Post by shadowgoer on Feb 19, 2011 1:11:06 GMT -5
"Once upon a time, Neil tried to write a song." Keith narrated.
"Keith would you get lost!" Neil shouted at the surfer who was sitting beside him on the hotel bed.
"Long ago, in a hotel far, far away, there was … NEIL!" Keith continued in his best 'Dramatic Announcer Voice'. Then he proceeded to to hum the theme to Star Wars.
"Keith! Please go away." Neil sighed. "I'm trying to write a song."
"Oh yes!" Keith mocked. "The perfect song! Full of the perfect emotion! About the perfect girl!" Keith thrust his arms around as he said this. Then, to add dramatic affect, he flung himself backward across the bed with his arms outstretched to both sides.
"Not exactly," Neil corrected, his arms still crossed over his face for protection. "It's more like ..."
Just then Damian walked into the room.
"There once was a man from Dublin
Who couldn't write a song for nothin'" The boy laughed at his own cleverness.
"Damian, that doesn't even flow and it barely rhymes." Neil rolled his eyes.
"Well, I'M not the song writer." He retorted. "And neither are you!" With this Damian burst out laughing again.
"There once was a boy from Derry,"Keith recited menacingly.
"Who was told 'You'd better be wary,
If you make Neil mad
It's gonna be bad,
It can get pretty ugly and scary!'"
"So you're better at it then I am!" Damian huffed.
"There once was a man from Nantucket," George chuckled, walking into the room to grab his guitar.
"That's IT!" Neil shouted in frustration. "I'm out of here!"
"And that man," Keith grumbled. "told Neil to ..."
"KEITH!" George gasped, trying hard not to laugh.
"You suck!" Keith called after after Neil.
"Not quite the right word," George chuckled. "But you're good at rhyming."
With this the two men began to laugh again.
"What's so funny?" Damian asked.
"Nothing." George patted the boy's shoulder.
"Then why are you two laughing?" He was very lost now.
"You'll understand when you're older." Keith sniggered. He knew this was Damian's least favorite thing to hear, which is exactly why he said it to him so often.
~*~
"Hey Neil." Ryan and Paul greeted their companion as he fumed through the hotel lobby with his guitar slung carelessly over his shoulder. "Hows that song coming?" They expected either a 'Not so great but we're getting there.' or, preferably, 'Brilliantly! I'm almost finish!' But instead Neil's response was a plain and simple;
"I HATE YOU ALL!!!"
"Oh," Ryan said softly as Neil attempted to slam the revolving door on his way out. "I'm … sorry."
"That good, huh?" Paul said in shock of their, normally easy-going, friend's outburst.
~*~
Neil inhaled deeply as he entered the small, but more importantly, quiet coffee shop. He let out his breath in a heavy sigh of relief. Not a Celtic Thunder singer or band member to be seen. No one he recognized at all, and no one who seemed to recognize him. Perfect. He sat down at a table in a fairly opened corner of the one-room shop to begin again the composition of, what he knew would be, his musical masterpiece. As he positioned his instrument on his lap and strummed the first chord a young, pretty waitress approached him and asked him if he'd like to order a drink.
"No thank you." Neil answered, trying his best not to blow up at her. He knew it wasn't her fault. She didn't know what he had come here for. She was just doing her job.
"Alright then." She smiled nervously at the murderous expression on his face and quickly walked away to tend to other costumers with slightly less homicidal tendencies.
"Back to work." Neil sighed quietly to himself.
He looked around for signs that anyone else would interrupt him. All seemed safe so he went back to work.
Well, he tried to at least, but nothing would come to him. Every note he played sounded wrong. Every word he wrote felt empty. How could he write a song about the perfect love if he had never met his? How could he express what he had yet to experience? The answer was simple; He couldn't. He decided to give up for the day. Perhaps something would come to him tomorrow when he wasn't so frustrated.
He was just starting to pack up when …
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Came a female voice from just above his head.
He looked up at the person who had spoken to him and suddenly his eyes met with the fiery eyes of a very pretty young woman.
"N-not at all." He stammered. "Please, be my guest."
