Our Song (7 page)

Skylar came out of her room a moment later wearing a pair of terry cloth shorts and a tank top. As she headed into the kitchen, she said, “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“How did it go?” she asked, as though the question should’ve been an obvious one.

I thought about it for a moment. Arguing with the asshole aside, we’d actually come up with a really cool melody. That had to count for
something
.

“It went good…
surprisingly
good, actually.”

Chapter 10

For dinner that night, Skylar and I went to Ricardo’s Pizza, which had always been one of our favorite afterschool hangouts. We ordered a “pig pie,” which had to have been the greasiest, most fattening pizza
ever
. It was covered in way too much cheese, bacon, sausage, and pepperoni.

Screw what my trainer, Manny, thought or what those girls at Ambrosia’s had said about me being chunky. With all of the stress in my life lately, I was pretty sure I deserved a couple of slices. I’d worry about burning off the thousands of calories later.

We chose the same booth we’d always sat at in high school. I immediately glanced at the wall where, years ago, Skylar and I had written:
VP & SK were here
.

To my surprise, our initials were still there.

Skylar followed my gaze to the wall. “Wow. They never painted over them.”

“Yeah, I’m sort of surprised.” As I took a sip of soda, I thought about how much the two of us had changed since then. Not only had we fallen out of touch, but I’d gone on to be this famous musician and Skylar…well, I didn’t really know what she’d been up to since then. The only thing I
did
know was that she’d changed.

Her brown eyes no longer gleamed with happiness the way they once had, and she seemed a lot more reserved—a stark difference from her naturally bubbly self. I didn’t know what had happened while she was there, but I had a feeling that, whatever it was, it couldn’t have been good.    

I glanced over at her. “So, I know you said you didn’t want to talk about Nashville, but I feel like there has to be
something
you can catch me up on. I mean, you were gone for three years. That’s like the equivalent of a lifetime or something.”

“Yeah, I know.” She sighed and glanced out the window, avoiding my gaze. “I met a guy out there. It didn’t work out. That’s pretty much it.”

“Well, what happened?” I pressed. Even though I didn’t want to push her, there was a part of me that was hoping she’d share so we could somehow relate. It was obvious we’d both gone through painful breakups. We clearly had more in common than she realized.

Skylar met my gaze firmly. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

“Okay,” I replied. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” She shrugged it off. “So, tell me more about your music career.”

“It’s not going so great,” I quietly admitted, glancing down at my recently manicured nails.

Her eyes widened. “Really? But I hear your songs on the radio all the time!”

“Yeah, I guess my fans think I’m whiney and stuff. That’s why I’m pretty much being forced to work with Colton on this next album,” I explained.

She just stared back at me in awe. “Wow. I figured the two of you actually
wanted
to work together.”

“Why would I
want
to work with the guy who I had a drunken one night stand with?” I asked with a raised brow.

She shrugged. “Who wouldn’t?”

“I don’t mix business and pleasure.”

“You say that now, but I bet you won’t be able to keep the two separate.”

“How much do you wanna bet? I have willpower,” I insisted.

Skylar rolled her eyes. “Well, if you want my honest opinion, I think you’re crazy. I, for one, would not mind mixing business and pleasure if business and pleasure involved Colton King.”

“Yeah, you made that pretty clear earlier today.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, I thought you were just going to drop your towel and give him a show.”

She laughed. “I totally would have if it weren’t for the fact that my best friend was with him first. That’s just weird.”

I breathed a slight sigh of relief, glad we were on the same page about that. I wasn’t going to lie; the idea of Skylar and Colton together wasn’t just weird—it actually made me jealous. And what I couldn’t figure out was
why
. Why did the idea of him with Skylar—or anyone else, for that matter—make me feel sick to my stomach?

As the waitress brought our pizza over to our table, I tried to push the thought away. I wasn’t really jealous of the idea of Colton being with someone else. My emotions were just all over the place, which was to be expected after everything I’d been through over the past few days.

Yeah, I was just emotional. That had to be it…
didn’t it
?

*

After Skylar had gone to bed later that night, I went to my room and turned my laptop on. I plugged in a pair of headphones and downloaded Colton’s entire album. I was determined to learn more about him through his music. I had a feeling that his songs were going to give even more clues to what an asshole he was.

Even though I’d heard quite a few of his songs already, this would be the first time I would ever
really
listen to them. It was strange, considering I was a songwriter and all, but I had this habit of zoning out when it came to paying attention to the true meaning behind other musicians’ songs. I usually just lost myself in the beat of the music.

