It was half past four and Zoey was walking up the driveway to the boys’ house. She had heard the music from a block away and wondered why none of their neighbors ever complained. After having coffee with Jason earlier she had gone back home to find Ruth leaving to meet John.
“So?” she had asked cautiously.
“So what?” Zoey asked even though she knew exactly what Ruth was talking about.
“What happened with Jason!?”
“Ruth,” she started “It was coffee. He just wanted to catch up, you know, friend stuff”
Ruth scoffed “Yeah right” she muttered
“Just give him a break okay” Zoey said exasperated. She loved Ruth and with all their little arguments they always found a way to compromise. Except when it came to Jason, they actually fought so much about it the topic had been avoided. Ruth grabbed her jacket and keys but before leaving, “See you at band practice” and left leaving Zoey alone.
Zoey had showered and changed. She was twenty years old and yet she still dressed like she was in high school. Skinny jeans, v neck and a beanie, with the same suede black boots she had worn last night. Ever since she was younger she had never really cared that much about what she looked like and they way she dressed reflected that.
The door was left open and Kennedy was rummaging through a stack of papers in the living room.
“Heyy Kenny” Zoey said “How are you feeling?”
“Oh hey Zoey, you here for band practice?” he answered “Everyone’s in the garage”
He looked flustered
“Need some help?” she offered
“Uh no. Actually yeah, I’m looking for Garretts’ lyric sheet” he went over to the chest of drawers and started emptying them out
“Garrett writes music?” she asked joining Kennedy
“Yeah, it’s usually John but Garrett sometimes writes lyrics” He went over the couch and started looking under the cushions.
In the drawer before the last she found a paper with scrawly handwriting. She couldn’t help reading it. What was on it would explain a lot of things about Garrett. After seeing the first few lines she decided not to read anymore. It was so personal she almost felt as though she were invading Garretts privacy.
“Hey Kennedy? I think I found it” she said turning to him
He ran over and slammed into her giving her a hug
“Shit oh oh geez Kenny calm down” she said taken by surprise
“Yeah well you just saved my life. Garrett’s not nice when he’s mad” he said leading her to the garage
“I can imagine”
Everyone was in the basement. Along with John, Pat, Jared, Garrett, Ruth and Tim, there were three other people that Zoey didn’t know
“Band techs” Kennedy told her
John was sitting on a stool with Jared playing an acoustic guitar beside him. The techs were tuning Garretts’ and Kennedys’ guitars and Pat was sitting next to Ruth. Zoey searched the room for Garrett. She hadn’t like how things ended that morning and she owed him an apology. He was seated on a large box that had ‘The Maine’ spray painted on it and had his back to the door. He hadn’t seen Zoey walk in which was relieving because she had a feeling if he saw her he would walk away. She walked right over and placed herself next to him. “So I was at home today when I got a package from my brother up in New York”
He was listening to her, she could tell but didn’t look at her. He was watching the techs. Or at least pretending to
“He knows how much I love movies that include zombies eating brains and killing people with axes so he sent me..”
His ears twitched and she could tell he was dying to turn around
“Dawn Of The Dead parts one through six” she said triumphantly whilst holding the dvds’ up
Garretts head turned so fast Zoey swore she almost heard a bone crack. He thrust himself forward arms flying all over the place, one hitting Zoey on the side of her face
She anticipated this and held the dvd’s as far as possible from Garrett.
“Fuck! That hurt Nickelsen!”
He was scrambling all over the place “Give it to me!”
She placed her free hand on his chest and tried to keep him as far as possible
“I know you hate me for what happened this morning but if I let you watch these with and explain what happend today are we even?” she asked. He was almost on top of her, she could smell him. The same smell on his hoodie.
Something about him being this close to her made her flustered and she was praying to God she hadn’t started blushing.
“Fine” he said giving up and moving over
“Now was that so hard?” she said bumping his side
“Shut up” he turned to her and smiled. Zoeys’ stomach felt weird and her heart beat quickened. “What the hell was that?” she said to herself frowning
