Better together - Jack Johnson
Camila's POV
Summer, 2015.
Taylor had just left to her dressing room after stopping by when she got off the stage at the end of her concert. I was excited to see her, but I was even more excited about what had been going on in the dressing room while she was out there cheering the people that had come to see her.
I arrived late and missed most part of Shawn's set, so I waited for him instead of going out to see Taylor's show. He got off the stage, still with his guitar on his hand and hugged me. We hadn't seen each other for a while and we were both excited to be reunited. I didn't want to tell him that I hadn't seen most of his performance, but because of what my mom said to someone else, he figured it out. He teased me and acted like he was hurt, so I tried to apologize over and over again. Eventually, we sat on a corner of the room and started to chat while he moved his fingertips over the strings of the guitar. A melody came to my mind and asked him to follow my singing. And he followed, and we continued, and it felt good. So good that the concert came and went and we were still playing and singing back and forth.
"Do you really think this song could work?", I asked him. This was the first time I had done something like this with someone else and I was impressed with how easy it was.
"Yeah. I mean, if you want to, I can talk to Andrew and really get this one going. We did so good with just a couple of melodies".
"I know, right? That was so much fun".
"I can really see us getting in a studio and recording this", he said with a big excited smile.
"Oh my God! That would be so cool", I jumped clapping my hands and laughing because that would be seriously awesome.
"I'll tell him for sure. We're gonna do this, Mila", he looked at me serious but smiling.
"Are we, really?", I asked softly. I was extremely excited about the idea, but the more I thought about it as a reality, the more I could see the formality of it. What would that entail?
"If you want to..." he answered looking at me.
"I..." I bit my lips thinkg about it. "I... Yeah. I want to".
"Great", he said and smiled again.
Yes, I was really doing this and I was doing it with my friend. I always wanted to experiment with my songwriting, put my emotions and ideas out there, sing about what I was feeling and not only what other people had written for me. Sometimes I felt so disconnected from my songs... well, they weren't really mine, their were the group's. I liked singing and performing with them, but I wished we had some more creative control over our own music. Maybe this was my chance to prove myself and the label that I was capable of coming up with music and ideas that would help the group as well. Maybe this way the girls would get inspired and we could all work together to create the sound that we wanted for our band too.
I saw Shawn put the guitar back on its case while ideas flooded my mind. If I could, I'd go to a studio right now and work for hours on the song. I was so stoked.
"I'll talk to Andrew and I'll let you know as soon as possible, ok?", he said.
"Shawn... Thank you. This is really something I've dreamed of doing".
"No, don't thank me. We did this together. Now I'll do whatever I have to do to make it real. Trust me".
"I do trust you".
"Do you think the rest will be ok with this?", he asked.
We were extremely closed and because of that the rest of the girls had become suspecious of us. He was a nice guy, the sweetest man I knew, but he didn't really get a long with them. There was no animosity whatsoever, but he always said he prefered to hang out with me alone. I figured it was because we had more things in common. He knew how to keep up with my crazy personality and I liked his passive-agressive humor. Lately, I had been texting him about how I wanted to create music, but the girls didn't back me up so I had to give up. He was disappointed and wanted me to try again, but I didn't.
