Nashville University: Crescent Moon

by Fumise Love

  ◆◆◆

  Johanne

  Why was Mary that big of a deal to Gabrielle? She did not even know who Mary was. But because Gabrielle was this good-hearted girl who cared for me and Jeffrey, it felt like I fell for her harder than before.

  I could not stop myself from being captivated by every little thing that she did.

  Before, I thought that Gabrielle somehow had a resemblance with Mary, but now, it was obvious that they were different from each other.

  Mary…even though she knew that me and Jeffrey would get hurt once she was gone, she still left. Gabrielle, on the other hand, she was trying so hard to do everything just to help the people around her.

  If she was so vocal about caring for someone like me, a person who did nothing but to tease her, where would I find the guts not to fall in love with her?

  I wanted to change the way of how I interacted with her but it was impossible for me not to be a pain the ass. Gabrielle looked so cute whenever she was mad.

  Damn.

  Maybe I was really head over heels for this chick.

  ◆◆◆

  Gabrielle

  “Can I ask for a favor from the two of you?” I managed to steal their attention. “Just please…please make up right now,” the two of them did not utter a single word and I thought of something that I could do for the both of them. I stood up and walked to the stage of the bar where Crescent Moon performed before. I approached the vocalist of the band that was currently playing, “Can I play one song?”

  The vocalist nodded and I also borrowed an acoustic guitar from them. I sat on the stool placed at the center of the stage, right in front of where the microphone stand was.

  “I want to dedicate this song to the two guys whose hearts were broken by the same girl. I want this song to open their eyes and make everything okay,” I spoke up while I was looking at my two friends straight in the eyes.

  Maybe this was the only thing that I could do for them. Even though it was too much to ask, I hoped that all of the hatred and pain that they were feeling would go away with this song. They did not need to live in the past because now was already the present.

  Whatever they did, they should know that nothing would ever change with what happened before because it was impossible to turn back time.

  ◆◆◆

  Johanne

  While Gabrielle was in the middle part of her song, I talked to Jeffrey, “Do you like her?”

  “I’m in love with her,” Jeffrey answered quickly. “How about you?”

  “We’re the same,” I smiled. “I will not let go of her easily but I will not force her to like me back. Let’s not do what happened with Mary. We should learn from our mistakes. Let us respect whoever Gabrielle chooses between the two of us,”

  “It’s obvious that she will not choose now since the new semester is already near. Even though I have not known her for that long, I am willing to do anything for her, Johanne. This time, I am mature enough to accept the fact if she ever chooses you over me,”

  “We both want to make her happy, right?” Jeffrey nodded to answer my question. “I think as of the moment, there is one thing that we can do to make her happy,”

  “What is it?”

  It had been a while since I looked at Jeffrey straight in the eyes like this, “Let’s make a truce and end our war.”

  ◆◆◆

  Gabrielle

  When I came back to our table after singing ‘Count on Me’ by Bruno Mars, it was like the wind changed. It seemed like my plan worked.

  “Are you now okay?” I asked them and they both nodded. “Is that a promise?”

  “Promise,” they both spoke at the same time. Hopefully, they would not throw punches at each other anymore. They were of the same campus and since I was in a different one, I would not be able to sing for them anymore.

  “Gab…does it mean that you’re not angry anymore?” Jeffrey smiled.

  I almost forgot that I was not in good terms with Jeffrey. “Not anymore,” I shook my head. “Just make sure that your hatred for each other ends today,”

  The three of us went back to the training camp and headed straight to the cafeteria where we saw Paul, Matthew, and Samantha altogether. When we walked toward their direction, it was like Paul and Matthew’s eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. It was obvious that they were not believing what they were seeing.

  Who would not get shocked after seeing Jeffrey and Johanne together?

  “W-What the hell just h-happened?” Paul stuttered.

  “Nothing…” I could not stop myself from smiling. I was glad to see Johanne and Jeffrey together. “They are okay now,”

  “Why did the two of you fight anyway?” Samantha wondered.

  “It’s a secret…” Johanne responded shortly.

  “Gab…” Samantha called for my attention. “We only have almost four weeks left of staying here in the training camp before the new semester starts. Aren’t you feeling down about it?” My bestfriend asked me when I sat beside her. “Time really goes fast, yes?”

  “Let’s just go back next year,” I suggested. I already expected that the fun that I had in this camp would end in a few weeks but I was alright to have had memories to keep in the first place. I was grateful that I had gotten the chance to be a part of their lives.

  ◆◆◆

  It was already the night of our gig. I changed my clothes and went to the lounge to meet up with my bandmates. This time, Jeffrey would also come with us and that would make this gig much more fun without the awkwardness involved.

  When we arrived at the party, our instruments were already set up. We were going to play inside a freaking huge mansion and not in a bar. Even though this mansion was big, Johanne’s house was way more beautiful.

  I suddenly remembered the time when I pretended to be Johanne’s girlfriend and when I realized that I liked him.

  “This place is huge!” Matthew commented while looking around. I would not be surprised if he was looking for girls to hit on.

  “Let’s perform now so I can eat!” I told my bandmates.

