The Story of Us (Book 1 of "The Story of Us" Series) [Completed]

Chapter 27 - I Still

[Nick]

Christmas 2004 ended up being the most amazing Christmas that I have ever had. I got Harley back, maybe not the way I wanted, but I had her back in my life. That's all I really wanted for Christmas and I got my wish. Spending Christmas day with Harley and her father was awesome and then heading over to Brian's that evening was great, too. He and Leighanne were both shocked when Harley and I arrived together and Brian was even more shocked that her engagement was... well no longer.

The breakup rumors were crazy though. There were rumors that Harley was cheating on Ashton and Ashton cheating on Harley. The funny thing is I wasn't even mentioned until two months later when Harley and I were spotted in New York shopping while both in the city. Then it came out we were dating again and we told everybody that we weren't, but nobody believed that we were just friends.

And we were... we were strictly friends. The only kissing that would go on is if we kissed one another on the cheek while saying hello or goodbye. We got together as much as possible to hang out, whether it was in Atlanta, Nashville, New York or L.A. Hell a month ago or so, we just met up in the middle and went to an amusement park near St. Louis.

And that's where we've been the past few months. She started to finally write for her next album and went into the studio to start recording. I, on the hand, finished up recording with the guys for our first album in almost four years – which we decided to name Never Gone after a song on the CD.

The album was a bit personal for me. I wrote several of the songs on there about, well, Harley. I had a little help from Brian and AJ on a few of them, but they were mostly me and how I felt about certain situations. And I was scared shitless on how she was going to take it because it was so obvious what the songs were about.

That's why I wanted her to hear it before it was released to the public. I was scared of how she would react and I needed to know what she thought about it before anybody else.

[/Nick]

[June 2005]

Harley sat on the staircase of her house in Atlanta with her guitar in her lap and a pencil in her mouth. She was in the middle of writing a song that had woke her up in the middle of the night and she was determined not to go back to sleep until she finished it.

Whenever she got an idea for a song lately, she went for it, whether it was writing down the lyrics on the back of a napkin in a restaurant to getting woken from deep sleep with a line running through her head.

She jumped, hearing someone buzz in on the outside gate. It had to be the new guitar she had ordered offline a few days earlier. She could see the delivery truck outside of the house. She put her guitar down and walked over, buzzing the delivery truck in and opened the front door.

Well that's not a guitar, she thought, seeing the driver get out of the truck with a small package.

"Miss Harper?" he asked as she nodded, reaching for the clipboard to sign her name. "Here you go."

"Thanks," she smiled, turning to walk back into the house. She looked at the return address and noticed it was from Jive Records. "What the hell would Jive be sending me?" she said out loud as she opened the envelope and pulled out the CD case with a note card attached. She looked at the album cover, smiling at the picture and opened the card.

H –
I wanted you to hear this before anybody else. I co-wrote three of the songs on the album and wrote two all by myself. I'm sure you can guess which ones. Hope you like it. See you in New York tomorrow.
- N