Chapter Eight - Better In Stereo

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Everybody looks at me up on stage and I got a little self conscious.
Was my hair okay? Was my dress straight? What if I mess up? What were the words?
So many things were running through my mind and I was suddenly nervous.
I looked at Johnny who was smiling at me, and was standing next to Bam. For some reason, looking at him clears my mind and gave me a vote of confidence.
I clear my throat and say keeping my eyes on Johnny, "Hey guys. Um, this is my birthday present for my brother, Bam. He's always wanted me to sing. And so...here I am." I look at Bam, "So...yeah. Here we go."
I gesture to Dunn who was going to run the slideshow on a screen behind me. The slideshow was of the baby pictures and all the pictures from the photo album.
The first slide started, and it said 'Bam and Joey Birthday: Age 27; Better In Stereo' and the music for the song 'Better In Stereo' started.
I take in a deep breath and then start singing.

'I'm up with the sunshine. I lace up my high tops. Slam dunk, ready or not, yeah show me what you got.
I'm under the spotlight. I'll take you come on and follow. You dance to your own beat. I'll sing the melody.
When you say 'yeah' I say 'no' when you say 'stop!' all I wanna do is 'go, go, go'.
You the other half of me, the half I'll never be, the half that drives me crazy.
You the better half of me, the half I'll always need. And we both know. We're better in stereo.'

As I sang, people were into it and some were swaying. They laughed at the occasional funny picture of little Bam and I. So far so good.

'And when we're together. A sweet harmony is so rare. If we could just agree, we would go major league.
When you say 'yeah' I say 'no' when you say 'stop!' all I wanna do is 'go, go, go'...'

I was having a lot of fun up on stage and I took the microphone off the stand and was having some fun with the audience.

'You the other half of me. The half I'll never be. The half that drives me crazy.
You the better half of me. The half I'll always need. And we both know we're better in stereo.'

I walk off the stage, like planned, and towards Bam and sing as I walk up to him.

'You say it's wrong, I'll say it's right.
You say it's black, I'll say it's white.
You take a left and I'll take a right.
But at the end of the day we both know.
You the other half of me, the half I'll never be. The half that drives me crazy.
You the better half of me, the half i' always need. And we both know, we're better in stereo...'

