The Beatles Revisited

I found this website called Deezer.Com. It’s kind of like Pandora, but you can listen to whatever song you want. You just type in the artist or song name and it plays it for you.
I’ve been listening to The Beatles.

For some reason they remind me of my childhood. My mother was a huge Beatles fan. She had every record they ever put out, so I grew up listening to them. Any time I hear She Loves You or Twist and Shout it reminds me of dancing around in my PJ’s with my two brothers. They would toss me back and forth and spin me around while we sang and danced. It would drive my dad crazy, but my mom would often come and start dancing with us.

I think what started me on this Beatles kick again was hanging out with my brothers this weekend.
It’s usually very hard to get my brothers to come out, but they both actually did. They joined us at The Lounge on Saturday night.

Meg, John (Meg’s hubby) and Tricia met up at my apartment before we left for The Lounge. Tricia gave Trace crap for not coming, but it’s nothing new. He rarely ever goes out with us and he rebels against The Lounge because it doesn’t play heavy metal.
Kel and Caleb (my brothers) promised to come out with me Saturday night when I saw them Friday night at my parent’s house. (Barbeque for Easter – I know, but it’s Caleb’s Spring Break and he had plans for Sunday) They ended up meeting us up at Jaime’s show. Both of them thought the band was pretty good. Tiff was there even though I didn’t invite her. It was pretty awkward because neither of us invited the other one. Apparently she’s “seeing” Brandon.

Jaime hung around after he put his drumset away and met everyone. Everyone immediately got along with Jaime as I suspected. He got along especially well with Kel and Caleb – which surprised me. Neither Kel nor Caleb were big into the whole “rock” scene, but apparently Caleb has been listening to more lately. Neither of my brothers get along particularly well with Trace. They are constantly making fun of him behind his back , but they’re nice enough in person. (It drives me crazy).
Jaime was giving Caleb a lesson on Rock Bands that were required listening and him and Kel immediately hit it off when Jaime mentioned that any guy with a girl’s name automatically makes you awesome. (Kel’s real name is Kelly – he sometimes lies and tells people it’s Keller)
Kel is a programmer, so they were talking about websites or something. I didn’t really understand.

Anyway, we left the bar around 11pm and made our way to The Lounge. Jaime promised to meet us there after he went home, showered and changed.

I rode with my brothers. The entire drive they hounded me about Jaime – saying how much they liked them and how much cooler he was than Trace. You would think that this would upset me, but it is rare that my brothers upset me. I’ve gotten so used to them and we fought enough as kids that now nothing they do gets to me. I explained to them that although he is really fun, I would never in my life date anyone in a band and espcially not a drummer. Kel caught on, but Caleb didn’t understand what his being the drummer had to do with it. I told him that most drummers were about as good with monogamy as he is. Caleb immediately understood. He takes the fact that he is a player as a compliment.
Kel, being the typical oldest, lectured me on how I needed someone like Jaime as opposed to Trace – minus the drummer thing. I just brushed him off and told him he doesn’t even know Trace. He said, “I know enough.”

I was only slightly relieved when we finally got to The Lounge. Meg, John and Tricia were already inside by the time we got there because Kel drives like a granny.

We hadn’t been in the bar for more than 10 minutes when Caleb had disappeared with some girl. I asked Kel if Caleb was still seeing that blonde I met a few weeks earlier – Kel just laughed and nodded.

FYI – No one can drink like my brothers.

Both of them went away to the University of Florida – Caleb still attended – and they learned their drinking habits from the parties up there.
I visit Caleb a couple times a month, as I did Kel when he went, and let me tell you – no matter what night – there is always a party somewhere.

Tricia, of course, decided she wanted to attempt to keep up with the two of them, as did John. Meg and I stayed away from that. Meg had learned her lesson the first time she went out with my brothers and I.

