Phoenix to Santa Fe
DAY SIX
FANGIRLS
The Dante's Inferno ticket prices increase as the concert day grows closer. Jessica Lynn's sure if they don't act soon, they're going to be screwed. In serious stress mode, she checks the prices on her iPhone. She's at work and shouldn't be on it, but she's getting antsy and had to check. She's going to have to start pressuring Erin to woman up and accept Amber's offer. It's time those two reached a—
"Yo! Mendez!" Papi barks.
Jessica Lynn jumps, dropping her iPhone.
"Uh, yes, sir?" She sputters, biting her lip and pulling too hard on her lip ring. She tries to look alert as she stands behind the record store's front counter.
Papi glares, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. "What are you doing? Playing Angry Birds or something?"
Jessica Lynn ducks under the counter and swoops up her iPhone, exiting the webpage. "No Angry Birds. I was, ah...checking my email." Which when she thinks about it isn't a better answer.
"You know how I feel about using those 'things' at work." Papi scrunches up his nose in disgust.
"Sorry, sir." Jessica Lynn slips her phone into her back pocket.
"They just want your money. Those big companies, showing off those flashy features. You won't be able to use them all—and selling something the size of a piece of cardboard for four hundred dollars or more! It's highway robbery, is what it is."
Papi possibly adds a mumbled "bullshit," under his breath, but it's hard to tell—since he takes another inhale of smoke from his cig right after he swears.
"Mmhmm." She hopes, for once, one of Papi's rants won't go on for twenty minutes.
"I bought an iPod once. The earbuds were way too small. And the damn thing kept skipping. I swear..."
Desperate, Jessica Lynn searches for something to do, but Papi's Disc-O is perfectly organized. She has no chance to flee from him and get lost in the M's (somewhere between Michael Jackson and Motley Crue).
"And then, when I went to return it—the lines! You wouldn't believe the LINES. And you'd ask for help and they'd bloop bloop tap things into their iPaddles..."
With nothing to do, Jessica Lynn decides to tune him out, her second option when Papi gets going. The only other sound to focus on is the stereo on the countertop. A song by Dante plays. She vaguely agrees to something Papi says, while blocking him out by listening to the song's lyrics. It's one of their mellower songs, Gracie, about Sky's ex-girlfriend.
"Hey, Gracie. Sunflower girl with daisy chains," the radio croons. "Come back, and don't close your eyes. As we fall I will catch you, each and every time..."
Jessica Lynn resists the urge to sing along, but something miraculous happens while Sky sings: Papi winds down!
"Yeah, well, that's what I think anyway. About those swindlers." Papi then starts puffing on his cigarette instead of yapping at her.
Thank God! No. Thank Dante! The holy power of their music has been her salvation. She praises them silently as the song fades out.
"It's summer and I think of you. I would have caught you: each and every time..."
"You're right, Papi. I'll think twice next time before I buy a product from those, uh, swindlers."
"Good girl. If you need me, I'll be in the back, doing some paperwork."
YOU ARE READING
Crescendo
General FictionHow would you stop your world from ending? Sky St. James asks himself this very question when his perfect life as a rock star starts to crumble. As the lead singer of the notorious band, Dante's Inferno, part of Sky's job is to keep the band togethe...
