Baby, You Save Me

Oh lord, here we go again. This time I knew not to hesitate when AJ started walking away. Sure some of the things we have done may have been illegal, but they have actually been some of the best memories that I have. We climbed off the roof of the barn, and once we were on the ground, AJ took off her shoes. She left them near the barn and started walking in the forest barefoot. We followed the lake for a little while until it turned into a stream. We headed down stream in silence for a little while until I decided to break it.

“Why haven’t you tried to break into the music industry?”

“What?” She turned and asked with a confused look on her face.

“Why haven’t you tried to become a singer? You have an absolutely incredible voice, you’re an amazing songwriter, and you are clearly comfortable with singing in front of others.”

“I tried when I first got to L.A. They told me I would never make it the way that I am. I mean, I like singing and it would be cool to sing in front of a bunch of people who care about what I have to say, but now I have realized that I don’t want to be famous,” she responded. Well that’s new. I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone who doesn’t want to be famous.

“Why don’t you want to be famous?” I probed.

“I have a past, Joe,” she looked back at me, and something flashed in her eyes. Resolve? “And it’s not one that I care to share with the whole world.”

“Oh,” I paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. “So what is your dream?” I asked.

“I don’t really know. I’ve never actually thought about it.” She paused for a moment, thinking, before she continued, “Honestly, I think it would be really neat to turn Serendipity into a place for troubled kids. It would be nice to help others the way that Billy helped me. Horses can teach people all the lessons that they need to know, and this place really turned my life around. It would be nice to help someone make a positive change.”

This girl continues to amaze me. She is so selfless. I had no idea that she wanted to help troubled kids. That’s not going to be an easy job for her to do, but if anyone can do it then it would definitely be her.

“What do you mean they can teach people lessons?” I asked confused. They are just animals.

“Every lesson I’ve learned in life, I’ve learned from horses. Watching little foals stand up for the first time taught me that standing on your own feet is the hardest thing, but it’s necessary for survival. I’ve learned that every time you fall you have to get back up, and communication is key. Taming wild horses taught me that patience and a gentle touch are better than a whip or a sharp word and that trust needs to be earned, but there are those who deserve it. I’ve learned that you can’t force something to happen. It either will or it was never meant to be. Sometimes you just have to let go. I’ve learned you never get over those that you love, but you can find new loves as well. And sometimes just listening is the only thing that people need,” she finished quietly. I could tell that she was kind of lost in her thoughts.

“That’s a lot of lessons,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“There’s even more, but I don’t want to bore you,” she laughed.

“How does it feel to be living your dream?” She spoke up after a few minutes of silence.

“It’s interesting. It was kind of Nick’s idea at first. I mean it’s always something that I thought would be cool to do, but I wasn’t sure that I was good enough to make it in this industry,” I thought back to the very beginning. “We had a rocky start, but things have never been better.”

“What do you mean you had a rocky start?”

“We had a record label and then we got dropped. It took us a while to get a new label to sign us, and then we had to basically start over with getting a fan base. Plus we were all still in school. It was just a hard time on our band,” I grimaced thinking about the beginning years. I have never put so much work and effort into a project before. “It’s all worth it though. I couldn’t be prouder of what we have accomplished.”

“Being idols to a bunch of preteen girls?” AJ joked with a beautiful smile on her face. I stuck my tongue out at her. I had to hand it to the girl. She was gorgeous. She wasn’t perfectly put together all the time like Camilla was. It was like she knew she wasn’t perfect and she didn’t care if everyone knew. She wasn’t going to share everything that made her into who she was today, but she let you know that she had history. She didn’t really have a family, and Camilla couldn’t separate herself from hers. Camilla was very proper and graceful, and everything that my mother wanted me to find in a girlfriend. AJ was stubborn, independent, and didn’t care what others thought about her. She had a ton of tattoos for crying out loud.

“Look,” AJ whispered.

I looked ahead of me and saw one of the most beautiful sights. We had followed the stream until it fell off the cliff into a pool of water below. It was a circular opening at the top and I could see where the river flowed out underneath. It was like a private oasis in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea how far we walked to get here, but this was absolutely incredible. The water was a deep blue.

“You ready?” AJ asked with an impish smile on her face.

“For what?” I hesitated.

AJ refused to answer. Instead she took off her shirt and stripped her pants off.

