Beyond The Sky

52

I wake up the following morning, excited to remember that Lance is coming over today. I smile to myself as I roll over on my side and grab my phone off my nightstand, checking through the notifications I may have received overnight. Only a few from the social sites I'm on - just a couple of likes. I unlock my phone to the home screen and take the time to text Lance -- letting him know that I'm excited to see him today. I also text Evynne, asking her if she could come over tomorrow instead of in two days. I'm a busy girl -- I'd rather get this performance done and over with, sorry Lance... I hope you're a quick learner!

I almost instantly receive a text message back from Evynne saying that she'll be over tomorrow instead, and I send her back a thumbs up. I go back to see Lance is typing something.

I guess all my friends are up this early too... If you call 8 a.m. 'early'.

His little bubble indicating he's typing disappears, and I assume his message is sending. It shows up not much later.

'See you soon! :)'

I quickly add on to my earlier text.

'Hope you're a quick learner - got a song ready to teach ya, and Evynne and I decided she was gonna come over tomorrow instead. You cool with that?'

I wait for his response.

'Yup. As long as we have all day to learn it... I should be good! You will still have the lyrics up if I need them, right?'

'Of course! Even I forget them sometimes. I'd just rather get this part over with. I'm nervous.'

'I get that. :) Well, I'll see you soon. As a matter of fact - I'll be over very soon so we can get started. Love ya!"

I smile. Now, I should probably get ready - I guess I don't have a lot of time left before I see Lance. I'd say maybe half an hour to an hour. I get changed, head downstairs and grab some food. Everyone else in the house was either still sleeping or out doing their own thing. My mom was in her office, working on a personal project. I walk in. "Hey."

"Hi, Serena. What's up?" She acknowledges my presence.
"I was just coming in to let you know that Lance'll be here soon. He decided to show up a little earlier since Evynne decided, too, to come over tomorrow instead."

"Okie doke, sounds good." She turns to me. "I haven't gotten a chance to meet Lance yet, either... He's planning on meeting all of us today, right?"
"If he wants to. Don't force it on him though. I figure I'll teach him one of the songs first."
"Of course not. I'm sure he'd still be excited to see us anyway."
I hear our doorbell ring, interrupting our conversation. "Oh - that's probably him."

"Go ahead," she nods to me, "I'll be in here."

I nod in return to her as she turns back around. I go ahead and shut the office door behind her. I raced to the front door, then double-checking it was Lance through the peephole. Sure enough, it was. I open the door, letting him in. He walks in and I give him a hug. "Hi, Lance."

He hugs me back, and then I would let go of the hug. "Great to see you again," he says, smiling. "You look nice."

"Thanks!" I blush a bit. "But I look and dress like this every day."

He chuckles. "I know. I'm just trying to be a good soulmate."
I laugh a bit. "You don't have to try. You know that, right?"
"I may as well!"

There's a few moments of silence before he asks if we could get started on learning the song.

"Good idea. I actually have two I'd like to teach you, but we'll focus on the duet today. We'll work on the second one after Evynne visits tomorrow."
"Cool. Let's go." I lead him upstairs to my room, leaving my door open after we enter. I've already set up a section of my room with my laptop, my guitar, and two chairs to work in. "So, this may not happen, but, if, say, I was going to record this once we had it good enough to share with the world, you'd be okay with it?"
He nods. "Yup."
"Cool. Anyway..." I grab my laptop and put in the URL to the website I get my chords and lyrics from - and since the artist has his own website with all of this on it, I go there.

"This song is called My Favorite Regret," I tell him, "and it's by Josh Woodward and Katie Pederson."

"Sounds awesome."
"Actually - before we begin..." I suddenly remembered that I never got around to performing Together Forever for him. "I have a song I'd like to perform just for you."
"Oh?" he asks curiously.

"The day you showed me what your favorite song was... I decided to learn it on my guitar." His eyes widened in surprise, and I swear they almost sparkled.

I quickly open a new tab on my laptop and pull up the other site. "I present to you... Together Forever by Set It Off." I smile at him, and he'd smile, too. "I... kind of think of this one as our song."

"Aw, that's so sweet." He looks at me. "Play it for me!"

"I already planned to, you doofus." I laugh at him, placing my arm around him for a moment. I put my laptop back on the very edge of my bed and sling my guitar over my shoulder, tuning it. "You ready?"

He nods. "Of course."

I play the track, and play along with it. I sing along when the lyrics come up on screen.