Keep Your Heart Wide Open.

Joel sat on the couch in the lounge area of the bus, fumbling with his cell phone. He kept going to his contacts, scrolling to her name, and chickening out before he could hit ‘call.’ He shook his head in sadness and sighed loudly. He finally threw his head back and closed his eyes, wishing that this was all just some screwed up dream. Any second now he would open his eyes and see Gianna sitting right in front of him, smiling big like she always did. But when Joel opened his eyes, he was all alone.

John walked onto the bus and saw Joel sitting on the couch, staring down at the screen of his cell phone. He shook his head and walked over to him, stopping directly in front of him. John scratched the back of his neck. “Just call her, man.” Joel looked up at John and ran a hand through his hair, knowing that John was right. This time when Joel entered his contacts, he scrolled to her name and froze there for a second before finally pressing select. He held his breath for a moment, uncertain of what would happen next.

He frantically tapped his foot on the ground as he waited for her to answer and John lightly smacked him, growing more aggravated by the second. “Sorry.” The phone rang three more times and a sore feeling settled in Joel’s stomach. She was not going to answer. Joel sighed once more as Gianna’s voicemail filled his ears. He stared at John as her melodic, sugary sweet voice began to speak. ‘Hi, it’s Gianna! I’m sorry I missed your call! I promise to call you back as soon as I get it. So leave a message and I’ll talk to you later, bye!”

Joel couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. She sounded as silly and sporadic as she did all of the time. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the message, though. What it should have said is, “Hi, it’s Gianna. I’m screening my calls and since it’s you, Joel, I will not be answering and I will not be calling you back. Bye.” Even though he thought it was completely pointless, Joel left her a message. “Hey Gianna, it’s Joel. Listen, I know you really don’t want to talk to me. But we have to talk. It’s just I miss you and I lo…look forward to seeing you soon. Please.”

He hung up the phone and John sat there smirking at him. “What?” John ran a hand through his hair. “I look forward to seeing you soon? Smooth Joel, really. Good luck with that one.” Joel bit his lip and stood up, finally getting an idea. “Wait.” John watched curiously as Joel moved around the bus. Joel ran to his bag and grabbed his notebook, finally sitting at the keyboard that was positioned in the lounge area. John came up behind him with a quizzical look on his face. “What are you doing?”

Still facing the keyboard, Joel raised a hand to John. “What does it look like I’m doing?” His hands moved over the keys in a familiar fashion and he nodded to himself. He grabbed a pen out of his back pocket and scribbled excitedly across the page. He tapped his foot and John could see that there was no stopping him. He clearly had some idea in his head and he was going to run with it. Somewhere along the craziness, John decided that it would be better to leave Joel alone, and he exited the bus.

Joel sat at the keyboard continually playing the same melody over and over again, adding little changes here and there. He looked back into his notebook, adding words and crossing out the ones that he did not like. He had played this melody so many times over that it was nearly engraved into his brain. He couldn’t wait to the show the guys what he had come up with. Even more importantly, he could not wait to show Gianna. He poured his entire being into this song and would not stop until it was perfect. In record time, Joel decided that he was finished.

He paused and looked down at what he had written, reading it over silently to himself. He took a deep breath and moved his fingers to the keys once more, playing the song to himself. Finally he added the vocals and sang his heart out to make sure that everything was right. He nodded his head and stood up from the stool, walking over once more to his cell phone, which sat on the table. He picked it up and scrolled once more through the contacts, this time landing on a different name.

It rang a few times until the other line picked up, hesitantly. “…Hello?” Joel could barely hold in his excitement any longer. “John, I have a plan.” John chuckled on the other side and Joel could hear the smirk in his voice. “Well it’s about time, don’t you think?” Joel told John what he had in mind and hung up the phone, ready to finally get Gianna back. He took a deep breath, hoping that this plan would be as fail-proof as he thought.

It was only just a matter of time until he would have her back in his arms, the one place that she really needed to be.