Friday, June 24
Stay in a 5 star hotel.
Kale got us some awesome sponsors for our trip to Miami. He even got them to pay for us to stay in a 5-star hotel.
“This is nice,” I say, walking around the room.
I pull out my list and sit down at the desk.
“Yeah, it is,” Kale says, looking over my shoulder. “You should mark out go on a road trip. We did go on a road trip. I think I’d rather fly to the rest of the states.”
“A road trip sounded a lot more fun in my head,” I say. “Not that I didn’t have fun. It’s just a road trip is exhausting.”
3. Go on a road trip.
21. Stay in a 5-star hotel.
“I can’t believe how much I’ve gotten done,” I say.
“About half-done,” Kale says. “We can learn to surf in LA. They have those stands by the water. I’ve always wanted to take surf lessons. We should get Jason and Miranda to come visit and do the lessons with us.”
“That would be fun. Not sure I could see Miranda on a surf board,” I say, getting up from the desk. “Do you think it would do any good to straighten my hair in this humidity?”
He looks at me, raising an eyebrow. “Are you seriously asking me that question?”
“You’re such a boy,” I say, and decide to just put my hair into a messy bun. We are going to go to the music festival a little later, and I won’t want my hair down anyway. It’s close to one hundred degrees today.
I should do a video on how to make your hair look cute even when it’s humid outside. I’ve never had to worry about humidity in Idaho or LA. It’s a real struggle. I feel bad for girls in the south.
“The music festival starts around two,” Kale says. “We should eat lunch before we go.”
“Okay,” I say. “So, how am I going to do the whole crowd surf thing? I’ve always seen other people do it at concerts and stuff, but I don’t even know how it starts.”
“Let me worry about that,” he says.
Meaning he’s got a plan.
Cool.
4 p.m.
Crowd surf.
It’s hot.
Really hot.
But the music is good, and the people are nice. Of course, a lot of people are drunk.
“This isn’t exactly what I expected,” I tell Kale.
“What did you expect?” he asks.
“I don’t know. Fewer drunk people.” I really thought it would be a lot more fun than it is.
“Maybe we can leave after the next band plays,” he says.
“Okay,” I say, knowing he’s been excited to see the next band perform. It’s his favorite group.
The next band gets up and starts playing a song. When they’re through with their first song, I see the lead singer looking at me. I mean, every lead singer looks at the audience when they sing, but he’s look directly at me. And he’s not looking away.
“I’d like to ask Juliet Johnson to join me on stage,” the singer says, as the song comes to an end.
I look at Kale, who is smiling.
I hesitantly walk onto the stage, wondering what is going on.
“Introduce yourself,” he says, shoving a microphone in my face.
“I’m Juliet from Juliet’s Beauty,” I say.
Everybody cheers.
I look out and see that Kale has his camera out and is recording me.
“Juliet is famous online. She now has over three million subscribers on YouTube,” the guy says. “Most recently, her Vegas wedding video went viral, when she married her brother’s best friend.”
Everybody cheers even louder.
“Your husband wrote a song for you and has asked us to sing it to you.”
I look at Kale.
A song?
He wrote a song for me.
It was on my list, but I never expected to have somebody actually write a song about me. This is crazy.
The lead guitarist starts playing a slow tune, and the lead singer grabs my hand and pulls me to the center of the stage. I’m so excited that Kale wrote me a song that I’m not even nervous about being on stage in front of all these people.
I’ve been on stage, like at Vid-Con and other YouTube events. I was never nervous for those, though, because everybody was so excited. Also, I usually would go on stage with somebody else. It was almost like recording a video, except getting to see people’s reactions while you’re up there. Also, you aren’t able to edit out mistakes.
While the lead singer is singing to me, I’m looking out at Kale. He’s still got the camera pointed at me, but he’s not looking at the screen. He’s watching me. It’s in that moment that I realize love isn’t one-sided. It isn’t just me loving Kale. Kale loves me, too. And I know he’s said it, but right now, I can feel just how much he loves me.
He wasn’t supposed to fall in love with me. This wasn’t part of the plan.
When the song comes to an end the crowd cheers. The singer says something, but I can’t hear him over everybody yelling. But then music starts again. The lead singer yells at me, “Jump!”
Crowd surf.
I smile and then fall back into the audience. For a split second, I’m worried they’re not going to catch me, but they do. And then I am being passed over the crowd.
6 p.m.
I’ve always loved you.
Later that afternoon, when we get back to the hotel, I get to mark off three things off my bucket list.
14. Have somebody write a song about me.
15. Attend a music festival.
16. Crowd surf.
“How was crowd surfing?” Kale asks.
“A bit awkward,” I answer, putting the letter in my pocket. “More than one person pinched my butt as I was passing over. And I was paranoid that I was going to get dropped. I felt like I was going to.”
He laughs. “Well, at least now you can say you did it. I’m proud of you for stepping out of you comfort zone. Though, you did look like you were having fun. As soon as the guy said jump you did.”
“Jumping into a crowd is nothing after jumping off a cliff,” I say.
“I guess you’re right,” he says.
“So... you wrote me a song.”
“It was on your list,” he says. “I figured since I’m your husband, it was my job to do it. ’Cause if anybody else wrote you a love song, I’d have to beat them up.”
“It was a good song,” I say. “Thank you.”
“I just want to make you happy.”
“You do make me very happy,” I tell him. “I’m glad you’re here with me. I guess I didn’t expect you to stick around after the road trip. I mean, I guess I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t. You don’t have to stick around and watch me die.”
“We’re married,” he says. “I’m not going to leave you, Juliet. Never. I meant my vows. Even if we did say them at a chapel in Vegas that rushed us through them.”
“Kale, I know I told you not to fall in love with me,” I say. “But somewhere along the way, I fell in love with you.”
“I know,” he says.
“And I think you love me, too.”
“Juliet, I’ve always loved you,” he says. “Marrying you was easy for me. Promising to love you was easy. And spending the rest of my life with you would be easy. I don’t care how long or short it is, as long as I’m with you I’ll be happy. I just hope it’s long.”
I wish it could be.
I never expected to fall in love with Kale, and I definitely never expected him to fall in love with me. But I can’t help how I feel.