Surrender Your Heart

The minute Kylie opened her eyes she could feel it was too early for her to be up on a Saturday. Regardless, she sat up in her comfy queen sized bed and pushed her down comforter to the side. A chill raced up her spine as she set her bare feet on the hardwood floor. She stood up and stretched her arms towards the ceiling, feeling her thin-from-wear t-shirt ride up her tummy. Yawning, she made her way out of her room and down the stairs, into the kitchen. She was still wearing her sleep shorts and t-shirt, so the chill from the AC was making her shiver. After taking a few minutes to boil some water, she filled a mug with it and dropped a tea bag in. She was in the mood for tea today, apparently, which was odd. Kylie was a strict coffee drinker.

After pouring in some milk and sugar and stirring it, Kylie took a sip of the warm liquid and walked out the front door, where her paper was sitting on the front steps. She laughed at the site of it. The only reason her paper was there, faithfully, every morning, was because her paper boy was thirteen or so and had seen her in her slightly see through pajama’s one time after knocking to leave the paper. He no longer did that anymore.

Shaking her head, Kylie grabbed the paper and walked back inside. She opened it up to the theaters section and skimmed it, looking for a movie that sounded good. Kylie had a tradition. One Saturday a month, she would go see a movie in the afternoon, usually by herself. She liked seeing movies by herself because it was easy. It was nice and quiet, you didn’t have to worry about what other people wanted to see, and stuff didn’t cost as much in the afternoon.

When she finally found the one she wanted to see, she finished her tea and went to get ready. She jumped in the shower and got dressed in a floral sweetheart halter dress from American Eagle and slipped on a black cardigan, just in case it was cold in the theater. She slipped on her flip flops, finished straightening her hair and putting on a little mascara and eye shadow, brushed her teeth, and was on her way.

She got in her jeep, popping Hit the Light’s “This is a Stick Up… Don’t Make it a Murder” CD and letting the first track fill her ears. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel in time with the music as she drove through the slightly busy streets of her California town. Soon enough, she pulled into a small parking lot and parked, and then put some change in the parking meter praying it would be enough. She walked towards the movie theater, not paying much attention as to where she was going or who was around her. But when she heard a familiar twenty year old who often acted like a two year old behind her, she stopped. Turning around, she peered through the slightly crowded street, looking for the dark hair. She found him, of course. Shaking her head, she walked his way. When she got to the immature guitarist, she put her hands on her hips and said, “Jack, what are you screeching about? I heard you all the way up there!” she exclaimed, pointing towards the theater.

Jack turned to her and smiled. “Kylie!” he exclaimed, embracing her.

When he let her go, she looked around for a certain boy with gauges and a lip ring, but couldn’t find him. “Where are the other guys?”

Jack shrugged. “They left me alone with Rian. Matt went off to do something, and I don’t know where everyone else is.” Jack suddenly brightened and smiled. “Let’s hang out!” he exclaimed.

Kylie shook her head. “Not now, Jack-o. I have this thing where I watch a movie by myself on Saturdays, and I’m continuing the tradition. Maybe later, ok?”

Jack pouted. “But Ky-lie!” he whined, dragging her name out. “Rian hates me! He treats me mean, and I don’t like it! You love me, right?”

The blonde rolled her eyes. “Not now Jack. Maybe later, ok? Tell the guys I said hi. And good luck with him, Rian,” she told the drummer, smiling and waving goodbye.

As she walked towards the theater, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she wished Matt had been the one to “babysit” Jack instead.

***

When Kylie finished the movie, she walked out of the cold, AC powered air, and into the hot and humid LA air. Sighing, she walked towards her car. She was mad. She had picked an awful movie and sat in a theater full of couples for two hours. It made her want to kill them all.

As she was walking towards her car, her phone started going off. She dug around in her rather large purse and pulled it out, answering it. “Hello?” she said as she unlocked her jeep and climbed inside.

“Ky? It’s Squire. Listen, I know this is short notice but there’s this dinner party thing I have to go to tonight, and I can bring two other people plus a date. Want to go? I already have a date, so if you wanted to come, you could bring a date…” the producer trailed off. He hoped his acting wasn’t too awful and Kylie couldn’t see right through his ulterior motive. Then again, she was Kylie. She wasn’t exactly Miss Notice-Every-Little-Thing, but more Miss Oblivious.

Kylie sighed. “What kind of dinner party?”

“It’s sort of dressy, actually. Like, you’d have to wear a dress and the guy you bring would have to wear like, nicer jeans and a button up shirt or something.”

Thinking it over, Kylie sighed again. And then an idea popped in her head. “I can bring whoever I want?”

“Yep.”

“I’m in. I think. Let me ask my date, and get back to you ok?”

Squire said okay and the two hung up. Then Kylie dialed her victim’s number and waited.

“Hello?” he answered.

Kylie smiled. “Matt? It’s Ky. Listen, I have a favor to ask you…”

***

At seven thirty, Matt pulled into Kylie’s driveway. He didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t know why he was doing this for this girl, but he was. Stepping out of his car, he walked towards her front door. He wiped his palms on his black skinny jeans. He was wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a black tie, a black vest, and a black Orioles baseball cap, just for kicks. He knocked and then rang the doorbell, suddenly just the tiniest bit nervous.

