After JC put the cold Chinese food away, he went upstairs, took a shower, and attempted to go to sleep. Every time he thought he was drifting off he would think of Lexi again. He laid in bed staring at his white ceiling fan for what seemed to be forever. He glanced at the bright green numbers to his right, and they read 11:30 PM. He sighed, got out of bed, and went downstairs to his black baby grand piano that was next to the living room. At first he simply dawdled, making up music as he went along, until his mind went to the song he wrote from Lexi’s melody. He grabbed a folder on the floor, pulled out the pages of hand written music, and began playing it.
Lexi awoke from her sleep to the sound of music playing in the distance. Wait…it was just downstairs. She slowly rose from the bed and made her way down the stairs. Once she reached the bottom, she stood there and watched Josh playing for a little while, but his back was to her so he didn’t see her. He played so beautifully, and she didn’t want to interrupt him.
“That sounds familiar,” she finally said.
Alarmed, JC stopped playing and turned around. He was pleased to see Lexi smiling.
“I should hope so.”
“May I?” Lexi said motioning to the piano bench. JC scooted over to make a little more room for her. Lexi picked up the first page of the music and started sight reading it in her head. She continued the same thing with the rest of the song.
“Ya know they way the words are configured this could almost be a…”
Josh cut Lexi off. “…a duet?”
“Actually yeah. Can you please get out of my head?” she joked.
JC laughed. “Well it is a duet, so your intuition was right. I really think that this would be a great finishing touch to your album. It’s good to have a collaboration on records.”
“Oh, I totally agree,” Lexi responded, “But who could I do it with?” Lexi thought. “Brian McKnight? R Kelly? Jordan Knight…?”
Lexi looked at Josh, as he looked forward at the music.
“I’ve got it!” Lexi shouted. “Justin! I can’t believe I didn’t think of him first!”
JC looked almost hurt.
“I’m just kidding, Josh. I’d love to do a duet with you.”
JC looked at her and began to laugh.
“You really had me going there for a second. Have you ever considered getting into acting?”
“Been there done that,” Lexi smiled.
Over the next hour, Lexi and Josh worked on ‘their song’ pretty much perfecting it. By one in the morning Lexi had helped fill in the missing words, phases, and notes. She even wrote most of the bridge.
“Wow, this is really good!” JC said happily. “I feel a hit already…”
“Yeah, well I hope your feeling’s right, but I’m gonna go back to bed. Thanks for writing the song.”
“What are you talking about? We wrote the song. It’s more like you wrote it and I just filled stuff in…”
Lexi looked at Josh in confusion. “What are you talking about? You wrote it and I just…”
“We wrote it, Lexi.”
“Ok, Josh. Whatever you say…good night,” Lexi said with a giggle.
JC watched Lexi go up the stairs. Once he heard the door close he let out a deep sigh. He didn’t know how much longer he could take this. He wanted to hold her, he wanted to be there for her all the time…but he knew that wouldn’t be possible for a while. He’d just have to take the friendship to help fulfill his wish.
About 20 minutes later, JC headed up to bed. Just as he was getting settled, he heard a scream and the sound of something breaking come from Lexi’s room. He jumped out of bed, ran across the hall, and flung her door open. He flipped the switch to the ceiling fanlight and saw Lexi on the floor picking up a knocked over lamp. JC rushed to her side and saw tears coming out of her eyes. Without a moment’s thought she began to speak.
“I was dreaming that I was in Matt’s apartment, but I couldn’t get out. It was like I was living the whole thing over again, but this time…”
She stopped talking because she was choking on her own tears. JC helped her off the floor and onto the bed where she was crying in his arms, again. After a few minutes, Lexi looked up at JC.
“Josh, would you mind…never mind.”
“No, Lexi. What is it?”
“…would you mind sleeping in here? You don’t have to, it’s just that I…”
JC silenced her by putting his finger to her lips.
“I’d be glad to stay here with you.”
With that JC tucked Lexi into the right side of the bed, and he went to turn of the fanlight. He walked around to the other side of the bed and got in next to her. Lexi hesitantly moved over and rested her head on JC’s chest. He was surprised, but not at all disappointed. He put his arm around her shoulder and rubbed it lightly. As she drifted off to sleep, she let her hand rest over his heart. He countered by putting his hand on top of hers. Within minutes, Lexi was sleeping soundly, and Josh was soon to follow.