I decided to listen to “Fly Away With Me” first, since it was Colton’s biggest hit. The catchy, upbeat tempo began to play. It was followed by the sound of that sexy voice of his as he began to sing:

In a sky full of stars

You’re the only one I see

You outshine all the rest

‘Cause, girl, you’re the best

You’re the only one I need

Baby, I don’t want to be a pest

But I need you to come away with me

Girl, fly away with me

Let’s get out of here

Let’s be shooting stars

Together, we can go far

We’ll light up the night sky together

One planet at a time

If you just fly away with me

There are thousands of stars in the night sky

But none of them shine as bright as you

Girl, you’re the only one I see

For the first time in my life

It’s not all about me

Let’s be shooting stars

Together, we can go far

We’ll light up the night sky together

We’ll conquer the world

One planet at a time

If you just fly away with me

When the song stopped playing, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. It probably sounded crazy, but just knowing Colton had written these lyrics about someone else bothered me. Knowing he’d actually
felt
that way about her made me jealous. I wondered who the song was about and if she was still a part of his life.

Maybe he planned to write song lyrics about her for my album, and that was why he’d made a point of letting me know that nothing he wrote would be about me. And that thought drove me crazy. It was one thing for us to agree not to write about each other, but if he thought he was going to put all of his love songs about some other chick on
my
album, he was sadly mistaken.

Ugh.

I wondered if trying to get to know him through his music was a bad idea, but that didn’t stop me from listening to the rest of his album. I skipped to the next song.

When you walk into the room

All eyes are on you

You can pretend like you don’t notice

But we both know it’s true

Every guy wants you

And I bet you want them too

But if I had it my way,

If you’d give me the time of day

I’d make you all mine

‘Cause, baby, you’re so fine

You’re dead sexy, girl

You rock my whole world

You got my head spinning

Just like I’m on a Tilt-a-Whirl

Girl, you can have your pick

From all the fish in the sea

And it makes me sick

How much I want you, baby

Oh, yeah, I need you baby

You’re dead sexy, girl

You rock my whole world

You got my head spinning

Just like I’m on a Tilt-a-Whirl

Listening to the song brought me to one very big realization. If Colton was telling the truth and he really did only write songs that came from his heart, he was in love with someone. Or, at least, he
had
been in love with someone when he’d written these songs. I wasn’t sure if he still felt that way now. There was always a chance that it could’ve been Clingy Girl, but I somehow doubted it. I was pretty certain these songs were about someone else...someone more important.

If he was still in love with her, it made no sense why he’d had a one night stand with me just this week…unless he was a player. Those lyrics didn’t sound like they’d been written by someone who would cheat on someone he loved, but I couldn’t fool myself, either. This was Colton King. He was notorious for being a manwhore. If anyone was going to cheat, it was probably him.

That thought made me realize that I needed to make an appointment to get STD-tested. The last thing I needed was for him to give me gonoherpasyphilaids. I didn’t even know if we’d used a condom that night! I always used protection, but this wasn’t
me
we were talking about. It was
drunken
me
. And there was a good chance that drunken me might’ve chosen to skip the Trojan. Ugh.

Sighing, I skipped to the next song on the album and mentally prepared myself to hear more lyrics written about Mystery Girl, but this time, a softer, less upbeat melody filled my ears. As Colton’s voice began to pour out of my headphones, I instantly found myself paying close attention to his every word.

When I asked you to jump

You asked me how high

You always took the plunge

Without even thinking twice

You protected me, sheltered me

From all the evil in the world

You were my best friend

My hero

You’ll always be my hero

Even when you were sad

You forced yourself to laugh

Just to put a smile on my face

You would have saved me

You sheltered me and protected me

From all the demons in the world

You were my Superman

Without the blue suit and red cloak

You took on the world for me

You conquered it all for me

You were my hero

You protected me, sheltered me

From all the evil in the world

You lived for me, cried for me, shined for me

And in the end, you died for me

You’ll always be my hero

By the time the song had ended, I found myself blinking back tears. I wondered who he’d written this song about. It was obviously someone very close to his heart… and that someone had apparently died for him.

Suddenly, this whole idea just felt
wrong
. Even though I’d wanted to learn more about Colton as a person, I also couldn’t help but feel like I’d crossed into some personal territory—the type of barrier that shouldn’t be crossed.

Then again, Colton had put this song out there for a reason,
hadn’t
he? If he didn’t want anyone to hear it—or analyze it—he wouldn’t have put it out there for the world to hear. It wouldn’t have spent so many weeks on the Billboard Top 100. If he didn’t want people to know, he would’ve just kept it to himself—the same way I kept the song I’d written about my mom to myself.

I had a feeling that if I wanted to know who the song was about, all I needed to do was Google and I’d probably find the answer. But for some reason, a part of me didn’t want to do that.

If Colton wanted me to know who the song was about, he would just tell me. And even though our songwriting hadn’t gone too bad today, I somehow doubted the two of us would ever be that close.