The door finally opened and there stood Kylie, looking gorgeous. She had on a black bubble dress that fit her wonderfully, along with a pair of silver strappy heels. In her hand was a silver clutch, and in her hair was a silver clip of some sort, while the rest of her hair fell in loose curls around her shoulders. She smiled at Matt. She gave him a quick once over and nodded in approval. “You clean up well, Mr. Flyzik.”

He smiled. “Right back at you, kid. Come on,” he held out his crooked elbow for her to loop her own arm through. “Your chariot awaits.”

***

It didn’t take them long to get to the house where the dinner party was being held, considering it was almost eight o’clock on a Saturday night and traffic should have been insane. The whole way to the party, Kylie and Matt talked about nothing, really, just entertaining each other and keeping the other company. It was easy, relaxed, and nice, which Kylie figured was part of the reason why she wanted Matt to be her date in the first place.

They walked in with Matt’s hand on the small of her back, talking about something stupid and laughing and smiling. Squire saw them walk in together and smiled to himself. He was like fucking cupid or something. He walked over towards his friends and said hello, giving Kylie and hug and patting Matt’s shoulder. “Hey kiddies, glad you could make it.”

Kylie frowned. “Call me or us kiddies, and we’ll leave.”

Squire laughed. “Okay, okay, sorry. Thanks for coming. I would have looked like a loser if I didn’t use all my tickets. We wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

Rolling her eyes, Kylie said, “Whatever, Squire. You so owe us for this. I had to go buy a new dress.” In reality, she didn’t, but she did because she wanted to look goodfor Matt.

The producer rolled his eyes in response and said, “Shut up; you love buying clothes, you’re a girl. It’s like genetic or something.”

Kylie scowled at her boss and turned to Matt. “Let’s go find a drink, yeah?”

He nodded and the two walked away from the producer, Matt looking for champagne or some kind of alcohol, Kylie looking for anything to put in her mouth so she didn’t say something stupid. She often did when she was nervous, and being around Matt right now was making her extremely nervous.

Matt found a waiter carrying around a tray of champagne glasses, grabbed two, and handed one to Kylie. “To beautiful girls who also happen to be awesome friends, even when they barely know someone.”

Kylie smiled. “Here, here!” she cheered, clinking her glass with Matt’s and taking a sip. She smiled at him over the rim and said, “You know, I don’t think I’d be able to handle those guys on a daily basis. How do you do it?”

Smirking, he said, “Mass amounts of alcohol.” Kylie laughed and he added, "Not, but really, they are crazy sometimes, but we’re all friends, so it’s no different then the stuff I’d be doing if I wasn’t their TM, you know?”

Kylie nodded. She did know, but she wasn’t sure if she understood. In the corner of her mind, she heard music starting up, and she noticed people were dancing. Smiling brightly, Kylie said, “Dance with me?”

Matt groaned. “No way in hell; I am not a dancer, nor will I ever be a dancer.”

She pouted. Pouting usually worked on any guy she knew; her father, Squire, multiple musicians who were being stubborn, you name it. Matt was no different. He rolled his eyes and said, “One slow dance, because I am less likely to hurt you that way, and then that’s it, okay?”

Smiling brightly again, Kylie grabbed his hand and dragged him out onto the floor. The song flowing through the speakers was Dependence by The Less which actually surprised Kylie. The Less weren’t very popular yet because they weren’t a signed band, but it was one of her favorite’s so she didn’t mind. The fact that she was about to be closer than she’d ever been to Matt was completely blocked out of her mind now because of the music. That is, until she was actually doing it.

Matt slipped his arms around her waist and rested his hands on the small of her back while she put her arms around his neck loosely. Kylie, a girl who was normally very chatty was suddenly sort of shy. For some reason, being this close to Matt was having that effect on her. Her smile was small and shy and Matt grinned at her. His hazel eyes sparkled and were making it very hard for Kylie to concentrate.

“So, Miss Kylie, I never did get to ask you why you live in your parents’ house, by yourself, in southern California. So, why do you?”

She shrugged. “I needed a place to stay when I went to college down here. My parent’s had a summer house down here that they rarely used, so after my first year, I moved in. It was cheap because they already owned it so it was ideal.”

Matt nodded. “Sounds like you had everything was pretty perfect for you then.”

Immediately, Kylie’s thoughts flashed to that one awful night where absolutely nothing was perfect. She didn’t say anything, and at her quietness Matt said, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Shaking her thoughts away, she smiled and told him nothing. “Yeah, things worked out pretty well for me.”

The two talked a little more, and when the song changed Matt started to pull away. Kylie refused to let go. The next song was slow too, so she pulled him back and smiled. “One more song?” Smiling too, he nodded.

The pair danced to One More Night by Sunset Shootout, another favorite of Kylie’s, and as she was smiling and laughing with Matt, she was subconsciously listening to the lyrics playing around her.

You’re falling too hard, you’re falling too fast
You’ve got to keep moving, don’t look back
You’ve got to get up, you’ve got to move on
And no matter what comes along, you’ve got to be strong.

Not believing how well the lyrics were not only describing her current situation, no matter how scared she was to admit it, but also her thoughts from several minutes ago regarding her past. The song started giving her chills, so she blocked out the lyrics, smiled at Matt, and enjoyed his company and his close proximity to her. It no longer made her nervous, but the butterflies were still there. She was starting to worry that maybe, just maybe, she might be doing exactly what Squire had warned her not to do: she was falling for a guy who was (sort of) in a band, something she vowed to never do again.

And baby it’s time you see, you’re falling too hard, you’re falling too fast…