Fall

I stuck by Jess’s side up until the moment when The Summer Set was called into their dressing room to make sure that everything was in right order for their set. This left me standing side stage for This Century’s set all by myself; well there were other people standing around, but I just really didn’t want to go associate myself with them at the moment.

I felt a presence creep up next to me along with a hyper and very excited toddler in its arms a little while after This Century made their way on stage.

“Where were you?” I asked harshly, not bothering to look at him and was just focusing on Joel prancing around the stage as he sung their opening number, To Love And Back.

“Playing hide-and-seek in the dressing room with Jobe and John,” Justin told me as he adjusted Jay, whom of which was actually sitting upon his shoulders.

“Fun,” I replied stoically, still refusing to look at him.

“Yeah,” he responded back to me, his tone of voice telling me that he was a little confused and taken aback by my sudden change in behavior. “You okay?” he asked, finally sensing something was off.

It was on the bridge of To Love And Back when I turned my body to face Justin, my eyes glaring into his own with such livid anger. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. “Tell you…?” he trailed off questioningly.

“About the lineup,” I spat out between gritted teeth.

“Oh,” he said slowly as realization must have finally hit him. He set Jay down on his feet so the little boy could watch the band in peace without having to hear our argument instead of the sweet music before him. “I just wanted you to get out of the house and have fun,” he said sincerely. “Don’t be mad,” he whispered to me, sorrow filling his voice as he brushed a loose hair back into its place among the rest of the hairs on my head. “You know you miss this kind of stuff.”

“Yeah, I do,” I told him truthfully, looking over at the stage where This Century was now in the middle of playing Running, and then down to my son who was dancing along in front of me. “But you should have told me,” I didn’t bother hiding the hurt from my features, there was no point. Justin did something completely wrong and I was not going to let it go unscathed. He needed to know that he messed up and it hurt me, especially if I do end up running into JohnO.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered sweetly to me, his eyes pleading for forgiveness the whole time as he held my hands in between his.

I wouldn’t forgive him that easily. The night was still young and I have no clue what’s going to happen; maybe if I’m lucky I won’t see John the entire night. But usually luck isn’t ever on my side. And here was not the proper place for a fight, especially with Jay so close.
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The three of us stood around side stage in that little spot just for ourselves, dancing around and making sure Jay had a great time for the remainder of This Century’s set. I, personally, was trying to get lost in the music and making sure that my son had a good time so that I couldn’t further my anger by thinking about those horrid “what if’s”.

When the set was over Justin rushed Jay to the bathroom to clean him up because he got really excited during the first performance and made a little accident in his pants that was best to clean up sooner rather than later.

I watched as they ran off, Justin carrying my son like a large football under his arm, and me yelling back to them, promising Jay that I wouldn’t let The Summer Set start playing until they got back.

“Nat?” I heard a scarily familiar voice question from behind me.

I turned around slowly, hoping it wasn’t any of The Maine boys because if I couldn’t face John, I don’t know how I could face the rest of them at once. Thank the lord that when I turned around there was a little, lanky, long blonde haired boys standing there like he just saw a ghost or something. “Joel?” I questioned although I already knew it was him. “Hey,” I greeted him with a smile. He really hasn’t changed one bit, though he did grow into his age to look a little older than the last time I saw him.

“I never thought I’d see you here again,” he stood there awkwardly, closing the distance a little bit, but I could tell from the uncertainty in his eyes that he wasn’t sure if he should stick out his hand or hug me. I made the decision for him by closing the gap all the way and wrapping my arms around his small, yet firm frame. He hugged me back with open and accepting arms. “Maybe in New York, but not Phoenix,” he finished just as we were about to pull away from our quick embrace.

I shrugged and smiled, just happy that someone didn’t hate me for completely ditching them all; although John probably told them why. “Well I just couldn’t stay away,” I answered him.

He laughed, and pointed towards the hall to the dressing rooms and bathrooms. “I got to go change, but we should catch up later,” he said happily.

