Ketchum, ID

ch 22 - julien

 I woke up at 9, and I felt an arm draped over me. I turned my head to see Jo sleeping peacefully. I got up very slowly not wanting to disturb her, and I made my way out into the very quiet living room. Lucy, Phoebe, and Alex had all been drinking when Jo and I went to bed last night, and you could tell by the way everyone was asleep. Lucy was fast asleep on one end of the couch with her legs tucked under her. Phoebe was asleep on the other end of the couch with one of her arms dangling off the edge. Alex was passed out in the love seat with their legs hanging over the arm of the seat. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to take a picture of them, then stepped into the kitchen to start making everyone coffee. As I was pouring the coffee into 5 individual mugs, I heard footsteps approaching the kitchen.

"Good morning, angel," Jo said as she wrapped her arms around me and placed her chin on my shoulder.

"Good morning to you," I said with a smile.

"Did you sleep alright?"

"I did. I haven't slept next to someone who wasn't Phoebe or Lucy in a while," I admitted. "It was a welcome change," I said as I turned around to face her. "I made everyone some coffee since I figured I'd be the only one not too hungover to do so."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're the sweetest person they've ever met?" Jo asked me with a slight pink tint to her cheeks. I couldn't get over how beautiful she looked, even when she had just woken up.

"I mean, Phoebe and Lucy like to say things like that to me, but I don't know how much I believe them."

"You should believe them. You are genuinely the sweetest and most thoughtful person I have ever come in contact with, Julien Baker."

"I'm going to miss you," I started before she cut me off.

"We don't have to talk about it yet. We still have a few more days, then we can talk about it. Let's just enjoy our last few days together."

So we did. The five of us hung out every single day. We mini golfed, hung out at the studio, hung out at the bar, went on drives to nowhere. We slept at their house some nights, and Jo and Alex even came and stayed at our place a few nights. No one ever talked about it, but we knew our time together was limited, so we made the most out of those last few days. One night while Jo and Alex were at work, we went to the studio to figure out which songs we wanted to sing for our set at Ketchum-All. We decided that we were just going to sing every song we were putting on our EP we were releasing when we got back to LA.

"I think it would be good to sing all of the songs, because then we know what they sound like live," Phoebe said.

"I think it'll also do me some good to practice if we're going on tour like we think we are," I said.

We hadn't toured together before, and our impromptu performance at the open mic night was our first time singing together in front of a crowd. To say I was nervous to tour was an understatement. I love music, and I love to sing songs that matter to me, especially ones I wrote and I know the deeper meaning to them. Something about singing the songs I've written for a crowd of people makes me incredibly nervous. Knowing that people will hear the inner workings of my mind isn't even the most nerve-wracking part. I could mess up a lyric or a note and people could get the entire wrong idea about the concept I'm trying to convey. Lucy and Phoebe being there will definitely make me calmer, but I was still nervous.

"I think we can all agree which song we should sing last, but what should the rest of our set look like?" Lucy said.

We had just written a song that we knew we wanted to end the night with, and we hadn't told Alex or Jo about it. Keeping the song we wrote about this place a secret from the two of them was one of the hardest things I had ever done. Once we figured out what order we wanted to sing our songs in, we decided to go sit at the bar until Jo and Alex were off. It was the last night before our show, and we wanted to soak up as much time with them before we left as possible.

When we got to the bar, there weren't nearly as many people inside as there had been other nights we had gone.

"Wednesday nights are usually our slower nights," Alex explained when they found us. "Everyone comes out for the special themed nights we have, or to see the live music, but just a regular old Wednesday isn't everyone's favorite bar scene."

"Well, I know I speak for all of us when I say we're so excited to play here again tomorrow night," Phoebe said.

"And we're just as excited to have you all play here again. The crowd loved you all last time, so I know they'll love getting to hear more of what you all have put together."

"I'm excited to hear the songs we haven't heard yet," Jo said, approaching us at the end of the bar we were at. "I just know it's going to be amazing."

"Well don't get your hopes up too high," Lucy said, letting out a laugh.

"My hopes aren't high, I know you're going to crush it," Jo said reassuringly.

"I'm going to miss coming here to people watch," Phoebe said.

"I'm going to miss people watching with you," Jo groaned. "I mean, who am I supposed to point that cowboy with the neck tattoo out to without you all here?" Jo said as she pointed at a man across the bar in a cowboy hat, causing us all to laugh.

"Come on, you don't want a neck tattoo like that?" Phoebe asked her.

"Oh for sure. My appointment is set for tomorrow."

"I was actually going to tell you guys that I made us all a tattoo appointment for tomorrow," Lucy said while setting her drink down.

"Good one, Luce," I said with a laugh. When I turned to face her, she was completely serious.

"I'm serious. I figured we could all get a matching tattoo. You know, to commemorate our time here," she said.

"Aw, that'll be so cute! You guys will have to send us a picture," Jo said.

"We actually won't have to send a picture," Lucy said, causing Jo and Alex to look confused. "Because the appointment is for 5 people," Lucy continued with a smirk.

"What are we even going to get?" Alex asked.

"I have an idea," I said, causing everyone's heads to whip in my direction. "The first song we ever sang on a stage together was Bite The Hand, and where did we sing it? Here. In this bar."

"It was also what inspired me to come up to you guys afterwards and introduce you to Jo," Alex admitted. "Well the song, and the fact that I watched you stare at her while we were singing, and then I watched her stare at you while you were singing," they said directly to me.

"Okay, so we get a Bite The Hand tattoo, what does that even consist of?" Jo said.

"What if we all got a tooth? We can get it anywhere on our hand or our wrist or something, you know? Like it's biting the hand?" I said.

"I love it," Phoebe said.

"Me too," Jo said, smiling at me.

"So it's settled. Bite The Hand tattoos tomorrow at 1pm," Lucy said.

"Bite The Hand tattoos tomorrow at 1," Alex said, raising their glass to cheers with us.