☀The Song☀

Chapter 9

Eight months later, Luke Anderson was sent to prison for thirty five years for what he did. Turns out I wasn't the only one. He had raped four girls in the past three years, two of which resulted in children.

Gil and I had gotten really serious about our relationship after that. He hasn't realized how much I meant to him until that night, and nor did I. He had become very protective too, not letting me go anywhere by myself at night, and I was okay with it. It felt nice to have him with me, but I hadn't realized how much I needed him to be there.

The band's success skyrocketed, we became the #1 'garage band' in the area. We had requests to do parties, from a 10 year old girls birthday to a retirement party. But our best performance by far would have to be Mooney and May-belle's wedding.
Mooney was our main guitar guy, he was moving up in the world and had retired from the band about a year before, but not before training a replacement. I didn't know him that well but Gil thought of him as an older brother. Mooney had started the band off on the track it was going on, so the least we could do was accept his offer to be the band at his wedding.

He told us the specific songs he wanted us to play, and left the rest up to us. We decided to go with what we already had done, since there was only a few weeks until the big day.

Mooney pulled me aside after a practice about a week before the wedding. He looked a bit too nervous.

"Hey kid, I don't think I ever met you properly, my names Mooney, don't worry bout introducing yourself, I already know plenty about ya thanks to Gilbert over there. Sorry, I'm rambling, I am just kind of nervous about this, I mean, it's not something I usually ask people."

"What is it?" I was intrigued, he seemed like such a level minded guy, it must be really important if he was nervous about it.

"I... I uh... I wrote this song for May-belle, and I was hoping that you ad Gilbert could perform it? If you don't want to, I understand. But you guys would get full rights to the song of it ends up going anywhere, I wrote it but you guys have the recording and performing rights and such. I haven't talked to Gilbert about it, I thought he wouldn't like it as much as you would," he sounded very unsure of himself, like he was scared of being rejected. I couldn't possibly say no to this.

"I would love to play it Mooney. Can I see it?"

"Oh, of course! I took the liberty in writing it with two parts already, with harmonies, and I have different instrumentation with it as well."

I looked through the piece, it was phenomenal. The feeling that was put into the first verse alone was enough to stir up feelings that need not be felt at this particular moment. I had to show Gil.

"This is wonderful!"

"Thanks, do you think Gilbert will like it?"

"What am I supposed to like?" Gil had snuck up behind me to put his arms around my waist.

"I wrote a song for May-belle and was wondering if you two could..."

"We would love to Mooney, we can have it ready by Thursdays rehearsal. You need to go home and get some rest. We will look it over and do what we need to, by you look like you haven't slept in awhile. Goodnight Mooney."

"Thanks Gilbert, Anne." He handed Gil the music and walked to his car, looking like the happiest man on earth.

"Looks like we get to sing together again Anne, We can look over it back at my place," he whispered in my ear as he pulled me closer.

"Okay," I whispered back. He picked me up and put me on the couch in the garage.
"Wait here." He ordered as he left to go get his guitar.

I sat there watching him, watching the concern Ion his face as he packed up everything, the way he handled his guitar as he placed it gingerly on its case. He cared so much about that old beat up guitar, he was always tuning it up or changing the strings to keep it sounding nice. It was amusing the way he treated that old thing better than his car.

It was watching him then that I realized my feelings for him. It was like the realization came crashing down. Every emotion that I have ever felt for him came welling up inside my stomach. All I wanted at that moment was to be in his arms, to tell him how I feel about him.

"Earth to Anne, come back Anne, do you copy? Hello? Anne?" Gil was sitting next to me, with his arm around my shoulder. I don't know how I missed it. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours? You haven't stopped smiling for two whole minutes an-"

I didn't know what came over me, I couldn't help it. I couldn't hear anything besides my heart beating louder than a bass drum. All I knew was that at that moment I kissed him, hard, like my life depended on kissing him at that moment.

He kissed back with the same intensity, if not more, and I couldn't help but feel elated. He cupped my jaw with one hand as he placed the other on my back. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he pulled me closer.

After what felt like forever, he put his forehead on mine before smiling, "What was that for?"

"I just...I-"

"Would you two get a room already? Some of us would like to kill zombies in peace."
"Oh, shut up Tyler," Gil mumbled, "It's not like you don't do the same."

"Can we leave now?" I asked, I needed to tell him how I felt, but there were too many people around.

"Alright, see you guys tomorrow." Gil picked up his guitar and we walked to the car hand in hand.

He drove home in silence. We both enjoyed the companionable silence while holding each other's hand.

I was noticing a lot today, like now I noticed how rough his hands are. I guess I never realized how calloused they are. I ran my fingers over his palm, memorizing the feeling of it, trying to make a mental image of his hand. I glanced over at his face to see him smiling.

"What?"

"What?" He had a mischievous glimmer in his eye.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"Because... I don't know really, I just enjoy it when you hold my hand."

"Me too."

He laughed as he pulled into his driveway. I had spent a lot of nights at his house- thankfully neither of our parents minded- so I had my own little basket in his room for my clothes, since his mom thought a drawer was too serious.

We practiced the song Mooney gave us for awhile, laughing and goofing around at times. It was a very well written song, I enjoyed playing it.

It was almost midnight when we decided to go to sleep. He was almost asleep before I got the courage to tell him.

"Gil,"

"Hmm?" He rolled over to look at me.
"I think I might be falling in love with you," I looked straight into his eyes when I said it. He smiled, pulled me close to him and simply whispered,
"I already have."