"Thanks." She gave him a slight smirk as she sat in the chair across from him. "My name's Michelle." She introduced herself.
"Neil." He smiled back shaking her outstretched hand.
"Nice to meat ya." She answered. "So you play the guitar, do ya?" She tried to start a conversation.
"Oh, yes." He chuckled a bit. "For a living."
"Really? You famous or something?"
"A bit, yeah. I'm also a singer." He told her. "With a group called Celtic Thunder." Then he began explaining to her, what the group was all about. "What's so funny?" He asked after a while of him telling his story.
She had a strange smile on her face like she was trying not to laugh at him. That same look Keith would get when he was up to something.
"Oh, nothing." she smiled. "It's just, well" She chuckled a bit. "I know who you are."
"Oh." He said softly, looking uncomfortably at his guitar. "Well, why didn't you say something?" He was now looking up at her again. "I wouldn't have bored you with this whole explanation."
"You just seemed so excited about telling me." She answered mater-of-fact. "I just couldn't deprive you of that." Then she started laughing again.
"Alright then," Neil chuckled. "Since you already know me, how about you tell me your story instead."
"Well," She began. "My name is Michelle,"
"I know that." Neil interrupted playfully.
"And I play the guitar and sing too." She tried to glare, but couldn't keep from smiling. "Did ya know that?"
"Um, no." He answered. "That I didn't."
Michelle continued telling him things about herself, her family and friend, and her over all life as he listened intently.
When the highlights of her life had been told, the two sat for a while discussing all that they had been through earlier that day (Neil's morning being infinitely more traumatic then Michelle's).
"So what exactly IS this song you're trying to write?" She asked him when he had finished his rant. "I mean, I thought you could write songs."
"I can write songs!" Neil snapped in jest. "Who do you think has been writing them?"
"Leprechauns." She answered with a very serious face. "I think they did it and you are just taking all the credit for their hard work." With this she cracked a smile.
"You've caught me!" He banged his palm on the table top. "I steel songs from leprechauns! How did you know?"
They both began to laughed.
"But really, what's with the writer's block all of a sudden?" Michelle wanted to know.
"Well … it's a special sort of song." He answered reluctantly. "A kind of song I, apparently, have a hard time writing."
"What is it, a Rap song or something?" She chuckled.
"No." He answered. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever tried writing one of those." He thought hard, then laughed at the image of Keith, George, and himself dressed as gangsters and preforming Eminem's 'Space Bound'. It just didn't seem their style. "It's, um, hard to explain." He told her. But, truth be told, he just felt a little silly explaining it to her.
"I see." Michelle nodded. "well," She took hold of his hand, turned it slightly in her own and looked at his watch. Then, letting go of him she said, "I'd better get going now. It was nice chatting with you." She gave a quick smile and walked away. "Bye." She called to him over her shoulder.
"Bye-bye." He said in her general direction, but not loud enough for her to be able to hear him. "Hey, wait!" He shouted, he suddenly had an idea.
"Yeah?" She asked turning around quickly.
"You said you sing and play the guitar,"
"I know." She mocked.
"So, you want to come jam with me mates and myself tomorrow?" He offered. "It'll be our last day here, and we all love to sing with new friends."
"Sure." She answered. "Where?"
"At our hotel." He gave he the directions and told her just where to meet them.
"Cool." She smiled. "When?"
"Um, well," He thought for a second. Then he smiled at her. "I'll have to discuss that with the lads. How about you tell me your number and I'll phone you when I know what will be good for them."
"Oh, that was smooth." Michelle chuckled. "I don't think a guy has ever asked for my number that way before."
Neil blushed.
"Here ya go." She handed him a napkin that she wrote her phone number on. "Give me a shout when you've got it all worked out with the boys."
"Will do." Neil smiled.
~*~
"Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" George asked when Neil returned to the hotel.
"Yeah," Ryan added, still a bit wary of their friend. "What happened to "I hate you all!"?"
"It went away." Neil was almost singing. "By the way." He grinned. "We're gonna jam out with a new friend of mine at about eight."
