Music Inn

I had the day off that Tuesday, so while Kiera was at work, I decided to go to the farmers market and buy some groceries while they were open. However, I only managed to step out of my building before I almost ran over Sam and Fletcher. They were sitting on the front steps of the apartment. They were dressed in jeans and nice shirts, much too nice for seven o’clock on a Tuesday.

“Hey,” I said, and they both turned to look at me. Sam grinned at me.

“Hey there.”

“You guys look nice,” I noted. “Got somewhere to go?”

“We just got home, actually,” Fletcher said with an easy laugh. “Colton and Thomas are upstairs sleeping, but we wanted to watch the sunrise.” He nodded at the sky. Although it was hard to see over the tops of the skyscrapers, I could see a few rays of pink among the clear blue.

“Nice,” I said, nodding slowly. “Where’ve you been all night?”

“Oh, you know,” Sam waved his hand. “Out and about. Scoping out the social scene, you know. Plenty of clubs to explore in this part of the city.”

“I see.”

“Wanna join us?” Fletcher offered.

I shrugged. “Why not?” They made room for me, so I sat down in between them and we watched the city together, from the people in suits going to work to the other partygoers like them, returning home after a long night. The three of us continued to people watch as the sun rose and higher and higher in the sky.

Finally, Fletcher asked, “So, what are you up to on this fine summer morning?”

“I was thinking of going to the farmers market and then going to get some breakfast,” I said, shrugging. “Wanna come?”

Fletcher stood and stretched. “I’ll have to raincheck you on that one, I’m afraid. It’s been –” he checked his watch, “– a little over twenty-four hours since I’ve slept, and that’s probably not good for me.”

“Ah,” I said, nodding. “Well, okay. See you later then.” I stood up and went down the steps and started down the street, trying to shake off that dull feeling of disappointment I didn’t even know I had.

Suddenly, a voice shouted, “Hey!” I turned. Sam was running down the sidewalk towards me, looking kind of goofy as he dodged people walking in the other direction. I stopped and waited until he caught up with me.

“Hey,” I said casually.

“I, uh, I’m not busy. You know, in case you want to hang out and, like, go to the farmers market or something.” He scratched his head, only messing his hair up even more. He smelled of cologne and sweat and smoke and a little BO, but I didn’t really mind.

“Shouldn’t you sleep, too?” I asked, half-joking.

He shrugged. “What’s another few hours?”

“Sure,” I agreed. “Why not?” We set off down the street again, walking until we reached the park where the farmer’s market was set up. Sam held my bag and trailed behind me as I moved from stand to stand, picking up fruits and vegetables and putting them in the bag.

He sniffed the air. “What’s that smell?”

“What, the bread?” There was a stand nearby that had loads of freshly baked bread, bagels, doughnuts, and other pastries. It smelled like sweet, like sugar, but also deep and warm, like the bread.

“Yeah, that smells great.” He went over to the stand so I followed and we examined the breads together.

“Just baked this morning,” the man behind the register said proudly. “Any kind you like, we got it.”

“The boys would love this,” Sam said. He dug around in his pocket, pulling out his wallet. I watched, amused, as he bought a dozen bagels and an assortment of doughnuts. As we continued to walk, he looked through the bag. “Want one?”

I didn’t eat breakfast, so I gladly pulled out a powdered cinnamon one, while Sam chose a jelly-filled. I bought some flowers to put in my apartment, and then we decided to head back.

“Hey,” Sam said when we were about to go into our respective apartments, “you wanna hang out?”

“Didn’t we just do that?” I asked teasingly.

“Well, yeah, but I thought maybe we could go do some other stuff, if you wanted to? I don’t have work today either, so I just thought ‒”

“I’m just kidding,” I said, laughing. “That sounds really great.”

“Oh,” Sam said. “Okay. Cool. I should probably change, but I’ll meet you back outside in fifteen minutes?”

