It was Boxing Day, and Kelsie decided that she should phone Mrs. Hayes, before band practice. She dialed the number; she still knew it by heart. Kelsie sat at her desk tapping her fingernails upon it. It took three rings before someone answered the phone.

“Hello,” Mrs. Hayes answered.

“Hey Mrs. Hayes…its Kelsie.”

“Hello dear, thank you for the video you sent. It was very thoughtful,” smiling slightly.

“You’re welcome, the second song I sang on it was actually a song I had written for him a while back.”

“He told me about it. He thought it was very sweet of you to do something so thoughtful. He always boasted to me about your talent.”

“He did?” wondering whom else he told about her talent. Everyone he seemed to talk to knew about it.

“Yeah.”

“Well he would actually be happy to know that I’m playing in a band now,” wanting her to know she was doing something her son would have wanted.

“Since when?”

“Probably a month after he died. He always told me to do it, but I didn’t believe I was good enough. I thought that this would be a great gift to him. We actually have a gig for New Year’s at a friend’s house.”

“That’s great. I know Chris is cheering you on.” Knowing how proud her son would have been for her

“Thanks. So how are you and your family doing?”

“We’re better; we can actually go by his room with it open now. After the New Year, we’re going to start to clear his stuff out of there, and give it to needy. That’s what he would have wanted.”

“Yeah it is,” knowing how generous he had always been. He was always someone who wanted to make sure that everyone had all the needed, before his needs.

“Even though he’s no longer around don’t think you can’t come by when you’re in town, or if you need anyone to talk to, anytime, just call. We’ll be here for you.” They would always think of her as family.

“I will,” she looked at the clock on her desk, “Well I have to go to practice. I will phone you later when I have more time to talk,” feeling a little bad that she could not talk to her more.

“Alright dear, bye.”

“Bye.”

******

Kelsie strummed on her guitar as she sang into the microphone. She suddenly stopped in the middle of the song. Everyone looked so tired, “Craig I think we’ve had enough practice for today.”

“No we’re still having a problem with the chord change on the last song. We’re performing in a few days, and we still have a lot of work to do.”

“Yeah, but we’ve been practicing for hours. I’ve missed most of the shopping time,” thinking of all the sales going on today!!!! She was so tired too, they had been practicing mostly everyday since they found out about the gig.

“Is that all you think about?” he said, rolling his eyes.

“No.” A little annoyed by his last comment, “I’m out of here,” getting up from the chair she had been planted on for hours.

“You can’t do this, this is real important.”

“Watch me,” she replied as she gathered up her stuff, and heading for the door. She wasn’t going to let him stop her from leaving; she needed a break.

“Fine?” he said with a little anger, lifting up his arms in surrender. Was he only one that seems to take this performance seriously?

“Well if she’s going, I’m leaving too,” Spinner said.

“Me too!” Jimmy said standing up. “We can meet up with Paige and Ash.”

“What, you guys are going to leave me here, alone?”

“Well you could come with us,” Kelsie suggested.

“No, I have other things to do before Paige’s New Years party,” he sat back down on the couch.

“Okay, your loss,” Kelsie said as they all left Craig alone in the garage. They all walked at to the driveway to their cars, “Why don’t we just take my car, that way we only have to find one parking spot,” Kelsie said.

“Sounds good to me,” Jimmy said. Thinking of trying to find a parking spot today gave him a headache. It would be a war zone there today with all the shoppers.

“I’ll phone Paige, and tell her to meet us somewhere,” Kelsie pulled out her cell phone from her purse and dialed her cell number.

“Hello,” Paige said, putting her hand over her ear so she could hear better.

“Hey, it’s Kelsie. The guys and I were wondering if you would like to meet us somewhere in the mall.”

“Sure, how about the Pita Pit?”

“Alright, see you soon.”

“Okay.”

It took a while to get through the mall to the food court since the mall was jammed pack with shoppers. After forcing their way through the last set of people, they finally made it.

“Hey you guys, how was practice?” Ashley asked before walking over to Jimmy for a kiss.

