Read Best Of Everything Online
Authors: R.E. Blake,Russell Blake
Best Of Everything (33 page)
“The truth is that we chased a dream, and we risked everything. As you all know, we started out as a team, and then one thing led to another and we went our separate ways.” More applause, and a young woman screams Derek’s name from near the front of the house. “Actually, what happened is I screwed up badly, and Sage gave me the boot. Which she was right to do. But there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t remember the two of us hitching across country, singing to survive, more alive than we’d ever been as we took on the unknown together.” He pauses, and when he continues, there’s a catch in his throat. “Since then, a lot has happened, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is that I wake up every morning thinking of her, and she’s the last thing that goes through my mind when I drift off to sleep. So that’s our story, and now, without any more delays, I give you the most talented person I’ve ever met…the one…the only…Sage!”
I don’t know what brought all that on, but as the stadium cheers I wipe my eyes with the back of my arm, straighten my shoulders, and walk out on stage, waving, feeling like I’m floating from Derek’s words. Glenn rushes out with two battered wooden stools and sets them center stage, and I adjust my wireless headset mic – another perk of climbing the charts is nothing but the latest technology now, with my monitor in an earbud and my microphone so small it’s barely noticeable.
I move to Derek and, overcome with emotion, give him a long kiss, which sends the audience into a frenzy. When our lips part he’s staring at me with such intensity I’m afraid I’ll wither under his gaze, and it’s with relief I sit down on one of the stools and look out over the sea of faces.
“Well, after that buildup, I’m not sure anything I do is going to be very impressive,” I say. Laughter and applause meet my words. I wait for it to fade and push my bangs out of my eyes. “What Derek told you was only part of the story. The part he left out is that, without him, without him pushing me out of my comfort zone, I’d still be sitting in my spot on the sidewalk in San Francisco, sleeping in the park, praying it doesn’t rain today. I don’t know if all that about everything happening for a reason is true or not, but in this case, it absolutely did. And because of Derek’s determination and drive I have a dream career, as well as the best man I’ve ever met.” I choke up a little and glance at Derek. “Now can we get to the song already, before I start blubbering?”
The cheering is an explosive roar, and Derek pushes his wayward shock of hair back, stares at the fret board for a moment, and then starts the song. I take the first verse, he takes the second, and even though we’ve sung it together a hundred times, this time feels like the first. My tattoo seems to tingle as I sing the famous words imprinted on my skin.
We’re nearing the big build we always do on the last chorus, when he appears to stumble over one of the chords, and then stops playing. All the lights on stage blink out, and for a moment I’m spooked – this has never happened before. I lean toward him and whisper, “What’s going on…?”
The scoreboard on the far side of the coliseum lights up like a neon Vegas come-on, and for a second it’s so blinding I have to squint. I see the letters of my name framed in glowing hearts, pulsing from red to green to blue, and then four words flicker to life beneath, and I really seriously do think I’m going to faint. I feel so off balance that I about fall off my stool as I read the message. The stage lights come back on as I turn to Derek, who’s smiling at me, a look of expectation on his face.
He glances at the audience and calls out to the crowd, “Hey, everybody, this is a really important moment for me. Would you help me out here and read along? Maybe we can get an answer out of her. What do you say?”
The crowd’s cheering, and Derek rises from the stool and puts his guitar on a nearby stand. He turns to me and gets down on one knee, that crooked grin of his lighting his face, and then he, and nine thousand people, read the message on the scoreboard out loud.
“Sage. Will. You. Marry. Me?”
There’s a moment in every person’s life when something like fireworks go off in your head, and the entire world tilts – and from that instant you know nothing will ever be the same. I turn to him in slow motion. He takes my hand in his, and when I speak I’m sobbing so hard I can barely get the words out.
“Yes. I love you so much. Yes. Of course I’ll marry you.”
The next few minutes are a blur. I’ll see it on YouTube later, but I don’t remember any of it except Derek smiling so big his face almost cracks, and saying the words my soul has been longing to hear since before forever.
“I love you too, Sage.”
Afterword
The three books in Sage and Derek’s trilogy,
Less Than Nothing
,
More Than Anythin
g, and
Best of Everything
, are special to me for a host of reasons, not the least because they’re a departure from my usual style. When I sat down to write them I had no idea what I was doing, what story I was going to tell, what would ultimately have significance and what would be left on the cutting room floor.
The characters came to life in a way beyond anything I’d hoped for, and I found myself just rolling with the complexity of Sage’s view of the world – that odd combination of pragmatism, acceptance, stubbornness, cynicism, hope, determination, and all the illogical push and pull that is youth, where one minute everything’s hot, the next it’s all cold, and everything has special weight, can seem so all-or-nothing, so damned important and immediate.
If I could do it over again, I’d have written another hundred thousand words of story, and offered more insights into Derek’s inner world, tackled the ugly complications of homelessness at a deeper level, as well as explored Melody and Sebastian’s maybe/maybe not budding romance. I’d have kept going and taken the story through the wedding, with all the second-guessing, the anxiety, the pressure, the hope, the excitement I can see in my mind’s eye. But then it would be practically
War and Peace
and this last book would weigh as much as a bowling ball, and that’s not what this series is about. Really, it’s meant to be a snapshot of a key juncture of Sage’s life at a time of enormous change, and that’s how it wound up being told. We see her go from survival mode adolescence to a blossoming force of nature, and get to watch as her view of life, love, success, and the future morph and grow.
As with real life, I have no idea how the rest of the story turns out, but I have a good feeling about Sage and Derek’s odds of making it all work. My grandparents got married at Sage’s age, and a close relative did too, and both spent their lives together, happy, no regrets, deeply in love. It can happen. Maybe for Sage and Derek, it does.
The series started out as a road novel with an underlying romance, but wound up being a coming-of-age saga and a unique love story. As I write these final words, thanking you, dear reader, for spending time in Sage’s world, I hope she and Derek and all the rest of the gang will stay with you long after the final page is turned.
R.E. Blake
October, 2014
About the Author
R. E. Blake is the pseudonym of a USA Today bestselling author of over 30 novels.
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