Jaime showed up about an hour after we did. He looked absolutely adorable! He was wearing a button up black shirt that was just a size too small, his studded black belt and black work boots. His hair was still wildly sticking up in all directions even though he was dressed up.
The first thing I noticed was his necklaces. He always wears several necklaces, but one in particular stood out. It was a stainless steel simple chain with a small old fashioned key and a rust-colored heart with a lock on it. He was also wearing a steel chain with a guitar pick on it and one with a shell.
When I asked him about it, he told me he found the lock and key seperately – months apart in two different states – yet the key fit the lock perfectly. He said he always knew it had to mean something – he just hadn’t found out yet.

Apparently he found the key first in some rural state in an old hotel they stayed in while on tour, so he kept it. He said he tried it on a few locks around the hotel, but it didn’t fit anything. He told me he secretly hoped it was a skeleton key, but it wasn’t. I told him, knowing me, I would have thought of an entire backstory for that key. He told me I should write it and send it to him sometime. I told him I didn’t write.
The heart was on a broken keychain that was hidden behind other keychains in a store he went into at the mall. He said he was looking through keychains when the heart fell. For some reason he decided to check and see if the key fit in the heart – and it did. He bought it immediately.

I told him I wished I had some type of jewelry like that. He just shrugged and said that it’s not that hard to find. He said he found the shoelace he ties around his neck at the bookstore the night he met me. I joked and said that was gross, wearing a dirty shoelace around your neck. I was secretly jealous.

Jaime was so much fun. When I told him I didn’t drink, he said that was the single coolest thing he ever heard. I never thought it was that amusing, but he went into how it builds character – to be able to go out, have fun, dance and talk to people without taking a sip of alcohol. He said he’s going to start.

And he did. He didn’t have a sip of alcohol the entire night, yet he danced with me and my friends whenever we asked him to.

Kel, Caleb, John and Tricia were completely wrecked by the time The Lounge closed. Meg had to drive Tricia home and I had to drive Kel’s car to drop off him and Caleb. Jaime, bless his heart, followed me so that he could give me a ride home afterwards.

I have no idea why I didn’t drive since I never drink. It just didn’t occur to me.

On the ride home with Jaime I was all keyed up. We were singing along to Beatles songs at the top of our lungs. We both admited to each other that we had the worst voices in history.

Jaime and I ended up talking until close to 5am when we got to my apartment. We walked around the apartment complex and the lake that I usually jog around.
We got onto the subject of love, inevitably. I ended up telling him the whole story of Trace and I. I said that’s when I finally realized that the storybook love doesn’t exist. All there is is the generic, painful, sometimes dull but fulfilling love. Jaime immediately disagreed. He’s the first male I ever met that honestly believes with all his heart and soul that fairytale love does exist. He says he refuses to settle for less. He even dumped his last girlfriend because it was that generic love. He said although he was comfortable and probably loved her in some way – it wasn’t soul shattering love. There was nothing intense about it. The way he described their relationship reminded me of Trace and I. He ended up breaking up with her when she wanted it to become more serious because he didn’t want to attach himself to someone when there could be something better out there.
He told me that after that mess, he refuses to even date anyone unless he knows it’s the head over heels love because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone the way he hurt her.
I told him he may have made the biggest mistake of his life, letting her go. He said he’s heard that a thousand times, but he knows that there is love out there like that. I asked him what if he never finds it – even if it does exist (which it doesn’t). He told me he’d rather be alone than pretend. He said he’s content within himself. He’s busy and has close friends – he doesn’t NEED someone there.

I told him he was brave.
He disagreed and said that I was. He said that I was brave for staying with Trace and making it work.
I told him it would never be as easy as it was before I found out what he did, but I was in deep with him. There was no point in letting go when he’s obviously trying so hard to make it up to me.
Jaime didn’t say much on the subject after that.
We talked about his family for a little while after that because mine was brought up. Apparently his mom and dad split up a few years earlier because his mom fell head over heels in love with some lawyer. So, his dad, in rebellion of LA moved to Florida. He never remarried, but I guess his mom is happily married living in a mansion with her husband and apparent love of her life. I realized that’s where Jaime got the idea that fairytale love exists. I wondered what type of relationship they REALLY had that Jaime doesn’t know about.

I finally got tired enough to go inside and said goodbye to Jaime. Trace didn’t even notice when I got home.