Once Upon A Dream (Kris Bryant)

12- Play Date

Jayden

As things around here get crazier and crazier I get pretty busy. I do a few more interviews and set up a few performances. I only have one song out there so there wasn't much to do at the time. I have a meeting with Tyler later, but until then I was going to chill out.

I end up going to breakfast with Anthony and he makes me pay since I was "so big time" now. So we chill in the back of a ihop and mess around like we did back in Florida many times before.

"Do you miss home sometimes" I ask.

"I miss my parents. I missed you but I don't have to worry about that anymore" he shrugs.

"I miss your parents too" I admit and he laughs.

"Yeah" he asks.

"Hell yeah. I used to go over and have dinner with them when I was in college and didn't have money for food. I would help your mom with her garden in the summer and we would watch home videos" I tell him and he groans.

"She doesn't still have that video... does she" he asks.

"You mean the video when we got married as a kid but you insisted on being the wife and tried to pull one of my tiny dresses over your freakishly large child frame" I ask and he glares at me.

"Yeah... that one" he mumbles.

"She definitely still has that one" I assure him.

"Damn... I thought I destroyed all those videos" he admits.

"You did... but being your totally awesome best friend I had a few copies of my own. And one magically ended up in your moms grasp. Not really sure how that happened" I smirk and he throws one of the butter packets at my head. I laugh before chucking it back at him and it bounced off his head.

"You're the worst best friend ever" he claims.

"Yeah? Is that why you begged for me to stay with you when I mentioned moving up here" I tease.

"No. That was because you make the best food" he jokes and I shake my head.

"So what's your plan for today" I ask as we eat our food.

"I don't know. Maybe we can go do some go carts before your meeting" he says and I smile.

"Seriously" I ask and he nods.

"Yeah, there's a outdoor track around here and some put put" he says and I smile.

"Let's go!"

We arrive at a little amusement park and play the day away. For a few hours he wasn't a professional baseball player and I wasn't starting my career in singing. It was the two best friends ever against the world. We could joke around and do ugly laughs and trash talk all we wanted. It was a nice little get away from reality, but it only lasted so long.

"I had fun today, thank you Anthony" I say giving him a hug.

"Of course. It would be stupid if I lived with my best friend and we didn't hang out some times" he admits.

"It would be" I agree. "So I'll see you at the game tonight. I have a meeting with Tyler then I'll head over to Wrigley" I tell him.

"Alright, keep being awesome. I love you" he says before kissing the top of my head and jumping in his car.

I drive over to the studio in downtown Chicago and walk into the sound booth. I see Tyler and a few other guys sitting around and talking. I join them and we get this meeting started.

"Alright. First order of business is that I wanted to congratulate you. Thanks for making me look like a genius" Tyler says turning to me and I laugh.

"I try" I tease.

"Second order of business: a album" he says and I nod.

"I already have enough songs to last me a whole career" I admit.

"And that's great. But we don't need a bunch of songs. We need a few really good ones" he insists.

"I can see what I can do" I say and he nods.

"I don't usually do this, but you're not like most people. So I'm giving you two weeks to do this, it's going to be all on your own. Any style and type of songs. Come back in three weeks with about twelve songs and if they're good you will record and we will go from there" he insists.

"Seriously? You don't want me meeting with writers or anything" I ask.

"No. Because these are your songs, this is your album, I want it to be all you. Your thing is love and happiness and hope, no one else in their right mind sees the world like you do. To try and get you to work with a bunch of people will lose the authenticity. It's not going to be easy, but when times are rough is usually when you get the best material. If you need anything let me know, but I have a lot in faith in you. I have from the start. You set the bar high with the first song and the people have delivered better than I could have ever imagined. I always trust my gut, and my gut is telling me that I can't treat you like other artists. So come back in three weeks with twelve good songs and we will go from there" he insists.

"Alright, I can do that. Anything else" I ask.

"There is one more thing" he admits.

"Which is..." I ask.

"There's someone who has already asked to songwriter with you but we talked and we were going to let you get started before we start throwing around collaborations and co writing" he insists.

"Who is it" I ask with amazement.

"Don't worry about it" he claims and I pout.

"Tell me" I demand.

"I don't want it to distract you" he claims.

"I'm distracted if I'm siting around trying to figure out who it is" I defend and he sighs.

"Fine... it's Ed Sheeran" he says and I gasp.

"I'm serious Tyler" I insist.

"So am I" he replies and my face drops.

"Wait... you're not messing with me" I ask and he shakes his head.

"I'm not kidding" he replies.

"Well when can I work with him" I ask.

"In two weeks" he smirks and I roll my eyes. I should have figured that.

After talking through some more things with Tyler I head over to the game. I pull on my Rizzo jersey and jean shorts and head down to the dugouts. They let me out onto the field and Kris comes over.

"How was your play date" he asks and I laugh.

"Fun like always. I kinda miss being a kid" I admit.

"You're 24, you're still a kid" he assures me.

"Maybe so, but I have the responsibilities of a adult to remind me I'm not the kid I once was" I sigh.

"Life is as good as you make it" he claims and I turn to him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right" I smile.

"Aren't I always" he teases and I laugh.

"Pretty much" I agree.

Eventually Anthony comes over and I catch them both up on what's going on. I tell them that the next two weeks were basically the most important of my entire life yo until now. I was just hoping to get everything figured out.