“Uh… what are you doing?” I asked. All of a sudden AJ ran and jumped off the side of the rocks. “Holy shit! What are you doing???” I yelled at her. Oh my god. She’s going to die. I’m going to have to rescue her, and I have no idea how to get back. What am I going to do? Suddenly she popped her head out of the water laughing.

“What the hell was that?” I yelled angrily. “You scared the crap out of me! What do you even think you’re doing? You could have gotten yourself killed.”

***

I rolled my eyes at Joe. “I’m fine Joe!” I called up to him. “I’ve done this a million and half times.”

“You’re drunk! You shouldn’t have done something so stupid.”

“I’m not that drunk anymore. You really need to loosen up. You are way too uptight. Now come on in! I promise it’s fun,” I bit my lip to try to hide the fact that I was laughing at his reaction.

“No thank you. Jumping off cliffs is not my idea of fun. How deep is it anyway? And stop laughing at me!” Joe glared.

“Dammit Joe! I don’t know. It’s deep. I can’t touch the bottom. Now stop being a fuck and jump! Or I’m going to come up there and push you in.”

“WHAT did you just call me?” Joe’s face looked shocked.

“A fuck,” I stuck my tongue out at him. “What are you going to do about it?” I challenged him.

“Oh that’s it!” Joe growled at me. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his body when he took off his shirt. The boy had the abs of a Greek god.

“Hmm a boxer briefs guy. Sexy,” I winked at him. I couldn’t contain my laughter as he blushed. “Now jump!”

Joe flipped me off as he took a deep breath and jumped. He hit the water with a splash and came up to the surface with a smile on his face.

“Ok. I’ll admit that was actually a lot of fun,” he admitted.

“See? I told you. Now lets go again!”

Joe and I spent the next ten minutes jumping into the pool, climbing out the hole and hiking back to the top to jump again. After a while, we stopped hiking and just swam in the pool. I floated on my back and looked up at the stars.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” I asked. “It feels like you’re the only person left in the world.”

“It’s amazing. I’ve never been anywhere where you can’t hear anything. Listen,” We were both quiet for a moment. The only sound was that of the running water of the river. “The river is the only sound. I can’t believe I’ve never done this.”

“Done what?”

“Just stripped and gone swimming somewhere. This is really fun,” Joe seemed surprised.

“It’s almost as good as skinny dipping,” I winked.

“I’ve never been so I wouldn’t know…” Joe trailed off.

“Seriously?! Why not? It’s like a right of passage,” I exclaimed indignantly.

“Where exactly would I go?” Joe raised his eyebrows at me. “I don’t particularly want naked pictures of myself plastered on the front page of a magazine.”

“Oh..” I trailed off, “I guess that would make sense. Well let’s rectify this situation now.” I grinned impishly at him.

Joe’s eyes got wide, “What do you mean?”

“Where else are you going to have the opportunity to go skinny dipping? What better time than now?” I lazily reached behind me and undid my bra strap. I took off my bra and held it up above the water.

Joe’s eyes widened and he unintentionally licked his lips. I threw my bra to the side and slid my underwear down my legs. I threw the article of clothing next to my bra. “Your turn.”

Joe hesitated for a moment, but he finally reached down and pulled his boxer briefs down. He tossed them next to my clothes. “I can’t believe I’m doing this!” Joe exclaimed.

“It’s not that bad,” I laughed. “It feels so free.” I splashed some water at him. His face immediately became serious. There was a momentary pause and he suddenly swam toward me. He was fast! Within moments he reached me. I yelped as he pushed me under. I came up sputtering. “I cannot believe you just did that!” I stuck my tongue out at him.

“What are you going to do about it?” Joe sent me a sexy wink and my breath caught in my throat. Damn, this boy really knows how to bring out my competitive side. I swam toward him and pushed his head under water. We continued to wrestle for a little while.

“I’m tired,” I yawned. Joe yawned too and with in an unspoken agreement we both headed over to collect our underwear. We hiked back up to get our clothes and then headed back down toward the barn. We decided to crash where the party was because we were both exhausted. It was about 3:00 a.m. so everyone had left or was asleep by now. We walked into the barn and there was only one couch way upstairs left open.

“You go ahead and take the couch. I can sleep on the floor,” I whispered to Joe.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he shook his head tiredly. “We can both sleep on the couch. It’s not that big of a deal.”

I shrugged my shoulders. I was too exhausted to argue tonight. I took the inside of the couch and felt Joe lie down next to me. I was asleep before I even got the chance to say goodnight.