(Vincent's Pov)
"In other news well known musician Vincent Aldon has ended his career due to complications with one other band mate Minerva Leigh, the two were engaged to be married in the Summer time but for reasons unknow it was called off, one fan had said they saw the two arguing but they don't know why, we have contacted both Minerva and Vincent to talk about what happened along with any other band mates, though only Minerva has accepted the interview Vincent has yet to call back or even talk to us." The radio host spoke as I looked to it as I drove my car. I sighed a bit as I continued to listen in as I drove into Georgia.
"So, what do you think happened?" I hear a woman speak on the topic.
"Same thing with all musicians they thought they were in love but turns out they aren't it was lust, though with Vincent's past as far as we know something may have happened to cause the break, though I am not blaming him for the whole thing, he might have been part of the reason, if he would come to the interview, we can get both sides of the story." A man spoke and I decided to turn the channel on the radio and listen to some soft music from my phone and I leaned on the window frame as the wind blew in my hair. I was driving a good while before I had hit a place called Macon, my head was pounding a bit from the long drive so I stopped at a drug store and I parked my car, got out then locked the doors. I walked into the store and looked around a bit, I saw an elderly couple at the counter and I smiled to them and waved. They smiled back at me and I looked down the isle and found come Ibuprofen and I looked to get some candy they had as well.
"Sorry I'm late Mr. and Mrs., Everett, baseball practice ran a bit late and AJ was in the principal's office again." I hear and I look up to see a girl wearing a worn and faded baseball cap with the letter D sewn into it. She was very pretty so to speak, and I listened in a bit.
"Oh, it's ok Clementine, how's AJ doing?" The older woman said.
"He's ok, just got scold by Dad for biting another kid is all, but his grades a good so there's that." I hear the girl explain to them and I head to the counter.
"Hello." The girl Clementine says to me as I see her put her nametag on and I smiled.
"Hello." I say as I set the items on the counter.
"Hmm, didn't drink enough water?" She asked and I chuckled.
"Yea, plus driving for damn near sixteen hours can do this too." I say as she scanned the items and typed away on the computer.
"I'd suggest drinking Gatorade gets the electrolytes and stuff." She says and I smiled.
"Going to be a doctor?" I asked and she smiled and shook her head.
"No, just know from playing sports." She says and reads out my total and I pay for the items.
"You seem oddly familiar." She says and I look at her and I scratch my beard a bit.
"People say that a lot." I tell her.
"You're not a local I know that." She says and I chuckled.
"How can you tell?" I asked as she bagged the items.
"Well, you have a bit of a thicker southern accent, I'll say Texas? And people in this small town now each other and I don't know you, so there's that." She explained and I chuckled as I grabbed the bag.
"Well, I was born in Texas so you're right on that, and no I don't live here, just passing through." I tell her.
"Where you headed?" She asked and I looked to her as I moved to the side a bit of the counter.
"Heading back to Texas, I was in Virginia not that long ago." I tell her and she looked to the side a bit and she sees a magazine and I see it as well; the magazine has a photo of me and Minnie on the cover basically talking about our break-up.
"Long way from there, but I hope your trip is going fine." She says and I'm glad she didn't freak out like the fans usually do, though I doubt she is a fan, don't blame her though.
"For the most part." I say.
"Hey if you're staying in town for long, I'd suggest going to the diner not to far from here, it'll help with the headache, just ask for a woman named Bonnie, they'll know who sent you." She says and I nod a bit at this.
"Any good motels?" I asked as I was about to leave.
"There's a motor in not to far from here, near the saint Johns Farm, best place to go for trips." She says and I nod as she hands me a map and shows me where to go. I nod at this and she writes something down and I grab the paper and look to her.
"Call me if you ever want to ask more about Macon, I know all the best places to go to relax." She says and I nod and smile at her as I head out the store and to the car. I decided to take her advice and stopped at one of the diners she suggested and I walked in and asked for Bonnie as they sat me at my table. A woman with red hair came over and she smiled at me.
"Seems Clementine wanted you to feel welcomed here." She says and I look at her.
"Yea, she's really nice." I say as she handed me to the menu and I looked it over.
"She is, nicest girl in town, everyone knows her, especially with her baseball career." She says and I chuckled.
"I wasn't much for sports, use to listen to the games though on my Grandpa's TV." I say and she laughed a bit.
"Oh well don't let her hear you say that, she loves the sport, she got to meet Javier Garcia and was talking about it for weeks." I smiled at this then I heard some teens walking in and I look up as some of them stare at me but get seated at a table close by.
"Um, I'll just have the uh… morning special, with bacon instead of ham and some toast as well." I say.
"Alright and to drink?" She asked.
