Wake Up| JATP

Chapter 4

The three boys walked through the garage door, literally. "I wonder why Julie didn't tell us she could shred on the piano?" Reggie asked. Nicole walked around, searching the garage, once studio, an old memory popping up every time she turned a corner. She wasn't going to lie, it hurt walking through the garage, despite it being one of the only places that held happy memories it brought so much pain, knowing that it was different now. "And sing. That girl can sing!" Nicole turned her head towards the three boys, arms crossed over her chest. "It probably has something to do with her mum. You know?" Nicole nodded her head, finally speaking up, "Yeah I mean if my mum or dad died, and they had introduced me to music, I wouldn't wanna play either." Alex separated from the boys, climbing up a ladder to the higher part of the garage. Luke walked over to Nicole, his arm brushing against hers, causing a slight blush to form on her cheeks. "Yeah but, now she's got music back in her life just like us." Nicole scoffed quietly but yet Reggie had still heard her. "What Nicole? You don't play anymore?" Nicole slowly shook her head, drawing the other two boys' attention to her. "Sing?" Again, Nicole shook her head. Luke's eyes were wide as he grabbed the small girls shoulders. "What? Why? You have the voice of a literal angel and you are amazing on the guitar and piano!" When Nicole's eyes started to water, she quickly ran out of the garage ignoring the boys calls.

Nicole had gone to the one place she felt safe, felt at home. Marley's. The Smith household had become one of Nicole's favourites. Marley had married her childhood sweetheart, Charlie. The three had grown up in the same neighbourhood and had been close ever since Marley was pushed off of her bike and Charlie and Nicole were the only ones to help her. Marley and Charlie had gotten married on Nicole's birthday, in honour of their dearest friend. They had a son and a daughter, Elliot and Sarah. Elliot was the oldest, which Marley was very excited about, Nicole remembers sitting on the chair opposite her hospital bed when she found out, and Sarah had just turned 7. On each child's first birthday, Nicole gave them both a charm bracelet, placing it on the pile of presents they had gotten that morning, each with a little note from Nicole herself, telling them how much she loved them. She wanted them to remember her, though she had died long before they were born, she wanted them to know her as auntie Nicole.

Nicole had spent the last hour and a bit watching Elliot and Sarah play together, her smile growing wider when they began humming one of the songs her and Marley had written together. Marley had joined them, sitting on her usual chair with a guitar in her hand and she had began playing the tune to a song Nicole had written to her when she was 6. She sat their quietly, her smile wavering slightly at the sound of music,  as her, or what she considered them to be,niece and nephew danced around the room. Nicole walked to the garage of the Smith household, spotting her old acoustic guitar in the corner. She hesitantly walked towards it, spotting the doodles and signatures on it from herself, Marley and the boys of Sunset Curve. She picked it up, it felt foreign in her hands from where she hadn't touched an instrument in over 25 years. She began playing with the strings slowly, her breath shaking as she did.

"La di da da da, yeah."

"Everybody loves to tell me I was born an old soul. Better keep my eyes wide open
There's so much I don't know."

"Just another hotel room, never felt so all alone. I think about my best friends eyes and they always send me home. I can almost hear her now, gotta make her proud."

"I keep my eyes wide open. Bless this ground, unbroken. I'm about to make my way, heaven help me keep my faith, and my eyes wide open."

She closed her eyes as she savoured the music, she hadn't played in so long and now that she had, she finally felt a little more complete.

"La whoa."

"I can't see two steps ahead of me, when the fog comes rollin' in. I never thought that I'd miss the rain, lord knows how long it's been. The dream burns inside of me, and I just can't let it go, there's still so much I don't know."

"I keep my eyes wide open, bless this ground, unbroken, I'm about to make my way. Heaven help me keep my faith, and my eyes wide open yeah."

"All I have is just this moment, and I just don't want to miss a second. Cause it could all be gone in an instant, yeah in an instant."

Tears pricked Nicole's eyes as she sung, finally finding her voice after dreading it for years.

"I keep my eyes wide open, bless this ground, unbroken. I'm about to make my way. Heaven help me keep my faith, and my eyes wide open."

"I'm about to make my way, heaven help me keep my faith, my eyes wide open."

"My eyes wide open."

Nicole set her guitar down, her knees shaking with every step before she just gave up and fell to the floor. Her hands covered her face as she cried, her body shaking with sobs. They were as equally happy as they were sad, happy because she had let herself play music again and let herself heal but sad because, who would she play too? She was dead now she couldn't sit there and play for her friends anymore.

A pair of hands wrapped around her own, slowly peeling them off her face. In front of her, Luke was crouched his face soft. When Nicole looked into his eyes, she felt something that she thought had disappeared, butterflies. She had had a crush on Luke when they were around 14 and it finally disappeared when she was 16, she thought it had been a stupid school girl crush. "You sang." Nicole nodded her head trying to keep the rest of her tears at bay. His thumb grazed the top of her cheek, wiping the tears away. "I remember when you wrote that song, we were 15, you and Marley had an argument." Nicole sniffled, laughing slightly. "Yeah." They were silent for a second, enjoying one another's presence. "Why did you stop? Singing and playing I mean, You were so good! And still are!" She wiped her eyes with the corner of her sleeves. "I stopped, because you died. Because you all died and I- I- just couldn't pick up an instrument or sing another word because it hurt. You were gone, forever or so I thought and I just couldn't I-" She was cut off by her own sobs, talking about her friends, her family's death, hurt her still despite her now being dead too and them being within her reach. Luke's eyes watered slightly but he didn't let the tears slip, he needed to support Nicole. His Nicole, the Nicole he used to buy ice cream for with his pocket money. The Nicole that he had fallen utterly in love with and given his heart and soul too without her knowing.

All credits for the song go to Sabrina Carpenter I just changed the bits at the top that say Bestfriend it was originally grandad :)