1 – No Time to Say Hello, Goodbye

As I lowered my gaze to the screen, I noticed something, or rather someone, from the corner of my eye, sitting on a park bench. I glanced back up to get a better look, and make sure it was really her. I could’ve sworn the bench was empty when we’d passed it a minute or two before, and yet there sat the girl, long brown hair blowing softly in the wind, reading.

She either always read books with similar covers, or had been working on the same book for a couple weeks now. I’d seen her a few times, almost as if she were following me around, though she never got close enough to make me too nervous, nor did she ever look up from her reading, at least while I was watching.

Still, it was odd enough that, having nothing better to do, I decided to get a little closer to her, maybe even strike up a conversation with her. At least that was my intention, until my phone began its violent spasms, nearly jumping out of my palm before I could flip it open.

“Hey, babe,” Keith’s voice came from it.

“What’s up?”

“Come on, we don’t need…” I could hear our drummer, Martin, saying in the background.

“Shut up,” Keith hissed before speaking to me again. “We were just wondering if you’re planning on coming today…”

I had already worked out what had happened, of course, so I quickly went on the offensive. “You told me we weren’t rehearsing until Wednesday! How am I supposed to keep up with all these surprise practices if nobody tells me anything?!”

I heard him sigh. “It -is- Wednesday, Skye.”

“No, it’s not,” I told him, matter of factly. “I watched The Office last night.”

There was a pause, some muffled talking I couldn’t quite make out. Finally, he got back to me with a question: “Was it on DVD?”

For once, I was glad neither of us had video phones, though I’m pretty sure he could actually -hear- my blush as I quietly said, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“See you then.”

And that was that for my investigation of the book girl for that day. Which was just as well, since, when I tried to get one last look at her, she was already gone. A moment later, so was I.

Luckily, Martin’s house was only a couple blocks from the park, and I knew the way to his basement by heart, since Keith had used to take me there to hang out, since Martin’s parents were rarely around. It was also fortunate that, other than my voice, which I was prone to carrying around with me all the time, I didn’t have any instrument to have to go home and fetch. While I would have loved to know how to play the bass, I’d never gotten around to actually learning.

They were already playing by the time I got there, Keith and Martin, with that weird Chris, who was the actual bassist. I’m not sure where the boys had found him, or where he lived – truth be told, I’m not 100% sure Chris was his name. I think that was what Keith called him when he introduced us, but I could be mistaken, and I had never spoken to him myself, or even heard him speak to anyone else.

“Glad you could join us,” Martin snarked from behind the drums once they’d finished the song, and Keith set aside his guitar, walked over to give me a kiss. While I like being on the tall side, it’s still nice to have a boyfriend who is bigger than I am – standing next to him still makes me feel a bit delicate, and even cute. His hair, which was very light brown, almost blonde, was longer than mine, and he probably spent more time on it than I did on mine, despite usually keeping it in a ponytail when we weren’t at rehearsal.

“Sorry,” I smiled up at him. “I was out with Lela. And I ripped my new shorts.”

“The ones you just bought?” I saw his eyes move downwards.

“Those would be the new ones, yeah.”

“Can you two discuss this later?” I glared over at Martin, but he was more than willing to return it in kind. “Chris has gotta be out’ve here in an hour.”

“Chill,” I rolled my eyes. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

I’m not sure if he meant for me to hear the “We were ready half an hour ago,” he mumbled under his breath, but I have a feeling he did.