Book-Nerd-1014: To be honest I don't know THAT much about music because there's a lot of things that have to do with music theory (how everything is constructed and how it works) that is well beyond me. When I have more time on my hands I'll definitely teach myself more.

A Handsome Nerd: Thank you, that's really kind. I don't know about one of the best stories, but I try my best.

paintball331: They've tried killing me before, I'm still very much alive.

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A/N: Feels like I'm back from the grave. My god, it's been a long time. I wanted to stick this down here rather than at the bottom. If you've read through my author notes in previous chapters (you don't have to, really) you'll know I was dealing with a lot of personal trouble over the past year and some more. A lot of shit has gone bad but from a very low point where I thought I was going to be able to return, I somehow managed to hit my all time high in life. Things are really looking up and being alive is actually a lot of fun right now which is...weird? I told myself a while ago I was going to finish this story, and finish it I will. I've been getting back into writing and I have so many cool things I've been writing behind the scenes for the past month or so I can't wait to share once they're ready. This is kind of a shitty transitional chapter that helps set up some of the bigger things coming later, hence why it's shorter. Still, I hope you enjoy!
Stay strong,
DareRelaqz


THE ROAD – CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Percy

I'll be honest with you – words can't describe how I felt.

The only thing this pain compared to was standing in the middle of an abandoned forest, and all of a sudden a train comes at you at full speed and runs you over from out of nowhere, but not hard enough to kill you. So yeah, you survived the train, but you're in horrible pain. I didn't expect it, which made it even worse. I spent the next few days with my family, at home. I didn't go to Grover's; I didn't want to burden him with the pain of dealing with a sad me again.

The only person who managed to bring a smile to my face was my brother. I felt bad for forgetting how big a part of my life Tyson was before my reputation exploded nationwide. I did my best, for the both of us, to spend as much time with him as possible. I decided not to tell him what happened. If he knew he would act differently around me, and I didn't want that. The only people I told were my parents; I figured them knowing would make things a bit easier for me too. It wouldn't feel like I'm holding back some kind of secret and I had a shoulder to lean on when I needed it.

About a week after the incident there was a big press announcement released from Olympus Records that future interview and media appearance dates for our band was cancelled. Later that day I got my termination papers. Oddly enough, it didn't affect me very much. I guess I was still too numb and trying to recover that what would be a remarkably bad event in most people's lives just passed right over my head.

But it immediately allowed me to think about what's next.

I tried to keep myself distracted as best I could. The more time passed the more offers Grover came to me with, who now transitioned to being my full time manager. I got requests from all over the country. I told Grover to shoot down any offers for public appearances. Going to the public now would just promote questions about a subject I wasn't quite ready to talk about yet. The first offers I accepted were for soundtracks – movies, video games, TV shows, you name it. Some were just guest guitar solos, those were easy enough, but for some others I had to compose guitar tracks over pre-existing music, which challenged me a bit more.

As the weeks passed, many different players from all over reached out to me. There was a pair of guys that really interested me – Travis and Connor, who called themselves 'The Stoll Bros' on stage. Travis played the drums while Connor played the bass. It made for a really nice effect because they composed music from all different kinds of genres and made it work with just two instruments. Grover told me they were interested, and so was I.

I took the car and headed to his place. I managed to find a parking spot close to Grover's door and skipped up the stairs, opening the entrance with the spare key he had given me when we were kids. I heard some music playing from downstairs and I didn't even bother seeing if his girlfriend Juniper was around, I just went straight down there. A cross of surprise and relief crossed his face as we hugged for the first time in what felt like eons.

"How're you feeling?" He asked as I sat on the couch behind his control panel.

"I'm getting there, I guess. I don't really have a good answer for you."

I didn't really like where the conversation was going, so I stood from my place and excused myself to the other side of the room where some of my guitars were. I opened a drawer where I kept some of my effect pedals and started picking and choosing which I felt like using today. Usually I had an idea of what sound I wanted, but this felt more like I was stalling for time than anything else.

