Nowhere But You

Chapter 15

"You like that one?" River pointed at his friend Eli's guitar, a cream colored Strat, as they finished playing some sort of battle of the riffs.

"Yeah," Eli (whom River affectionally calls 'Little Wing') chuckled, knowing where this was going. "I kinda like it."

River raised an eyebrow and pointed at his own guitar, his good-old sunburst Les Paul.

"This one's clearly the better one."

"Nuh uh uh!" Eli laughed. "This one is!"

For the past few weeks, River and Eli, River's old friend from college who was a guitar virtuoso, had been meeting after work to jam for a couple of hours or more. Sometimes at River's attic, and sometimes, like today, at Eli's tiny apartment. It was an almost picturesque image to see Eli's tiny frame sitting cross-legged on the floor –still in his office clothes that looked more like a school uniform, with his long, stringy dark hair tied up in a low ponytail, just completely get lost in his playing.

Eli's boyish features may fool you into thinking he was a teenager, when in fact he was a year older than River. His eyes closed, eyebrows frowned, his fingers moving over the frets and the strings like each of them had its own mind. The room filled with melodies that would make Stevie Ray Vaughan jealous. Ever so often, River would just stop playing his own guitar to stare and listen to his friend. Eli never knew exactly what notes were coming out of him, he just let himself go. Hence, River taped everything with his tape recorder.

"Alright, man," River stared at his watch and got up from his chair to put his guitar back on its case. "I'm gonna head out."

"Hey, Reev." Eli called his attention as he got up from the floor.

"Yeah."

"What—" Eli stuttered, "What are we doing here?"

It was something Eli had been meaning to ask, ever since River first called him to see if he wanted to play together. He just went with it, but after a couple of weeks he began wondering how much longer they would just 'hang out and jam' before this became something more concrete... or not.

River started at him for a second, and then returned to carefully putting his guitar away.

"I mean, what are we?" Eli kept asking, his guitar still strapped around him.

"Dude." River looked up and scoffed, raising a hand. "No offense, I think you're a great guy, but I have a girlfriend."

Eli was more than used to River's sense of humor, so he was not amused.

"Very funny." He tilted his head to a side while he rolled his eyes. "I mean, are we like, a band, or—"

River shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted to play and get it out of my system, Eli." He pressed his lips. "To be honest, I still don't know—"

"These songs are good, Reev." Eli stated. "I've wanted to tell you that think we should make it more official, find other people, maybe make a demo..."

River chuckled, not sure on how to react. He fixed his hair with his fingers and tied it up in a ponytail, and then straightened his dark grey Bad Company t-shirt.

"Find someone to put lyrics into the songs." Eli finally unstrapped his guitar and walked towards River, who was already right by the door. "A rhythm section too."

River looked at his friend again with his hazel eyes open wide. Of course he wanted to keep playing. Of course he wanted to make music with him. Eli was like this hidden treasure nobody knew about. A trick under his sleeve. And a good friend too. He was right, how much longer would they just keep jamming at home? Was it time to start over?