Pick Up The Pieces Chapter 13, an a cinderella story fanfic

Chapter 13 (the funeral & an unexpected surprise.)

Audrey walked into the funeral home in between her mother and father, holding both of their hands. It occurred to Audrey that they were having one of those rare moments that she barely had with her parents when they all really connected and didn't acted arrogant. They were actually good people very deep down. She smiled up at her dad as he opened the door, his eyes getting watery just at the sight of the door. She knew this was going to be a long day of comforting several people, including herself.
About a half hour later everyone started arriving. Most of them were just friends of the family, and distant family members she barely remembered. They stood at the front of the room with her uncle and his wife, as people walked up to them, greeting each other. She kept scanning the room hopping to see Heidi, Joe and Nick of course. She finally saw them standing in line, and wipped away her watery eyes. She refused to cry before anything really happened. They finally made there way up, Heidi was first. She grabbed Audrey in a huge hug. "Hey babes, how are you?" She whispered into her ear. Audrey didn't want to let go of her best friend yet. "Heidi I'm about to break down. Ugh, it barely even started yet. Will you please sit with me?" She asked, finally letting go. "I planned on it." She said smiling, moving onto Audrey's father. Next was Joe. She smiled up at him, and he pulled her into a big bear hug. "DREY! I'm so sorry. You know, I had planned on doing something stupid to make you laugh, but you know how Heidi is." he said taking a step back to look at her. He made a hilarious, un describable expression with his face, and held his hands out imitating her talking. This automatically made drey laugh out loud. Joe smiled, satisfied. He gave her a quick squeeze again, and started walking towards her parents. 'Oh, Joe', she thought to herself, 'he could always make me laugh.' She tapped her father and her mother on their shoulders, and they turned to look.
" This very funny boy right here would be one of my very best friends, Joseph Jonas." Audrey said to her parents. They politely smiled at him, and shook his hand. Nick was next. They smiled at each other for a moment, and for some reason, this just made her cry. His smile turned to a frown as he pulled her into a hug. "Shh, shh it's ok drey." he whispered into her ear. She stuffed her face into his chest, and wrapped her arms around him. Once she finally composed herself, she took a step back, and wiped away the remaining tears streaking down her face. She slightly smiled at him, and he smiled back. Then she started to laugh saying, "Would you look at me? God I must be a complete total mess." She rubbed her eyes one final time and Nick said, "No, you still look beautiful." She smiled at him again, wanting to kiss him right there, but then snapped back into reality realizing her parents were standing right next to her. She turned towards he parents, realizing they were just staring at her. She felt completely embarrassed and introduced Nick to her parents, and yes, she called him her boyfriend.
A half an hour later everyone they had ever known was there and seated. Audrey sat on Heidi's lap in the front row with her Mother and Father and Uncle next to her. She could feel everyone burning holes in the back of her head. All night everyone was giving her that, 'oh my god, I'm so sorry for your loss' look. She made a mental note that she would forever hate that look. Finally the priest came up, and shook all of their hands, slightly hugging her mother and herself. He gave them all the look. He quoted some passages from the bible, one that was her Grandmother's favorite, and had all over her walls at her beach house. The priest would make some suddle jokes that would make everyone laugh for a brief moment. There were a few prayers, and he would mention the family and things about her grandmother's life. Every ten minutes Audrey would look turn to look at Heidi with watery eyes, and then would start crying. Heidi would brush them away, and wrap her arms around her best friend. Sometimes she would sneak glances at her Father, and would see red eyes, and silent tears falling down his cheeks. She would touch his arm, and he would squeeze her knee. Finally, the priest made the announcement she was waiting for all night.
"Before we all leave and go home, June's granddaughter, Audrey Martin has a special surprise for everyone." He said walking to the side. Audrey slowly got up from Heidi's lap, turning to look at her. Heidi looked confused, she didn't know what was going on, noone did, except the priest, of course. She wiped away the stray tear on her cheek, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. There was a chair on the side of the room, she walked over and placed it in the center of the room. Then she walked over near the coffin, and grabbed her gibson acoustic guitar that she had hidden. She locked eyes with Nick as she walked towards he chair. He had confusion written all over his face. She sat in her chair and pulled the strap over her body, and let the guitar rest on her lap. She scanned the group of people, and decided to look at Heidi. She took a deep breath and said, "The day after they took my grandmother out of the hospital, the nurses were taking off all the sheets from her hospital bed, and found this note tucked under the sheets." She said holding up the note. She cleared her throat, and opened the note, and read it aloud.
"My dearest Audrey,
Baby, it's the end of the road for me lovely. I can tell that God want's me with him. And well, Frank Sinatra too, what a hunk." Audrey smiled and slightly laughed as she said this, as she was crying.
"But no matter what happens don't you ever get to sad over me. I mean, I don't want you to forget old lady me over here, but don't start doing drugs or knocking up your neighbor cause you miss me. You'll most likely get pregnant dear." Everyone laughed at this.
"Once you get through the grieving process, keep living your life to the fullest. Laugh until you cry, Dream like there's no tomorrow, wish on every shooting star, and never stop loving. Love, yes baby, that's the most important thing in life. Young love is the best kind there is. You'll wanna give up, but don't. You can never get it back. You feel invincible, you feel free as a bird, heck, you could walk right off the top of a building and fly. But never give up on it. Even if it's the hardest thing in the world, keep on pushin through. And if you ever doubt yourself, think of me, think of what I just told ya. Audrey, sweetie, always know I love you more than anything, and that I will always be with you through the roughest times, and the best times. I know about your playing the guitar and singing, heck, I'm the one that taught you to play. You've got the voice of an angel honey. I wrote you this poem to inspire you to keep playing, and that I want you to, it's who you are. Just know that I'm always proud of you and that I'll miss you even more than you'll miss me.
Hugs and kisses, see you in heaven,
Grandma June."
Audrey looked up from the paper, and the tears came pouring down onto it, until it was soaked. She couldn't stop crying, but she knew she had to. She looked up and saw Heidi looking at her with sad eyes, almost getting up to comfort her. But Audrey mouthed, no, and she sat back in her chair not taking her worried eyes off her. Audrey kept telling herself to stop crying but it was no use; she sobbed like a baby until she finally felt a firm hand on her back. Her father's. He rubbed her back, and she dug her face into his chest. "Come on honey, let's go sit down." He whispered to her. She shook her head furiously no. "No dad, I have to do this for grandma." He hesitated for a moment before nodding and taking a seat. She re opened the piece of paper and said, "My grandmother wrote this poem for me, but I decided to make it into a song just for her." She placed the poem on the floor and starting strumming her guitar. She opened her mouth and sung the first line;