"Orange Juice." I say and she nods as she writes it down and walks out. I just looked at the menu some more and I hear some of the people talking. Then I hear someone coming near by and I looked up to see a boy as he looked to me and there was a girl next to him.
"You're Vincent Aldon, right?" He asked and I nodded a bit to this.
"Yes, and you?" I asked.
"Gabe Garcia, this is my sister Mariana, she's a bit shy but she was wondering if she could get an autograph?" he asked and I looked to her.
"Oh, Yea sure um." I felt around my pockets and grabbed a pen from my vest pocket as she handed her brother the item to sign which was an older magazine, I signed it and handed it back and she smiled and thanked me. They both left just as Bonnie came by and set my drink down along with my plate of food.
"Hmm, never had a famous person here before, what do you do?" She asked and I looked to her.
"I was a musician, um things happened not in the gig anymore." I tell her and she nods.
"Well hope things get better for ya, and enjoy your meal, holler if you need anything." She says and I nod as she goes to another table and I eat my food a bit and look through social media. Same thing here and there, politics, celebrity drama, new games coming out and all the same thing. I looked at a Facebook post that someone shared on Minerva's page.
"Hello, as you all have heard we are in search of a new singer/guitarist for our band, we are not completely broken up only Vincent leaving the band, if you heard on the radio, I will be doing an interview in a month with WABE in Atlanta about the break, I don't know about Vincent and he hasn't called any of us in the past few weeks, so anyone wanting to join can come to auditions at the record studio in Virginia, thank you all for the questions and they will be answered soon." I read and I shook my head at this and set my phone down and ate the rest of my food. Once I was done, I paid the bill and left a good tip for Bonnie as I took a drink to-go and headed into my car. I then head to the motel that was on the map and got me a room. I went to the room and laid on the bed and closed my eyes a bit before my phone went off. I sat up and saw that it was louis and I groaned a bit as I answered the call.
"Oh god Vincent you finally answered." He said relieved.
"Uh yea sure, what's up?" I asked as I took the medicine for my headache and looked to the number Clementine had left on the map and I think a bit.
"You doing, ok?" He asked.
"I'm fine, Louis don't worry." I tell him but knowing him he was going to ask again.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure."
"You just haven't been answering our calls we got worried is all." He says and I sighed as I rubbed my head.
"I'm sorry I just needed to clear my head, Louis." I tell him honestly.
"Vince." He says and I rubbed my face a bit.
"Louis is there something important?" I asked.
"Where are you so we can just talk things out person to person." He says and I looked to the map again.
"Oh, so Minerva wants to talk or is it the rest of the band cause if it isn't here then no." I say as I looked to my watch a bit.
"No, she doesn't I don't think she will but Vince just tell us where you are." He says.
"No, I'm sorry, goodnight Louis we can talk tomorrow, I'm tired I have a splitting headache." I tell him.
"Are you going to call?" He asked. I think a bit and nodded more so for myself than for him.
"Yea, I'll call you, or Brody." I mumbled a bit.
"I'm going to hold you to that." He says and the phone line goes dead and I sighed as I set my phone on the stand and I rubbed my neck as I laid back onto the bed and closed my eyes for a bit. It didn't take long before I woke up again as my alarm went off and I sighed as I stop it and looked to see it was four in the morning. I groaned as I got up from the bed and I took my shirt off and headed into the shower and took a quick wash, as I was finishing up I got out and looked in the mirror and rubbed my head and pulled at my hair a bit and thought. I went and grabbed my phone and put in Clementine's number but I wasn't going to call her or text her just yet. I grabbed a clean set of clothes which was just a pair of black jeans, a white shirt, and a white short sleeve overshirt. I then grabbed my boots and socks and got ready for the day. As I was finishing up and laid in the bed a bit and looked to my watch and looked through the social media apps and saw on Instagram of Minerva and the others showing that they were getting ready for another gig.
"Getting ready for our next gig, we will be in these states till the interview in a month." I saw the captain say and looked to see their schedule and I rubbed my neck a bit. They will be in Atlanta next month but there's a chance I would be long gone by then. I see the time and I think as I shoot a quick text to Clementine.
'Hey this is Vincent we met at the Drug store yesterday, thanks for requesting the Diner and Motel for me.' I typed out the message and I looked at it before I hit send. I was surprised I didn't have to wait long for a reply.
'Hey Vincent I'm glad you like the requests, how's you're morning going so far?' She asked and I chuckled.
'It's going fine, was finally able to get some sleep, what about yours?' I asked and I grabbed my wallet and keys. I then heard the ding of my cellphone so I look at it and smiled.
'I slept well, I'm a nigh owl though.' She replied and I chuckled.