"Do we have a choice?" Keith asked. He didn't like being bossed by Neil.
"No." Neil answered menacingly. "You don't."
"Yes Sir!" Keith and Ryan saluted.
"Now where are you going?" Damian wanted to know.
"To my room." Neil told him. "I have to make a call." With that he smiled and walked away.
~*~
Just minuets before eight o'clock Michelle walked into the lobby of the hotel that Neil had given her directions to. Holding her guitar tightly in her hand, she looked around for a familiar face or six. Finally she saw Neil, Keith, and Ryan walking toward her.
"This is your new friend?" Ryan gasped as Neil led the two men to her.
"Yep." Neil smiled. "This is her."
Keith just gave her a suspicious look.
"What's her name?" He asked.
"I can speak," Michelle told him. If you'd like to ask me."
"Fine." Keith huffed. "What's your name?"
"Michelle." She answered flatly.
"This is not going to go well." Ryan whispered to Neil.
"Does anything go well when Keith is involved?" Neil whispered back.
Ryan only shook his head.
"Shall we go then?" Neil offered. "I have something to show you."
"What is it?" Michelle asked him.
"A surprise." He smiled.
"Okay then." The childish look on Neil's face made her even more curious.
Neil led the gang out the front door and down the street a ways. They arrived at an Irish pub and, switching places with his friend, Keith led the way inside and to the back.
"Why are you only in a hurry when there is food or beer involved?" Ryan complained to his young, blonde friend.
"I'm not." Keith protested. "There are other things I like too."
"Yeah," Neil added. "He sure hurries to the beach … when he's not supposed to!"
Keith ignored this comment and Michelle's chuckling.
"There you are!" George greeted them. "Just in time. We're up next." Then he smiled at Michelle. "You must be the one Neil invited. I'm George."
Neil introduced everyone then grabbed his guitar and began tuning it.
"Your surprise is ready now." Neil was blushing ever so slightly.
"Where is it?" Michelle asked looking around.
Neil stepped up onto the stage.
"Right here." He told her. "I finished that song I was working on." He looked a bit nervous now. "I wrote it for you."
"Keith would you get lost!" Neil shouted at the surfer who was sitting beside him on the hotel bed.
"Long ago, in a hotel far, far away, there was … NEIL!" Keith continued in his best 'Dramatic Announcer Voice'. Then he proceeded to to hum the theme to Star Wars.
"Keith! Please go away." Neil sighed. "I'm trying to write a song."
"Oh yes!" Keith mocked. "The perfect song! Full of the perfect emotion! About the perfect girl!" Keith thrust his arms around as he said this. Then, to add dramatic affect, he flung himself backward across the bed with his arms outstretched to both sides.
"Not exactly," Neil corrected, his arms still crossed over his face for protection. "It's more like ..."
Just then Damian walked into the room.
"There once was a man from Dublin
Who couldn't write a song for nothin'" The boy laughed at his own cleverness.
"Damian, that doesn't even flow and it barely rhymes." Neil rolled his eyes.
"Well, I'M not the song writer." He retorted. "And neither are you!" With this Damian burst out laughing again.
"There once was a boy from Derry,"Keith recited menacingly.
"Who was told 'You'd better be wary,
If you make Neil mad
It's gonna be bad,
It can get pretty ugly and scary!'"
"So you're better at it then I am!" Damian huffed.
"There once was a man from Nantucket," George chuckled, walking into the room to grab his guitar.
"That's IT!" Neil shouted in frustration. "I'm out of here!"
"And that man," Keith grumbled. "told Neil to ..."
"KEITH!" George gasped, trying hard not to laugh.
"You suck!" Keith called after after Neil.
"Not quite the right word," George chuckled. "But you're good at rhyming."
With this the two men began to laugh again.
"What's so funny?" Damian asked.
"Nothing." George patted the boy's shoulder.
"Then why are you two laughing?" He was very lost now.
"You'll understand when you're older." Keith sniggered. He knew this was Damian's least favorite thing to hear, which is exactly why he said it to him so often.
