Like Gold // Nate Maloley

[ eight ]

"I love you and everything," Elijah said as he brought my last box into his apartment. "But I hope you don't think you and Jaxon are getting freaky in my place of zen."

"Don't worry," I chuckled. "When we decide to take it there, I'll be sure we go to his place."

"Pause." Elijah held his hand up. "What do you mean when? You two haven't..."

I shook my head. "Only made out."

"Well then, this is disappointment number two. I need more wine."

"Speaking of disappointment number one..." I opened one of my boxes. "It's not that big a deal. You know, I believe in Nate and everything is gonna pay off."

"It's cute you believe in a now-unsigned artist, really it is. But this is L.A., hun. This town will chew you up and spit you out if you're not on your A-game."

"And I will be," I assured. "He knows a lot of people and I'll get to meet a lot of them. That's a lot of networking."

"Hmph. I'm still gonna ask around for you. Can never be too sure."

I was immensely grateful for Elijah taking me in. After doing the simple math, I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford another month of rent. He took a leap of faith with me and I told him I'd put in extra work to help around the house since my portion of the rent wouldn't exactly make things 50/50. But he said having a roommate does indeed help.

+

"Heading to the store," Hayes said with Swazz by his side. "You guys want anything?"

"No thank you," I replied.

"Nah I'm good," Nate said.

The boys left and I finished the last of my Corona & lime.

"You sure you don't wanna move in here? It'll save you some gas money." Nate asked as he looked through demo beats. He had created a studio in his new shared home, right near the tasteful display of endless emptied Hennessy bottles. Have mercy on their livers.

"I'm sure," I forced a soft laugh. "Pretty sure there's no space for me around all this testosterone. Plus I think there was a weird smell near the upstairs bathroom. It wasn't exactly in the bathroom so...I'm a little worried something probably died up there like a possum...maybe a squirrel?"

"Might just be Tez," Nate shrugged. "He forgets to do his laundry sometimes."

"Interesting," I squinted. I made a mental note to only use the downstairs bathroom even though it's smaller. "So...got anything to share? Any new songs?"

"I can play you 3 of 'em. They're not finished but I'll play some snippets."

He clicked through his computer files and played the three songs. All of them were untitled but...all of them sounded the same, containing the same kind of lyrics. I know it's good to make music based off what you know and how you live. But after a while, one can only listen to but so much of the same thing. Girls, blunts, and Hennessy. Then there's the repetitive hooks which is popular in today's hip-hop music.

"What do you think?" He asked with a slight smile.

That stupid smile. He seemed proud of it and who was I to tell him the opposite? But at the same time, I didn't want him to blend in with everyone else.

"Do you want me to be honest?"

"Please," he said.

I took a deep breath. "I've heard these before."