I'll be right here where you need me

She stopped almost unable to sing the next line. She locked eyes with Nick who just looked back with big eyes full of excitement, wonder and shock. He was amazed by her. He nodded his head, and smiled, egging her to go on. She closed her eyes and started the song over again.

I'll be right here where you need me
Any time just keep believing
That I'll be right here
If you ever need a friend,
someone to care and understand,
I'll be right here.

All you have to do is call my name,
no matter how close or far away
ask me once
and I'll come
I'll come runnin'
and when I can't be with you dream me near
keep me in your heart and I'll appear
all you gotta do is turn around
close your eyes
look inside
I'm right here.

Isn't it great that you know that
I'm ready to go wherever your at
Anywhere I'll be there

Whenever you need me
There's no need to worry
you know that I'm gunna be
right here

Ask me once
and I'll come
I'll come runnin-
and when I can't be with you dream me near
keep me in your heart and I'll appear
all you gotta do is turn around
close your eyes
look inside
I'm right here
oh yeah, yeah
I'm right here.

She looked up from her guitar when she finished strumming. She looked at Joe, who's jaw was wide open. Nick looked dumbstruck, and Heidi looked proud. Everyone starting cheering and clapping. Audrey couldn't help but smile brightly. She couldn't stop until she took her seat back with Heidi. That was the best feeling she had ever had, well besides her love for Nick.
The funeral was finally over, and everyone had left, even her parents were on their way home. But Audrey decided that she wanted to stay a while longer for a final goodbye. She heard the door close as the last of the crowd walked out. She was standing at the front of the room, and just scanned the empty room. She turned around, and kneeled before her grandmother's coffin. She silently did a final prayer to her grandmother. Before she got up she kissed her hand, and smacked it onto the coffin. "Goodbye June Carr Martin." She said turning around to see Nick standing a few feet behind her. This scared her a little but she skipped up to him and hugged him. "Let's go somewhere Nick, just you and me, it's been such a long day, I need to get out of here." She said leaning back a little to look up at him. He smiled at her, and played with her hair. "You know, I'm proud of you Audrey, what you did today, it took a lot to get up there and play your heart out. And by the way, you're an amazing singer and guitarist. You made up the melody, your grandma just made up the words." He said. She smiled in return, not really sure what to say to that. "But anyway, where should we go?" he asked, holding hands with her as they walked out of the funeral home. "The spot." She said, eyes beaming. Nick looked at her confused and she replied, "You'll see when we get there." She tugged his hand forward, and they both ran and ran until they reached Audrey's favorite place in the world.

revieww and i;ll post moreee :D i can promise you theres more to Drey than you think you know. :X