“Okay,” I nodded. I went inside my apartment and as soon as I shut the door I clapped my hand over my mouth, letting out a silent squeal. I grabbed my phone and dialed Music Inn, hoping Dan or Jesse wouldn’t answer.

Thankfully, it was Kiera. “Music Inn, this is Kiera.”

“It’s me.”

“Lex? What’s wrong?”

“I’m going out with Sam.”

“Like out out? Or just out?”

“I’m not sure. We went to the farmer’s market and then he asked me if I wanted to hang out so I said yes.”

“Ooooooh.” Suddenly, she was yelling, “Guys! Alexa is boning that band member I told you about?”

“About time!” Jesse called back, laughing.

“It’s official?” I recognized Hazel’s voice, Dan’s wife. “Thank God. There was so much sexual tension.”

“Hazel, don’t agree with them!” I shouted. “Kiera, fuck off.”

She was laughing too. “Just be cool, okay? He obviously likes you. Just do your thing and you’ll be fine.”

“My ‘thing’? What the fuck is that?”

“You know . . . be yourself. All of that stuff guidance counselors told us in high school.”

“Ugh. Okay.”

“Let us know how it goes,” she said cheerfully.

“I definitely won’t.” I hung up and looked at myself. I attempted to tame my hair before swiping on some deodorant and making sure my shirt was clean. Then I brushed my teeth and went outside, where Sam was waiting for me once again. He’d showered and changed and was now wearing a Joy Division shirt.

“I know this really good coffee shop,” was the first thing he said to me. “Wanna grab some breakfast?”

“Sure,” I said, even though there was a perfectly good coffee shop right next door to Music Inn.

“Is it cool if we take the subway? And that it’s a little bit of a long trip?”

“That’s fine,” I shrugged. “I don’t mind taking the subway.” I didn’t do it very often, but I did know my way around, so I was indifferent to using it. Although it definitely could be a pain in the ass.

There was an entrance down the block, so we went underground and waited on the platform, surrounded by busy people heading to work, since it was only a little after eight-thirty. We managed to find two empty seats in a car and claim them, settling in for the ride.

After a minute of awkward silence, I finally pulled out my phone and my earbuds, offering one to him. “Wanna share?”

He accepted it with a grin. I turned on the song I’d last played, ‘The Girl’ by City and Colour. “Oh hell yes,” Sam said, nodding. “This is one of the first songs we ever played as a band. Such a great one.”

“I know, right? They’re so underrated, but so talented,” I agreed. We listened to the song, Sam strumming imaginary cords on a guitar.

“We’re kind of a hardcore band, but I love doing acoustic, mellow stuff like this,” he admitted.

“Maybe you can play some for me one day?” I asked.

He smiled. “Definitely.”

I’d put my music on shuffle, so after ‘The Girl’ was finished, ‘Rogue’ by Social Suicide began to play, my favorite from that album.

“You’re into Social Suicide?” Sam asked in disbelief.

I smiled, a little bemused. “Yeah . . .”

“Holy shit, I saw them a few years ago. Easily one of the best live bands ever.”

“I did too! What tour did you go to?”

“I think it was Death of the Jokes.”

“Oh, sweet! I wish I went to that one. Me and Kiera went to House Party.”

“Are you serious? The House Party Tour was way better, if only because they toured with Mystic Saints and Game of Sounds.”

I laughed. “Fair enough. I’m just waiting for them to release some new stuff, it feels like it’s been forever.”

“I know, right?” We fell silent after that, listening to the music. Sam sang along softly, “‘Want you to want me too . . . my heart is rogue, all I see is you . . .’” After a moment, he asked, “Can I see the rest of the music you have on there?”

“Yeah, of course.” I unlocked my phone and handed it to him. As he browsed through it, I felt a little nervous, which I knew was stupid but still. This would clearly make or break whether or not I had good music taste, and coming from a cute boy made it even more nerve wracking.