~*~
"Hey Neil." Ryan and Paul greeted their companion as he fumed through the hotel lobby with his guitar slung carelessly over his shoulder. "Hows that song coming?" They expected either a 'Not so great but we're getting there.' or, preferably, 'Brilliantly! I'm almost finish!' But instead Neil's response was a plain and simple;
"I HATE YOU ALL!!!"
"Oh," Ryan said softly as Neil attempted to slam the revolving door on his way out. "I'm … sorry."
"That good, huh?" Paul said in shock of their, normally easy-going, friend's outburst.
~*~
Neil inhaled deeply as he entered the small, but more importantly, quiet coffee shop. He let out his breath in a heavy sigh of relief. Not a Celtic Thunder singer or band member to be seen. No one he recognized at all, and no one who seemed to recognize him. Perfect. He sat down at a table in a fairly opened corner of the one-room shop to begin again the composition of, what he knew would be, his musical masterpiece. As he positioned his instrument on his lap and strummed the first chord a young, pretty waitress approached him and asked him if he'd like to order a drink.
"No thank you." Neil answered, trying his best not to blow up at her. He knew it wasn't her fault. She didn't know what he had come here for. She was just doing her job.
"Alright then." She smiled nervously at the murderous expression on his face and quickly walked away to tend to other costumers with slightly less homicidal tendencies.
"Back to work." Neil sighed quietly to himself.
He looked around for signs that anyone else would interrupt him. All seemed safe so he went back to work.
Well, he tried to at least, but nothing would come to him. Every note he played sounded wrong. Every word he wrote felt empty. How could he write a song about the perfect love if he had never met his? How could he express what he had yet to experience? The answer was simple; He couldn't. He decided to give up for the day. Perhaps something would come to him tomorrow when he wasn't so frustrated.
He was just starting to pack up when …
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Came a female voice from just above his head.
He looked up at the person who had spoken to him and suddenly his eyes met with the fiery eyes of a very pretty young woman.
"N-not at all." He stammered. "Please, be my guest."
"Thanks." She gave him a slight smirk as she sat in the chair across from him. "My name's Michelle." She introduced herself.
"Neil." He smiled back shaking her outstretched hand.
"Nice to meat ya." She answered. "So you play the guitar, do ya?" She tried to start a conversation.
"Oh, yes." He chuckled a bit. "For a living."
"Really? You famous or something?"
"A bit, yeah. I'm also a singer." He told her. "With a group called Celtic Thunder." Then he began explaining to her, what the group was all about. "What's so funny?" He asked after a while of him telling his story.
She had a strange smile on her face like she was trying not to laugh at him. That same look Keith would get when he was up to something.
"Oh, nothing." she smiled. "It's just, well" She chuckled a bit. "I know who you are."
"Oh." He said softly, looking uncomfortably at his guitar. "Well, why didn't you say something?" He was now looking up at her again. "I wouldn't have bored you with this whole explanation."
"You just seemed so excited about telling me." She answered mater-of-fact. "I just couldn't deprive you of that." Then she started laughing again.
"Alright then," Neil chuckled. "Since you already know me, how about you tell me your story instead."
"Well," She began. "My name is Michelle,"
"I know that." Neil interrupted playfully.
"And I play the guitar and sing too." She tried to glare, but couldn't keep from smiling. "Did ya know that?"
"Um, no." He answered. "That I didn't."
Michelle continued telling him things about herself, her family and friend, and her over all life as he listened intently.
When the highlights of her life had been told, the two sat for a while discussing all that they had been through earlier that day (Neil's morning being infinitely more traumatic then Michelle's).
"So what exactly IS this song you're trying to write?" She asked him when he had finished his rant. "I mean, I thought you could write songs."
"I can write songs!" Neil snapped in jest. "Who do you think has been writing them?"
"Leprechauns." She answered with a very serious face. "I think they did it and you are just taking all the credit for their hard work." With this she cracked a smile.
"You've caught me!" He banged his palm on the table top. "I steel songs from leprechauns! How did you know?"
They both began to laughed.
"But really, what's with the writer's block all of a sudden?" Michelle wanted to know.
