Even After All This Time (Tayley)

Chapter 37: The End

Hayley's POV

It's been weeks, even months since Josh passed away. The news broke to the fans the days following his funeral. Everyone was heartbroken. Tweets and comments showing their support. Many people wanted us to continue on, but we didn't think we could. At least in the beginning.

After the first month, I turned my emotions into songs. I wrote nonstop for days, not sleeping. I took a notebook with me everywhere I went. It helped me to get back to myself. However, there was nobody to create the music to my lyrics. That was Josh's job, and he was no longer here to do that. So for months my mountain of notebooks held many lyrics that would never become songs.

One day when Taylor came over, he saw the notebooks piled high on the desk in my bedroom. I had taken a nap and when I awoke, he had my acoustic on his lap while he sang the lyrics to a tune he had created.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I asked, wiping the sleep from my eyes

"Laying down some music for this amazing lyrics. Hayley, did you write these all on your own?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Hayley, these are amazing. You can't let them go to waste." Taylor said, putting his guitar down and sitting on the bed next to me.

Then it dawned on me. We should come back stronger than ever in memory of Josh.
So we tried it, we went on a tour with a couple of Josh's favorite bands as a memorial tour. First night, I cried my eyes out the entire time, so bad it was impossible for me to sing. The next, I ran off halfway during our set. Every show it was a little easier, but I knew I couldn't do it. So once the tour was over, so was the band.

Years later, Zac went on to play some music on his own. He became quite successful and it was always great to see him when he had a tour date in Nashville. Jeremy left the music scene for good, instead he settled down and got married and had a couple kids. I would occasionally babysit for him when he and his wife would go on dates. Taylor and I became stronger than ever. We got married, and had our own child. One that we were able to raise together. Taylor became a music producer and eventually owned his own record label. I was able to become a stay at home mom, but Taylor would occasionally call me to the studio to lay down some background vocals on songs. Life was never the same without Josh, but we kept going. Every year around his anniversary was hard, but I knew he wouldn't want us to dwell on him. We all stayed friends, and would stop whatever we were doing to celebrate Josh on his anniversary. Sometimes we would think about getting the band back together, but they were only dreams, we all knew we couldn't do it without Josh.

Author's note
Well, that's the end. I know it's not what everyone wanted, but I needed to end this. Im done with tayley shipping and I've had no motivation to write this book anymore. I felt like I kept dragging it on but now I finally found somewhat of an ending. I love you guys thanks for sticking to the end