Daydream

Chapter Twenty-Five- Erin

I blinked open my eyes and smiled. Riley was beside me. We weren't home, but it felt like home when she was there. Not trying to wake her, I shifted out of bed and got dressed.

She peeked out from under the covers and laughed. I sat beside her on the bed. "It isn't early," she said, "but we can't go downstairs unless we're allowed to."

I sighed. "Yeah, can we at least just take a look at Ethan and Kasey?" I glanced around.

"There's no reason we can't look," Riley concluded. We crept down the stairs and into Ethan's bedroom. His and Kasey's lips were touching, them lying in bed next to each other. They seemed half-asleep still. I pulled out my phone and almost laughed. It was 11:30 in the morning.

Riley took my hand and led me back upstairs. "Let's just wait until they wake up." She said once we were safely in the attic. I nodded. "Wanna play something?"

Riley looked at me weird. "Like a game?"

I shook my head and smiled. "Your ukulele." Riley froze.

"Well, uh, maybe..." she looked me in the eye. "You really want to hear me?" I nodded vigorously. "Okay..." Riley took a deep breath and picked up her ukulele.

She ran her fingers across the strings once and I waited for the strum. It was slow. Time had even slowed. In the moment, I focused on the words. Then I focused on the chords. Then, harmoniously, together the two sounded perfect.

By the end of the song, I was crying. Not real sobbing, the soft kind where you know you struck a chord, but you aren't a crybaby. I hugged her and then put her ukulele down beside us to kiss her. I didn't even know what the song had been, I just knew that in the moment of her singing and playing had been simply perfect. And it had been a sad song. I wondered why she had played the song, and what it meant, so I asked her to play it again.

Riley nodded. "Yeah, if you want." I sat back down and handed her the uke. She started playing and I listened to the words. Tears filled my eyes as I realized which song it was. I sang along.

"But what if it's not Ken but Barbie? Why should she have to say sorry? Tell me, do you even listen? To all the dumb shit you're slipping? We can love who we want to, don't say she's not supposed to, if she doesn't love Ken but Barbie, she doesn't have to say sorry."

We sang together, and soon before repeating the chorus we heard footsteps. Ethan and Kasey appeared at the door, and we sang louder.

"Her parents always saying, girl when will you see? You'll be happy, I know, it's just a man you need, you'll be such a nice Barbie just gotta- find your Ken. Tie up your dress, what you were meant to have been."

Kasey started singing along, a higher "ah" for every note, and Ethan looked self-conscious but began to sing along to the melody as well. Everyone was singing and it felt so great to finally let our voices ring that Riley just kept playing. She repeated the song many times until Ethan's mom called us down for breakfast.

We all sat there, flustered by what had happened. I was proud of everyone there, including myself. "That was great." Riley said plainly.

"You were doing the whole thing," Ethan said bashfully.

I cut in. "You all did amazingly, and together you two sound like angels." My words rang in my head. Kasey smiled boastfully.

"Riley and Ethan were great. I was horrible." I tilted my head. She was proud, but not of herself. That wasn't healthy. "No, your high part was amazing, it added that extra thing to the song that it really needed."

We all scurried down for brunch and never forgot that morning.