Music Girl

Three days sure as hell isn’t enough time to make a practically life-changing decision. But it is enough time to figure out if that decision is even going to be possible.

So that’s what I was doing late Sunday night, or early Monday morning, whichever you prefer. I was on my computer, the glow beginning to hurt my eyes. I logged onto my video chat program and checked the contacts list for the millionth time that night. I smiled when I found who I was stalking, and clicked the icon that read, “ALEXANDER SLATE.” Finally he decides to get on chat, that loser. I mean, he’s always on the computer. If you too had amazing hacking skills and insomnia, what would you be doing all night?

The video chat sprung to life and Alex nearly toppled out of his chair in surprise. “What the f- Sam? Is that you?” he asked, adjusting his glasses.

“What’s up Alex, my darling?” I asked, grinning evilly. He hated those kinds of names.

“Just the usual… hacking into off-shore accounts, spreading the love and joy of money to our dismal neighborhood…that sort of thing.”

“Still going by Robin Hood in the hacking community?”

“Yeup. What’cha calling for?”

“Yeah, um… so my er, friend and I are sort of… going undercover.”

Alex sat up straight and frowned. Crap, the serious look. “Where and what?”

“Well, I’m not sure how much I could tell you… but we’re going undercover into a gang to bring down the leader. So um… we’re gonna need a way we can record all the conversations without getting caught…”

I cut off because Alex was spacing. He did that a lot, but it was usually because he was thinking. I was really hoping he would tell me that was impossible, because I really didn’t want to do this. But, knowing Alex, he would pull some brilliant idea out of his ass without a second thought.

“Well… I actually do have an idea. How good are you at making jewelry?” Now it was my turn to be taken aback.

“Excuse me? Jeeze Alex, I knew you were over the rainbow, but isn’t that more of Nic’s thing?” That was the best recovery I could think of. Alex rolled his eyes.

“No Sam… what I’m thinking is we could make you a necklace or hair piece that’s wired with recording microchips. You’d just have to empty them onto your computer after every time you recorded stuff. How much do you need?”

“Um… something for me and for a guy… probably around three hours of recording?”

“Alright… I’ll have it to you in two weeks,” said Alex, finishing taking a note.

“Alex… how can I repay you?” I wanted to pay him. My family had plenty of money, and it’s not like everyone in Boston was rolling in cash.

“Two things,” Alex started, piercing my eyes with his over the internet. “You win this. You catch this guy, whoever he is. And you come back to us.” His screen went black. I sight and smacked my head on my desk. My final hope of getting out of this was gone. I never knew freedom fighting would come at such a cost.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

-

Aravic got a very rude awakening five AM Monday morning. “Aravic, wake your lazy ass up.” Sam roughly shook him out of his dream, which funnily enough was revolving around her.

“Eh, uh, wha?”

“Get up, I said,” she urged, slapping his face.

“OW! What?” he snapped, rolling over and sitting up. It was still dark outside. “What freaking time is it?” he asked, trying to locate his phone for the time.

“About five AM.”

“FIVE AM?!”

“Shut up, you’ll wake everyone up. Look, we need to talk,” she said, plopping herself down cross-legged at the end of his bed.

“About what? What could be so important?” Aravic really didn’t like rude awakenings.

Sam hesitated. “Well… it’s Monday morning…”

“And?”

“You wanted my answer.” There was silence. 'Has Sam really made up her mind?' Aravic asked himself.

“I’ll… I’ll do it.”

Aravic couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What? You will?”

Sam gritted her teeth. “Yes, I will. I actually spent a good portion of my night talking to a… contact in Boston. He said he could hook us up with recording equipment small enough we wouldn’t get caught.” Aravic was flabbergasted. “So um… you’re going to have to tell me what to wear and stuff, because I don’t have a clue.”

“Right… what to wear…” But Aravic’s mind was wandering to other places.

Could this really be happening? Of course, this was a dream come true, his initial goal finally completed… but yet, it didn’t feel right. Like… if she didn’t want to do it (and he knew she didn’t), then he didn’t want to either. Like he didn’t want to rush things or force something upon her.

‘You’ve gone soft, Aravic,’ he told himself as he came out of his little daze.

“Yeah, so… what to wear… I guess you’ll be okay with goth-y cloths, that’s a bit how Antonio’s girl dresses, anyways. As far as everything else though… big boots, short skirts, and lots of makeup, yeah?” Sam chewed the inside of her cheek before answering. Aravic had never seen her so nervous.

“Yeah, okay… I’ll just ditch today and go shopping… and a final thought. We’re gonna have to pull this off so well even Tomas is convinced.” She left with the most defeated look Aravic had ever seen on anybody.

-

Aravic had a rather odd day. None of the events were unusual themselves, but his general feeling throughout was a new one. He was getting gut-twisty and anxious. He didn’t want to make Sam do this anymore. He wasn’t sure about anything, and he kept running different scenarios through his head if he and Sam weren’t convincing enough. Shot, stabbed, tortured… if there was one thing Aravic knew, it was that Antonio could turn ruthless in the blink of an eye. And then there was The Gorilla… he didn’t even want to think about that.