“Good, everything is basically set,” Spinner said.

“Well that’s good because I want everything perfect for my party,” Paige said putting her arm around Spinner’s waist.

The smile that had been on Kelsie’s face when they arrived was now replaced by a frown. Seeing her friends with their significant others, made her miss Chris. These last days had started to seem like everything was getting better, but after this it seemed like the hurt was never going to heal, that it would always feel this bad.

Kelsie looked at Marco, who looked just as sad, “Well I don’t know about you, but Marco and I are going to try to find some good bargains. See you guys later.”

Kelsie started to pull Marco away, “Alright, see you later,” Ash said.

With that, Marco and Kelsie took off towards Stitches, leaving the lovebirds behind in the food court.

******

It was New Year’s Eve and the band was playing in Paige’s living room. Kelsie was in a black strapless dress that had pink flowers on it; the material was sheer. Her hair was in tight curls; two diamond clips held her hair away from her face, while a few stands dangled in her eyes.

Craig sat on the stool in deep blue jeans, and a medium green dress shirt. He had even gotten his hair cut shorter, leaving no curls left except at the back where it curled just slightly. He wanted to look good for their show, but especially for Kelsie. “Folks we’re going to take a quick break, enjoy the party!” Craig exclaimed.

They all grabbed their water bottles and took a sip of it; their throats were a little dry from the all the singing, but also because it was pretty hot with the amount of people in there. Emma came over to Kelsie, with a big smile on her face, “You’re looking good tonight.”

“Thanks, I thought since it was my first performance that I should dress up a little! Are you enjoying yourself?” wondering if she was here with her crush, the one she had told her about.

“Yeah, I finally got Jay to ask me out,” she smiled, acting all giddy.

“That’s great!” She remembered how it felt when she had finally landed Chris.

“Doesn’t he look good tonight?” she boasted pointing over towards the stairs. He had his hair slicked back, and was wearing all black, but for some reason it really suited him.

“Yeah,” she replied, as her tone of her voice changed. She remembered always boasting about Chris to everyone. Always wanting everyone to know how much she loved him. She would never have that again, and that made her heartbreak.

Craig whistled to get the bands attention, and asked them to come over so they could talk. They stood in a circle, “We’re going to sing that new song that we practiced last night.”

“Craig how can we, when I wasn’t there last night?” Kelsie asked confused. He never talked about putting any other songs in the line up.

“You can either try to follow with us, or you can stand this one out,” Craig suggested, either way he was playing the song.

“I think that I’ll sit it out. I don’t want to ruin the song,” thinking how much of a disaster that would be if he hit the wrong chords.

“Okay,” he was somewhat happy; she could really listen to these words. Craig goes back to the microphone, while Kelsie goes into the crowd. “We’re back; this is one of our new songs.”

Don't, You don't have to save my life
No, You're not ready I can feel it
Outside it's raining, but I'll just go home
Someday your heart will let him go.

As soon as you get that feeling
You can start to live again
As soon as the worst is over
You can make it all make sense
Right now I can't give you what you need
As soon as you get the feeling...
Run To Me.

Hush, You don't have to say a word.
Trust, I'm not going to hate you for it.
Feels like my touch only brings back the pain
Someday those memories will fade away

As soon as you get that feeling
You can start to live again
As soon as the worst is over
You can make it all make sense
Right Now, I can't give you what you need
As soon as you get that feeling...
Run To Me.

How can I be brave enough, to say good-bye

I die inside without you, Oh

It’s hard enough to walk away

To look at me and make me wrong

Been through this way to make me strong

As soon as you get that feeling
You can start to live again
As soon as the worst is over
You can make it all make sense
Right Now, I can't give you what you need
As soon as you get that feeling...
Run To Me.

As soon as you get that feeling...

As soon as you get that feeling...

Run To Me

Kelsie listened to those words, and realized that she had been trying to save him. Lately she had been trying to get him to open his heart, to stop hiding the hurt that he felt inside, that hurt that was eating him away. He may not realize it, but it was, slowly but surely doing that. He put on this front in front of people, but she saw the real hurt in his eyes.

