~Lilly~

I later found out that the reason Dylan was there so early was because he was actually staying with us. I was super excited that, after not seeing him for so long, I was now getting to spend a week with him at our parents'. We were now out back in the backyard, setting up the band for performance that we do every year.

I felt my phone vibrate in the back pocket of my jeans. I pulled it out and looked at the notification I had gotten; it was from Instagram, saying that Noah liked one of my pictures. I hadn't posted in a couple days and I knew that he had already liked that of, so I swiped to the side on the motivation to unlock my phone. When the screen loaded, it said that the post he liked was of him, Dylan, Gabbie, and me of the day him and Dylan graduated. It was from almost two years ago.

Hm, I thought. That's... odd.

"Lilly, could you grab the snare over there?" Dylan called as he placed down the bass drum, with some help from Gabbie's twin brother, Tommy.

Gabbie and I have been best friends since second grade and have only grown closer since. Around middle school, after being around each other so much, Dylan and Gabbie started becoming friends too. Once we got to high school, they actually dated for a couple years, before Dylan had to go on tour and they decided that a long distance thing like that in high school would never work. However, they're still friends to this day.

Tommy and I were never as close friends. He always just hung out with a different friend group.

"Sure," I answered, putting my phone back into my pocket. We were setting up the drums out under the cabana in the backyard. Dylan, Gabbie, and I always put together a band. Tommy wasn't very musically inclined, but he still loved listening to us.

I played piano and sang, Gabbie played electric guitar, and Dylan, obviously, played bass. Gabbie also sang backup vocals. It was always pretty casual. People would shout out songs they wanted to hear and if we knew it, we played it. If we didn't, we would almost always look up the chords. That is unless we absolutely couldn't stand the song.
Sometimes, a song would only require a single instrument or all of us. That was pretty much the band. It's been that way since we were kids. Our parents and aunts and uncles used to do it, and once Tommy and Gabbie started coming since they were practically family, we invited them to join as well.
Aside from that, though, Gabbie and I actually have our own band. It's called The Dreamers and every Saturday night, Gabbie and I play at a small club near us.

"Alright!" Tommy said, "We are all set up!" We looked around: The piano, which was really just an electric keyboard, was in one corner, a microphone leaning over it for me, the guitar and bass in another, two mic-stands standing there for Dylan and Gabbie, and the drums in the center. The piano, bass, and guitar were all plugged into their own amps, but the drums weren't, since they were, well, drums. No one really officially played the drums, unless one of our parents or someone wanted to join in on a song or two that they knew. We also had a few percussion instruments scattered around that we might've needed for certain songs, played by people like a few of our relatives, who couldn't play actual instruments.

"You're right!" Gabbie sighed. "How long do we have until we start?"

"About an hour," Dylan said, checking his watch.

"Okay, cool."

We all walked out into the sunlight and see people walking through the gate and greeted everyone as they passed. I was about to go see who it was when I felt someone grab my arm.
I turn and see it's Dylan. "What's up?"

"Come here for a second." He pulls me back under the cabana, as Tommy and Gabbie keep walking, obviously not noticing our disappearance.

"What? Is something wrong?" I asked, worriedly.

"No, I just thought that you should know, I have a friend coming over," he answers. I thought I saw a hint of a smirk on his face but I ignored it. After living with him for 16 years—since he moved out at 18 and he's 2 years older than me—you grow to realize that that's just Dylan. That's just the way he is.

"First of all, really? You felt the need to tell me that? You don't need my permission to hang out with your friends. Second of all, this is a family reunion. The only reason Tommy and Gabbie are here is because they're practically family."

"Well, I consider him family," he says.

"Okay, I guess. If he means that much to you, fine. What time is he coming?" I ask.

"He said around 5," he answered.

"Alright, cool. Is it anyone I know?" I had a strong feeling it was Noah, but you can never tell with Dylan and stuff like this.