One thing he had done throughout the day that was productive, however, was convincing Tomas. Aravic didn’t know why Sam thought he would be that hard to convince; he already had his suspicions about why Aravic went everywhere with Sam.

“I’m glad it was you who finally cracked her, though,” Tomas told Aravic during lunch. “You deserve it. Well done.” God he was gullible. But at least he was going to give Sam and Aravic a ride to the Skulls house tonight.

Aravic was jittery on the bus home, and ran up instantly to Sam’s room. He knocked and entered to find her on the computer.

“How was shopping?” he asked as he shut the door behind him.

“Productive. When are we leaving?”

“At seven. Your dad is apparently at a promotion party tonight.”

“Fun. I’ll go shower,” she said, leaving the computer for the bathroom.

As soon as he was sure she was showering, he woke up her computer and restored the program she was in. It was her email, and there were only two new messages from today. He clicked on the first one and played the message. The woman in it was very beautiful. She shared Sam’s figure and black hair, but had tan skin and brown eyes.

“Hi sweetie, it’s Mom. Happy birthday! I wish I was there, but know that I’m thinking of you. I hope you have a wonderful day! Bye!” Sam’s mom blew a kiss at the screen before the video ended.

Aravic’s heart dropped into his stomach. It was Sam’s birthday? How did he not know? And tonight, they would be… oh God. Aravic didn’t want to think about it. Instead, he clicked on the next message.

This one had a lot more people in it, three guys and two girls, specifically. One looked much older, the black woman, who was like some kind of Amazon Woman. The other looked about college age, with black and purple hair. Out of the boys, two looked tall and lean, the other, short and muscular. One had glasses. Aravic hit play.

“Happy Birthday Sam!” they all said together.

“We wish you were here, baby, I could use another actress,” said the black woman, he voice deep, smooth, and booming.

“Sam! I miss you! You need to record your new song, I want to hear it!” said the younger girl, smiling.

“Yeah, come back Sam, I learned some new Aikido techniques you need to learn!” said the stout boy, grinning.

“I could pay for your flight, I just hacked a mother-load. Robin Hood strikes again!” said the be-speckled boy, triumphant.

“Hey Sam, I love and miss you. And I just got accepted into medical school!” said the last boy cheerfully, holding up a letter.

“Bye! We love you!”

Aravic felt misery clog his throat. So this was her Boston family. Now he understood things, like Sam’s fashion influence, her musical talents, her fighting skills… it all made sense. It pained him to know that this was what she had been ripped away from, these wonderful people…

Aravic heard the doorknob click. He closed the window and sprung over onto Sam’s bed, trying to look casual. But that didn’t exactly work, because the second he saw Sam, he started practically drooling.

She wore a red and black corset dress that fit her curves perfectly. Her long red gloves were made of silk, and her novelty knee-high boots were button-up. Her fishnet tights and red studs in her ears completed the look. She moved nervously over to him, and Aravic stood in case she needed to catch her.

“This good enough?” she asked. She sounded totally different. Her your-an-idiot tone was gone and replaced by a fearful voice.

Aravic nodded, struggling to keep his eyes on her face. “You look smokin’ hot. And you can still totally get away with it.” She sort of gave him a half-smile and an unenthusiastic chuckle. “So Sam… how are your acting skills?”

“Pretty passable. I mean, I did live in a house with actors for three years.”

“Good, because you’re going to need to act like a good little Regalist slut, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she agreed weakly.

“So on that subject…” Aravic started pacing slightly. “I think we should kiss now. Get it out of the way. We can’t be awkward around Antonio, he won’t fall for it.” Sam started chewing the inside of her cheek again. She was more nervous than Aravic had originally thought.

“Yeah, okay…” she agreed. She closed her eyes and made a pained expression. “Alright, just do it.”

“Do what?”

“Kiss me.”

Those were the last words Aravic had ever expected, but the exact words he had been craving her to say since he met her. As if in a dream, he stepped up to her and took her in his arms. He cradled her jaw in his hand and she started shaking.

“Relax,” he whispered, and then pressed his lips to hers.

Sam completely froze up. Aravic thought she even stopped breathing. It was like kissing a freshly-killed corpse. Aravic stopped and looked at her, eyebrows raised.

“Am I that bad?”

“Uh, I… uh, n-no, sorry,” she stuttered. Aravic found in funny in a cynical way.

“You do know you need to kiss back, right?”

“Yeah, uh, sorry…”

They tried again. Sam was shaking so hard that when she finally kissed back, they knocked teeth quite jarringly. They broke apart and covered their mouths.

“Ow… I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s done,” said Aravic, running his tongue over his teeth.

“Yeah, sorry…”

“Just calm down, okay?”

“Right…”

They kissed for a third time, and this time it actually resembled a real kiss. When Aravic ended it, he caught himself thinking, ‘Why didn’t this happen sooner?’

“Yeah, um… we should be good,” concluded Sam.

“You sure you’re up for tonight? You look a little sick,” Aravic mentioned, frowning.

All Sam could do was smile slightly and nod.