Crazy

Chapter Four

All I could hear was the roar of the crowd, constantly screaming out "Hunter, Hunter, Hunter!"

By now, the concert was going to start in any minute and I was located in the front row, dead center, with Sarah at my left. This was probably my fifth concert of his I'd been to, but this was the closest I've ever been to the stage due to the fact that neither Mom nor I had ever been able to afford anything closer than the seventh row. Plus I've never actually known the guy himself.

Suddenly, I was pulled out of my thoughts as Hunter came running up onstage shouting "Hello, Detroit! I got one question for y'all. Are you ready?"

He was answered by the scream of his Hayes-crazed fans.

"I love you to, guys! Well, I hope your ready 'cause I've got quite the playlist for y'all," he called out. "And I hope at least ONE of you recognizes it. Now let's start off with some covers. For the first one, All of Me!"

I smiled, for the fact that I loved that song and had wanted to hear Hunter sing it ever since I'd heard John Legend's performance of it on the Grammy's. All of a sudden I was hit with a sense of realization, Hunter was looking for someone! Heat crept up my face in the familiar blotchy blush once his eyes finally landed on me.

"Kitty, I think he's smiling at you!" Sarah nudged me.

And indeed he was. I waved to him and saw a look in his eyes, a look I had never received from a guy before. Well, whatever it was, I knew he had a big surprise in store.

He began to play on his piano that I loved so much. You know, the one with the lyrics all over it. As he began to sing, I mouthed the lyrics.

Once the song ended, I heard Hunter announce, "Okay, everyone, this one's for those who like to count stars!" He chuckled.

As he blasted into One Republic's COUNTING STARS, I sang along again. And after that, he performed DAYLIGHT by Maroon 5. Next came one of his own songs from when he was younger.

"Alright now, since I know some of you loved little Hunter, you know, me with my tiny accordion playing on all those TV shows. Well, just for y'all, I'm gonna play my old song DREAMING!"

This one I didn't have completely memorized, so I sang what I could and listened to the rest. I had pulled up the lyrics on my phone. Wow, he had them down pat, but I guess he had to practice these songs for days or even weeks before the concert. I swayed along with the music as he continued through the playlist that I had improvised in my car on the phone with him just days before. For the first time in my life, I was just a seventeen year old girl in the fall of 2014 jamming along with my seventeen year old best friend to my favorite singer. This was the one perfect moment out of my entire life. Nothing could go wrong, everything fit together, just like a puzzle. I had no worries, nothing to complain about. I wasn't even thinking about Kat, or mom, or dad, or anything else that had tormented for every day of my life.

As Hunter finished the last song, he shouted his thank you's and God bless you's at the crowd. Then he stopped, and just stood there, his adorable crooked grin drawing across his face. He walked toward the edge of the stage, coming up towards the center of the front row. Sarah screamed in my ear, and I began to wonder if maybe she liked Hunter more than she let on. He came to stand over me, then crouched down so he was looking strait at me. He reached out the microphone, handing it to Sarah. Then he asked the question that I was afraid he was going to ask.

"Kitty Soles, will you come up on this stage with me to sing one more song?" his eyes pleaded with me.

"What?!? Are you insane?" I looked over at Sarah, who just nodded toward Hunter.

He took my hands in his and pulled me up onto the stage. Then he took his microphone back from Sarah. Jim brought out the left handed electric guitar I had been playing back in Hunter's dressing room. I took it and thanked him for it, then sighed, putting the shoulder strap around my neck, leaving the beautiful instrument laying against my belly. At the same time Hunter attached the microphone to the mic stand. I walked up to it, looking at Hunter.

"Remind me to kill you later, I'll probably forget," I said, getting a few laughs from the crowd.

Remember, you're from the Mitten. You're a Saginaw girl, Detroit is like, right in your backyard. He's out of his element, not you. I glanced over at him again, noting how at-home he looked in my home. Shut up, stupid thoughts. He does this for a living, he's a performer, I'm not. But as they say, the show must go on.

"Wasted time and money, honey, treating you like a queen. Might as well have just thrown matches at a tank of gasoline. Well it all went up in a ball of flames, girl you torched me good. Yeah, I got burned and learned that I loved you more than I should.

'Cause my heart said a long time ago, buddy tuck your tail and run. 'Cause it ain't love when you're stuck on the wrong end of the gun. Well you put your finger on that trigger and you shot me where I stood. I found out the hard way I loved you more than I should.

Well, curse the man that made the sweet perfume that cast the spell. And curse the night that made us kiss beneath the star that fell. Curse the one before me, didn't warn me when he could. And last of all I curse myself for loving you more than I should.

'Cause my heart said a long time ago, buddy tuck your tail and run. 'Cause it ain't love when you're stuck on the wrong end of the gun. Well you put your finger on that trigger and you shot me where I stood. I found out the hard way I loved you more than I should.

Last night I found myself in the strangest, sweetest dream. There you were standing arms wide open, right in front of me. The closer I moved toward you, the further away you stood. I woke up and whispered I loved you more than I should. They'll write on my grave stone I loved you more than I should."

As Hunter and I walked off the stage, my phone rang. And it was a phone call that would change my life forever.

*****A/N*****

Sorry it's been so long. I started this story in middle school, back before life got in the way. I honestly thought this was just a childish idea that would never go anywhere. I logged onto my account last night at work, and saw all the reads. Y'all believed in my writing when I had ditched it almost five years ago. So, as the song says, I'm picking up where I left off. I hope y'all like it, use it to cry over, and hopefully, it inspires you to be the best you that you have ever you-d.

Stay crazy,

Kitty