Once In A Lifetime (Katy Perry/John Mayer Fanfic)

Chapter Thirty-Two: Facing Demons & Paying Dues

In the June of 2012, nearly six months ago, I ran into John Mayer after a team meeting at Capitol Records.
Who would, unintentionally, become the missing puzzle piece to a mystery I'd been trying to figure my entire life: love.

We got off to a rocky start. We were both depressed and unhappy. But if you looked at us now - we are happier than ever. We both realised the road in which our relationship was taking, and if you asked any normal person, they'd probably say we were doomed from the start. Which, I guess in some aspects is true. We didn't exactly have the best months together with everything going on mentally. We were both in depressed places when we met; it was only a matter of time before we fell victim to it, once and for all.

We made a pact together that we would start our relationship again, on a clean slate. We both meant too much to one another to give up so easily, and so quickly. Falling in love with him was one of the most rewarding things that I'd ever experienced, because without John, I wouldn't be here. We needed one another.

And, with that, the last few weeks have been wonderful.

We were happy, at last. We made a conscious effort to keep this relationship alive and healthy. I didn't want to dwell on the past - at least, I tried not to. John decided that he wanted to stay in Los Angeles with me, for a while - he would most likely return to Montana over the Christmas break to see his family, which was actually only about two weeks or so away.

Now that John and I were back together, and happy at last, I turned my focus to more positive things, such as my record. It was now one hundred percent, set in stone that I would be releasing an album next fall - I'd just signed a contract agreement regarding it yesterday - which was scary, when I realised it was just over ten months until the release date - October 22nd, 2013, though it hadn't been announced to the public yet, not for a long while anyway. Until then, it was my secret project.

John, too, was in negotiations to release a record of his own a little earlier in the year - he'd been working on songs during the mass vocal rest he was on when we had split up, and he had an entire library of songs already written if he chose to use them - as did I. While he had quite a few songs written and completed already, I was still very much in the beginning process of my own record. I knew this was going to be a different Katy Perry album; showing the emotional, softer side. I didn't know how I was going to display it just yet... But I was working on it. I'd recently celebrated my 28th birthday; and I was determined to make it the best year of my life.

"One more time, from the top of the chorus Katy," Max smiled from the booth, and I retaliated by giving him a thumbs up. Today I was recording a song I'd recently written named 'It Takes Two', mostly based off of the argument I had with John in the hospital that dreadful time, without going into too much detail, and also partially about Russell, I guess. It was a mixture of feelings and emotions that I was comfortable sharing with a musical audience.

I was finally ready to showcase my heart to the world, I knew it would accept and love me for doing so.

I'd already recorded 'By The Grace Of God', and now I was working on this one that I'd literally finally completed an hour ago with one of my close friends, Emeli Sandé, who was a musical phenomenon in her own right. I was extremely thankful I got to work with her, and a few others to complete this personal journal of a song.
It was only two songs I'd completed thus far - many in the stages of written drafts or simple ideas, if even a mere sentence for inspiration - but it was two songs of progress.