coming along?"
I picked up an acoustic guitar, tuned it a little and began to strum the tune. I hummed along to the bits where I hadn't written lyrics yet. Despite being used to getting up in front of crowds of people without an issue I was a little embarrassed to sing in front of Danny.
"Nice tempo," he smiled, nodding his head. "Catchy."
I strummed quietly. "Yeah, but the chorus is missing something."
"Let's hear it, then."
I cleared my throat. “You said you'd get inside my mind, boy...you're running out of time, boy, running out of time...” My voice trailed off. “Stuck on the next bit.”
“Change mind to head .”
“Then it won't rhyme with time ”.
“Doesn't matter. That totally changes the composition of the chorus, gives you a new word to structure it with. Let's see.” He picked up his guitar. “You said you'd get inside my head, boy...you're running out of time, boy, running out of time...I don't just need you in my bed, boy, I need you in my life...I need you in my life...something like that?”
“Shit! That's awesome. I could kiss you.”
“Then why don't you?”
We looked at each other for a moment. “Awkward,” I murmured.
“It's that or a songwriting credit,” he laughed, sticking his cheek out for me to peck.
“Write a line, take a dime, huh? No chance.”
Fuck it , I thought. Kiss him. But if you're going to do it, do it properly.
I turned his face to mine and kissed him softly on the lips. They were warm and full, as delicious as I'd imagined they might be all those times when I had laid awake at night thinking of him, dreaming of snuggling into him in bed and falling asleep against his chest.
“Pastrami, bitches!”
We broke away suddenly as my halfwit of a brother came bursting through the front door.
Shit, Lucas. Not now...
"I hope you've got that song written, Lucy," he said, grabbing a loaf of bread. "You need to bring in some more royalties to keep this fridge stocked up."
"Get lost," I sneered. "And if you must know, we were making great progress until you came back."
Danny and I smiled at each other knowingly.
"Hey, don't let me cramp your style. You carry right on."
"Maybe some other time," Danny said, brushing a hand across my shoulder as he passed me. "Make me one, Lucas, will you? I'm starving. Besides, we can knock things on the head for now. Your sister is coming to the gig tonight, right?"
Gig? What gig? I looked at Danny, open-mouthed.
"Yeah, sis, you should come. See how the pros do things."
"Screw you, Lucas. Besides, which pros are you referring to? Not you two jokers I hope."
Danny laughed. "Seriously, Lucy, I'd love you to come."
There was a long pause that bordered on awkward before I offered up a meek response. "Maybe."
" Aww, I'm just joking sis," my brother said, munching his way through his beloved sandwich. "It's just a little intimate thing in The Civilian bar downtown. Trying out some new tracks, you know? We sent some private messages to local fans on our Facebook page. We don't want too many people turning up."
"There's room for one more , though," Danny smiled.
I was going to keep them guessing for a while, but deep down I knew exactly where I'd be going that night.
***
It’s so easy to let a little bit of success go to your head. Ever since I had a minor hit song – and a minor hit is still a hit, mind you – I started to believe I would be fighti ng off attention everywhere I went. Guys would be throwing themselves at me left, right and center, girls would want to be me – or would hate me because, you know, my ass was too big or my hair was too red. You know how girls are.
As I sneaked into the back of the crowd at The Civilian for Danny’s intimate gig, my new-found semi-fame may as well have never happened. No-one even looked at me. No-one . For a silly split-second I was almost crushed. Then I realized why. Not a single person was interested in anyone except the people up on that stage. My brother had his