Music Inn

“I’m sexually frustrated,” I announced on Monday morning. It might’ve been an overshare, but the store had just opened and no customers had come in yet, so I was safe.

Jesse was unpacking a new shipment of CDs, an unlit cigarette hanging out from his mouth. “Sucks,” was his only comment. He wasn’t much of a morning person. I considered him from my perch behind the desk. He was cute in a scruffy, sleepless kind of way.

“Hey, Jess, do you think I’m ugly?”

“No.”

“Would you ever sleep with me?”

He finally looked up, giving me an annoyed look. “If we weren’t co-workers, I guess.” It was times like these where I appreciated Jesse’s blunt honesty.

Satisfied, I nodded. “Okay. Thanks.” At least I knew I wasn’t getting any because no one found me appealing.

Dan and Hazel were taking the day off and Kiera wasn’t coming in until later, so it was just Jesse and I working. He’d refused to do any shifts with me after the whole coffee fiasco, but I’d managed to convince him this time by promising I wouldn’t run off. Besides, the store had gotten pretty busy, so it wasn’t like I could go anywhere even if I wanted to.

Around eleven o’clock, I went into the back room to try and find some clarinet reeds for a desperate person who had marching band rehearsal in a few hours. Faintly, I heard the door chime, signaling another customer. Jesse asked, “Can I help you?”

A familiar voice said, “Yeah, hi . . . is Alexa Fogerty working today?” There was only one person who called me that. I felt butterflies erupt in my stomach, because Sam and I hadn’t talked since our all-nighter, and I was a little nervous, considering I was pretty sure we’d almost kissed at the end of it.

“Hold on.” There were footsteps, and then Jesse was coming back. “Lex, I’m pretty sure there’s a dude asking for you out there, but he’s got your last name wrong. Unless you’re related to John Fogerty and never told me.”

I laughed. “No, I’m not. Thanks.” I went back out front and finished ringing up the clarinet reeds before looking around the store until my eyes landed on Sam, who was browsing some CDs. When he looked up and saw me, he grinned.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” I said. “What brings you here?”

He shrugged. “Just lookin’. I went to get breakfast, thought you guys might want some doughnuts.” He held out a paper bag. I accepted it, attempting to hide my blush.

“Wow. Thanks.” I pulled out a cinnamon-sugar and took a bite, scattering powder all over my bare legs. We chatted aimlessly for a bit until the door opened again and Kiera ran in.

“Hey,” she said breathlessly.

“Hi,” I said, slightly confused. “What’s up? You don’t have to be in until two.”

“I know. Oh, hey Sam,” she said, and she wasn’t so out of breath that she couldn’t throw me a not-so-discreet wink.

“Hi, Kiera,” he answered with a grin.

“Want a doughnut?” I asked, slightly annoyed.

“No thanks, Matt Eddie bought me a croissant before.” She looked at me, smiling and raising her eyebrows. It took me a second before I got it.

“Matt Eddie’s back in town?” I said, nearly squealing. “Are you serious?” Matt Eddie was . . . well, there was really no way to describe him. He around Dan’s age and refused to go by anything other than Matt or Matt Eddie, even though everyone agreed that couldn’t possibly be his full name. He owned the coffee shop next door to us, but did a plethora of other things, including running an adult toy shop and dealing drugs on the down-low. He loved Kiera and me and always gave us weird things he picked up on his road trips: art from flea markets, old records, bejeweled rocks, sex toys, and even a leather whip.

“Yeah! He came back last night!” Kiera nodded.

“Oh my God, we have to go see him,” I said excitedly, hopping off the counter like I was about to leave right then and there. “He’s been gone for over a month this time.”

“Who’s Matt Eddie?” Sam asked hesitantly.

Kiera snorted. “Oh yeah. I keep forgetting you’re new here.” She said new the way you’d say malaria or rabid dog.

“Matt Eddie’s a friend of ours,” I said quickly. “You’d like him; he’s pretty great.”

“Oh,” Sam said, nodding. “Do you go to school with him?”

“Hardly. He’s Dan’s age,” Kiera said. “But anyways, he said he’d stop by the store later and take us out to lunch!”

“Do my ears deceive me? Madderall’s back?” Jesse asked, poking fun at the fact that selling Adderall was one of Matt Eddie’s many side jobs.

“He doesn’t sell it that much anymore,” I said defensively. “He told me so.”

“Key words being ‘that much’,” Jesse said with a grin. “When’s he coming? I’d like to see him.” Matt Eddie and Dan had met when Dan had first opened Music Inn, and he’d become a great friend to all of us. He loved all of Hazel’s baking, talked bands with Jesse, and for some reason, took a particular liking to me and Kiera, treating us like a mixture of younger sisters and daughters. Dan always said it was because we were the first real people to treat him like family.

