Out of Tune: The Original 2015 Draft

chapter 7

Music is my religion

-Jimi Hendrix

It had been a month since that fateful day at the pizza parlor. And, while some things, such as the band's music had been steadily improving other things, such as my relationship with my step-father had been deteriorating so quickly that it was hard to know what exactly he was getting mad at me for each individual time.

Not a week after our initial fight, the day I had come home from Quincy's Pizza Emporium, Brad, for some unknown reason, at least unknown to me, took away my dad's guitar. He had put it in some storage locker, location and number unknown. Still, him taking my dad's guitar away only made me angrier. I put more effort into writing lyrics and coming up with chord progressions than I did worrying about Brad's angst with me.

A week and a half after he took away my guitar, I was put on house arrest. No leaving except for school and even then I had to be home by a certain time, five o'clock. So, nearly every day, me, Spencer, Miles, Zeke, and Charlie stayed late to work on our new songs and the covers we had been rehearsing. I was using an old guitar of Spencer's. It was cheap and refused to stay tuned, but it was better than nothing, so I suffered through.

To me, it seemed as if Brad knew that I was in a band and was trying as hard as he could to ensure that it didn't work out for us. But, Spencer and the guys were resilient and for every challenge he threw our way they combated with all the wisdom and skills they had accumulated while playing Dungeons and Dragons.

I didn't think things could get much worse, but then there was the fight from last night. I'd been late at school, rehearsing with the guys, and then the bus was five minutes late. I missed my curfew by only a minute and a half, but Brad felt the need to scream at me for an hour about how irresponsible I had been over the past few weeks. Of course, I had to be witty and shot a comeback at him, which resulted in me getting another week of house arrested added on top to the two I already left.

My mom, throughout the whole ordeal, had been standing by Brad's side; supporting her husband until death did them part. At that moment, I was kind of hoping that a bolt of lightning or something akin to it came down and struck Brad where he stood.

I blamed him for making me a violent person.

But, the worst part about the entire fight was that, and my mom fully supported him on this, if either of my 'parents' discovered that I was playing music in a band, ensemble, or even just a jam session, I would be worse than grounded. I would be allowed only to live in their house until the day I turned eighteen at which time they would kick me out of the house with no money and nowhere to go.

"You're kidding," Spencer said after I finished recounting my tale. It was lunch time and we were out on the quad, enjoying the sun. The other guys were running late, Charlie and Zeke were held up in their AP physics class and Miles was standing in the never-ending cafeteria line.

"Your mom wouldn't actually let him kick you out, right?" he questioned incredulously.

I laughed humourlessly. "I wouldn't put it past her. She hates music, all forms of it, with a passion. She can't even think of it without being reminded of my dad."

"If they kick you out, you can always come live at my house," he offered. "My mom already loves you."

"Thanks, Spence. I want to try to settle things with my mom, but I never even get the chance to talk to her alone. He's always with her."

Spencer nodded sympathetically. "So, what does this mean for the band?"

I bit my lip. "I don't know," I admitted. "I don't want to quit the band but you guys will never get anywhere if you can't perform. And you can't perform if I'm in the band."