Living for the Music

My phone rang then, jolting me out of my daze. “Hello?”

“Hey babe.” Aaron’s deep voice still sent shivers through me, some hundred miles away. “You slept through New Years?”

“Yeah,” I lied. “I was dead yesterday.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” I repeated. “It seems like that’s all I’ve been doing this whole week – eating and sleeping.”

“Wish I was there,” Aaron sighed. “We’d definitely be doing something more… interesting.”

I laughed. “You’d probably be able to drag me out of the house once in awhile.”

“That to.”

“So… how was your night?” I asked. “I’m really sorry I didn’t hear the phone, I know you called a lot.”

“I got a little worried,” he admitted.

Worried? I bet he got pissed off.

No, he was probably just wondering why she didn’t pick up the phone.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I hope I didn’t wreck your night.”

“You didn’t.”

How rude!

What? He was just telling the truth!

Well, he could be a little less blunt about it.

“Good. You had fun?”

“Yeah. I went to this party with my cousins, and there were loads of people there…”

I sniffed the air cautiously. Was something… burning? “Sophie,” Seth called. “The pancakes are looking a little black.”

I groaned silently, secretly praising the gods that Aaron was still involved in his description of the ‘wicked’ party with the ‘killer’ music and tons of ‘hot’ girls. I got the feeling he might be trying to make me jealous, but I wasn’t paying enough attention.

“Sophie?” Seth repeated. I could hear him walking down the hall and quickly began to talk to Aaron.

“So how old are your cousins again?”

“Well, Paul is seventeen and Evan is nineteen. Then there’s Jared, he’s twenty-one, but he wasn’t here. He’s at school, actually right up by us.”

“Jared?”

“Yeah. He normally comes out here – he’s supposed to be here – but he didn’t want to pay for the plane ticket. Plus some friend of his was getting married or something.”

“Really?” I asked, beginning to wonder. “What does he look like?”

“I dunno,” Aaron shrugged. “Dark hair, longish… I think his eyes are gray or something. He’s nowhere near as cute as me.”

I laughed. “I’m sure.” I paused for a moment. “Do you know who’s wedding he went to?”

“No idea. Why? You think it was the same one?”

“I dunno. I just met a boy named Jared, so…”

“Seriously?” Aaron sounded like he didn’t quite believe me. “Well, I guess it could be. I’ll ask.”

“Yeah, do. That’d be funny… you know, if it was.”

“Yeah.”

“Sophie?” I flinched as Seth poked his head into the room, voice loud.

“Who’s that?” Aaron asked.

I motioned furiously to Seth, pointing at the phone. “The pancakes are burning,” he mouthed.

I held my hand over the mouthpiece for a minute. “So flip them!”

“But-”

“Do it,” I snapped, before turning back to Aaron. “Sorry… apparently food is burning. I should probably run before the house burns down.”

“Who was that?” he asked again.

“No one," I shrugged, trying to dodge the question.

“Really? Cause it sounded a lot like Seth.”

“Don’t be silly,” I laughed.

“I’m your only guy, right?” he pressed.

“You’re my favorite guy,” I countered, trying to appease him.

“Well, I guess that’s good enough.”

I laughed, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Seth vanish from the doorway. A part of me felt bad, but on the other hand… “I really do have to run, though,” I sighed. “I haven’t eaten anything yet.”

“You go do that. I don’t want to come home to a shriveled corpse.”

“Mkay. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

“Definitely.”

“Bye.”

I hung up the phone quickly, before I said something I’d regret. I stuck it in my pocket and let out a deep breath. I sat down carefully on the edge of the bed before giving up and falling backwards to stare at the ceiling.

Nathan had painted Seth’s room, too. The walls were a deep green, sponged to look like trees of the forest. The ceiling was green, too, with patches of blue designed to look like the sky. Looking around, I finally put together that the dark wood furniture was supposed to represent tree trunks and logs. Like everything else in the house, it looked like it had been done by a professional. It made the house look like it was actually a home.

“You okay?” Seth asked, sitting down next to me.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “It’s all good.”

“Aaron isn’t that mad?”

“Nah. I smoothed it over. But…” I glanced at Seth carefully. “As far as Aaron knows, I was never here.”

“You didn’t tell him?”

I couldn’t read Seth’s expression as I shook my head. “I didn’t want him to get worried or… protective or anything. I mean, it’s not like you and me… he doesn’t have anything to worry about. Right?”

“Of course not,” Seth muttered cryptically.

I looked away from him and my eyes landed on the bulletin board again. “I didn’t know you kept those,” I finally said, motioning to the paper still stuck there.

He followed my gaze and shrugged. “I told you I liked your songs, even back then. Especially back then.”

I nodded. “Could you make me a copy of that one? I wanted to look at it, maybe record it. I thought it could be fun.”

“Yeah, sure,” he agreed. “No big deal.”

My eyes caught on another picture. “Oh my God, that’s so cute!”

“Which one?” he asked.

“That one.” I pointed to a snapshot of the two of us, arms around each other, lips and teeth bright blue.

“I’m guessing that was caused by a popsicle?” Seth asked.

“I bet so,” I laughed. “But you have to throw that picture out.”

“What? I thought you just said it was cute.”

“No, not that one,” I said impatiently. “My school picture.”

“Nuh-uh. That’s like the only picture I have of just you.”

“It’s horrible,” I moaned.

“Then give me one to replace it with,” he ordered.

I sighed. “None of my school pictures have been that great. And I’m not really a glamour shot kind of girl.”

“Well then, I guess I’ll have to keep this one,” he shrugged.

“Ugh. I guess I’ll have to track one down for you, then.”

“I’ll hold you to it.”

“Oh god. Did you take the pancakes off the stove?” I sprung off the bed as the thought entered my head.

“Chill,” he laughed. “I turned off the stove. Same thing, right?”

“Close enough,” I muttered, feeling my heartbeat gradually return to normal. “Thank you.” I stood awkwardly for a minute. “Do we want to go make some that aren’t burnt?”

“Sure,” he agreed. “Let’s go.”