She wanted to do something to help herself move on, even though she never wanted to let Chris go from her heart. Helping Craig with the hurt was a thank you for helping the real Kelsie break out of the jail she had been stuck in. She couldn’t believe that he had written another song about what was going on between them.

As Craig finished the song, he glanced over at Kelsie with a giant smile. However, she was looking at her hand, at that ring on her finger; the song was right on, she wasn’t ready to let him go.

Was he wasting his time waiting for her, waiting for something that may never happen? Was it only going to lead to heartache?

Kelsie rejoined the band, and they played a few more songs before it was time for the count down to New Years. At that point, everyone went to find their dates and started counting down the time, all looking so happy.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR!” they all shouted, before giving a kiss to their dates. Kelsie stood there by herself with her arms around herself watching everyone else; it brought tears to her eyes. Instead of going outside for air, she walked over to Craig instead.

“Happy New Years Craig.”

“Happy New Years Kelsie,” he said giving her a hug, never wanting to let her go, he knew this was only ever so painful. “Do you want to sing your song now?”

She was a little hesitated at first because what that song meant to her, but then decided why not, “Sure,” walking to the piano. “Everyone lets start out the New Year right. I’m going to sing a song that so dear to my heart called ‘Pieces of Me’.”

As she sang this song, it brought tears to her eyes. She closed her eyes just listening to her words flow through her body; she was so full of emotion. Everyone in the house could feel the emotion that flowed through that song.

******

It wasn’t until 3am that the last set of people finally left Paige’s house, only her close friends were left. They all were spread around the house with another, while Paige made out with Spinner somewhere.

Kelsie decided that it was time for her to leave, she felt uneasy being around all these couples. She still wasn’t able to watch everyone be so happy with their boyfriend, or girlfriend, it made her long for Chris’s kisses, something she would never ever have again.

Her last days with him would play through her head constantly. It had been 2 months, and still it felt like yesterday to her. Nothing she did made it easier. She thought by now she could at least be around couples.

She made her way down the paved path when she remembered that she didn’t bring her car. She walked back up the path and went back into the house, into the kitchen to find Paige sitting on the counter, as Spinner stood, leaning against the counter, making out with her.

Paige opened to eyes to notice her; she stopped what she was doing. “What are you doing back, I thought you were leaving?” Paige asked as she stopped making out with Spinner.

“I forgot I didn’t bring my car, so I think I’m going to call for a cab,” going to grab the phone.

From behind her, “No you’re not. I’ll give you a ride,” Craig said wanting to make sure that she got home all right. He didn’t trust his girl friends to be alone with some stranger; with the world today, it just wasn’t safe.

“There’s no need,” not wanting to be an inconvenience to him.

“No buts! I’m not giving you the choice in the matter.”

“Alright, alright,” she surrendered she didn’t feel like arguing.

“Let me get my guitar, then we’ll be off,” he said as he headed towards the living room, grabbing his guitar. He then came back within seconds. “So did you enjoy yourself tonight?”

“I had a few low moments, but otherwise I had a great time.”

“That’s good, because I want things to get better for you,” he said gazing into her eyes with sympathy.

“How about you?”

“I loved the thrill of playing in front of a crowd. I get a rush out of it!” he said with so much zeal.

They walked to Craig’s car, which was a few houses down. By that time Kelsie was shivering a little; she was in strappy shoes so it didn’t help. Craig put their stuff into the trunk, and then they got into the car. They sat there for a little bit, as the car warmed up.

“I’m almost sorry that we have to go home, I’m not really tired,” Craig implied.

“Neither am I, I’ve had too many things on my mind to be tired.”

“Then what would you like to do?” he looked over to her.

“How about coffee at Tim Horton’s, something to warm me up.”

“Alright, sound good to me. It is a pretty cold night.” Glancing over at her, “I can’t believe that you wore that with the weather like this,” he exclaimed as he pulled from the curb.

“Well I had to look good and all,” she said like a smart ass.