Ketchum, ID

ch 25 - julien

We flew through our set, and I was feeling really good about how it was going. It was finally time to sing the song we had been keeping a secret, and I was nervous.

"So sadly we have reached the last song," Phoebe said as the crowd booed. "But we saved a very special song for last."

"The only people who have ever heard this song are standing on this stage," Lucy said. I looked in the direction of the bar and made eye contact with Jo and smiled as I stepped up to the microphone.

"We actually wrote it about our new favorite place," I said. "This last song is called Ketchum, ID."

I watched as Jo froze behind the bar as the crowd cheered. The room got quiet as we started playing the opening notes to the song. Phoebe started us off and sang her verse. Lucy and I stepped forward to our microphones to sing the chorus with her, and then it was time for me to sing my verse.

"Being in love is the same thing as being alone. Giving the sorrow some company. Nothing to say, but stay on the phone," I sang out.

I wrote the second part of my verse thinking about a phone call Jo and I had. Jo and Alex had just gotten home from hanging out with us, and I had told Jo to call me when she got home. We had just been together, so she told me that she didn't have anything new to talk about. I wasn't ready to hang up just yet, so I asked her to stay on the phone with me. She ended up falling asleep while we were on the phone, and I wrote that line right before I went to bed.

"No, I'm sorry, I do not know, what else you want from me?"

Lucy and Phoebe stepped up to their microphones again to harmonize on the chorus with me, and I looked back at the bar to see Jo's reaction. I watched her as Lucy sang her verse, and I could see her start to cry when Lucy sang the lyric that I said the first time we were hanging out with Jo and Alex. After Lucy sang her verse, Phoebe and I joined in for the chorus again, and I had to close my eyes because I could not watch Jo cry.

After the song was done, Lucy, Phoebe, and I got down from the stage and started the walk to the bar. As we walked, a handful of people stopped us to talk about our music, but I kept my eyes glued on Jo. When we finally got to the bar, Nick congratulated us on our new EP coming out before he asked Jo to close out his tab. I watched her as she went back to the register and printed out his ticket. As she went to hand him his bill, Alex came up to us.

"That was absolutely amazing," they said. "You had me and Jo in tears back here."

"We wanted to surprise you guys with that song, and we figured tonight would be the perfect opportunity," Lucy said as she wrapped her arm around their shoulders.

I heard Nick tell Jo to come down to our end of the bar, and when I looked up she was in front of us.

"You guys absolutely rocked it," she said, making eye contact with me. "That last song was beautiful."

"Well it started on that first day that we were in the studio," Phoebe said. "When you guys went to pick up food, Julien made a comment about dissolving the band and moving to Idaho, so we knew we had to write a song about it."

"I'm going to cry again," Jo said as she started to turn away.

"Hey, no tears," I said to her as I grabbed her hand to keep her here with us.

"I'm just going to miss you guys so much," she said in a choked up voice.

"We're going to miss you too, but that's the power of the internet," Lucy said. "You'll know everything that happens to us as it happens. We'll update you in real time."

"We actually made a boygenius instagram account today," I said. "That way we can post updates about the band and have it be one cohesive account."

"The biggest struggle was coming up with a password we would all remember," Lucy said as she laughed.

"But now you can follow that account and stay up to date with boygenius," Phoebe said.

"We're boygenius super fans, so you already know I'll have post notifications on," Alex said with a smile.

"You guys have to text us every single day," Jo said with a sad smile.

"Texting isn't even enough, we better receive at least one facetime call a day," Alex said. "I can't go too long without seeing your pretty faces; that'd be a crime."

"And we can't go too long without seeing yours. And the time difference is only an hour so it shouldn't be too hard to coordinate call times," Lucy said.

"When are you guys leaving?" I heard Jo ask in a voice that brought tears to my eyes.

"We're torn on leaving tonight and driving through the night, or just leaving in the morning and driving all day," Phoebe said.

"It's like a 14 hour drive," I said. "But between the three of us, someone can be sleeping at all times so that we'll always have someone awake enough to drive so we shouldn't have to stop anywhere overnight."

"Well that's good, I guess," Alex said. "I don't know if I could last 14 hours in the car with anyone. And that says a lot because I live and work with Jo."

"But you guys will have to come visit us," I said, looking directly at Jo.

"Oh absolutely. We'll have to find people to cover our asses here at the bar, but we'd love to take a little trip out there," Alex said.

"We have to show you all of our spots like you showed us yours," Lucy said.

"Why don't you guys stay at our place tonight so everyone can get a good night's sleep, and you can leave in the morning," Jo said, this time directly looking at me.

"I think that's a good idea. It's been too long of a day for me to want to get behind the wheel of a car knowing we're on the road for the next day," Phoebe said.

"I have to agree, but I also just want to spend a little more time with you two," Lucy said.

"Ditto," I said. I really just wanted to sleep next to Jo, but I didn't think I needed to specify that.

"Then we'll head out now. I've already talked to everyone so they know we're leaving, we just need to clock out and we're ready to go," Alex said.

"Sounds good. We'll meet you outside, then."

The three of us grabbed our instruments from the stage, said goodbye to everyone that stopped us, and made sure they were all following our new instagram account. Then we walked outside and put all of our things in the car. Just as we were putting the last guitar in the trunk, Jo and Alex came out to our car.

"So we'll see you at home?" Jo asked.

"We'll see you at home," I replied with a smile.