He just looked at me with a slight smirk and shrugged.

~~~

A couple hours later, Dylan had gone off to go find his friend that he had invited and we had moved onto requests.

"Alright does anyone have any requests?" I asked into the microphone.

"First Kiss!" I heard someone call. His voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on it.

Oh well, I thought to myself, We have a big family anyway. Sometimes you just can't remember everyone's voice.

I immediately felt my face get red as soon as they said that. It was a We The People song that I had a special connection to. Not an emotional connection, but a... different kind of connection that only two other people in the world knew about: Gabbie, and the person who wrote it.

"I love that song, but I don't know the chords!" I chuckled, lying through my teeth. Of course, I knew the chords to that song, but there was no way I could sing it. Not without every single memory attached to that song coming flooding back into my brain. "Anything else?"

"Falling Off The Tracks!" the same voice shouted.

"Falling Off The Tracks" was another We The People song. It was a beautiful ballad on piano that Noah had written when his long time girlfriend cheated on him. In a couple of interviews, he explained it a little further: he was still in love with her, even after she cheated on him, and he just couldn't get over for almost a year. You could really hear the emotion in his voice whenever he performed it, which was rarely.

"Oh, good choice! One of my favorites," I smiled, with a small, playful clap. Sure, it was a sad song, but it was beautiful and one of the newer ones.

Of course, I had this one memorized. I put the mic back in the stand and sit down at the piano.

As I sat down, thought, I immediately realized who's voice that was.

Noah's here!!! I thought happily.

I started playing and singing:

You had me at "hello"
As cliché as it sounds
With your mesmerizing face,
My feet never touched the ground.
You were too good to be true,
Another cliche to describe.
But I never saw it coming
Till you were gone and out of sight

You're like a runaway train I'm chasing
You've got me falling off the tracks
You're like a runaway train I'm chasing
I'm falling off the tracks for you
For you

I did a little run on the second time I sang "for you", as Noah did. I always loved how he did that. I always thought that it really just sounded great and really showcased his amazing voice. He had a great vocal range, he had incredible voice control, and always had such a passion behind his voice that he could just immerse you into the song, from the ballads with single instruments, like "Falling Off the Tracks", to their really upbeat rock songs, like "I Know You Miss Me".

I lost myself in the song and before I realized it, I was at the end of the song.

I'm falling off tracks
For you.

I end the song gently, adding an arpeggio from the final chord as a little flourish. It was silent for a moment, the final note hanging in the air, before everyone applauded.

"Alright! I need a quick water break! We'll be back in 5 minutes!" I get up and walk into the pool house, to the fridge that we had in there, and I grabbed a water bottle. I walked out and around the patio, every now and then taking a swig.

As I passed people, I was greeted with many forms of "You did a great job!", each to which I replied with a smile and some form of "Thank you". Eventually, I could see Dylan is absorbed in conversation with someone, but I wasn't able to see who it is, as their back was to me.

That must be his friend he was talking about, I thought as I walked over.

"Hey, Dylan," I greeted.

"Hi!" he smiled. "You did really great," Dylan complimented.

"Thanks." I feel myself blush, so I look at the ground. Compliments were always nice, but they always meant something extra when they came from my brother. He was always the one giving me constructive criticism, so when he complimented me, I knew that he actually meant it.

"Yeah, you did! You were amazing! Honestly, I felt like I was listening to a whole different song! That honestly sounded better than the original. I really liked that flourish you did at the end," his friend said. I look up at him.

"Yeah, well I can't take credit, that's just what..." Suddenly, I realized who I was talking to. My eyes widen and I completely blanked out on everything. I was met with deep brown eyes looking back at me. His hair was the exact same color as his eyes, a medium tone of brown, not too dark, nor too light. Just, a nice, deep shade. His eyes were extremely captivating. They had this odd air of mystery shrouding them, no matter how welcoming and warm they truly were. "You... do," I finish, a huge grin making its way onto my face.

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{Posted on 4/25/19}