I know when I'm not wanted. But for a split second it seemed like she actually cared. I couldn't get her out of my head. Her eyes, her smile (what little I got to see of it), and the way she walked away after I first met her. Everything about her was beautiful. I wanted her; I wanted to know more about her. I sat in my dad's dressing room wondering if she was at all worth it.

"It's a girl, isn't it?" I looked up and there was my dad smirking at me.

My dad knows me too well. He knows everything about me, even when I try to hide it, he finds a way of letting me put it all out there without ever feeling judged. As much as I wanted to tell him, I decided to test him a little more.

"What makes you think that?" I asked him blankly

"Come on, Josh. It's the first concert night of the tour. By now, you're usually more nervous than I am. Most of the time, you talk a mile a minute and right now you're more silent than a corpse. You're sitting here with your journal on the table and the only time you write in that thing is when you're having a shit day. You were fine 'til about an hour ago. You wanna know my guess? It's a girl. "

I smiled at how well he knew me. Most parents know their kids well but this meant more to me. Dad knowing me more than I knew myself proved that loving someone as your own goes beyond genetics. It's a connection that I'm lucky I share with him.

"Why do I even try? " I asked "You always figure it out anyways"

"Damn right, I do kid. So I still got a few before the show starts. Tell me what's on your mind."

He took a seat on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. That was his sign that he was listening.

"Well you're right, it's a girl"

"I knew it"

"Dad! I never said it wasn't"

"Sorry, go on"

"Her name's Jamie. I met her this afternoon at sound check. She's strong and feisty, she's smart and unique. She's quirky and she's got this unusual sense of humor. She's unlike anyone I've ever met."

"Hmm…it's funny. I haven't heard you say she's sweet and nice and all that shit."

"That's because she's not" I told him

"Oh really?" My dad raised his eyebrows "This is getting much more interesting. Maybe it's not so much that you like her, maybe it's the challenge of trying to get her. Tell me why do you like her if it seems like she hates you?"

"I don't know. Maybe because she doesn't treat me like I'm fragile and she calls me on my shit"

"Like when you're being an asshole?" my dad joked

"Exactly and the word I was looking for was something like arrogant" I retorted

My dad laughed at this "Well I like her already. So tell me kid what does this mystery girl of yours look like?"

I couldn't hold it in, even if she was this beautiful secret that I desperately wanted to keep to myself.

"Well she's got wavy auburn hair but when the sun hits it, the color is almost gold. She's got these blue eyes. Not like a normal, pretty sort blue. Blue like the color of an ocean in a storm. Fierceness and intensity with beauty mixed into it too. I don't know how to explain it. She's this force that can't be stopped, like either you get out of her way or come along for the ride. She's this petite fireball of energy, it's like I've finally met my match."

I looked over at my dad to see if he was still listening. He was sitting there stock still like I was describing someone he'd seen before. I looked into his eyes and I could literally see the cogs turning in his brain. Like he was trying to remember something or maybe even erase it. I'm not sure but he was scaring me.

"Dad are you listening?" He still said nothing; he just looked at me like I had just found

something that I shouldn't have.

"Dad?" Nothing still. I decide to use a last resort. "Chris!"

He hates it when I call him by his first name. He snapped out of it a little bit but he still seemed kind of confused.

"You look like you just saw a ghost" I told him.

"Maybe I have."

He was starting to scare me a little. Finally he asked me. "Is there something you wanna

tell me, Josh?"

"Uh no…Dad is there something wrong because you're scaring the shit out of me."

It was like in that split second my Dad had snapped out of what ever trance he was in. He stood up, grabbed his guitar case and gave me a tiny half smile.

"Sorry kid, I kind of had a flashback there. This Jamie girl, the way you described her, it sounded like someone I knew a while back, a real long time before you."

I don't know why I asked but the thought just came to me.

"Even her eyes"

He didn't at all seem caught off guard by this. He just opened the door and before he left said

"No, not the eyes, the girl I knew had chocolate eyes."

I could feel the air getting tense and I knew my dad did too so before he left he asked, "Do you want me to send someone to get you before the concert starts."

"Yeah"

He walked away and closed the door behind him. I thought he was gone but he stuck his head back through the door.

"Love you, Josh"

I smiled.

"Love you too, Dad."

He closed the door again and left me with my thoughts. It seemed bizarre to me that my dad seemed to know a girl like Jamie a long time ago. It made me wonder if my Dad was ever in love once. For as long as I can remember, he never really brought anyone serious home. Whenever I asked him, he always said why did he need anyone else when he had me? At the time it seemed satisfying but now I realize, maybe there was someone and maybe nobody else ever measured up after she left. Or did he leave? I don't know.

Meanwhile Chris Keller walked around aimlessly. After what his son told him, he felt like his head could explode. All he could think of was Haley. Haley, the girl he'd accidentally fallen in love so many years ago. Haley, the girl he'd lost because of his pride and arrogance. Haley, the girl who was married, the girl who had never truly belonged to him in the first place. Haley, the woman he had faced spending a summer performing on the same tour with.

He walked around backstage, not knowing what to do until his set began or Haley's for that matter. He couldn't bear to hear her voice, it took him back to a time he would always remember but longed to forget. There was quite a dilemma going on between his head and his heart. For some it would be hard to believe, they were once connected. For years he put it all away and the only person who could keep his head and heart connected in that way was Josh.

He paced back and forth. Turning in one direction and then another until he walked into someone.

"Sorry man, my bad, are you ok ?" The voice asked

"Yeah man" Chris replied "it's…cool"

He faltered on the last word when he stood up and saw who the voice belonged to.

"Nathan Scott"

"Watch where you're going punk!" He used the same voice he used in High School. Nathan Scott hadn't changed a bit since the last time he saw him. That was almost twenty years ago.

"Look man, I –" Nathan cut him off, took a step toward him so Chris could visibly see the inch of height Nate had over him.

"No, you look. Haley doesn't like being here with you anymore than I do so let me make it clear to you now so I don't have to kick your ass later on. Leave Haley alone. If you do, you'll have no problems. If not, you'll deal with me. Got it?"

Nathan brought something out in Chris. Chris straightened up, gave Nathan one of his devious smirks and said

"Yeah, Nathan I get it, but do you?"

Nathan just walked away and muttered "Jackass" under his breath.

Chris stood there and thought to himself

"Yeah, this tour gonna be just as messed up as the first. But you know what? I don't mind."