Romance of a Rock Band

Annie

I felt a little bad about laughing at them when they were fighting. Truthfully, I didn’t understand why I was laughing myself. I usually have to leave the room when people fight. I guess it’s not really important. I need to think about something else now… Monique is a really good cook. She makes really good salad… Not too many peppers.

We were back in the living room now, watching TV. Something Tony seemed to find funny. I wasn’t really paying attention. I was trying to think of something to say. I looked at the clock. It said 4:15.

“Have you ever put a trampoline up before?” I said to him.

“Hmm? Well, no, but it can’t be that hard, right?” he answered.

“I guess not,” I said. We were quiet for a minute and he went back to watching the TV. I kept on looking at him. He was different now. He looked like he was thinking. He was silent for a few more minutes.

“Do you think it’s hard to put a trampoline together?” he asked suddenly.

“I don’t know. I’ve never done it,” I answered.

“Oh…” he said.

“Well, with five of us, it shouldn’t be hard to figure it out, right?” I said.

“Probably not,” he said, smiling. He seemed satisfied with that and went back to the TV. I looked at the clock again to see that only half an hour had passed. I sat there for another hour watching Tony watch TV. He laughed at just about anything. I laughed a few times just watching him. He seemed to like that. How long can a person watch the same show, I thought.

Finally, after another half hour, I got up and went into the kitchen. I started opening cabinets, not really knowing what I was looking for. What I saw was all of the ingredients for a chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting. I went back into the living room.

“Do you like chocolate cake?” I asked, poking my head through the doorway.

“Uhhh, yeah,” said Tony, a little surprised.

“Yes!” Monique answered.

“Okay,” I said, happily.

I went back into the kitchen and pulled what I had seen out of the cabinets. I put them, just like so many times before, put the mixture in a pan, and into the oven it went. Now without anything to do, I looked around the kitchen and noticed a book lying on the counter across the room. Romeo and Juliet was the title. I picked it up and started to read. I only had about twenty minutes to read before taking the cake out of the oven.

“Something smells really good in here,” said Tony, who was now coming into the kitchen.

“It will be, after it cools,” I said, smiling. It had come out well.

I followed him back into the living room, bringing the book with me. The television was now turned off. Monique was looking around with her back to me. I wondered if it was her book.

“Are you looking for this?” I asked her. She turned around.

“Yes!” she answered. “Where did you find it?”

“Lying on the counter in the kitchen,” I told her.

“Oh… I wonder how it got there…” she said sitting back down on the sofa. I laughed a little to myself. I don’t really know why. I was in a happy mood tonight.

We sat in the living room, watching TV and talking about random things for about an hour. I finally got up to frost the cake, cut it and bring three plates back into the living room.

“It looks so good,” said Tony, taking a big piece on his fork. I wondered if it would fit in his mouth.

“Yum,” said Monique smiling.

We sat around ate our cake, talking about meaningless things until we finished.

“You should be a chef,” said Tony.

“That’s what I’m planning on,” I answered. “I’d like to have my own restaurant.”

“That would be amazing,” said Monique. “What kind of food would you make?”

“Italian,” I answered.

“That’s very romantic,” she said.

“You think so?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she and Tony said in unison. I thought about that for a while.

“Is this what you always wanted to do?” I asked Tony.

“What do you mean?” he said.

“Well, ever since I was little, I have always wanted to cook. I just know that’s what I’m meant to do,” I answered. “What about you?”

“Well, sort of,” he said. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pitcher on a baseball team, but when I tried, I just wasn’t good enough. So, I practiced and practiced, but I still couldn’t get on the team. It took me a couple of years, but finally I just gave up. I realized that I was never going to make it, no matter how hard I tried. I just wasn’t cut out for it. So, I went to football. The same thing happened. I tried a lot of sports, but I never found one I was especially good at. I had just about given up, but my dad didn’t want me to. He found a place that held boxing matches and told me to go watch. I fought him on it for a while, but eventually gave in. When I saw what they were doing, something just told me that I could do that. So, I found myself a coach and just went with it. Needless to say, I was good at it and have been doing it ever since.”

“Wow,” I said. “That was a lot of work.”

“I guess so,” he said, laughing.

“I think I’m going to go to bed now,” I said.

“I think I will too, actually,” said Monique.

“I’m with you guys,” Tony yawned.

“It’s been a long, strange day,” said Monique. I laughed at that.

I turned and walked toward the stairs slowly. I was thinking, partly about everything that had happened today, and partly about what would happen tomorrow. Monique didn’t realize how right she was.