Piece 9: I Believe in You and Me
I will never leave your side I will never hurt your pride When all the ships are down, baby See I will always be around Just to be right where you are, my love You know I love you, boy I will never leave you out I will always let you in, boy Oh baby To places no one's ever been Deep inside Why can't you see that I believe in you and me
Maybe I'm a fool to feel the way I do But I would play the fool forever just to be with you forever
I believe in miracles Love's a miracle And baby you're my dream come true I was lost but now I'm free Oh baby Cuz I believe, I do believe in you and me See I was lost but now I'm free Cuz I believe in you and me Believe in you and me
-I Believe In You and Me; Kelly Clarkson
(CD: demo)
"We haven't been getting along lately."
"Really? Usually it takes Nick a few months to screw things up," Jason, the drummer in Nick's band, laughed.
Kelly looked at him, not amused. "You're pretty funny there. No, I'm being serious. And I'm not so sure all of it has been his fault. I mean, we've both been stressed. And yeah, he tends to pick fights, but I've fought back and-"
"Don't make excuses for him, Kel."
Kelly looked down at her hands resting in her lap and felt tears forming behind her eyes. "I think he regrets getting together so quickly. I mean, maybe he thinks he doesn't know me well enough to be in a serious relationship."
"Do you think you know each other well enough?"
Kelly sat silently.
"Kel," Jason sighed and looked at her compassionately, "knowing Nick, it's not that he feels he doesn't know you well enough . . . it's that he feels you don't know him."
She wanted to make it work. Maybe they had moved a little too quickly, but Kelly loved him . . . didn't that count for anything? So she didn't know every move he would make before he made it, every word he would say before he said it, every thought he would think before he thought it. So what? She loved him and if he loved her as much as he'd said he did, they should be able to make it last. Or maybe all the pessimists were right . . . maybe they weren't pessimists at all, but realists . . . maybe love just isn't enough.
Kelly watched silently as Nick walked into their hotel room late at night. She had been sitting in bed reading when he'd come through the door of the bedroom. "Everything okay?" she asked when he'd set his things down on a nearby chair and had still said nothing to her.
"Huh? Oh . . . yeah, fine."
And that was the extent of the conversation as he made his way into the bathroom and shut and locked the door behind him. Kelly heard the shower running a few minutes later and, with a sigh, marked her place in her book, rolled over, and turned out the light.
She knew they could make it work . . . he just wasn't trying.