“He said he’d stop by in about an hour,” Kiera said excitedly.

I managed to get past my happiness and notice Sam had moved back a little bit, since he was no longer able to really understand our conversation. “Sam, do you wanna come with us? Matt Eddie is great, you’d really like him.”

He smiled a little. “Yeah, sure.”

So we all eagerly waited until lunch rolled around, and when the door opened and Matt Eddie came in, I flew at him and nearly knocked him to the floor with a hug. “You’re back!” I shrieked. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

He was laughing. “Well, well. Here I am. How’ve you been, Lex? Have any sex to SoMo while I was gone?” Matt quite liked making fun of that.

“She hasn’t had any sex at all, actually,” Kiera butted in. She cackled.

Matt looked at me with surprise. “Really? I’ve been gone since January. You’ve hit a bit of a dry spell, I see.”

“It hasn’t been that long, fuck you, Kiera,” I said, irritated and very aware that Sam was hearing all of this.

“If you say so,” she said innocently. Matt laughed again and then noticed Sam.

“Who’s this? Have you replaced me already?”

“This is Sam,” I said. “He moved into our building about a month ago. He’s staying for the summer with his band. Sam, this is Matt Eddie.”

“Nice to meet you, man,” Sam said.

“Likewise, bro.” The two of them shook hands before Matt Eddie asked, “Alexa said you’re in a band?”

“Yeah, I am. We’re called Common Castles.”

“Any good?”

“Not really.”

“Oh, shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes. “They scored the Friday’s at ten spot at Bender within their first week of being here.”

“Wow,” Matt Eddie whistled. “The Friday at ten spot is hard to get. That’s impressive.”

“Thanks,” Sam said, embarrassed but clearly pleased.

“Is it okay if Sam comes out to lunch with us?” I asked.

“Why not. The more the merrier.”

Jesse chose that moment to come out back, holding a pack of cigarettes. When he saw Matt Eddie, he grinned. “Madderall, good to see you man.”

“JJ the Jet Plane!” Matt Eddie went over to Jesse and they did that bro-hug thing. “Still smoking yourself to an early death, eh?”

“That’s the plan,” Jesse said with a grin. “Now, when we go out for lunch, I assume you’ll be paying?”

“But of course. Paying out of your wallet, that is.”

Jesse laughed. “You wish.”

“Where are we going?” Kiera asked as we left Music Inn, Jesse making sure to hang up the “BACK IN 1 HOUR” sign on the door.

“Why, the finest eating establishment around, of course,” Matt Eddie said as he led us next door to The Grind. “You’ll even get a discount, my treat.”

“Just a discount? Nothing for free?” I said, only half-joking because money was tight, as usual.

“Fine. You can have something for free, Alexa, but only because I like you. And you, Kiera, because I like you too. And you Sam, because we just met. Basically everyone but Jessica.”

“Hey,” Jesse protested. “I’m low on funds too.”

“Only because you spend whatever you have left on cigarettes,” Kiera scoffed.

“Completely untrue,” Jesse answered, scowling.

Matt Eddie laughed. “Okay, okay. Even Jesse.” He hopped over the counter with a nod to the employees working there. They rolled their eyes, and one of them muttered, “I can’t believe we have to call you our boss.”

“That’s the beauty of capitalism,” Matt Eddie said cheerfully as he began to make us our coffees.

He put out mine and Sam’s first, along with some sandwiches, so we took them and went to go find a table for all of us to sit at. We found an empty one in the corner and he slid across from me. “So . . . Matt Eddie,” he said casually.

“Matt Eddie,” I agreed.

“What’s his deal?”

“He has many of them,” I said with a grin. “Why?”

Sam shrugged. “I just noticed you and him seemed to be close. I was just wondering.”

I looked at him for a second before I began to laugh. He scowled. “What?”

“There is nothing between me and Matt Eddie,” I said, still giggling. “He’s just a good friend of mine. Honestly. He’s a little too wild for me.”

“Oh,” Sam said, looking embarrassed. “My bad.”

“Was somebody jealous?” I teased, although deep down I was enjoying it.

“Me? No,” Sam said, scowling even harder. “I just wanted to know what was happening.”

“What was happening where?” Matt Eddie asked, returning with Jesse and Kiera and the rest of the food.

“Nothing,” Sam said quickly. I snorted.

Kiera and Jesse sat down next to me, and Matt Eddie plopped down next to Sam. “So, Sam of Common Castles . . . what’s your story?”

“My story?” Sam said slowly. “What do you mean?”

“You know . . . what’s your name, where do you come from, that type of first-day-of-school type shit. Let’s hear it.”