  “You’re just going to devour all the food here,” Samantha chuckled.

  My bandmates and I went to the stage and Johanne started with the introduction. When he was finished talking to the audience, he whispered in my ear, “Ready?”

  “Of course! I don’t like to keep the food waiting.”

  “If I should die before I wake,

  It's cause you took my breath away,

  Losing you is like livin in a world with no air,

  I'm here alone didn't wanna leave,

  My heart won't move it's incomplete,

  Wish there was a way that I could make you understand...”

  I continued singing all the songs that we were going to perform and the audience cheered whenever a song ended. Samantha looked like she was going to be a cheerleader by the way of how she screamed our names, especially Paul’s name.

  “Let’s go! Let’s eat!” I said when our performance came to an end.

  “You always talk about food,” Johanne rolled his eyes. “You’re a witch, but you’re also a pig. A piggy witch,”

  “I don’t care about your opinion, gorilla,”

  We walked our way to the table where Samantha and Jeffrey were sitting when a waited bumped onto me from the back. The tray that the waiter was holding dropped down on the floor and the wine glass broke. And since I was this clumsy gal, I also fell down on the floor and the wine glass scraped my left knee.

  “Gab!” Samantha immediately stood up and ran towards my direction. Jeffrey also stood up and glared at the waiter.

  I was struggling to stand up when Johanne immediately threw a punch at the waiter’s face, “What the hell did you just do?!”

  ◆◆◆

  Johanne

  “Johanne! Stop it! He did no—“ Gabrielle tried to stop me. I liked Gabrielle but why was she so dumb? Did she not realize what the waiter had done?

  Ma
ybe she did not see because the waiter bumped onto her from behind…but from how I saw it, the waiter did it on purpose.

  “Do you not know the difference when a person did it on accident and on purpose?” I asked her. “Think about it first!”

  “He’s right, Gab, “Jeffrey backed me up. “I saw that he did it on purpose,”

  Everyone at the party was looking at us.

  “I’m sorry…” the waiter interrupted. “I was just paid by someone to do it,”

  “Who paid you to do it?” Paul asked the waiter.

  “Stephanie Vergara,” the waiter answered. “She paid me to do it before she left,”

  Jeffrey and I helped Gabrielle to stand up and Samantha tended to Gabrielle’s bleeding wound on her knee. “What will Stephanie get from wounding you?” Samantha frowned. “And why didn’t you wear jeans today?”

  “I did not know!” Gabrielle defended herself. “If I knew that someone would do this to me, I wouldn’t have worn shorts. And gorilla, how did your ex-girlfriend know that we have a gig today?”

  “Your ex-girlfriend is something else, bro,” Matthew patted my back.

  Could they just stop saying the word ‘ex-girlfriend’ for a moment? I could admit that I used to date Stephanie but I did not feel a single ounce of love for her even when we were together.

  The person who hired us to play joined the scene. The person claimed that she knew of the band since she was also a student from our campus before she went to Japan to pursue her studies. I did not know of her even though she used to study in Nashville University.

  “Oh my!” she gasped when she saw Gabrielle’s bleeding knee. “What happened? Are you alright?”

  Was this girl blind? Why would she ask if Gabrielle was alright even though she could clearly see that her knee was bleeding?

  “I’m sorry,” the waiter apologized again. “I was asked by Miss Vergara to do it,”

  “Steph did this?” it was like she could not believe her ears. She then looked at Gabrielle with apologetic eyes, “Please accept my apology in Steph’s place,”

  “You know Stephanie?” Gabrielle asked.

  The girl shook her head, “I don’t just know her…actually, we’re childhood friends.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Gabrielle

  What did she say?

  Was I hearing things right?

  Did she really say that she was a childhood friend of Stephanie?

  “Let’s go inside so I can explain everything to you clearly and so that we can tend to that wound of yours,” the lady offered. “Waiter, please take care of the guests,” she was around my height and her hair was in the shade of light brown.

  All of us followed her inside the mansion while Johanne and Jeffrey were helping me walk. We sat on the sofa after the lady gave us a medical kit. Samantha immediately tended to my wound.

  “You’re Johanne, right?” the lady asked Johanne and Johanne nodded in response. “I’m Winona Martin,”

  “Before anything else, I think I need to say this to you two,” Johanne inhaled a huge amount of air as he looked at me and Samantha. “Actually, Mary and Steph were the best of friends back then,”

  My eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. If what Johanne had said was true, it meant that Stephanie went behind Mary Jade’s back and went into a relationship with Johanne.

  What should I call Stephanie?

  Was she still considered a friend…or a snake instead?

  “Wait…” Samantha interrupted. “Who’s Mary?”

  Johanne and Jeffrey took turns in telling Samantha the whole story about who Mary Jade was while Paul and Matthew stood silent at the corner of the room.

