I haven't slept this well in a long time, a few years at least. I traipse down the steps in just my pajama pants and open the front hallway door, hit with cold air and a small flurry of snow. Oh, shit! That's fucking cold! I shut the door and run upstairs, grabbing jeans and a shirt. I think about grabbing my jacket and decide I should wear it, last thing I need is to be sick when I know damn well I have to tour for my solo album that's due out next year around Kai's birthday. She would STRANGLE me if I sounded like shit on it. She always got on my case about my vocals, knowing when I sound best because she's always asked my brother about what I should and shouldn't do to make sure none of us sound under par.
"Call her phone first, Aaron."
I whip around and find Nick standing in the living room doorway, his eyes barely open to prove he's just woken up. "What happened to just being able to pop in?"
"That's JC's house, not hers."
"Isn't this his house, too?"
"He also said right in front of us that this is for when the kids are old enough to be on their own and for when she has visitors."
He crosses his arms and raises his eyebrows. "Oh, yeah." I grab my cell and dial her number, having memorized it years ago.
"It's nine and it better be important or you're dead," she greets me.
"Can I come visit?"
"Call you when I'm up for the day, it's my last day off before I go back to work."
"Alright."
She hangs up and I look at my brother. "She said she's going to call when she gets up for the day and I can go over then."
"When it's Gin's house, it's whatever and we can come and go as we please, but it's JC's house and we have to call first."
"I'm just going to write."
A couple hours later, the kids come upstairs and we occupy them. I take Grahm and we write songs together for a little while, his mom calling me after we finish one song. Grahm picks up and greets her excitedly. "Hi, mom! I'm just writing a song with him. Yup. Uh-huh. Ok. Yes. No. Yes. Lani did. I dunno, there was food here when we checked this morning." He writes a few things down. "I will. Ok, let us shower and get dressed. Love you."
"What's up, little man?"
He rolls his eyes. "We have to shower and get ready, then we can head over next door." He turns away from me, only to turn back and face me with a finger up. "I don't like being called 'little man', I'm not a little kid anymore."
"I didn't know. What do your friends call you?"
"By my name or Hanley, Aaron."
"Their last name is Hanley? As in Framing Hanley?" JC questions.
"I don't know."
"Yes, I know the five of them, their moms and mine grew up together and mine moved out here when she was 25."
"You're from Tennessee?"
"I'm from here, but I do go see my family down in Nashville every summer for a week and they do pop in when they can," Kai explains.
"That's why you always took off every year around Howie's birthday," I comment.
"I'm Ashley Hanley's cousin on her dad's side, my mom is her aunt and her dad's little sister."
JC turns to Nick. "You never told me she knows Framing Hanley."
"I didn't know, not until this past week."
"Ashley had died in 06 from a gruesome car crash and they changed their name from Ember Fade to Framing Hanley. They had been a band for just barely over a year when it happened and she had always loved listening to them play together when Tim was their guitarist and I got to hear them at her house when I stayed out there, Tim had shown me how to play some songs and Ryan continues to teach me their songs on my electric bass." Her cell rings and she answers it, interrupting 'It's Not What They Said' by the band we've just found out she knows personally. "Hey, Brandon," she greets the caller. "Josh, can they stop by?"
He mouths 'Framing Hanley' and she nods, sticking out her bottom lip. "Yes, have them come here."
She kisses him quickly. "35 Maple Street. Yeah, Jenna's old place. Yes, that house. No, Josh bought it. A friend of mine. I have some friends and family here," she informs this guy, her sisters and their kids walking in and she hugs them all. "Ok, see you guys in an hour." She hangs up and glances at us all. "Please don't act all fan crazy."
"Over who?" Deven demands, coming in the door as she got off the phone.
"Framing Hanley."
"They're cool, good tunes. Why?"
"They're coming here."
"Nice."
About an hour goes by and there's a car that pulls up outside, Leilani saying she just saw Kenneth exit it with the other guys. The fifteen year old girl runs outside with no shoes and entirely barefoot, running into the arms of one of the guys for a bear hug that lifts her off the ground. He's kind of tall, skinny, shaggy hair and has tattoos in various places that are semi hidden. Another guy does the same thing, the first one handing her to him. He's almost like the first, his hair is a brown instead of black and no visible tats. Third guy, has a hat on, more muscular and hair like the other two, but darker than the first two. A fourth has a beard and glasses on, Leilani being passed to him next. "Kenneth, Brandon, Ryan, Chris and Luke," Kai names them, according to the order her daughter got passed from one to the next. The one she named as Kenneth, carries her into the house with her body wrapped around his torso.
