Jake, Josh and Danny were making dinner in the kitchen upstairs. Sam led me to the living room, to show me the house. It was really big and looked like there was still a family living there. It was clean, cupboards were full of books and photo frames, the whole interior looked cozy. Walls were covered with light, warm colors everywhere.
"I'm glad you agreed to stay" Sam said, we were standing in the living room.
"It's actually late, but thank you for driving me home, that's helpful for sure"
"Absolutely. It was obvious I would drive you home when I decided to take you to this forest" He smiled.
"Who's there?" I was looking at the family photo standing on the cupboard.
"It's Danny's family, they still keep many stuff in this house since they moved to smaller place"
We were sitting in the round kitchen table, I was between Sam and Danny. Most of the time they were talking about music and their rehearsal, which I didn't mind and I was listening to them with pleasure. Jake was paying a lot of attention to how they played.
"You can't just focus on playing Jake, I know it's fun but we need to pay attention for the details" Sam told him. Everyone almost finished their pancakes.
"We've been going through it for so long, now it's time to finally play rock and roll" Jake's voice was firm and full of confidence.
"Oh yes Jakey, because we haven't been playing rock and roll all the time, we're just some ya know, pop band or something" Josh ironically said and started laughing with a pancake on his mouth.
Jake looked like he was disappointed that his brother didn't support him. He gave Josh a serious look.
"You know exactly what I mean. We should break the rules, play, do more jamming. Now we play like some high school marching band following every note" Jake was intent.
"But we're improvising very often, Sam just played a new solo on the keys today" Danny joined the discussion.
"I like that solo" I responded. I didn't expect I would say that.
Everyone looked at me and I felt like there was too much attention on me.
"Thank you" Sam turned to me and gave me very polite look. Jake was still looking at me.
"Tatum was at the rehearsal. She has never heard us before so her opinion will be the most reliable" Jake said to the guys. Josh grabbed the last piece of his pancake.
"Tatum, what do you think? Didn't you feel like it was too boring for a rock band?" Jake looked at me, but he was polite.
"Umm no... I mean, I like it, seriously. It was amazing to see you playing" I took the glass and started drinking my juice.
"Tatum is a very nice person so she wouldn't want to tell you how irresponsible your ideas are" Sam responded to Jake.
"I think you should both guys calm down. Today we just played our new song, we should celebrate it. Besides, we have an honored guest today" Josh smiled at me and lifted his glass like he would be making a toast.
I looked at the watch hanging above the kitchen cabinets. It was almost 11 pm. I turned to Sam.
"Sam, I should really go..."
He looked at the same watch I was looking just a moment before.
"Of course, If you want to. I'll drive you home" He responded with a polite, caring tone.
"Tatum needs to go, guys."
