EPILOGUE
PERMANENT
6 months later
My mom entered the room calling us, I didn't even know where I was. I looked at the clock, 8 am.
"Why so early, mom? There's still plenty of time..."
"There's a lot of things to do David!"
"But mom! It's still 8 am!"
"I don't care! I expect you all downstairs in 15 minutes!"
She left the door opened, with the light coming in, she knows how much I hate it. I called Matt and Andrew, who were sleeping on the floor (there were people sleeping in my brother's room). I heard Matt's rusky voice coming from somewhere in the room.
"What time is it?"
"8 am."
This time it was Andrew's voice.
"EIGHT AM? Go to hell, David."
I threw the pillow at him.
"Your mom is calling us, and if we take very long to get up, she'll be back with water."
We had slept really late because of the rehearsal dinner. But to my mom, that means nothing.
We spent all day long doing a lot of things, picking up people at the airport, I even had to pick up some dresses. To be honest, I don't see why this is all necessary...
It was harder to go out in public now, with the new contract I had got in NY, and my new CD was almost coming out (and the song I had written to Anne – Avalanche 0 was in it), I was going to a lot of tv shows, and making concerts with the band, and there were a lot of new fans... everything was great.
When it was almost time to go, we changed into our suits and went to the church. There were a lot of people already there, it's was already time, but of course, they weren't here yet, why is the bride always late? I considered calling Anne, but I didn't. I talked to a lot of people, some of them even asked for an autograph, come on…
I saw the guys from the band, Kyle's hair was really straight, Neal was wearing a purple suit. I also saw Lara with the other Kyle, Anne's ex-boyfriend... she had told me they were together, and I could see things were fine between them… good, one less thing to worry about.
After half an hour, I finally saw the car coming, and told Matt and Andrew it was time.
When everybody took their seats, we walked in.
After a few moments, Anne walked in. She was gorgeous, even more than usual, I saw her smiling at Matt and then looked at me. I couldn't stop smiling at her. I tried hard not to run towards her, at the aisle.
When she got to the altar, she passed by me smiling, and went to the other side. The song changed, I looked at the door and Rachel was walking in, in white. She was beautiful too, but I couldn't resist, I looked back at Anne. She was now staring at Matt, I saw he was crying, and so was she. The ceremony was beautiful, although I thought it was a bit early for them to get married, but if they wanted too… and apparently, it was gonna last, Rachel was a nice girl.
I didn't feel like dancing at the party, Anne was dancing with her dad, Matt, and a lot of other people, I didn't want to interrupt, after all, it was her family... I Sat at the table with the guys from the band, Matt invited us to play at the party, but we still had some time. They were messing around, of course, but I was lost in thoughts. At another table, Andrew was with Janine, they were going out for three months now, she was Rachel's cousin, who had come to Tulsa with her to visit Matt... and apparently things were going well, I could tell he liked her... Kelly was at the same table, talking to Anne's cousins.
I was glad she came, I was always gonna be grateful for her opening my eyes about Anne, even though that had cost our relationship attempt. They were even closer now, look at that. Kelly was thinking about studying abroad, and since Anne had experience in that, she was helping her with that. I just hope she doesn't choose Australia.
I looked at Anne, she was dancing with Matt again. It was obvious their relationship was much more intense now. At first I couldn't understand how Matt could be on her side instead of mine, defended Anne instead of me, his best friend, knowing she was wrong. But as I had said to him, I understand that later, after Matt said those things to me, that it was obvious which side he would pick, I might be his childhood best friend, but she was his sister, they shared the same blood, and she was suffering right in front of him.
I would have made the same choice, and I admired him for that. Now, they were always together, and when they were far away, they spoke daily on the phone. I smiled looking at them.
Things were great between Anne and I. Our situation was still undefined. I was traveling a lot around EUA, making concerts anf going to TV shows, but I spent almost all my free time with her in NY, I already had taken half of my stuff to her apartment. Actually, I didn't call it "her apartment" anymore, but "our" (and I also helped with the rent). I loved being with her, but somedays we were just friends, I didn't know exactly what was going on and I guess she didn't either. But it was good this way. I did my best to give her the attention she deserves, I didn't wanna make the same mistakes again, when I almost lost her for not caring enough...