  “Well, as you can see, you don’t know me, Johanne,” Winona said. “I’m also part of their group because the three of us were childhood friends. I just want to tell you where MJ is right now,” I noticed that Johanne, Jeffrey, and Winona all had different names to call Mary Jade. “MJ and I are roommates in Japan. She told me everything that had happened and Steph also knows where MJ is,”

  “Steph knows?” Johanne repeated like he could not believe what he was hearing. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

  “I don’t know the reason,” Winona shrugged. “MJ also knows that you and Steph got into a relationship. MJ accepted tha—“

  Johanne did not let Winona finish what she was going to say, “Just tell us your point already,” I knew that Johanne did not want to hear anything related to Mary Jade that was why he was so anxious.

  Winona sighed. “I just want to give you a warning,”

  “Warning?” I frowned. “A warning for what?”

  “I think Steph is going to call MJ and she will convince her to come back here in the US. And from my point of view, I think MJ will return to atone for her mistakes. In other words, she’s going to interfere in your lives again,” Winona answered like she was not a fan of what was going to unfold.

  Johanne and Jeffrey first exchanged glances before Johanne stormed outside of the room. My group of friends, including me, did not have a choice but to follow him outside. I tried to catch up with Johanne even though the pain from my wound was making it hard to do so.

  “Hey!” I yelled when we stepped outside of the mansion. “Don’t let it bother you!”

  Johanne turned to look at me, “It’s not that easy, Gabrielle. She’s going to return. The one that I’ve been trying so hard to forget is going to come back and I don’t have any fucking idea of how I’m going to face her,”

  Jeffrey, who was beside me, stayed silent.

  “Do you still love her?” my voice almost broke as I asked the question to the two guys. I knew that all of our friends heard it. The two guys did not utter a single word to answer my question. “The both of you…you still love her, don’t you? No matter what happens, there’s no way in hell that you two will be able to forget about her…” I suddenly felt something wet sliding down my left cheek.

  Why was I crying?

  Maybe I was crying because there was no way that I would be able to stop Johanne and Jeffrey from fighting over Mary Jade once she had returned.

  Or maybe I was crying because I was in love with Johanne and Jeffrey was like a brother to me.

  I did everything that I could to make the both of them alright…but everything that I did was just for nothing.

  “I’m sorry…” Johanne whispered.

  “Sorry…” Jeffrey added.

  Why was I feeling hurt?

  Was there really no way for these two guys to forget about Mary Jade? Was Mary Jade really that special?

  I hurriedly walked away from them and rode the cab. Samantha did not attempt to follow me because she knew that I wanted to be alone to think about things without even telling her about this. Of course, we were childhood friends and we had this way of communicating with each other even without talking.

  But why was I crying over a simple thing like this?

  I heard the song on the radio which somehow matched the way that I felt and I could not help myself but get mad. I wanted to break the cab’s radio then and there.

  “Why don't you love me?

  The way I loved you,

  It felt so crazy,

  'Coz I don't know what I did to you,

  If you're gonna hurt me,

  Then do it quickly,

  'Coz I'm tired of cryin',

  If you don't wanna stick around,

  Then, baby forget about me,”

  Why was I so immature? Why did I get mad just because of the reason that they did not want to forget about Mary Jade?

  At least I learned something from the song. I learned that I should not be hopeful when it came to Johanne because even if he did not try, I knew that he would forget about me eventually.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Johanne

  Did I make Gabrielle cry?

  Why did it come to this?

  Why could I not get Mary out of my mind even though I was damn sure that I did not love her
anymore?

  Why was I not able to say it to Gabrielle? Why was I not able to tell Gabrielle that I did not love Mary anymore?

  Why was I not able to tell Gabrielle that even though I was hurt with what happened in the past, I was in love with her now?

  Why was I so dumb and stupid for not speaking up? Why was I not able to tell her everything that I wanted to say?

  Why?

  I looked at Jeffrey and maybe we were feeling the same. It would be better if Jeffrey was still in love with Mary so that Gabrielle would be mine.

  “Let’s go back, bro,” Paul suggested. “Let’s check on Gab and see if she’s okay,”

  “I know her,” Samantha spoke up. “There’s nothing that we can do if she wants to be alone.”

  ◆◆◆

  Jeffrey

  Gabrielle cried because of me and Johanne’s stupidity. Why did I not answer her question?

  To be honest, I was still not sure if I did not love Jade anymore. I had loved her for three years and it was not easy to forget about the feelings that I had for her.

  But everytime that Gabrielle smiled, it felt like I was forgetting Jade.

  All of us went back to the training camp to confirm if Gabrielle was okay. No one spoke throughout the whole ride except for Paul and Samantha who were obviously upgrading their relationship to the next level.

  When we arrived at the training camp, we all went to Gabrielle’s room and knocked on her door…but unfortunately, there was no response. Maybe Samantha was right about leaving her alone for the meantime.

  “Don’t worry,” Samantha smiled. “I know Gab very well. She’s not the type of person who holds grudges. I’m sure that everything will be alright,”

  Johanne suddenly spoke to me, “Jeff, you want to make up with Gabrielle for what we did, right?” I nodded. “I have a plan…and I need all of you guys to make it possible.”

  ◆◆◆

  Gabrielle

  Time went by so fast that I found it surprising that it was already morning. This day was tiring because I was too lazy to get out of bed. After I bathed and fully-clothed myself, I heard a knock on the door.