the road home // josh kiszka

drunk on the moon

chapter song: drunk on the moon-tom waits
A/N: this chapter is a bit shorter but I promise there are longer ones to come !
//

*3 months later, Josh's POV*

january 2017

I couldn't believe I had forgotten what the rush of playing in front of a crowd of people had felt like. I let the adrenaline course freely through my body as I took a puff from my cigarette. The night hair was crisp, giving rise to goose bumps along my arms.

"Crazy, isn't it?" Jake asked, coming out of the noisy bar to join me.

I nodded and offered him my cigarette. Jake, Sam and I had picked up right where we left off, it had seemed. Although, it had seemed to set us back minorly when our drummer, Kyle, decided it was going to be too much for him to try and continue to be in the band because he attended college out-of-state. Lucky enough, Sam's friend from school, Daniel, was a multi-talented instrumentalist, and fell right into the swing of things with us. I had been going home select weekends to work on new music in our garage and then they had started coming up here on weekends to play at bars around the college. The fire inside my bones started to burn again and it had seemed to incinerate all the sadness that was tearing me apart. My phone buzzed, snapping me out of my thoughts.

y/n 🌺:

you guys sounded amazing!

me:

Thank you so much!

I can't believe you came! We're outside, come say hi

y/n 🌺:

i wouldn't miss it for the world!

on my way!

I started tapping my foot, anxiously. I hadn't seen her in what felt like months. It was all because of her that we had started making music again, but I hadn't kept in contact over all these months. A wave of guilt washed over me.

"Dude, hello?" Jake said, waving his hand in front of my face.

"What?" I snapped

"You okay?" He asked

Before I could answer, Y/N came bouncing over to us. She had a big smile plastered across her face.

"Hi" She said.

"Hi? What's got you smiling so big?" Jake asked, chuckling.

"You guys are going to love me."

"Oh?" Jake raised an eyebrow.

"One of the kids who saw you guys play, his dad is a producer at a record company here in Detroit, and I talked him into mentioning you guys to his dad."

"Holy shit!" Jake and I said in unison.

"I don't know if that exactly means it will lead to anything, but hopefully it'll at least get your name circulating around, you know?"

"That's more than we could've asked for! Thank you so much! I'm gonna go tell Sam and Danny." Jake said, heading back into the haze of the bar.

The air surrounding us thickened, and I felt as if my heart was going to burst. This woman was intoxicating. She was so selfless, so pure, so beautiful.

"Thank you, Y/N. Seriously. You don't know how much this means to us." I said, breaking the silence.

"I'm just glad to see you happy and doing something you're so passionate about. Not to mention that you guys are seriously amazing." She smiled.

I smiled at her, "I couldn't have done it without your push you know?"

"You definitely could have, but I'm glad I could help. Do you guys have any more performances planned around here?"

"Not that I know of, we're playing a small venue called Fischer Hall back in Frankenmuth next weekend. I'm not sure if you'd want to come--"

"I'd love to, text me the details?"

"Of course." I smiled.

"Goodnight, Josh." She said, turning to leave.

"Goodnight, Y/N."

I didn't want her to leave. I wanted to ask her to do something with me, anything really, but I felt as if I couldn't breathe around her. I needed to wrap my brain around one thing at a time. After her figure had disappeared from my sight, I went back into the bar to join the guys.

"Hey!" they cheered in unison, raising shots.

I cheered with them. We weren't sure if this would turn into a big break for us, but right now we were riding on a wave of hope and with the rough year we had had, it was something we needed.