hand through his ungelled hair – very uncharacteristic of him. "You just do this thing to me where I can't think straight sometimes and all I can do is smile. Otherwise if I tried to talk it wouldn't make any sense. Kind of like what I'm doing right now," he rushed.
"I didn't even do anything," stated Mitchie, feeling very self-conscious of herself.
"That's exactly it; you don't have to do anything. You could just look at me and my mind goes bonkers. You make me so nervous sometimes."
She made Shane Gray nervous – who would have thought?
Mitchie simply grabbed Shane's rough hand and continued to walk down the sidewalk. "Not to darken this perfect moment or anything, I just need to know one thing."
Shane nodded eagerly, clearly unaware of what she was going to ask him.
"I was reading a magazine the other day and I read something."
"What?" he asked his flawless face darkening.
"Something about you and a girl named Chelsea," she said slowly, unsure of how to approach this topic without sounding like a completely jealous fool.
He remained silent so she continued. "I just wanted to know if there was anything going on with her."
He stared off into the distance, a contemplating look on his face. "Mitchie," he finally said, holding her in his arms. "You need to know, first off, that everything these magazines print is not true. Yes, I hung out with Chelsea the other night, only for a little while. We are good friends and have been for a long time. All I did the whole time was complain to her about how much I missed you. I'm sure she was completely annoyed by my whininess. It was actually her idea to crash your prom."
Mitchie felt herself warming up to the girl. "Really?"
"Yeah, she's brilliant. Anyway, she is secretly dating someone else right now. I would never date her anyway, I don't think of her like that. She is like the sister I never had. She also mentioned she couldn't wait to meet you."
"Really?" she said again.
"Really, really. You have absolutely nothing to worry about," he said so sincerely she had no choice but to believe him.
"Okay," she finally said, all her worries flying away with the warm breeze.
"Anything else you would like to ask?"
Millions of questions burned inside of her to be spoken but she held back. There would be plenty of time to ask him later.
"No, everything is perfect," she said cuddling into his chest, "now."
Right here, right now, all that mattered was that they were together.
At last.
** did you love it or what?? im planning on having a couple more chapters. but after that im not sure what im going to do. suggestions or thoughts of what you think or want me to do is very welcome!! sequel, maybe? and if sequel, where do i start from? all help is welcome!! and thank you all so much who have read every chapter ive thrown out there. it really means a lot to me. =]