“Tonight is the night…” Jack thought. “Tonight I will find out will they stay with me, will Fred even come…”
He opened the door to let Kevin, and maybe Fred in. When he saw Fred standing right to Kevin he was thrilled.
“Hi, guys!” Said Jack.
“Hi!” Responded Kevin and Fred simultaneously.
When they went down to the garage, Fred started to talk.
“Listen, Jack! This whole experience was really fun and all, but… I just don’t think it’s the right thing for me anymore, and honestly I am not sure if that ever was for me… But here I am, I can’t change the past, and if I could, I wouldn’t because it was great to hang out with you and Nick and my brother, but now it’s the last chance to finish it before it starts destroying us…”
“I see…” Jack stopped Fred.
“Yeah, but I want to stay playing with you.” Said Kevin.
“I am sure you two will be the greatest rock duo of all times, I wish you the best of luck.” Said Fed.
“Can I just ask you something?” Asked Jack.
“Yeah, sure.” Said Fred.
“Do you leave because Nick left or because I made that scene at the wedding or what?” Asked Jack.
“No, it’s not because of it, don’t worry… I already told you it’s not for me, it never was.” Said Fred.
“Why did you even start then?” Asked Jack.
Fred looked at him first and then looked at Kevin. He wanted to say that he had to because of Kevin, that he lost thirteen years with them instead with someone like him, he wanted that so much. But instead of that he just said:
“You guys looked cool, so I wanted to hang out with you.”
It was a lie… He never thought they are cool, he thought quite the opposite, but he didn’t want to hurt them, he didn’t want to hurt Kevin, although he always blamed Kevin for that, he knew it’s not his fault.
“You got a chance to be in our group because Jack invited me to the band, you owe me then.” Said Kevin and smiled.
“No, you owe me.” Said Fred very quietly, turned around and went home.
“What is with him?” Asked Jack.
“You know him, probably nothing.” Answered Kevin.
Jack and Nick were playing and singing that night like never before, they had fun like never before.
But Fred felt empty. Like he had no personality, all his life he had to take care of Kevin do what Kevin wanted, he didn’t have time to build his personality when he needed to build Kevin’s.
He decided to go to college. Somewhere where he doesn’t know anyone… He decided to go to Europe.
For some reason he decided to call Nick, he never liked him, but he just wanted that in that moment.
“Hi, Nick! It’s Fred”
“Hi, Fred! Yeah, I know it’s you.”
“How it is in L.A.?”
“It’s good, It’s 9 P.M. here, so it’s midnight in New York, is everything OK?”
“Yeah, yeah… I just left the band, like a few hours ago… and I decided to go to Europe at college…”
“It sounds nice, you left the band because of it?”
“No, no… I wanted to leave for a long time…”
“Oh… So… That Europe thing, did you always want to go at college there?”
“No, but I was thinking about it few past months, and… Now I’ve decided for sure…”
“Well, I am happy for you.”
“I didn’t tell Kevin yet.”
“What about your parents?”
“They know.”
“Well, Kevin will find that out somehow.”
“I don’t really care how he will find that out.”
“He is your brother.”
“He is my burden.”
“Well, he is not, maybe you are just angry now…”
“You don’t know the whole story.”
“Do you want to share that story with me?”
Fred wanted so badly to told just one person everything what was on his chest, but he decided not to.
“It’s nothing, we just had a fight tonight.”
“See, it’s not a big deal, just tell him when you see him.”
“I will… Thanks, Nick! How is working in the restaurant.”
“Oh… I love it and hate it at the same time.”
They spoke about everything, after they finished their conversation, Fred decided to told Kevin about Europe instead of just disappearing from his life.
When Kevin arrived home, Fred told him everything about Europe, he knew Kevin doesn’t know about his sacrifice, but he expected that Kevin would say something like he is sorry he is leaving or something like that, but Kevin just angrily said:
“You think you are smarter than us, that is why you left us tonight?!”
Fred didn’t say anything at first he just spat in Kevin’s face. He was so angry, disappointed and sad. But he didn’t show it. After he spat him, he just added:
“Yes, I am smarter than you, but that is not even hard to be!”
Then he left Kevin’s room and locked himself in his room.
Kevin was furious. He texted Jack about how terrible is to have Fred for a brother. Then he and Jack started a long conversation and concluded they would be famous without Fred and Nick.