"Alright, Lisabé, get down, hon," the man tells the teenage girl. Kai walks over to them and Kenneth grabs her, embracing her tightly.
"Kenny, how have you been?"
She's got her arms around his middle, stepping side to side in circles. "Good, Kaila. You been alright?"
"Yeah, better each day."
"Heard from Jeff that you got a new possibility, one that makes you happy."
"Yeah, he's a great person and has made time for me and the kids, even came out to see us TWICE!" she happily announces.
JC walks up and taps the guy's shoulder, Kai hugging the other four guys in almost the same fashion minus the teetering and going in circles. "Who are you?"
"I'm Kenneth. These other four guys are my bandmates; Luke, Brandon, Ryan and Chris. We're collectively known as Framing Hanley, we've known Kaila since we were all at least 18, but she's known me since the summer I was four. She and Ashley used to come over all the time, she would hang out with my brother because he's a little older than her. He's her first boyfriend."
"His brother is 41 and he's my second boyfriend, if Kenny had his facts right." She rolls her eyes. "These guys are the band I was talking about earlier."
"I met you guys before," Nick comments.
"Look! The boyband guy!" the brown haired one comments.
"Yes, Ryan, he's in a boyband."
"We are a pop vocal group, Kai."
"Nick," she warns. The five guys laugh and she smirks.
"Who's this guy, Kaila?"
"This is Josh, Chris," she informs him.
"Oh, so this is the terrific man Jeffy has told us about," Ryan comments, clasping his hands together and teasing her by batting his eyes at her. She giggles, covering her mouth. She playfully shoves him.
Mickie and Grahm come hauling ass into the living room, straight for Kenneth and Ryan. "We missed you guys! We should hang out more!" Grahm shouts, the five guys hugging both boys.
"For sure, just need your mom's permission to take you."
"This summer, that's when you take the boys from the day after they get out until the week before they go back to school."
"Sounds fair," they chorus together.
"Really? We can?" her boys excitedly inquire.
"You'll find out closer to June. Go be teenagers."
They run off and we have a few drinks with them, everyone of us guys warming up to the guys she knows from Tennessee. We bond quickly and then Ryan glances at the clock on his cell, surprise washing over his features. "We have to get going, sorry about cutting it short. We start tour in a week, so we have to get back to Nashville to rehearse."
"I understand. Do what you gotta. Think we might see you around April?"
"The tour is about four months long, the first US leg and then we hit the road again at the end of June for leg two," Kenneth supplies. "So, it's a possibility that I'll be up here with Ryan and Brandon from the beginning of May until the week after they get out of the prison they call school."
We all laugh at his statement. "It sucks we only got to see you for a few hours," Kai comments.
"You get about six weeks of hell with us in just over five months," Chris jokes.
They get up and she sees them out as they put their layers on, hugging her goodbye. They each kiss her cheek, beginning to leave the house and only getting as far as opening the door before all three children bombard them. Of course Leilani is in hysterics, begging them not to leave and they feel like shit. They all sit at the table and quietly talk to her, explaining why they have to leave; promising to spend all of May and most of June here in Fitchburg with her and her brothers. "You can call us at any time and if we don't pick up, we promise to call you back as soon as we can, Lisabé."
"Okay, Uncle Kenny. What about texting?"
"I can fire those off pretty quick unless I'm performing or recording an appearance, the same as Nick over there," Kenneth explains, pointing at my brother subtly. Leilani nods and they embrace her in a group bear hug once they are all standing, all of them emotionally squeezing the teenage girl while tears slip down her face leaving trails.
"You better come back," she threatens, waving to them as they get in the car.
"We will!" Ryan shouts back, a sad smile on his lips.
"Princess promise, sweetie!" Kenneth agrees, drawing an X over his heart and I realize it's probably something he's been doing since Kai or Leilani were really small. Kai and Leilani are on the porch with a blanket over their shoulders, waving at Kai's friends of nearly 15 years and her childhood friend of close to 30 years.
She and JC have been whispering between conversations with one another, probably planning things to do alone on New Years. "Halina, Jessica," Kai calls them.
"Mikkaila?" Halina replies.
"Yeah?" Jessica answers. She gets to her feet and motions for her two older sisters to follow her, the three women leaving the room.
