The Acting Project

Count On Me

6

Count On Me

“You can count on me like 1,2,3.” -Bruno Mars

“Um hi everyone. I’m Lucy and if you can give me a couple seconds it would be great.” My voice shakes in the microphone. 

I pull out the guitar from its case. Adjust the strap. Find the guitar pick. Fix it and take a few deep breathes.

“Ok this song is called Count On Me.” I say as I sit back on the chair.

    I start to strum and play the sing. I start to sing the lyrics. When ever I sing in public, I somewhat blackout. I mean I sing, but I don’t really pay attention to the audience.  Like I’m frozen time. I don’t know I’m just strange like that. Everyone in the shop has a glazed look on their face. I don’t know if in horror or they like my voice.

    I look over to piper and see she has a big grin on her face. Jean is saying something to her. She says something to him and he walks away. I get disappointed; I know I didn’t get the job. This means I will have to get a job somewhere else. Then piper starts to jump up and down and do a happy dance. She flashes a big smile and gives me thumbs up. Before I really know it I’m singing the last line. “Cos I can count on you.” The shop goes crazy. Everyone stops what their doing and stands up and claps for me. The whole night I sing and sing. By the end of the night I made $30 in tips. I even get paid for the night too.

“Girl, you have a gift and the professor says you can act as well.” Piper says. 

“Thanks.” 

    The next month goes by fast. Went to my first job, came home and went my second job or went out with piper. A lot of nights we went home and just talked. Like one time we were talking about her exes. Somehow we got on romantic things guys have done for each other in our past. I told her what I’m waiting for is that romantic kiss outside in the rain.

“That’s so beautiful. All of the guys I’ve dated have been idiots.” She huffs.

“Country boys. What can you do?” I laugh.

“Amen! But really cute.” She shouts.

“That’s the sad part.” I frown. I burst out laughing. And so does piper.

In those weeks we decorated the roof with some lawn chairs, twinkly lights, an umbrella and a table. It looks awesome! It’s near Christmas. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it home for Christmas. I was sad and it made me miss home.

    One day out of the blue I come home and see a small fake pink Christmas tree. With pink decorations. When I walk in the door I drop all of the groceries. I was so overjoyed. Piper comes running when she hears the thump.

“What’s wrong are you hurt. Did you fall? Is someone following you?” She is looking around with a baseball bat.

“No. What? No. You got a tree?” I smile. I play with some tinsel on the tree.

“Yeah.” She says hesitantly.

“A Christmas tree.” I add.

“Yes. You know it’s usually put up around Christmas time.” She rolls her eyes. 

I ran over to Piper so fast and give her the biggest hug. She almost fell over. “You are so awesome. You are a great friend.” I shout in her ear.

‘‘I haven’t really had a friend. The only true friend I had was a cow named Betty Boop.” She frowns then smiles.

“That’s sad.” We laugh.

I get distracted easily and in the corner of my eye I see what looks like snow.

http://www.polyvore.com/acting_project_christmas/set?id=82325586

“It’s snowing!” I shout.

I don’t even hesitate I run to the roof with piper following. We turn on the twinkling lights and it looks like Christmas in New York. With the Christmas lights and the snow Piper and I decide to be dorks and play in the snow like little kids. Just like when we were little. I love the smell of snow. I don’t know if snow has a smell. It’s kind of like when it rains.

“Let’s go back inside.  Just realized tank tops and shorts aren’t good for snow.” I say. Piper and I go back inside. We sit on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate.

“Ya know where I lived, obviously we didn’t have snow. My family would go skiing in Colorado for the winter. My daddy taught me how to ski and how to build a proper snowman. Accept we called him a snow cowboy.” Piper smiles. She shows me some photos on her phone. “What about your winters?” She ask.

“It was just me, my mom, and my brother. So we didn’t get to go on many vacations. I think my first time I saw snow fall in person was when I was 16. My best friends and I from Alabama ran off to New York for a week. It was a blast!” I laugh remembering the trip.

“What did you all do there?” Piper asks.

“Well we went ice skating. Saw a few Broadway plays. The funny thing is until the last day of the trip, my family and theirs didn’t know we went.”

“How did you pull it off?” She furrows her eyebrows together and scoots closer to me.

“Well we were supposed to go on a church trip to Montgomery. But my friend, Amanda and I were talking about how we wanted to get away. We really didn’t want to go to Montgomery again. So Amanda, our friends Jojo and Lola and I all told our youth pastor we were home sick with the flu. Our parents thought we were in Montgomery for a week.

“I don’t think lying to your parents and a pastor is really good.” Piper shakes her finger in my face. 

“Shh I’m telling a story.” I smack her finger away. “So we drove for forever to New York. All four of us girl crammed in a tiny car and stayed at a cheap motel for a week it was a blast. We were in Times Square and it started to snow. It was awesome.” I look out the window watching the snow fall.

“How did your mom find out?”

“Well the church group came back early and my youth pastor went by my mom’s house to check on me. Then my mom went by to Amanda’s house and they all called Jojo and Lola’s parents and they all thought the same thing. So she finally called me and I was busted. We were busted. So we headed back home. But it was fun!” I start laughing.

“Wow! Rebel. How old is your brother?” Wait? How old is he? I actually have to think about it.

“He’s 15 we hated each other when we were younger. Now we are pretty close. My brother is really tall and when I was 17, my boyfriend at the time, was being a jerk to me. The boyfriend thought my brother was my older brother. We could just say my boyfriend was so scared and messed up after my brother was done with him.” I smile.

“Wow. Sounds cute….Can I have his number?” She giggles. My jaw drops. “…..kidding.” 

As we sip out hot chocolate and tell stories and get to know each other more. I feel like I have known her for forever.

    Christmas passes and so does New Years Eve. New Year’s day we go out for lunch and as we are eating I ask her a question.

“So I was wandering, not that I want to find someone, but why did you say no relationships?” I sip my coffee.

“Well if you find someone here, you date him for a while. Then you get hooked and you have your future ahead of you. Besides their accents are super hard to resist with their stupid but incredibly adorable French accents and their dimples.” She clenches her jaw.

“Ok I am sensing a little tension. Yeah I got out of a 3 year relationship.” I say taking her mind off whatever she was stressing about less then two seconds ago.

“No, I’m fine. So what happened with you and this guy?” She says.

“Well he was a jerk and it was always about him. It jut took me three years to realize it. He was a horrible kisser too.”

“Well that sucks.” She laughs.

“Yes, it did.” I laugh with her.