make-believe | jason newsted

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chapter six: a song for you

The next time the band was set to get together at the studio, Jason swore to himself that he would go and reveal the song to the band.

All he had for now was some lyrics. There wasn't any specific sound he was looking for, as long as the the words were able to tell the story for him. 

He was a bit uneasy to show them for the first time. What if they didn't like it? What if they thought it wasn't going to be good enough? 

On the day of, Jason let the three of them go first with whatever they created since their last session. Once they took note of everything, he spoke up.

"Uh...I wrote a song the other day." The rest of the band looked at him, giving him their undivided attention as he began to pull out the sheet of paper that contained the lyrics. 

He handed it over to James first, watching him scan over the lyrics for a moment in silence. He doesn't say anything, handing the lyrics off to Kirk and Lars. 

Jason was nervous as they stood there in silence, unsure whether or not they liked it enough to make it into a song. He felt like snatching the sheet of paper back and moving on.

But after some approving nods and hums from the rest of them, Kirk looked up. "This is really good. Have you written any music for it?"

Jason shook his head. "Not really. It just came to me and I had to write it down." He shrugged.  He took that as a good thing because now they would be able to come together and jam something together.

So now he thought it would be the best time to come clean with who it was about. 

There was no reason to hide it anymore and maybe, just maybe, they would decide to come around and actually give it a chance. After all, they were trying to do something different with their new album. 

While they were looking down at the lyrics again and trying to think of a tune, Jason suddenly mentioned the inevitable. "It's about a real girl." 

They went silent for a minute as they took in what he said. The three of them looked at him, already catching on to the fact that this was the reason why Jason was acting weird days before. 

"What?" James asked. "You mean you wrote this based on an actual person?"

Jason cleared his throat. "The song? Yeah, it's about a girl I...liked." Jason explained, trying not to give too much away.

Lars raised an eyebrow. "A girl you liked? You don't like her anymore?" He laughs a bit, confused by his wording.

"Well yes, but no," Jason groaned in annoyance. "I still like her, it's just...complicated." He tried to explain without explaining too much. 

"Okay, well...then how is it complicated?" Lars kept pushing.

Jason looked back at the three of them, hoping that his method of silence was going to get them to change the subject. But of course, Lars wasn't having it.

"Come on Jason, we're waiting!" He shouted. God damn it, Jason thought to himself. There was no other choice but to tell the truth, so he might as well come clean to them. 

"Fine," He groaned. "When we last performed at that bar a couple of weeks ago, I saw this beautiful girl in the crowd, and she was like an angel. I was planning to talk to her, but when I went to go find her, she was gone. Ever since then, I haven't been able to get her out of my head."

The three of them sat there in silence as they listened to his explanation. He knew he probably sounded like a crazy person, and he really didn't need another lecture from them about how he needed to stop being a hopeless romantic. 

"You didn't even get her name or her number?" Kirk asked, looking back at the lyrics with the context in mind now. "That's pretty fucked up." Like he didn't know that already. 

"I got nothing," Jason sighed. "So that's why I made the song. In case she hears it or something..." His voice trailed off.

They seemed to take a minute to think on it again, looking at the lyrics again and pointing out what might need work and what sound they could make off of it.

James spoke up. "I think we should take a chance on it. It's something different, let's just see how it goes." Kirk and Lars nodded in agreement. They were going to take a chance on it. 

Even if it didn't make it onto the album in the long run, it didn't matter to him. He just wanted her to be able to hear the song in some capacity, whether it was at a concert or a one-time radio play.  

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get on with it." Kirk said, giving the lyrics back to James and going to get his guitar.

Jason let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. This was really happening, they were going to make this song for her. 

As they began to jam together and try and create a sound, Jason hoped that this song would reach her somewhere out there. 

And she would come back to him.