'Oh, trust me I had to change my sleep schedule for traveling, it's hard.' I tell her and head to my car. I heard a ding again and looked to my phone.
'Oh yea, I remember when I had to change it as well… hey are you free anytime today or are you leaving today?' She asked and I think for a bit and rubbed my neck.
'I was thinking of leaving today but if you want to hang out, I can do that, if you want.' I text.
'Cool, want to meet at the drug store?' She asked.
'Sure, what time?'
'Around ten, I get off early since today is Sunday.' She says and I nod.
'Sure, see you then.' I text and I start my car up and drive around a bit. I go to the diner again for some food, it was kind of packed due to some people going out to eat for breakfast before church I suppose, then again, I don't really remember doing that with my family.
"Morning kid." I hear and see Bonnie as she seats me at a table and I smiled.
"Mornin' Bonnie." I say to her.
"So, what are you up to today?" She asked.
"Hm, nothing much was thinking of heading out but Clementine asked if we could hang out so I'll be doing that." I explained and she nods.
"Well, I hope you have fun today, you plan on leaving after hanging out?" She asked and I think a bit.
"Maybe, unless I'm convinced otherwise." I explained to her and she nods.
"Well, before we continue with this conversation, what would you like to drink?" She asked and I looked to the menu.
"Coffee please, with orange juice as well." I say and she nods then heads out to go and get the drinks. I decided to take the time to look at social media again to see another post.
"I think Vincent was kicked out of the band for drugs." A twitter user says and I look at the thread.
"Dude you don't know shit, he doesn't do drugs." Someone defended me and I rubbed my neck a bit.
"You don't know shit either, maybe the band didn't want the bad image if he tried it even once." They rebutted and I just shake my head and Bonnie comes back with my drinks, leaving some sugar and creamer for me and I mixed it into the coffee.
"You good?" She asked.
"Yea, just social media." I say.
"Never could get into that, I just have Facebook to keep in touch with people, other than that it's useless to me." She says and I chuckled.
"Yea, can't blame you for that, it's just hell on earth." I say and drink my coffee and smile as it wakes me up a bit.
"Know what you want to eat?" She asked and I nodded and just ordered what I got last time. She put the order in and I just looked through Twitter again and laughed a bit at the theories of why I was no longer in the band. It was a while before I got my food and I ate a bit and looked to the time to see it was close to nine so I still had some time to kill. I talked with Bonnie for a bit as she took my empty plate and cups from the table and she gave me the check and I left her a good tip as well as I paid for the food. I then waved bye to her and headed to my car then took a drive to the Drug Store. Once there I saw that it was exactly ten and I decided to go in and get another drink and I see Clementine at the counter and I grabbed a drink and chuckled.
"Trying to keep me on overtime?" She asked and I laughed a bit.
"Maybe, but no best to have a drink if we're going to be out a lot." I say and she nods.
"Smart." She says and I pay for the drink and wave to the owners of the store as they were about to leave for church. Clementine was able to clock out and I walked out with her to my car and I opened the passenger door for her. She took a seat and I got in and began to drive to wherever in all honesty.
"So, what do you want to do today?" She asked and I think.
"There any parks we can just walk around? Heck even hiking trails would be fun." I say and she thinks.
"I know a road down to the saint john's farm; they don't mind people walking in their woods." She says and I nod as she tells me where to go. It wasn't long till we got to the Dairy Farm and she got out to tell the owners that we would be walking on their land and if it was ok for us to park our car here. She came back and I got out the car.
"They said it was ok, just to be careful of the traps they have." She says and I nod as we go into the trail and we begin our walk. It was really nice out the weather was nice a bit windy but not to bad, the birds were also making sounds too and I just got to look around.
"How you liking Macon so far?" She asked and I think.
"It's really nice in all honesty, lots of nice people too." I tell her as we look at some of the flowers on the side of the trail.
"Oh yea, lot of nice people." She says and I smiled.
"So, you play baseball hu?" I asked.
"Yea, I love the sport, use to play soccer when I was younger but when my dad took me to a baseball game I was hooked." She says and I smiled.
"What about you? You play any sports?" She asked.
"I played a little baseball in high school but I'm more of a soccer player." I tell her.
"Seems we're opposite on that." She joked and I smiled.
"No shame, just didn't get to play a lot of baseball in high school." I say and I looked to her.
"We could go to the batting cage; I know the owner." She says and I think a bit and I nod.
"Sure, why the hell not, after our walk that is." I say and she agreed as we walked more.
"So, my friend Mariana called me yesterday." She says.
"Oh yea, I saw her and her brother Gabe." I tell her as we turn around on the dirt trail since it ended.