"You know, she came around a few weeks ago"

"Good for her." I picked up a pile of pedals and started lining them up and plugging them in inside the soundproof room we used for recordings.

"Perce, she's-"

"Is this what you brought me here to talk about?"

I shouldn't have snapped at Grover. I'm sure his intentions weren't meant to harm, but this really wasn't what I needed. All I needed and wanted right now was a distraction. If I looked forward and not dwelled so much on now and the past, the pain should pass. Grover surrendered and threw his hands up in guilt.

"Just saying" He turned in his chair and scrolled through his computer. I took a chair and set up inside the recording room after I had finished playing with the settings of one of my amps. It felt good to sit in there. It's been too long since I went back to my roots.

"What'd you say those Stoll kids were looking for?" I asked him after I lowered the sound of the guitar.

Grover raised his eyebrows as his eyes scanned the screen in front of him, "Uh, they didn't say much. They sent me a track of theirs; they wanted to see what you would sound like playing over their music."

"Lemme hear it"

Grover pressed play as the music played through the speakers in the room I was in. The two brothers, as I mentioned, played all different kinds of music. This specific track he was playing for me sounded very jazz-ish. It was warm and calm, like one of those songs you can study to and not notice you've been listening to the same thing for three hours. It was extremely calming. I turned the volume on my guitar up closed my eyes as my hands instinctively hovered over the strings. I let their playing accompany mine. I hadn't had a feeling like that since…you know.

The rest of the afternoon I was at Grover's place recording. Why did it take us a whole afternoon, you ask? Because nothing clicked – I must've recorded maybe a hundred takes by now. Each one was different but despite knowing that when Grover played them back for me they all sounded the same. He tried assuring me they were good and that this is just a demo, but I wasn't having it. I knew exactly what I wanted to play too, but had trouble making it come out. I wasn't leaving until I had it down, perfectly. Grover meanwhile was doing some work in the background while I was practicing. He stood up from his chair with his cell phone and left the room for a moment – I only assumed it was Juniper calling, but I was wrong. He reappeared a few short moments later with the phone and gestured for me to come out. He handed it to me and started walking back to his chair.

"They want to talk to you" He whispered and excused himself. But who were they?

"Hello?"

"Percy?" The unrecognized voice asked me from the other side of the line. It definitely wasn't someone from Olympus Records; otherwise they would've called me directly.

"It's Travis, how you doing?"

I didn't even notice but I spent nearly the next hour talking to Travis on the phone. He mentioned Connor wanted to talk to me but wasn't around, probably somewhere with someone named Katie. We spoke about our different passions for music, our influences and heroes, and everything in between. I didn't know how much I missed having another musician to talk to. We talked about some of the details of the song they sent and wanted me to feature on with them, and I was immediately in.

"Uh, listen, there's a big festival like show in New York that we're on next week. I was thinking maybe we can meet up there that morning, rehearse a bit, and bang it home."

I had to take a few moments to think about that. That would be my first real public appearance anywhere ever since the incident. The way Travis mentioned it things seemed pretty simple – get there that morning, perform some time later, and go home. The way we spoke made him seem like a genuinely nice guy. And on top of that, this seemed like a really good way to pass the time.

"So you're in?" He had a hard time containing his excitement from the other end of the line.

"Of course I am"

"YES!" I plainly chuckled to myself because it felt like he was throwing some kind of party just because I said yes, "Woo! You don't know how happy you just made me."

"Glad I could help?"

"Damn right you helped!" He was laughing, which I didn't understand at all, "Thanks Perce. I'll tell Connor to call you up later."

We said our goodbyes and ended the call. It was only then that it struck me that it's been an hour. I walked back down to Grover's basement to find him playing around with all the different knobs and mixers on his control panel. I still had no idea what any of those do.

"You were up there with my phone for an hour; please tell me there are good news." Was the first thing he said after I gave him his cell phone back.

"We're doing it."