Weathered Love

MUSIC

"Catrin agreed to move in with us," Ivan informed me the next day. We were back in his homemade recording studio. "But the only place I could find houses six people. We need three more," he filled in.

"Well, if it's alright with you, I'm throwing my cousin's name into the ring. She just graduated high school and is coming to our school, and since she is looking for housing, I told her you and I were thinking of getting a house with some housemates, so she was wondering if she could get in on the action," I requested.

Ivan nodded. "Sure, which cousin?" he asked.

"You haven't met. Her name's Maria. Her family's actually been living in England for the better part of the last decade, and they haven't been able to make the trip here," I informed him.

Ivan nodded in consent. "As long as she doesn't steal my food and isn't disgustingly messy, I'm fine with that. So, we still need two people. You know, Lee and Lorenzo are still possibilities," Ivan tried to entice me.

"I don't have the energy to argue this point. They're your buds, go ahead and ask them. But we can't let Maria's parents know. They're adamantly against her living with guys. They'd only be OK with you because you're basically family and I can vouch for you. I can't vouch for the other guys," I explained.

"Were you planning on me being the only guy in the house?" Ivan clarified. He had a point. The only way it would have worked was if Ivan was the only male housemate.

"Well, I guess we still need three people then. I'll encourage Maria to go for the dorms," I concluded. Ivan nodded, sent a text message to someone, then picked up his guitar and nodded to the microphone, instructing me to start singing. "You agreed to teach me to play," I reminded him.

"I don't plan on going back on my word. I just want to try some more songs out, maybe record another two songs, and then you'll get the chance to destroy my guitar," he teased. I narrowed my eyes at him in mock anger, then stepped up to the mic to await my cue to start singing.

Recording two more songs went by a lot more quickly and, keeping his word, Ivan taught me a few basic chords on his guitar. The lesson didn't go by without incident, as I did drop the guitar at one point and managed to give Ivan a heart attack over it. But he recovered quickly after realizing no damage had befallen his precious instrument. Needless to say, he insisted that I learn while sitting on the ground after that, so as to avoid any further mishaps.

Before we could finish, I received a call from my cousin. "Hey Maria!" I stated into the phone.

"Hello!" she responded in her adorable English accent. "I was wondering if you had any information about the housing situation."

"I'm sorry," I started, "But, there's going to be more guys in addition to Ivan and I know how your parents feel about you living with guys they don't know," I started to excuse.

"Oh, that's no problem. I've managed to convince them that, regardless of where I live, there will be men that will have relatively easy access to my living quarters, and that I would be better suited in some sort of living arrangement where you will be nearby. I hope you don't mind that I took such liberties, but I thought it would be fun to live together," she explained.

I chuckled. "No need to be so formal, unless that's how everyone in England speaks, but we have heard of Cockney over here, so I know you all don't speak like you're having high tea with the Queen. And we'd love to have you living with us! This will be awesome!" I assured.

"Perfect!" Maria responded. "We'll sort the details later. Until then Ivy! Ta ta!"

"Later cuz," I bid her farewell. The line went dead and I smiled in Ivan's direction. He was trying to contain his laughter. "What's so funny?" I inquired.