I finish the song and the crowd goes wild and I turn and look at the screen and see that it was just ending. The slide we were on it had a recent picture of Bam and I. We were both making a funny face at the camera and at the bottom it said,
'Evil Twins Forever' and the next one was another self taken picture of Bam and I. It was pretty much the same one as our first Christmas but of course we were 26 years old and at the skatepark. The caption said,
'I love you Bam!'
And then the next and last slide was a home video I found. At one point Jess was really into making videos and so I found them and I decided to put this one in the slideshow.
Bam and I were sitting next to each other and all three of us were at the skatepark.
Jess was behind the camera of course, and Bam and I were laughing. We were probably 9 years old.
'So Bam,' Jess in the video, 'Can you explain a little about what's going on?'
It took him a minute to answer because he was still laughing,
'I'm going to teach Joey some tricks on her skateboard for her competition.' Bam says
Bam and I get on our skateboards and Jess still recording.
Bam teaches me some tricks and when we were running through a trick and Bam lost his balance and he grabbed me for balance but he ended up pulling me down with him and we were thrown into another fit of laughter.
The audience was laughing at the video and Bam pulls me into a hug, "So, do you like your present?" I ask him
"I loved it. And I always will because I noticed Steve-O video taping it." We laugh, "I love you Pebbles." Bam adds
"I love you too Bam Bam." I say back to him.
I let him go and Chris takes the microphone from me and someone snakes their arms around my waist.
I look back behind me at Johnny and he smiled at me, "You did great." he says
"Thanks." I say and he kisses the side of my head.
I giggle and then Chris says, "Alright ladies and gentlemen, now...it's time to party!"
People cheer and the music starts again and Johnny takes my hand and takes me over to the dance floor and says, "Mind if I have this dance, mi'lady?"
I laugh as he spins me and then dips me.
We dance for awhile, and finally Johnny says, "Hey, wanna go somewhere for a second?"
"Sure." I answer
"You, uh, might want to change. Just so you don't get that dress of yours dirty." he says and I giggle and he adds, "I can help you."
"No. I'll just be a minute." I say with a laugh and I start to head inside but he says,
"I think I better make sure you don't get lost."
I laugh and he wraps his arms around me and we play fight and I back him up and push him into the pool and I laugh.
He climbs out of the pool and wipes the water from his eyes and gives me an evil look, "Your turn." he says and starts running at me but I run into the house away from him.
I was just about to get to my door when Johnny wraps his arms around my waist and I hang onto the door.
"Come on, babe. It's only fair." Johnny says
"No!" I exclaim while laughing
We laugh and finally he says, "God that was so cold."
"I'm sorry." I say with a giggle as I run my fingers through his wet hair and he says,
"I'm going to go change."
"Me too." I say and we go into our bedrooms.
I change into jeans and gray t-shirt and leave my sneakers. I put on a black beanie and I walk out just to have someone wrap their arms around me.
"Hey." he says
"Hi." I say back and he reaches up and tucks some hair behind my ear.
"Come on." he says and grabs my hand and guides me out of the house and in the backyard.
"Where are we going?" I ask
"You'll see." Johnny says with a chuckle.
We didn't walk long until I see a treehouse that looked really familiar.
I laugh and I say, "Bam built a treehouse like the one we built as kids?"
"As far as I know," Johnny says, "It's the same one."
I laugh again and we go up the ladder and indeed it was the same one.
I looked around and everything was the same. There was a carved heart-a-gram on one wall, there was a little crank that opened the roof to look up at the stars.
"I remember sitting with Bam and drawing our design down." I say as I go out onto the little area where you can walk around the actual 'house' part, "We planned it for months until we final brought it to Phil and Vito who built it for us."
I sit down and Johnny sits next to me and we look out at the view of the open field in front of us.
I look at him and say with a smile,
"You know, you're the second boy that's ever been up here."
He nudges me with his elbow and gives me a look and I giggle, "The first was Bam, silly." I say, "This was our secret hideout. We never let anyone up here. Whenever we needed some space we'd come out here, of course, it wasn't that secret because everyone would find us."
Johnny laughs and grabs my hand and says,
"Well I'm honored to be one of the privileged."
I smile and rest my head on his shoulder and he rests his head on mine.
"Oh," Johnny says, "The actual reason I brought you out here..."
I sit up and he digs in his flannel pocket and pulls out a medium sized black velvet box with a purple ribbon on it.
"Here," he says holding it out to me, "Your birthday present."
I look at him and cautiously take it,
"And before you go talking about how I shouldn't have and stuff...I wanted to. Like I said, you deserve to be spoiled." Johnny says
I look down at the box in my hands and then at him and he adds, "You're special to me...I wanted to get you something just as special."
I couldn't help but smile and he says, "Well...are you going to open it?"
We laugh and I take the bow off and stick it to his shoulder and then open the box.
Inside it was a charm bracelet. It had a silver chain and a little heart with diamonds in it, an infinity sign, a white Eiffel Tower, and a little dove charm.
"Johnny." I say unable to think of anything else to say, "It's beautiful."
"It's not much." he says with a shrug
"It looks really expensive." I say
"Don't worry about it," he says, "It's nothing."
I shake my head, I was flattered that he wanted to buy me stuff like this but...even with Bam buying me expensive stuff like that Camaro bothered me.
"I-I can't take this," I say, "I'm sorry."
I hold the box towards him,
"Joe," he says, "Please. It's fine don't worry about a thing."
"Don't worry? Johnny I'm touched that you bought me something for my birthday but...I don't want you spending-" I say
"Joey," Johnny says again getting a little upset, "Take it. It's just a bracelet. I wanted to buy you something for your birthday. I love you and I wanted to get something for you."
We look at each other and realization lit his eyes as he realized what had just come out of his mouth.
"You...you love me?" I ask quietly taken aback by his words.
It takes him a minute to say anything, "Well...yeah." he says, "I do. I love you Joey."
I didn't know what to say. This was a step I wasn't entirely ready for. We've been dating a month and...did I love him back?

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