The Moon, The Sun, and Everything Else

Arcadia

You were trying to make it work, you were sleeping in my shirt. 

-Arcadia: The Kite String Tangle

"Kirst, Babe, please go to sleep." Avi chuckled gently. 

Kirstie spun around in her swivel chair, catching glimpse of the digital clock on the shelf. 

2:52 A.M.

"And you're still up, why?" She asked.

"That's the question I have for y--" Avi stopped for a moment and smiled. "So, that's where that hoodie went, huh?" 

"Oh." Kirstie blushed and flipped the strings of the hoodie between her fingers. "Yeah." 

"Okay, I'm getting off topic." Avi laughed once more before taking his serious edge back on. "Seriously, please go to sleep, Princess, you've literally been in here all day! Have you eaten anything?"

"I mean, no, but, Avi, this has to get done." She gestured behind herself to her computer screen. 

"Nope, not going to fly with me. You're eating." He extended his hand to her.

"I'm not eating at three o'clock in the morning."

"Well, you seem to not have a problem with creating arrangements at three o'clock in the morning, so you're eating. Come on." 

"Fine." Kirstie grabbed his hand as an aid to help her stand up and they walked to the kitchen. She settled on making herself a peanut butter sandwich, and when she had finished constructing said sandwich, she sat across the table from Avi. 

"Remind me again why you're still up." He asked. "Because last time I checked on you, you said that you were going to wrap it in five minutes. And that was around actual dinnertime, Kirst."

To be honest, Kirstie basically told her family that she was going to do this music thing in California, and she was going to succeed in it, all in the name of proving them wrong. She'd been in California for about two years now and had gotten nowhere. "Because, I can't go back home without having succeeded. I can't surrender, because I ran off to do this, and if I went back, then they'd all be right. And they can't be right. They have to be wrong." She looked down at her half eaten sandwich as tears came to her eyes. The mere thought of not succeeding in this made her so sad, let alone actually not succeeding. 

"Well, a part of being successful is being healthy and knowing the balance between working and breathing. In the long run, these long nights aren't going to get you too far because you're going to work yourself sick, and then you won't be able to sing until you get over that, and knowing you, you'll probably touch the light bulb even though you know it'll burn you, and do it all over again." Avi explained to her.

"I mean, I get that, but..." Kirstie sighed, she knew he was right. One hundred percent correct.  

"Okay," Avi noticed she had finished her sandwich. "Now that you've eaten, which is the most important thing, go show me what you've come up with, and then promise me that you'll go to bed."

"I promise." She smiled. "Now, let's go. I'll show you what I've done." They both walked back to the small home studio they had in the apartment, and Kirstie logged back into her computer. "Okay, there's no title, no bass line, nothing too much to it besides some piano and some basic vocals I've kind of been making up as I go along." She blushed nervously at her lack of work, looking up at her boyfriend for a sense of approval. 

"Hey, that's alright. Let's hear it." He smiled. 

Kirstie hit play on the recording that she had cued up to her laptop. She did her little humming scat along with the music, getting lost in the music herself. She was brought back to reality when she heard vi's voice come in as an impromptu bass line. She immediately cut the recording and looked back at her boyfriend. "Since when do you do any singing?"

"I've done a bit here and there." Avi nodded.

"Really?" 

"Yeah." He chuckled.

"Why have we never gone over this?" 

Avi snickered to himself over his girl's enthusiasm over the situation. "We'll discuss my nonexistent career in singing in the morning, you need to sleep." 

"Okay." She smiled, shut her computer down, and followed Avi back to their shared bed. 

"Goodnight, Kirstie."

"Goodnight." She curled against his chest. "Hey, Avi?"

"Mhmm?" He responded, half asleep already. 

"Will you sing the bass for my single? I think we're onto something real here." 

"If you want me to, I will."

"You will?" Kirstie looked up from his chest and smiled like a kid on Christmas morning. 

"Of course, Babe. Now, go to sleep." He laughed and kissed her head. 

"Goodnight."