I nodded my head, having trouble keeping the plastered smile on my face. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”

Just as fast as Joel disappeared, my cousin’s band appeared. They were all in the midst of grabbing their instruments when Jobe came up behind me and started massaging my shoulders, asking me, “You ready for this, Nat?”

And then John chimed in with, “It’s gonna be in-tense.”

I just laughed, and leaned in to Josh’s nice touch, “I bet it will be.”

Josh stopped working his magic on my shoulders and went over to the rack to pick up his guitar so they could finally make their way on stage. As I saw them heading to greet the crowd, I called back to them.

“Jay made me promise,” with the mention of Jay they all turned around to face me, I smiled to myself at how the mention of one small boy could halt them so quickly. “He made me promise that you guys wouldn’t start until him and Justin got back from the bathroom,” I finished.

“Well we can’t keep the crowd waiting…” Stephen trailed off.

Brian raised his eyebrows up at me like he was up to something mischievous. The rest of the band and I looked very concerned as he was the first one to appear on stage.

“Hey guys!” he greeted the crowd happily into his microphone, resulting in an eruption of cheers from the audience. “We’re The Summer Set,” he introduced his band once everyone else joined him out on stage. “And I’m sorry we can’t start right away,” he continued, explaining for why they didn’t come out and go right into their opening number like they usually would have, “But I promised my friend Justin that we wouldn’t start until he got out of the bathroom.”

Apparently the crowd knew who Brian was talking about because they began chanting “Godsey. Godsey Godsey.”

“So I’m just going to sing some of my favorite tunes,” Brian told the crowd with a sly smile as he began to sing the opening tune to the Lion King.

“What’s taking him so long?” Josh questioned into the mic, looking over at Brian like the question was directed at him in hopes to get Brian to shut up. “Is he in the crapper?”

“Jaaaaaay, get your tushie out here!” Stephen yelled into his mic, his own personal shout-out to his nephew, though only a select few of us knew of the meaning behind it.

“We need to play a show!” John again chimed in, yelling at the top of his lungs.

The crowd once again started chanting, “Godsey, Godsey, Godsey.”

“Oh, look who finally decided to show up,” Jobe said when he looked over and saw Justin and Jay taking their places next to me side-stage.

“Justin Godsey, everyone!” Brian screeched, throwing his hands above his head to start clapping, the crowd following him. “Bro get your ass out here!” he said, motioning for Justin to come make an appearance. As Justin handed Jay off to me, I gave Brian a stern look and he caught himself, “Oh, sorry, butt. I meant butt!” he corrected himself, remembering the small child present.

Justin went out on stage. The crowd cheered. He said a few words. The crowd cheered some more. He gave the mic back to Brian so that they could begin their set, and slapped Stephen on the ass on his way off, causing the fans to screech some more. Honestly, I don’t know how the guys deal with all these loud, screaming, pubescent girls. Well, I guess they just have to get used to it for the sake of their job…

They opened up with their new song, Someone Like You. The song was definitely dance worthy and pretty catchy for their new record, but I just couldn’t help smiling at the fact that Brian’s sudden obsession with the Lion King must have had an influence on the track.

“He sound funny,” Jay said to me, now that he was in my arms.

“Yeah, baby,” I agreed with him smiling, “Uncle Brian has a weird voice. But it sounds good.”

He shook his head, disagreeing.

“You don’t think so?” I questioned, looking my boy straight into his big green eyes.

He shook his head again.

“You get used to it in time,” I informed him. The boy didn’t really have a choice, he had to get used to Brian’s voice because he’s going to be in my son’s life from here on.

“Maybe you can replace him when you get older,” Justin said to him, ruffling the hair upon Jay’s head.

“Don’t give him false hope, Justin.”

He threw his arms up, pleading not guilty, “Hey, don’t deny that our boy is most likely going to be a rockstar.”

I shook my head at the fact; not because of the thought of Jay pursuing music in his future, but because he calls him “our boy”. As much as I would love Jay to be me and Justin’s, he wasn’t. And that upsets me a little bit. Also the fact that Justin has been playing the father role and thinks the world of my little boy breaks my heart a little bit. Jay can never be fully his, and I know, deep down, that it’s going to break us – all three of us. Eventually.