A Bond Never Broken

Chapter 1

"Have a goodnight ya'll and I hope I get to see ya'll on the road again! We love ya!" I cheered enthusiastically as I ran off the stage.

We had been in Europe for the past week. It had been a thrilling ride. The fact that I am over seas touring now was beyond fulfilling. I was on a roller coaster ride that kept climbing up. Except there was one problem; there was no one to ride it with me.

It had been well over 19 years since I had to leave Caroline. Everyday she was on my mind. Do you realize how agonizing it is to still hold onto your first love for 19 years? I wake up; I wonder what Caroline is doing. I'm singing a song about her; I wonder if this could have been a love song instead. I'm drinking coffee; could this have been us each morning? I fall asleep; she could be lying here next to me in my arms.

I hopped in the shower on my bus to release the stress on my muscles and wash off all of the sweat. I was getting older and all of that hip shaking and jumping around sure as hell wasn't helping me none. I shut the shower off and slipped into some shorts and a shirt.

A lot of my friends and family had noticed the image I gave off of stage. Sad, unhappy, gloomy, bitter; all of those were used. But I always used the same excuse;

"I'm just going through a tough time right now."

No one ever believes me but they just let it go, hoping it will wear off soon. It hasn't as you might have guessed.

It was 12:10 pm and not surprisingly, I wasn't too tired. I decided to play my guitar for a little while. The bus door slammed shut. I looked up and saw Carter walk in and sit down at the dinette to use his lap top. I ignored him and started to strum on my guitar. As I do most nights, I had Caroline in the back of my mind. As a result, my notes were depressing ones. The notes rolled off the strings. I imagined her blonde hair in the wind and those baby blues looking into my eyes.

"Alright, Luke, I've about had it with all of these depressing songs you play each night. Why are you so depressed lately?" Carter yelled at me standing up to come and sit across from me.

I just looked at him with a blank face. He knew that I was sad about Caroline. He was pretty much the only one. Is he that stupid?

"Well, are you gonna speak up or just look at me like I'm stupid. If you decide to continue looking at me like that, I'll take your guitar with me to the band bus. Nobody likes to hear your little sad songs of pity."

"You know exactly what's wrong." I retorted through gritted teeth. I really didn't want to talk about it.

"I know I do," His tone got a little bit softer, "but this is the worst I've seen you in a while. C'mon, just talk to me about it."

I sighed, "Fine."

I placed my guitar to the side and turned towards Carter who was ready to listen.

"It's the anniversary of when I left to go pursue my dreams in Nashville. Also known as the day Caroline didn't wanna hold me back, so I left her unwillingly." I took a deep breath to try and suppress my emotions.

"Hey, I'm sorry man." He sighed, "That explains a lot."

I nodded my head and fell back onto the couch. Carter looked at me.

"You know what you need to do Luke?"

"What should I do Carter? Since apparently you're the Mister-Know-It-All."

"Whatever, dude, I'm serious." He gave me a stare.

"Alright, sorry. So what should I do?" I rolled my eyes.

Carter ignored my reaction and explained himself. "Find her and talk to her. Just to be able to know how she's doing might help you."

I jolted up and looked at him like he was insane. "Are you crazy? I can't do that! For one, how will I ever find her. Secondly, if I do she's either gonna find it really creepy I found her or she'll be happy I stalked her. You get my point? That's weird."