“Um, okay,” Sam said, still looking nervous. “I’m Sam. I’m from Laguna Beach, California. Um . . . I’ve been playing the guitar since I was eight, but I can play piano and drums too. My favorite singer is Billy Joel, and my favorite bands are Radiohead and Led Zeppelin.”

“If you could have lunch with one person, dead or alive, who would it be and where would you go?” Matt Eddie challenged.

Sam pondered it. “Maybe George Harrison. We’d get burgers and I’d ask him what it was like to be a Beatle.”

“Hmm,” Matt Eddie said, nodding. “Yup. He can stay. Anyone who chooses George over John is a keeper.”

“You have a ten second conversation with him and then decide he’s a keeper?” I said quizzically.

“I’m a very good judge of character,” Matt Eddie said. He raised an eyebrow at me. “Why, you don’t think Sam’s a keeper?”

Sam grinned at me, and I felt myself blush. “No . . . no, I do.”

“Okay,” Matt said. “All in favor of us keeping Sam and his band, raise your hand!”

He, Jesse, and I all put up our hands. Sam meekly raised his own. I shot Kiera a dirty look and with a roll of her eyes she put hers up too. “Okay,” Jesse said, taking a long pull of his coffee, “then it’s settled.”

“Thanks, everyone,” Sam said bashfully. “Even though I’m only staying until September.” And oh, right. Sam wasn’t staying for good. Sometimes I got so caught up in him and the way he smiled at people when they weren’t looking and laughed at the show “Phineas and Ferb” even though it was for kids and how I could hear him singing harmonies with Colton when I listened closely to their songs that I forgot the fact that he wasn’t permanent. None of them were. Common Castles would just be another group in this town full of bands and hipsters and groupies, and soon enough another one would replace them, complete with a cute rhythm guitarist. Or so I hoped.

“So, what made you come back, Matt?” Kiera asked. I looked up. I’d also been wondering this. Matt Eddie hardly ever just came back at random; there had to be a new deal involved.

“Well, you guys know how I’ve always wanted my own radio station,” Matt Eddie said. We all nodded, and he continued, “So, one of my buddies happens to be in that business and he works at Rock Radio downtown, the one that plays all of those local stations. And one of the stations, The Space, is going off air. So my buddy got me the airwave!”

“Wow!” I exclaimed. “That’s amazing! What are you gonna call it?”

“Well, the call number is 104.1,” Matt Eddie said. “I was thinking of naming it Radio Mirror Park. And I’m gonna play, you know, music that I like. Punk, rock, stuff like that. It’s gonna be great.”

“How are you gonna juggle all of these things?” Kiera asked skeptically.

Matt Eddie shrugged. “Well, The Grind is clearly doing fine under the management of Stacy,” he nodded to the blonde girl working who basically ran the place, “my other store . . . well, that’ll never go out of business. And besides, I figure doing this radio station gives me a pretty good reason to stay for a while.”

“You’re really gonna stay?” I said excitedly.

He grinned. “Yeah, why not? The gang’s all here. And I want you guys to help me run the station. Be guest DJs and all that. And Sam, we can even play some of your stuff. Whaddaya say?”

Kiera and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. “Sounds good to me,” Kiera said finally. I nodded, and so did Sam, and eventually Jesse did too, rolling his eyes.

“It’s settled then,” Matt Eddie said, cracking his knuckles. “Radio Mirror Park is officially open for business.”

♫ ♫ ♫

“The radio station sounds like it’s gonna be sick,” Sam said as he and I walked home. Kiera had taken over my shift, so she and Jesse headed back to Music Inn while Matt Eddie stayed at The Grind to actually do his owner duties.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Matt Eddie seems like a cool dude,” Sam said.

“He’s great,” I said with a smile. “He’s just . . . only he could do all of this stuff, you know? Run a sex shop and a coffee shop and sell drugs and now run a radio station. He’s insane. He’s like the older brother I never had, and I think all of us are like the family he never had either.”

“That’s awesome,” Sam said appreciatively. “I guess I was wrong to judge him initially, huh?”

“Yeah,” I snorted. “Judging him . . . or being jealous of him.”

“Hey now,” he said good-naturedly.

“So, I didn’t know you were from Laguna Beach,” I said. “That’s cool.”

Sam shrugged. “Yeah, I s’pose.”

“What’s it like?”

“Beachy,” he said after a moment. “I lived right by the water, so every night I’d fall asleep to the sound of the waves. When we started our little . . . whatever this is . . . it took me a long time to get used to sleeping without it.” He looked nostalgic for a second, and then he took my hand, lacing our fingers together like it was something we did all the time. He didn’t say anything else, so I didn’t either, despite the fact that my stomach was doing cartwheels everywhere. I looked down at our joined hands, slotted together almost perfectly, and I realized that I could almost get used to this, if only it didn’t have to end.