IV

Zeke

"Zeke! Get back here now. Why can't you just talk about things with me instead of just storming off to the shed every time!"

"Talk about things? All you do is yell!" I was exasperated, "I have to walk away because, otherwise, I might rip my own hair out."

"Well, you can't just storm off to your bedroom every time I say something you don't agree with." My Mum yelled after me as I marched away from the dining table.

"Watch me." I spat, storming off.

I slammed the kitchen door shut as I left, the sound vibrating through the house. I left the house, barefoot, and walked across the garden to enter my shed. Or rather, my room. I locked the door and grabbed my guitar, playing for a while and screaming into the mic to blow off some steam. Every dinner ended like this.

It was the reason why I tend to just eat in my room.

I felt bad for my little brother, however, trapped in the firing range. He's only a year younger than me, and yet so different in every way. Eli had always been a sort of mystery to me. He always had his nose buried in a book and kept to himself for the most part. He never intervened between Mum and I and just ate his dinner in silence before going upstairs.

We looked drastically different, too. I had been bleaching my hair white since I was about fifteen, but he'd kept the natural colour we used to share, a light brown colour. He enjoyed skateboarding and indie music and that's about as much as I knew about him. We definitely weren't close because I don't think Eli is close with anyone; he's more shut off than I am.

I flopped down onto my bed with a sigh, sinking into it. I noticed my phone flashing and I rolled over, picking it up.

Elijah: Hi.

A smile spread across my face. I knew for a fact that Elijah had probably got himself really worked up over the simple text. I was impressed that it only took him six hours to text me this time. I could guess that he was uncomfortable texting, so I pulled up his contact and, with a fuck it attitude, I rang him instead. I knew he was the type to sit anxiously by his phone, waiting for a reply to his text, because he picked up straight away.

"Hi, cutie."

"Um, hi." His quiet voice came through, making me grin.

"You cashing in that date?" I stared up at the ceiling whilst talking to him, "When are you free?"

"I'm free Saturday." He mumbled, making my heart hurt.

He sounded so innocent and shy.

"Eh, I've got a gig Saturday, so I'll be busy. I mean, you could come if you want to. I'm not sure if it'll be your scene, though." I offered, "You could sit in the wings of the stage instead of in the crowd, if you want?"

He paused for a while and I could tell he was beyond nervous. I was about to retract my previous offer and rearrange to sometime next week, on a more normal date, but then he surprised me.

"Sure. Sounds good." His voice had a small burst of confidence and I raised my eyebrows, my eyes practically twinkling with interest.

This boy was full of surprises, like nobody I'd dated before. They had taken an interest in my music.

"Great. I'll pick you up Saturday night then. Text me your address." I was grinning goofily and I couldn't hide it.

"Okay. Bye." His voice was soft and very smooth.

It was like music to my ears, as cheesy as that sounds. I could listen to him talk for hours and I fully intended on making that happen.

"Bye, cutie." I hung up and threw my phone carelessly somewhere on my bed.

I picked up my guitar and notepad and started to write a song. Lyrics came to me easily and I went along with it; this song was easily shaping up to be one of my favourites that I had ever written. We had band practice tomorrow so if I finished it tonight then we could probably add it to our set list. I strummed a few chords and nodded, writing them down.

It took me all night, but I eventually finished and felt happy with the result. I strummed out the whole song and sang along and my heart soared; it was perfect.

I picked up my phone and pressed record, playing the chords and singing out the lyrics to the song I had just written. I then sent it to my band's group chat and was instantly met with approval from the band members and Bettie. Of course she was in the band group chat; she was our number one fan and we wouldn't have it any other way. The group chat that night was filled with Danny shooting us videos of the drum beat we could use and Dave figuring out the bass to go with it. I could hardly wait for rehearsal tomorrow to try it out all together.

Suddenly my phone began to ring and I furrowed my eyebrows picking it up. Dave?

"You're a lyrical genius." Dave said as soon as I picked up the phone, "I can tell you took inspiration from a certain dirty blonde. Did your muse finally text you?"

"My muse is coming to the gig on Saturday." I played along.

"No fucking way! We have two roadies now?" Dave gasped, "Admittedly, one is a forty-eight year old woman and the other is your boyfriend but still: two roadies!"

"He's not my boyfriend. We haven't even had a first date." I said, "Now it's late and we have practice tomorrow. Get lost."

"Sorry to keep you from your sleep, your majesty." Dave teased, hanging up.

I fell back against my pillows and looked up at the ceiling once again. I felt a grin slip onto my face as I thought about the lyrics of the song and how they matched the dirty blonde boy coming on Saturday night.