Love Song (LGBTQ+) (COMPLETED)

65. Better

After sleeping through the entirety of what was a relatively short three hour flight, I somewhat groggily followed my mom and Grace until they found Jay leaning against a black SUV in equally dark clothing just on the other side of the clear doors dividing us. Following suit, he took a few steps forward from the vehicle as we finally made our way through the doors and into the surprisingly chilly November air of Austin, Texas. Under that clear blue sky and a view of several huge, layered skyscrapers, I had taken my first steps onto that new land.

"Yo." Jay fearlessly wrapped his arms around me without so much as even asking and then stepped away just as quickly as his eyes met my mom. "How's the shoulder doing?"

"It's fine. Thanks for asking." my mom took a few steps forward as she passed him and set a hand on top of his head, pointing at the SUV. "Is this for us?"

Giving a nod to Grace with a smile, Jay's even longer blonde hair bounced with him as he turned back towards the SUV and gave a similar nod to my mom before making his way to the back door and opening it up. It didn't take someone with great eyesight to feel all the eyes on us, and that reality only became more obvious once I looked around to see everyone looking. I was sure that being looked at by crowds of people was something normal for him, but their eyes weren't just on him. They were on me and Grace.

It must've been weird to the people around the airport. The Jay Ward was leaning against a black SUV while standing and waiting in front of a airport like a completely normal person would. The Jay Ward was bringing and guiding two girls to that very SUV, a celebrity was in their presence, and that only meant one thing. That one thing was exactly what a majority of them did, they pulled out their phones and filmed it. At only eighteen, Jay was already experiencing a booming music career and rumors said that he was going to try his hand at acting. He was a celebrity, and he was being treated like one.

While I studied what was becoming a quickly forming crowd, Jay suddenly approached me from behind as his hand met the small of my back just before bringing his mouth to my ears. "Just ignore it for now."

The same man who had been covered by every outlet, electronic and physical, was the very same man I was getting into a SUV with right at that moment and god knew how many people saw it happen. Now sitting in the back of that black SUV, Jay shut the door and traveled around the back before opening the door to the driver seat. I was honestly sort of shocked when Jay got in the driver's seat and started the engine as he shifted the vehicle into drive before accelerating through the path the airport created.

It wasn't that I thought Jay couldn't drive, I just kind of figured that he would've preferred a driver to drive him around to take him to the places he needed to go. Instead, just like every day I spent with him in Ely, I seemed to learn something new about him and the way he chose to do everything. At one moment, the things Jay did were unquestionably normal, but then in another moment, his methods were completely unorthodox. Even if they were weird, everything he seemed to do worked out in his favor.

Those qualities reminded me of someone else that was special to me, a special someone that was sitting next to me in the back of that SUV as my mom relaxed in the passenger seat next to Jay. The both of them shone so brightly under any kind of light, leaking all of themselves through the sounds of their voices and the looks in their eyes. They exuded not only the strength I always felt that I lacked, but the determination to keep pushing forward toward something more, something bigger and better.

It was as I grew with these two that I realized it was those very things that attracted so many people to them. The strength they carried and the determination that melted from the both of them were what gave people the hope to keep moving forward, to keep marching toward something better than what they were given. Grace and Jay's voices gave people a light to lead them forward on their journeys for a brighter world, a small push on the back to give them a start towards something more.