She was also doing well at the producer, she got promoted and we were considering a bigger apartment (even though that was "our place". It was weird that things were so calm, I was used to fights and arguments, we hadn't had that for a long time. At least nothing serious, just some stupid things because of crazy fans or clothes too short. But that was much better.
After a few minutes, I saw Anne at an empty table, I sat beside her.
"Tired?"
"Yeah... I danced a lot, I came here to rest a little bit…"
I tried my best pity face.
"You're not gonna dance with me?"
she smiled.
"In five minutes!"
"I'm gonna wait here, okay?"
"Of course."
She was staring at me, with a distant look in her eyes.
"What?"
"Nothing... just thinking about everything we went through... it's unbelievable that nothing bad happened this last months… it's a record!"
I made a joke.
"For sure... what was our previous record? A week?
(That was almost true). She said our story was like a movie, with the two main characters going through a lot of stuff until the end.
"So, this is the end?"
She looked at me for a while before answering.
"For me, it's only the beginning."
I kissed her, then she asked when we were playing. I looked at the guys, they were stealing the tray from the waiter, I laughed. I told her Matt would let me know, and invited her to dance.
The DJ was playing watch?v=5WWT9oarq18, I pulled her closer to me. We danced for a while, and I started watching Matt and Rachel, Who were dancing close to us. I tried to imagine how it would be if it was Anne and me… and I was surprised with myself to realize I didn't know If that's what I expected from us… at least not now… I decided to ask how she felt about that.
"Can you see ourselves like them?"
She looked back to see who I was talking about, It took a while for her to answer.
"You know Dave... I already imagined a lot of times, me walking down the aisle in White and you, waiting for me at the altar... but now... I don't anymore."
I didn't know if it was for the same reason as me, so I decided to me dramatic.
"So you don't wanna be with me anymore?"
she laughed.
"Of course I do... I love you, you know that..."
I knew what I wanted. But I was afraid it wasn't what she wanted... I didn't know how to explain it, I didn't wanna hurt her...
"So, what do you wanna do, Sis? You want us to formalize our relationship?"
She also took a while to answer.
"I don't want that either..."
"So, what do you wanna do, then?"
She smiled, and looked at me.
"I have no idea. And you know what... I'm very happy this way."
That was exactly how I felt, and to my surprise and relieve, she felt the same…
"I know what you mean... I felt that way too."
"I don't wanna think about how we're gonna be tomorrow. Tomorrow doesn't exist for me, all that matters is now, I wanna live today with you… as a woman, or a friend, or a sister… Dave, it doesn't matter how we're gonna be... we're always gonna have each other, that's enough. I just love not knowing."
She put in words exactly what was inside of me. I was hers, she was mine, in all the ways, we were more sure about that everyday, and that was enough. Just that. But I decided to try all the possibilities.
"What if tomorrow we decide to be together for real?"
"Then, we make it official."
"And what if there's nothing left tomorrow?"
We danced, she took a while to answer. She smiled before answering.
"What we have is permanent."
And that was enough for both of us. I smiled and kissed her. But of course Matt had to interfere.
"HEY!"
We both laughed.
"I'm sorry guys, Dave, you're gonna play in 3 minutes!"
What? Playing?
"Gee, I completely forgot... ok, go ahead and let them now I'm already going!"
"Do not delay, David Cook!"
"I will not, Matthew Lewis!"
He left, and I turned to Anne.
"Play a song with me?"
"Sure!"
I went to the stage with her and turned to Andy.
"Get off Andy, Anne's playing with me!"
He widened his eyes (even more).
"What? I'm not playing?"
"Relax Andy... it's just the first one, you can come back after it."
He left, and Anne was already picking the guitar up.
"Which one is it gonna be, Bro?"
I thought for a while. A piece of song came to my mind:
"I can be myself now finally
In fact there's nothing I can't be
I want the world to see you be
With me..."
"How about Hey Soul Sister?"
"That says a lot."
I said that to the boys, got my new guitar (since the old one was taken) and went to the center of the stage, the guests were already waiting for the show. Anne started the song, I looked at her and blinked, she smiled. Everything was okay, my CD was coming out soon, I was playing with the guys at my best friend's wedding, and at least for today, everything was okay with "my girl"… all was well.
THE END.
Thanks again so much for reading it! God bless!
