I grabbed my green acoustic and sat with it in my lap. “It’s a little slower in tempo, but more upbeat.” I told him.
This song called for fifths in the verse. Two power chords played twice each with a muted pick rhythm in between.
Naomi grabbed the mic, nodding her head to my strums. “Sweet little Jane was caught in a rut. She went too far and never paid up. And the street corner won’t give a dime to Daddy’s little girl with the misty eyes.”
I glanced over at Justin. He stared back with the hint of a smile on his face. My fingers slipped. “Oops.”
She launched into the bridge, a spoken-word part repeated twice. “There’s no God fear and no sky to reach. Are my words silent shadows or just obsolete?”
I avoided Justin’s gaze as I shifted into the chorus. It wasn’t punchy like the verse, calling for more of a dramatic riff.
“She waits for the dawn… with her lace gloves on. She said revolution. Cleanse the streets, unveil the mask of sweet pollution. Yeah, she waits for the dawn. Her time will come.”
Justin played three high notes on the piano and colored them in with two bass chords. It gave the song a little more elegance. He kept it simple, as if he knew too much sugar would ruin the mix. I really liked that about him.
“What time is it?” Naomi asked suddenly.
“It’s just after five,” Justin said.
And from the sour odor wafting down the stairs, dinner would come too soon.
“I gotta go.” She snatched her backpack. “You going to put ‘Invisible’ up tonight?”
“Planning on it. I just have to do a little mixing and mastering,” I said. What I really wanted to say was, Don’t leave me alone with Justin. I can’t even look at him right now.
“Cool.” She gave Justin and me a quick hug before sprinting up the stairs.
The door clicked shut. I faced the computer.
“Do you want to work on something new?” he asked.
“That’s okay. I think this will keep me busy for a while.” I labeled Naomi’s latest vocal.
“Should I go, then?”
No, I like being around you. Yes, because I think I like it too much. Maybe, because I don’t know what else to say. “Do you want to go?”
His footsteps came up behind me. Soft and hesitant. “No.”
I bumped the mouse, undoing my last action. “Um, okay.” Edit-redo. “Just so you know, what Kari said about the locker room thing. I don’t talk about you. Naomi does and—”
His breath tickled my ear. “I don’t care.”
I accidentally deleted my bass track. Undo. Wait, wrong menu. “What would you like to undo? I mean, do?”
He looked at the computer over my shoulder. “I could watch you work your magic.”
“I need the earphones for that.”
“Sweet.” He grabbed the back of my chair and rolled me toward the keyboard. “Door-to-door service.”
I gripped the armrests. “Um, thanks.”
He moved his chair to my right. His arm pressed into mine as he sat down. “What song do you want to learn?”
“How about one of yours?” I tried to keep my voice even. Interested. But it probably came out over the top.
“Okay, I’ll teach you the first one I wrote. It’s really lame, but easy to learn.”
“I doubt it’s lame.”
He took my left hand and pressed my fingers into three notes. “This is A-minor. Your first chord. Just keep playing A-C-E-A-C-E.”
I played each note as he directed until I found a rhythm.
“You got it.” His hand hovered over mine again. “Now move your pinkie back to the G and play G-B-D the same way.” He instructed me to move down to E-minor, then up to F before returning to A-minor. It was hard to focus with him so close, especially when he smelled like rain again.
As I got the hang of the bass notes, he played a sparse melody in a higher octave, following my unpredictable rhythm perfectly. “You’re a quick study,” he said.
“Whatever. I keep hitting the wrong notes.”
He touched my nose. “That’s because you’re thinking too hard. Close your eyes.”
“Then I won’t be able to see what I’m doing.”
“That’s the point,” he whispered in my ear. “Sometimes the only way to connect is to let go.”
I shut my eyes, trying to detach my brain from my hand. No easy feat. Justin played a few more notes. These