He turned and looked at me with a serious face, and I swallowed. Had he seen that I had all four One Direction albums on there too? But then he said, “Alexa Fogerty . . . you’re like my music soulmate.”

I felt myself blush. He continued, “Honestly, this is amazing. You’re the only person I know who has every single album that Grab Your Tuxedo put out.”

“Seriously?” I said, regaining my composure. “That’s sad, man. Grab Your Tuxedo kills it.”

“Right?” he agreed. “I mean, most of the people who have their albums don’t have Dirty Habits, but everyone has –”

“– Nuclear Knowledge,” I finished, nodding.

“Exactly. Which is dumb, because Dirty Habits is good. Different, but good, which is probably why people don’t like it so much.”

The rest of the subway ride went like that, with Sam and I discussing all the bands we liked and didn’t like, and it was true: we did have extremely similar tastes. Yes, I was definitely in love.

We arrived at our stop and walked two blocks to a cute little coffee shop and found a table outside under a tree, where we drank our coffees and watched people walk by and tried to guess what kind of music they’d be into.

“Probably slow jazz, Michael Bublé or something,” Sam said, nodding at a man in a suit and tie who went past us, holding a briefcase and talking rapidly into his phone.

“She probably likes mom-bands . . . U2, R.E.M. . . the works,” I said of a woman pushing a stroller.

We also swapped concert stories; Sam told me about the time he’d snuck backstage with his cousin at a Brand New concert, I told him about the time Kiera and I had been front row at a Blink-182 show.

It was so strange, how fast and easily we clicked. I’d never felt so comfortable around anyone before except Kiera, like I could tell him anything and he wouldn’t think it was weird. We discussed everything; drugs, sex, music, dogs, pizza, people.

“Okay . . . um . . . what song did you lose your virginity to?” he asked.

I laughed. “Oh, God. Um . . . I was sixteen. I think it was ‘Ride’ by SoMo.”

“What the fuck,” Sam said, laughing too. “That’s such a . . . actually, that’s kind of a nice song about sex. But why that?”

“I don’t know. The guy chose it, I guess. He must’ve thought it was appropriate for the situation?” I thought some more. “His name was Chris.”

“Chris,” Sam said in a snooty voice.

“Okay, wise-ass, what song did you lose yours to?”

“Uh . . . ‘Shiver Shiver’ by Walk The Moon.”

“And you’re making fun of me?”

“Hey, they’re a good band. It was to a girl named Jessica. Jessie, we called her. I was also sixteen.”

“Jessie. She sounds ugly.” I sniffed disdainfully.

Sam’s grin slowly widened. “So ugly.” We watched each other for a moment, our smiles mirroring each other’s.

He shifted in his seat, and the sun caught his face, highlighting how pale he was and the purple bags under his eyes. “Hey . . . you haven’t slept yet, have you?” I remembered.

He shrugged. “Don’t do that,” I scolded. “You need to sleep. I can’t believe you let me forget.” Checking my phone, I saw that it was only eleven o’clock. It was weird; it felt like we’d been out all day.

“I like hanging out with you.”

I pressed my lips together. “Yeah, well, we can do that any old time. C’mon, we’re going back so you can sleep.” He actually obeyed me, following me down to the subway platform. The ride back wasn’t as animated; we just shared headphones again, listening to my music on shuffle.

We stood outside our respective apartments again, and he shot me a cute, sleepy grin. “Thanks for today. It was fun.”

“It’s not even noon yet,” I said with a laugh.

He furrowed his eyebrows. “Really? Weird. Well, thanks for this morning, then. I had a lot of fun.”

“Me too.”

“We should do it more often.”

“We should.”

“Okay,” he said. “Well, I’m gonna go sleep for thirty-six hours. I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, see you around.” He smiled at me one more time before going into his apartment and I went into mine. I shut the door and covered my face with one hand. Man, I was so fucked.