"Well … it's a special sort of song." He answered reluctantly. "A kind of song I, apparently, have a hard time writing."
"What is it, a Rap song or something?" She chuckled.
"No." He answered. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever tried writing one of those." He thought hard, then laughed at the image of Keith, George, and himself dressed as gangsters and preforming Eminem's 'Space Bound'. It just didn't seem their style. "It's, um, hard to explain." He told her. But, truth be told, he just felt a little silly explaining it to her.
"I see." Michelle nodded. "well," She took hold of his hand, turned it slightly in her own and looked at his watch. Then, letting go of him she said, "I'd better get going now. It was nice chatting with you." She gave a quick smile and walked away. "Bye." She called to him over her shoulder.
"Bye-bye." He said in her general direction, but not loud enough for her to be able to hear him. "Hey, wait!" He shouted, he suddenly had an idea.
"Yeah?" She asked turning around quickly.
"You said you sing and play the guitar,"
"I know." She mocked.
"So, you want to come jam with me mates and myself tomorrow?" He offered. "It'll be our last day here, and we all love to sing with new friends."
"Sure." She answered. "Where?"
"At our hotel." He gave he the directions and told her just where to meet them.
"Cool." She smiled. "When?"
"Um, well," He thought for a second. Then he smiled at her. "I'll have to discuss that with the lads. How about you tell me your number and I'll phone you when I know what will be good for them."
"Oh, that was smooth." Michelle chuckled. "I don't think a guy has ever asked for my number that way before."
Neil blushed.
"Here ya go." She handed him a napkin that she wrote her phone number on. "Give me a shout when you've got it all worked out with the boys."
"Will do." Neil smiled.
~*~
"Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" George asked when Neil returned to the hotel.
"Yeah," Ryan added, still a bit wary of their friend. "What happened to "I hate you all!"?"
"It went away." Neil was almost singing. "By the way." He grinned. "We're gonna jam out with a new friend of mine at about eight."
"Do we have a choice?" Keith asked. He didn't like being bossed by Neil.
"No." Neil answered menacingly. "You don't."
"Yes Sir!" Keith and Ryan saluted.
"Now where are you going?" Damian wanted to know.
"To my room." Neil told him. "I have to make a call." With that he smiled and walked away.
~*~
Just minuets before eight o'clock Michelle walked into the lobby of the hotel that Neil had given her directions to. Holding her guitar tightly in her hand, she looked around for a familiar face or six. Finally she saw Neil, Keith, and Ryan walking toward her.
"This is your new friend?" Ryan gasped as Neil led the two men to her.
"Yep." Neil smiled. "This is her."
Keith just gave her a suspicious look.
"What's her name?" He asked.
"I can speak," Michelle told him. If you'd like to ask me."
"Fine." Keith huffed. "What's your name?"
"Michelle." She answered flatly.
"This is not going to go well." Ryan whispered to Neil.
"Does anything go well when Keith is involved?" Neil whispered back.
Ryan only shook his head.
"Shall we go then?" Neil offered. "I have something to show you."
"What is it?" Michelle asked him.
"A surprise." He smiled.
"Okay then." The childish look on Neil's face made her even more curious.
Neil led the gang out the front door and down the street a ways. They arrived at an Irish pub and, switching places with his friend, Keith led the way inside and to the back.
"Why are you only in a hurry when there is food or beer involved?" Ryan complained to his young, blonde friend.
"I'm not." Keith protested. "There are other things I like too."
"Yeah," Neil added. "He sure hurries to the beach … when he's not supposed to!"
Keith ignored this comment and Michelle's chuckling.
"There you are!" George greeted them. "Just in time. We're up next." Then he smiled at Michelle. "You must be the one Neil invited. I'm George."
Neil introduced everyone then grabbed his guitar and began tuning it.
"Your surprise is ready now." Neil was blushing ever so slightly.
"Where is it?" Michelle asked looking around.
Neil stepped up onto the stage.
"Right here." He told her. "I finished that song I was working on." He looked a bit nervous now. "I wrote it for you."