“Ugh,” I involuntarily grunt. Now the memories come back to me. Bad ones.
“Ha!” She lets out a guffaw. “Exactly. That’s how I felt about music classes by our senior year. No one wants to be the worst in their class.”
“You weren’t,” I insist. She may not have been the best, but she had her own unique style, something I think is more important than being like the other one hundred virtuosos in your class.
“I’d give anything to play like Cadence,” she sighs.
“She does play beautifully,” I agree.
“Anyway, I just got sick of being in the shadow of real musicians. I want to shine, too, Brad. Is that so wrong?”
Those crystal-blue orbs she has as eyes grow large and she locks them on me. I swallow as I feel something crawl up my throat in response. I can’t escape the desire in her eyes to be special. I just wish she knew just how special she is.
“Um, we wear shirts with our names in glitter on them. I don’t think you need to be embarrassed about wanting to shine around me.” I flutter my eyelashes at her and wave a hand in front of my face.
“DIVA!” she yells and crumbles into a fit of giggles.
My heart leaps at the sound of her happiness. “You know it!”
She shoves me in the shoulder as she rolls her eyes, and not for the first time I forget that we’re not just lying side by side in my bed after school, making joke after joke.
I wait for the laughter to die down before I nudge her back. “You know what though?”
She raises a nervous eyebrow in response.
“You write as beautifully as Cadence plays,” I tell her, the most honest thing I’ve said in a long time.
“Brad…”
“It’s true. Since we found out you were going to be reporting on us, I’ve been reading some of your editorials and blogs and articles. I mean I’m glad you went to music school, because it obviously gives you an insight into musicians, but you’re right, words are where your talent is. It’s where you shine.”
Her whole chest lifts in a deep, deep breath.
“Thank you, Brad.”
“No problem. Now use those words to make me look like a rock God with an eight-pack and fingers that create aural orgasms, please.”
“Brad can’t even create sex orgasms with those stumpy things!” a loud voice interrupts our intimate talk and we swivel around on the chair to see Marius and the rest pile onto the bus.
We hadn’t even noticed that the buses had stopped and parked. Butter jumps up from the recliner, straightening her clothes.
“Excuse me, my fingers are nimble sex organs,” I say, wiggling my fingers at the intruders.
“They’re about the length of your actual sex organ maybe,” Marius counters, doing a wiggle of his hips.
“Hey! I’ve had no complaints!”
“What about pointing and laughing?” Jez asks to the amusement of the others.
“Leave the guy alone.” Butter comes to my defense.
“Thank you, Butter!” I point to her, as if to implore the others to listen to her.
But she wasn’t finished. “He hasn’t been the same since his penile-widening operation,” she adds, her eyes darting to me, without an ounce of guilt.
“TRAITOR! Off the bus with you…you…betrayer!” I yell, jumping to my feet.
Jez comes, his hand holding his splitting side, struggling for breath. Handing her the bottle of tequila, he pats Emily on the back.
“You’re all right. You might just be a bit all right after all.”
I see Cadence hug her fiance’s arm and he leans over and kisses the top of her head.
“Now. There’s just one last test,” Jez continues.
He looks around the bus and we all start chanting at once.
“CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!”
The last thing I remember is Butter’s smile as she tips the bottle into her mouth.
Emily
There seems to be some sort of major construction going on. And it seems to be going on inside my head.
I try to open one eye, but the construction team seems to have done some work overnight as well, and welded it shut. I try the other one, and I can barely pry it open. It’s enough to let a stream of light in to burn my retina however, and I slam it shut again.
Fine, I’ll just get through the day with my eyes closed then, I think to myself. And even that seems excessively loud.
I grab the edge of the bed to pull myself onto my side.
“Aarrghhhhh,” I groan.
Okay.
That was apparently overly ambitious as well.
There’s a soft sound of movement in the next room, and then a moan that mirrors mine.
Good.
I’m going to need empathy to get through this day.
First things first.
I need to write myself a note.
Tequila. Bad.
Okay, one thing accomplished for the day.
I drag myself into the small shower to try to drown out some of the banging in my head. I feel only marginally better when I get out, but that’s enough to start my search for coffee.
“Ohhhhwhatkillmenowwhoisit?” The response from Hailey’s bedroom is barely above a whisper when I knock on her door.
“Hails, where’s the nearest coffee shop?” I whisper back.
“Why are you yelling at me?” The whisper is still a whisper, but lined with a distinct tone of grump.
“It’s so you can hear me over the jackhammer in your head, Hails,” I explain.
“Ugh, how’d you know about that? And why can’t I turn it off? Anyway, I think there’s one about two blocks to the right. Black, two sugars.”
“Got it.”
I go back down the hallway and am surprised to see Cadence’s door open and her bed made. How can that be? I still have a vague memory of her still up as Brad dragged me to my bedroom and dropped me onto my bed before he must’ve crawled back to his own bus.
I crack open the bus door and the cold air whooshes inside. The chilly wind is actually refreshing on my aching head and I step out into the frosty morning.