Had Me From Hello

“Come on, ‘Lex. Just because she cried during some song about her ex doesn’t mean she’s not into you,” Jack had been trying his best to reason with his obviously lovesick best friend for the past two hours that they had been on the bus.

It might have just had to be that way for the next few hours, because they were on their way to New Orleans, Louisiana, which was quite the way from Pennsylvania.

“Jack, you’re right, her crying during the song doesn’t mean a thing,” Alex finally broke down, shrugging his shoulders. As soon as Jack’s dark brown eyes lightened with joy, Alex shot down his hopes again. “But that tweet? That means something.”

“Alex,” Zack’s voice broke the short silence that had fallen between the two best friends. “Annie is crazy about you and everyone else can see that but you.”

“Zack, come on, that’s not true,” Alex shook his head, standing up to leave the small “living room” of the bus. “If she was into me, she wouldn’t have tweeted that saying she still loved that Sam guy.”

“Maybe that was part of some song she’s writing?” Rian offered, plopping down in the spot where Alex was just seated moments before.

“I doubt that. It doesn’t sound like a-,” before the twenty-four year old singer could finish, his phone buzzed in his back pocket.

“Is that Annie professing her undying love for you?” Jack smiled, a little part of him hoping it was true.

Jack hated that he was technically meddling in his best friend’s life, but he just wanted him to be happy. Ever since Alex’s summer fling with Tay had come to a nasty halt, Alex just never seemed as happy. Don’t get Jack wrong, Alex still smiled as brightly as he could. He still had the same joy in his eyes when he performed, but when everyone else would have their significant other by them, Alex would shift uncomfortably and excuse himself.

“No, but it is Annie. She’s just sending me some lyrics she’s working on,” Alex shrugged, typing out a reply to the brunette girl.

“Well?” Jack raised a bushy brow, as if it were obvious what he wanted.

“What?” Alex said, not looking up from the phone screen, typing out yet another reply.

“What are the lyrics, Gaskarth?” Rian rolled his eyes at his friend’s obliviousness.

“Oh, uh, one second… Here, ‘I’m a little bit country, yeah, and you play rock n roll. The first time that I saw you, I remember every word you said’ and then she just sent some more which are… ‘You’re my song, my sweet home Alabama. I could sing you all night long,’” Alex shrugged, not thinking anything about the matter.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Zack’s voice startled the other three boys, but Jack and Rian nodded quickly in agreement. “Are you that stupid?”

“Uh, no?” Alex finally looked up from his iPhone, more confused than ever. “What did I do now?”

“Okay, the first lyrics she sent you? ‘I’m a little bit country and you play rock n roll’. Those are so obviously about you, Alex,” Zack nearly yelled at his friend from across the room.
“How are those possibly about me?!”

“Dude,” Jack walked over to his best friend, putting an arm around his shoulders. “Her music is just the slightest bit country – one could even say it’s a little bit country. I guess you could say our music is just the slightest bit rock. Maybe not rock n roll, per say, but definitely close enough to fit this song,” Jack rolled his eyes at Alex’s stupidity.

It really did seem like Alex was the only one who wasn’t aware about Annie’s feelings for him.

“Maybe that Sam guy played in a rock band,” Alex shrugged, scrolling down his screen to view the new messages from Annie.

“Dude, let that go!” it was now Rian’s turn to yell at Alex. “Okay, let’s put it this way. Who was your first love?”

“Uh, Lisa.”

“How long have you and Lisa been broken up?” Rian ran a hand over his hair, feeling exhausted from trying to get the obvious through Alex’s head.

“Two or three years, I guess,” Alex shrugged, not seeing how any of this was relevant.

“Annie and this Sam guy have been broken up for three or four years. Okay, next question; how many songs have you written about Lisa?” Jack intervened, throwing in more facts and questions at Alex.

“Uh… a lot, I mean… I don’t know. I didn’t keep count,” Alex shrugged, trying to think of the titles of a few songs about Lisa.

“Okay, so, Lisa calls you up one day and says ‘Hey, Alex, I just wanted to let you know that I miss you. I was just thinking that maybe we could talk and just work things out. I want to be with you again.’ What would you say?” Zack finally added his input into the situation.

All three sets of eyes stared at Alex, waiting for an answer. They already knew the answer, though. Alex knew the answer, too, so there was no point in trying to lie to them.

“I mean, I guess I’d tell her, yeah, we can talk about things and try it out. There’s no sense in not giving it another go but-,” before Alex could finish, Rian cut him off.

“Because she was your first love and you will always love her. Everyone has that one person who they would go back to without a doubt. Sam just happens to be Annie’s. Lisa just happens to be yours. Why does it matter if she still has even the slightest bit of feelings for him when you’re willing to go back to Lisa?” Rian cocked an eyebrow at Alex. Without waiting for an answer, Rian just climbed into his bunk and pulled the curtain.

----

“Ugh!” Annie shouted loudly from her bunk on her bus.

She just couldn’t finish at least one new song. She had random snippets for all different songs. “I just want to finish one fucking song!” Annie yelled, almost ready to throw her guitar across the bus.

Picking up her phone, the brunette read her newest text from Alex.

Your lyrics are fine, I promise. You can shoot me some more if you want, but calm down. You’re doing great.

Annie couldn’t help but smile at Alex’s encouraging words, but she also couldn’t help to want to pull her hair out.

Before she could frustrate herself any longer, the twenty-one year old heard the sound of a Skype call coming through from her laptop in the small kitchen.

Racing over to it – a piece of her hoping maybe, just maybe, it was Alex – Annie was much surprised to see a much more familiar name pop up across the computer’s screen.

“Samuel Young” was written in white across the small black box on the screen. Obviously in this position, Annie had only two options – decline or answer. She could very well decline and if he asked, she could simply say she was too busy to Skype at the moment. A piece of her, though, wanted to talk to Sam. They hadn’t held a proper conversation in quite some time.

Hesitantly clicking “answer”, Annie fixed the flyaway hairs around her face. “H-hey, Sam.”

“Hey, Annie! It’s nice to finally see you again,” Sam joked, pushing his glasses up. “So, now you’re a big shot, huh?” the twenty-two year old joked.

“Something like that… Uh, what’s up? This is kind of random,” Annie pointed out, shifting uncomfortably.

“Oh, right… Uh, I wanted to let you know that I saw a video of your performance of ‘Tim McGraw’ last night…” Sam said hesitantly, casually looking off at something in the distance.

“Oh… What’d you think?”

“I didn’t know you wrote a song for me,” Sam smiled. “You should have told me.”

“I was thinking about it, but you know, I got whisked away to do a tour, so I forgot all about it until last night,” Annie shrugged.

She had spent so much time and effort trying to forget about Sam and their little love story, that she had completely forgotten why she wanted so badly to forget him.

“Understandable. So, what’s up?” Sam asked, fiddling with the sleeve of his black hoodie. “Our friendship has been kind of M.I.A. lately. I’ve missed you, Madison.”

Annie beamed at the figure on the screen. “I’ve missed you, too, Young. Nothing much, though. I’m just working on some songs.”

They talked like that for almost an hour and a half. Annie couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so content about Sam and herself.

After Sam finally said he had to go to work, Annie began working on another song. This time, she knew she could finish it.

I confess, babe, that in my dreams you’re touching my face and asking me if I want to try again with you. And I almost do.