You Raise Me Up

A week had passed, and all of us were up in the music room in the Jonas household, messing around with all the equipment. I was sitting at the piano, putting together random chords.

"You know what that sounds like?" Kevin asked, who was sitting on a stool with a guitar.

"What?" I asked, turning around to look back at him.

"That song, You Raise Me Up, by Josh Grobin," he said.

I smiled, then turned back to the keys. I thought about the melody for a moment, and let it flow through my fingers, not making a single mistake as I played the chorus of the song that fully described the relationship of Kevin and I. Joe started to sing, and the rest of us joined in.

"You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders,
You raise me up, to more than I can be."

We finished in perfect harmony, and I slid my fingers off the keys of the piano slowly.

"That sounded really cool," I whispered, shocked at what we all sounded like together. Now, I admit, I wasn't an amazing singer, but with the boys drowning out most of my voice, it sounded pretty good.

We sat in silence for a minute, when Mr. Jonas shouted up the stairs, "Joe, Nick, Kevin, and Ashlyn, could I see you down here for a minute?"

We all got up, and headed down to the living room where Mr. Jonas and Denise were standing together.

"What's up?" Nick asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Well, since you guys are going on tour next week--"

I stood there, confused, while the three boys leaned their heads back, closed their eyes, and groaned.

"I totally forgot about that! Is it really that soon?" Joe asked.

"How could you guys forget about a tour? We've been working on this for a year!" exclaimed Mr. Jonas, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Sorry, Dad, I guess it just kind of slipped our minds," winced Kevin.

"I didn't know you guys were going on tour," I said in a small voice.

It wasn't that I was hurt, or anything. I was just worried that I wouldn't be able to spend as much time with them, because they would be at concerts, radio interviews, tv shows, photoshoots, and a lot of other things all the time.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ash. Don't worry about it, we'll find time," Kevin put his arm around my waist when Mr. Jonas continued.

"Anyway, I figured you four would want some good quality time before the boys' lives got crazy again, so I arranged for you four to be flown to Eastside for four days."

All four of our mouths dropped simotaneously, and we stood still for a moment.

"R-really?" I asked. I couldn't believe that I was going to go back to my hometown.

"Yup! You're leaving tomorrow afternoon."

I started jumping up and down and squeezed Mr. Jonas with all my might.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" I squealed.

We all went upstairs to get our clothes packed, and to plan out what we wanted to do.

---
The flight was only going to take an hour, and we were scheduled to take off at 1:00. I was so excited that I was going to be able to show Kevin, Nick and Joe the town where I had grown up. If my apartment hadn't sold (after three years, I was pretty sure that no one would buy it) I planned to show them the apartment.

We got to the airport at 11:00 so that we could get through the huge security lines of LAX. We would have taken the private jet, but there was no where in or near Eastside to land the monstrous contraption.

We finally got through all the long lines and found our gate around 12:15. All three of the boys were wearing hats and sunglasses, hoping that they wouldn't be recognized. They did enjoy all the fans, but hey, we couldn't miss our flight being bombarded by a trillion teenage girls.

"I can't wait," I whispered to Kevin.

"I know, me too. I don't think I've ever travelled without mom and dad," he said. "This is going to be so much fun."

I took his hand, and we sat there until they called the first class riders. Kevin, Nick, Joe, and I stood up and handed our tickets to the lady who scanned them and let us pass.

We got to our seats, and Joe was stuck sitting next to an annoying little boy and his loud mother, while I was sitting between Kevin and Nick across the aisle.

When the plane started to move, I put my head on Kevin's shoulder and said, "I love you. Thank you for everything you've done for me. I couldn't ask for anything better in life. You are literally a life saver."

"I love you too," he said to me. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." He kissed my temple softly as the plane started to lift off into the air.

The flight was nothing special; stupid jokes were cracked between the three of us, and the occasional pleading look or glare was sent from Joe.

We landed, and once we gathered our bags, Joe started to complain. "Good God, guys, that was the worst flight I have ever had in my life. That kid would not shut up!"

"Sorry, Joe. You should have talked to Nick or something," I said.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, and we walked out of the small airport and got a taxi to the town.

---
We walked to my apartment building, and I asked the man at the front desk if the Rider apartment had sold.

"No, it hasn't. Aren't you Ashlyn Rider? Do you need a room key?"

"Yes, I am, and yes I do, please. How did you recognize me?" I was kind of creeped out that this man knew who I was.

"Honey, you haven't changed a bit since you were seventeen," he said. "You still have your beautiful brown hair and brown eyes."

"Oh, thank you," I said, still kind of creeped out. I led the boys upstairs to the third floor.

I opened the door, and I smelled the smell of the very old room freshener.

"Wow, this is really nice, even though it hasn't been touched in two years," commented Nick, looking around.

"Do you guys want to share rooms, or each have your own rooms?" I asked. "There are two rooms with two beds in them, plus the room with the one bed in it, and the couch has a pull out.

"I dont know about you guys, but I get lonely sleeping alone," said Joe in a fake whine. "Nicholas...will you sleep with me?"

Everyone burst out into laughter except for Joe, who did not realized how odd his comment had sounded.

"Um...I'll share a room with you?" he said in an up talk, which made it sound like a question.

"Alright!" he said, and started up the stairs. "Left or right, Ash?" he asked me.

"You and Nick go on the right. I'll sleep in my parents room, and Kev, you can sleep in my room."

Once we had put our bags in our rooms, we walked out onto the street to start our small town adventure.

We were walking up the street, heading up to Starbucks, where Kevin had insisted that we go.

I ordered an apple cider since it was cold outside, and we started to walk up the street again. We were laughing and cracking stupid jokes when I heard a voice behind us.

"Ashlyn Rider," it said.

We all whirled around, to see a girl standing there with a huge smile on her face.

"I would recognize that hair and that laugh anywhere," she said.

After years of being a loner, and thinking I was invisible, I realized that people did care, that people did notice me, that I was a friend to people.

"L-Lauren?" I asked in amazement.

"The one and only!" she she squealed. "How are you, girl?"

I reached out and hugged her. Hard. Harder than I had hugged Kevin when he invited me to live with them. Harder than I had hugged Mr. Jonas when he told us we were coming here. I hugged her as a long forgotten friend. This moment made me realize, that everything in my life had happened the way it happened, and when it happened, for a reason. I had a perfect family I was living with, and now an old friend. An old best friend that had loved me when no one else did.