Cherry || Owen Joyner

one

Drumming has always been one of my biggest passions.

Growing up, my parents introduced me to rock and pop punk music. But, the guitarists and the singers never interested me.

It was always the drumming. So when I was little, my parents got me a drum kit so I could practice.

I've been playing ever since. In twenty-fifteen, my older sister, Harley, formed a band with two of her friends.

Luckily, they needed a drummer so for six years, I've been their drummer. Our band consists of four people.

My sister, Harley, is our lead singer and bassist. Jesse Michaels is our lead guitarist and does keyboard occasionally.

Kilton Brooks is our rhythm guitarist and also does keyboard when Jesse can't. And then there's me.

The drummer and I also do synthesizer. We've made a decent name for ourselves.

During the summer of twenty-sixteen, a decent sized band asked us to open up for them. So we went on tour with them.

It was one of the coolest experiences. We're hoping to move to Los Angeles one day so we can make it big.

My two friends, Nash and Kira, were gonna come with us because they wanna make it big too.

Kira wants to become a professional singer and she has a decent amount of tik tok followers and YouTube subscribers.

Nash is trying to become an actor and is taking some acting courses.

Nash, Kira, and I all live in a three bedroom townhouse together. Tomorrow, us three are taking a two week long trip to Maui, Hawaii.

So right now, I'm currently over at my sister's house practicing with the band.

We've been practicing our originals and some covers. We like to create a punk sound for pop songs for our covers.

We get done playing one of songs causing me to look at everyone.

"That was a good run through." Jesse smiled while looking at us.

"Yeah, we're gonna miss our drummer though." My sister pouts as everyone turns to me.

Everyone thinks it's weird that I'm in a band with my sister, but I think it made our bond stronger.

Even though she's four years older than me, we were always super close.

"It's just for two weeks." I run my fingers through my sweaty, wet hair.

"You all wanna play a couple more songs?" Kilton asked with a hopeful voice.

I sadly shake my head as I stand up. "I gotta make sure I have everything packed for tomorrow." I shove my drumsticks in my back pockets.

Everyone else sat their instruments to the side while they stood up.

"Be careful in Hawaii, sis." My sister smiled while I wrapped my arms around her.

"I'll try. Try to not have too much fun without me." I tell the three of them.

I hug Kilton and Jesse as I sigh. I'm gonna miss them. But it's gonna be fun hanging out with my two best friends.

I walk away from them and get into my car. It's in the middle of May here in Oklahoma. I've never minded living here.

Until tornado season comes around. I drive to the town house I share with my best friends. When I pull up, all the lights were off.

But I could see a flashing light come from the living room meaning they were watching a scary movie.

I decided to play a prank on them. I take a couple pebbles and run towards the window. I throw a pebble causing it to hit the window.

I could hear Kira's scream causing me to cover my mouth. After a minute, I threw another one.

"What the hell was that?" I could hear her ask. "I didn't hear anything." Nash brushed it off.

I took another pebble and threw it harder at the window. I could hear them both scream and the movie pause.

"Go check it out!" Kira told him. "I'm not going alone, you're coming with me." I heard her grunt as I saw their shadows.

The front door opened causing Nash to look. When he saw it was me, he rolled his eyes.

"It's just Saylor messing with us again." He groaned. I saw Kira pop her head out to make sure it was me.

She flipped me off which caused me to laugh harder. "You two are too easy to mess with." I laugh as I walk inside.

I look to see they were watching Hereditary. "Have you packed yet?" Kira asked as I nodded.

"Got it done earlier so I could practice with the band." I smile towards them. "How's that going?" Nash asked from the couch.

"Pretty good. Enjoy the movie though. I'm exhausted." We have an eight hour flight from Oklahoma to Maui.

Our flight is at seven in the morning Oklahoma time, two in the morning Maui time. When we get to Maui, it'll be ten in the morning there.

But back in Oklahoma, it'll be three in the afternoon. It'll be my first time dealing with jet lag. So I wanna make sure I get good sleep for it.

My alarm wakes me at five the next morning, causing me to let a yawn out.

I go downstairs to make myself coffee to see my roommates on the couch. "Have you two been up all night?" I ask looking in between them.

"Yeah. We figured we could sleep on the plane." It wasn't a horrible idea. It just means I had no one to talk to.

We gathered our stuff up and took an Uber to the airport. When we reached the airport, we thank the man and get out.

It took us about twenty minutes to get through everything.

We boarded the plane in no time causing us to sit down.

I had the aisle seat while Kira had the window seat. An hour into the flight, they were knocked out.

I sigh as I start a movie. I watched movies for most of the flight.

It kept me entertained knowing that my friends are asleep. When we get to Maui, it looked beautiful.

We take an Uber to our hotel which is on the Wailea Beach. It's a Marriott so I know it was gonna be pretty.

I was right too, the hotel was beautiful. It was almost right on the beach.

There were families everywhere. When we walk in, we checked in and they gave us a key.

We wanted to stay in a suite, but we figured it would be too big for just three people.

So we just got a shared hotel room. When we walk in, we were in awe.

We had two beds, a couch, a balcony, and big flatscreen.

We had a kitchenette which was cute. "I'm so happy we're here!" Kira squealed.

I was honestly happy we're here too. I go out on the balcony to look at the view. I bend over the railing to look around.

I look at the pool to see a lot of people down there. There was this one blonde boy that caught my eye.

He had a drink in his hand and it looked like he was dancing with his friends. He looked up at me and caught my eye.

I blush as I stand fully up. "Come look at how the big the bathroom is!" Nash exclaimed. I laughed as I looked away from the blonde.

This is going to be an interesting two weeks.