My Guitar (Fifth Harmony)

CHAPTER TEN: DOWN

The tweet got thousands of 'favorites', 'retweets', and just about a trillion comments, some nice, even sweet, like 'I saw you at the concert, and you looked meant to be from the start! #MyOTP', or the nastiest things you could imagine, like 'OMG, you just had to go pick an ugly frog that's only in it for the fame! He's not even attractive #Mistake'. People suck. A lot.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?" She looked depressed, sitting on the couch, so I went and picked her up and dropped her in my lap. Her arms wrapped around my neck, her head on my chest. She sighed and relaxed into me, and it just felt so right. Then she reached back, putting me at arm's length. She muttered, "How could they think you're not attractive? You're beautiful... And you don't look like a frog! Wait, you're not a frog are you?" She said jokingly. I couldn't help but laugh and shook my head, and she dramatically sighed, relieved. She pulled herself back into me, and we cuddled up together again.

"Cams! Time to go, we've gotta rehearse before the concert!" A voice echoed through the tour bus.

"You'll be alright?"

"Me?"

"No, the wall." Sarcasm, anyone? "Yes, you. I feel so guilty, leaving you alone for all these hours every day."

"Why? I kind of enjoy it, gives me time to work on my school work, read, write, play, sleep. Gives me time to think about you."

"But... You always seem so... alone, so sad when I leave you." Well, I was, but she couldn't know that! She had to think everything was alright, so she wouldn't worry about me constantly and ruin her career! I'd made a pact with myself, after all, that I wouldn't hold her back, wouldn't drag her down. That she would still be free. "Jackson? ... Chase? What's up?"

"Uh, the ceiling of the tour bus? The sky?"

"Ha ha, very funny. You know what I mean. What's wrong?"

"What? Nothing's wrong."

"You know I know you better than that. What's wrong? Why won't you tell me?"

"I just... It's nothing. I already told you. Nothing."

"Seriously. I will sit here for as long as it takes. We're both going to sit here until you tell me."

"But... What about your rehearsals? Your concert?"

"You... You're more important. So, tell me. How're you doing?"

"I'd be better if I knew you weren't going to put your whole life on hold for me. Just go, Cam. You need to rehearse, you need to perform. I won't be the one to stop you from doing that. I won't. I can't."

"Aha! Is that the problem? You have some kind of guilty conscience, thinking you're holding me back, pulling me down? Do you know how ridiculous that is?"

"I... It's not ridiculous! I can't be the person to ruin your group, your career and so many others. I won't be that person. Now go rehearse for your concert!"

"No. Not until you see how ridiculous that sounds. When you can see that my life is better than ever, I need to show you something, tell you something. But I can't now, not with you in that mind set. I need you to see things from my point of view."

"I don't know about your life being better than ever, but... I know mine certainly is."

"Close enough. Here, come with me." She led me to... The music room? What? Why? "This is the stack of songs I'd written before I met you." She gestured to a tiny stack of papers, maybe twenty total, probably less. Then she gestured to a larger stack of papers, at least fifty to one hundred. "This is what I've written since. Now tell me you're pulling me down!"

"But you don't rehearse nearly as much as you used to, as you should! I'm keeping you from doing it, and that pulls not only you down, but also your whole band!"

"Babe, we still practice just as much, if not more. It's just that I spend the rest of the time with you. You're not dragging me down or holding me back." I must not have looked convinced, because she said,

"I'll prove it to you! Come with me, to the rehearsal, to the concert. You'll see!" And she dragged me with her, on my way to see her perform for the second time in my life.