EPILOGUE
AARON
One year later
“Oh my God, I’m about to have a heart attack.”
“Don’t be melodramatic.”
“I’m telling you, that’s what it feels like.”
“It’s just a panic attack. Breathe. Go on.”
I do exactly as Patrick tells me to. I bend my legs slightly and take in all of the air that I can, but it’s not working.
“Five minutes, you guys.”
A wave of nausea threatens to choke me with vomit.
“Let’s go, Aaron. Not that much time has passed. I don’t think you used to be this emotional.”
Patrick is right. I never was an emotional type of guy, but she’s changed who I am. They changed me.
My beautiful woman and my good little boy.
Our Neil.
“Come on, it’s time.”
Jay’s father calls us all to attention. We all gather around him and look at each other for an intense moment.
Then, I collect my courage and put one hand out. The others follow suit and when I feel the heat of their hands on mine, I start to get back in my right mind.
“The Four Reasons To Die are really back.” My voice is crushed by the weight of the emotion.
“Forever,” Liam says with one of his grins.
“Forever!” we repeat in unison.
There’s been a lot of water under the bridge. We’ve been through so much in these years. And yet, here we are, ready to start over, get back in the saddle and chance this dream of ours again.
Jay’s father took charge of the situation. He decided to be our manager and help us get back into our music with our rules. We recorded our first album in a long time. We sweated, prayed and even cried a bit, but what the heck. By now it’s almost normal. We’re a big bunch of crybabies.
We thought long and hard about accepting this offer. When he brought the idea to us one night in September, it almost seemed like a joke, a gamble. We really never thought of it anymore after everything we’ve been through in the last few years.
We decided to involve the entire family in the decision-making process. Jay’s father, obviously, Patrick and Ciara’s family, the girls and Alex’s dad. Because we are one big, loud, unnerving family.
No one had a doubt.
So, we signed the deal.
And so it was. We threw ourselves back into the mix. The album, the first few concerts in pubs and clubs of a modest nature. And tonight we’re going a step farther, a concert at3Arena, nothing modest about that, for fuck’s sake.
Here we are.
All of us are a bit older than we were, with a few too many battle scars on our skin but plenty of love in our hearts.
We started playing again and making music and even if we’re here on this stage tonight, that has a seating capacity of thousands, we haven’t forgotten where we have come from and who we are.
