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Author's Chapter Notes:
I know some of these chapters are pretty short but they get longer promise. Keep leaving feedback and keep reading! More updates to come soon.
Ashley sat around the green room bored yet again. There was an after show party following the show that night but as always Ashley wasn’t allowed to go. There was a knock on the door and Ashley looked up to see Brian poking his head threw the door.

“What are you doing in here all alone?” he asked taking a seat across from her.

“Nothing. Just writing.” She smiled shyly closing the notebook.

“Can I see?”

Ashley handed him the notebook and he quietly flipped threw the pages reading over the dozens of poems written down.

“These are really good. When did you start writing them?”

“When I got out of the hospital. My counselor told me to write how I feel since I can’t go see her while I’m on tour.”

“You know these could make some really good songs.”

“Really?” she asked surprised. She never thought her feelings could be turned into something more.

“Yea.” He smiled handing the book back to her. “All you need is a little melody and it all comes together.”

He reached for his guitar and started strumming some chords. She listened for a minute then began humming along. She looked over the words and began piecing it together. Brian smiled as he heard her sing. She had a really sweet and pure quality to her voice that he hadn’t heard before.

“I can’t pull myself away from you. They’re telling me to forget you I got to make it threw because I can’t pull myself away from you. No, I can’t pull myself away from you.”

“See easy as cake.” Brian laughed placing down the guitar.

“I wish I could play guitar like you. It would be so cool to make songs.”

“We have a whole tour. I could teach you.” He laughed.

“Really?” her eyes lit up. “That would be awesome.”

“All you need is a few chords and you’ll be good to go. You’ll be writing music in no time.”

“Did I tell you you’re my favorite?” she laughed.

“We won’t tell AJ.” He teased. “Ok well sound checks soon. I gotta go get ready. We’ll start with the guitar in a few days. Sound good?”

“Awesome. I can’t wait.” She smiled as he headed out the door.





Ashley had just finished up her homework for the day and was getting ready to meet Brian in the greenroom to work on the guitar again. It had been three weeks since he had starting teaching her and she was picking it up fast. When she walked into the room Brian and AJ were talking on one of the couches.

“Hey guys.” Ashley said as she sat down on the couch next to AJ.

“Hey. I was just telling AJ how good you were doing on the guitar.” Brian smiled.

“Yea. How come you never told me you wanted to learn how to play?” he asked.

“It just kinda came up and Brian offered to help me. You can’t say no to that.” She laughed.

“Well we have a surprise for you.” Brian grinned slyly.

“Really?” she smiled back excited. “What is it?”

“Close your eye.” AJ replied.

Ashley closed her eyes and Brian reached behind one of the couches and placed something on the table in front of her.

“Okay, open.” Brian said.

Ashley opened her eyes and looked down at the guitar case on the table.

“Is this for me?” Ashley asked a grin beginning to form.

“We thought that you would be able to practice more if you had a guitar of your own.”

“Open it up.” AJ grinned knowing she would love it.

Ashley unlocked the case and opened it up gasping at the guitar in front of her. It was a pink 6 string acoustic guitar. Ashley couldn’t keep the smile off her face.

“You like it?” AJ asked chuckling.

Ashley couldn’t even respond with words she just nodded and continued staring at it.

“This is amazing!” she finally spoke up. She jumped up and hugged them both. “This is the best present ever.”

She pulled the guitar out of the case carefully and stared at it some more.

“Well show me what you got.” AJ laughed. “We paid good money for that so start putting it to use.”

Ashley took in a deep breath and began playing what Brian had taught her.


“That was awesome.” AJ smiled as she finished. “You learned all that in 3 weeks?” he questioned.

“I told you she was a quick learner.” Brian chimed in. “Now get out of here so we can get to work.” Brian shoved him towards the door.

“So what do you wanna work on today?” Brian asked taking a seat once again.

“I wanna learn a song.” She smiled.

“Like a whole song?” he laughed a little. “That might take a while.”

“I can do it. Teach me a Backstreet song.”

“Ok. How’s about ‘I Want It That Way’. It has some good guitar in it that you’d like.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go I’m ready.” She laughed.


They worked for the next hour and Ashley had a good majority of the song down. Brian was really impressed at how fast she was learning.

“See now if you combine all those parts I think you have pretty much the whole song down.” Brian smiled placing his guitar down.

“Awesome. You’re a really good teacher.” She said carefully putting the guitar back in the case.

“Well you pick it up fast so it’s easy.” He smiled. “You know a lot now and you have a good ear. Why don’t you try making your own melody for next week to one of your poems.”

“You really think I could do that?”

“Yea you can do it. You just gotta try and practice.”





For the next week Ashley worked everyday to come up with the perfect melody. At first she wasn’t sure what poem she wanted to use but once she got the melody down she found herself writing a brand new one. When she got most of it down she read over the lyrics and smiled to herself. She was really proud of the accomplishment of writing her first song and she couldn’t wait for Brian to hear it.

Brian came into the room and Ashley was already set up waiting for him.

“Someone’s an eager beaver today.” He teased.

“I wrote a song…well not a whole song but I wrote it myself.”

“That’s awesome. Can I hear it?” he sat across from her.

She nodded and prepared her guitar. She started strumming the melody and concentrated on the music then began singing.


“There's a girl walkin' in these shoes and she knows that everything she's got is all she's got to lose. There's a dream right behind these eyes and she finds a reason to be strong with every tear she dries.

Tryin' hard to fight the way things are so she leaves her world behind. With the sounds of doubts turned up so loud she turns the music up inside.

And this girl's seen a lot of pain but this girl's gonna smile again. She knows that a flower grows every time it rains. And this girl's got a lot of dreams she knows that tomorrow's not what it seems she might not solve a mystery tonight. But this girl's gonna be alright.”

She looked up from the guitar and saw Brian smiling at her. She was nervous as to what he would think.

“That’s all I have for now.” She said timidly.

“That was awesome. You wrote that?”

Ashley just nodded smiling slightly.

“You have a really good voice. You never wanted to pursue singing?”

“I did, but we couldn’t afford it and my mom never had time to take me since she was working.” She frowned a little. She had tried to avoid talking about he mom as much as possible.

“Well I think you have a lot of potential. You should try and do some stuff when you get home. Denise would help you out.” He reassured her.

“I’d love that.” She smiled.

“And keep working on that song. It’s really good. You’re better then me on the guitar now.” He chuckled.

“I wish.” She laughed. “But you really liked it?”

“Yea. It was really good.” He gave her a hug. “We have a rehearsal in a few minutes so I have to cut this short. We’re adding a song to the show so it’ll be new tonight.”

“Can’t wait!” she smiled putting her guitar away.

Brian was just about to walk out the door when she stopped him and gave him a big hug.

“Thanks.” She smiled at him.

“For what?” he smiled back.

“Taking the time to help me with this. It means a lot to me.”

“Any time. You know I always have time for you.” He smiled as he left the room.

Ashley smiled to herself and sat back down to continue working on her song. She was glad that things were looking up for her.
Chapter End Notes:
*First song was something written by me.
**Second song was 'This Girl' by Nikki Flores.