"Yea, she was so excited to meet you." She says.
"I could tell, left her speechless." I joked and laughed at said joke and Clementine giggles a bit.
"Yea, she can be really talkative when she wants." She explained and I look to her.
"So, what did she say? Did I make a good first impression?" I asked.
"Oh, most definitely, she said she was going to pass out when she saw you." She says.
"She also freaked when I told her I met you first." She says and I laughed a little.
"Yea." I mumbled a bit to myself and looked to the side of the trail.
"Hey if you think we'll blab about you being here don't worry, Mariana doesn't post things and I'm not the type of person to blab like that." She says and I rubbed my neck.
"Thanks, it might not seem much but that is a good thing." I say to her.
"Trust me, I saw the posts with your band mates." She says.
"So, you a fan?" I asked.
"Eh not like Mariana and Sarah, you do have good songs though." She says and I chuckled at this.
"Hey you don't have to try and make me have a big ego; I understand that there are people that don't like our music." I tell her and she rubbed her neck.
"No, I was being truthful, I went to one of your concerts in California, my Dad let me go, it was awesome." She says.
"Oh shit, I remember that concert, only reason I do was because a fan threw her bra at Louis and another fan got on the stage with us." Remembering that day was a good memory in my opinion.
"Yea, we were kind of surprised you let her stay on the stage when security tried to take her off, that was pretty sweet of you." She says and I nod.
"She was just dared to do it, she explained after the concert." I tell Clementine as we finally get back to the car. The wind decided to blow harder and my hair was flying in my face and I groaned a bit as I grabbed a hair tie and put my hair up a bit, it wasn't really long enough but it was just to keep most of it out of my face. I hear Clem laugh a bit and I couldn't help but smile.
"So, what else do you do besides play baseball and work at the Drug Store?" I asked as I began to drive.
"Well, I'm in my last year of high school, so studying." She says.
"Oh? Anything you want to study when you go to college?" I asked.
"Medicine, or sports Medicine to be exact." She explained and I nod.
"Didn't you go to college?" She asked.
"Hmm, yea for music but I never finished." I say and chuckled a bit as I drove.
"Well, maybe you can now with everything changing." She says and I nod.
"Yea, I could but I'm not too sure yet." I looked to the road a bit as I drove more. She told me the directions to the batting cage and I parked the car in their lot. She went to the owner I suppose as I walked up to her.
"Hey Javier said we could use the batting cage." She says and I smile as I nod to the man and she takes me to the one section of the batting cages. I grabbed a bat and tested it out a bit and she did the same. She went ad got the machine ready and handed me a helmet as she put hers on. We spent a good amount of time taking turns with the machine and I was up again as I got ready to swing. I was able to hit a few homeruns but Clementine was amazing at it, almost all the hits she made were home runs, a few foul balls and strikes but hey it happens. We were having such a good time until a group of kids came up to us, two of them being familiar to me.
"Woah is that, Vincent?" I heard and looked to see a girl with glasses looking at me and Clementine stepped out the cage.
"Your turn- oh hey guys." Clementine waved to the group of kids, of course she would know them.
"Clem you didn't tell us you knew Vincent personally." Gabe says.
"Oh, we were just hanging out till he leaves." She says and I nod at this.
"Yea, part of the vacation experience." I tell them.
"Well let me introduce you guys, Vincent this is Duck, Sarah, Gabe, Mariana and Becca, guys this is Vincent." She introduced us and I shook their hands during the introduction.
"This is so cool." Sarah says and I smiled to her then looked at Clementine.
"You want to hang out with your friends?" I asked her.
"I do but-."
"Yea we were coming to hang out when Uncle Javier said you were here." Gabe says and I looked to him then to Clementine.
"I uh was kind of hoping to hang out with Vincent more." She says more to herself than to us.
"Come on we can head to the fair grounds." Duck says.
"Hey guys, she was hanging out with Vincent already maybe we can hang out a different time." Sarah says and I see Mariana nod at this too.
"Well, he can come too." Duck offered and I looked to Clem who looked to me.
"Uh, sure haven't been to a fairground for years." I say and she nods as we get everything ready. I helped her put all the bats and gear up, and we all headed to our cars. Clementine told me the directions as I drove to the said fairgrounds.
"You, ok?" I asked and she nods.
"Yea just… Gabe's a bit pushy when it comes to hanging out with me." She explained and I think.
"You two dating or he got a crush on you?" I asked.
"We dated at one point but we broke it off, I still wanted to be his friend though." She says and I nod.
"Ahh so he never got over his feelings for you." I say and she nods as we finally get to the fair grounds and I park the car and look to her a bit as she doesn't get out just yet.
