Indigo Blues by Danielle Joseph

voice on
the planet.
    I quickly sit up and turn toward the door. "Eli, ever
heard of knocking?"
    "The door was open."
    "Not the point!" I growl at him. Ohh, Tripp. "Sorry,
that was my brother."
    "Figured. Anyway, I got to run. Mom made me some
grub."
    I shoot balls of fire at Eli with my eyes. "Okay, yeah.
I'm going to tackle my English paper now."
    Homework on Friday night yeah, I'm cool.
    "See you tomorrow," Tripp says.
    "Totally."
    "Totally," Eli repeats. I hang up with Tripp and chuck
Fred at Eli. Big mistake. He scoops Fred up and says, "Oh,
Tripp, I love you." And makes this God-awful kissing sound.
MWAH.
    "How do you know I was even talking to Tripp?" I
sneer.
    "Well, I didn't think you were talking to Grandma.
Maybe Cat though." He grins.
    "Ha, ha. Don't you have anything else to do but make
my life miserable?"
    He tilts his head. "Nope. I'm cool with that."
    "Get out!" I scream.
    "Chill." He takes a few steps backwards, toward the
door. "But seriously, how well do you know Tripp?"

    "None of your business." I get up and grab Fred from
Eli before he's taken hostage. Besides, my answer is pretty
pathetic. It's taken me almost a month to get Tripp to ask
me out. I hope it doesn't take a month before I get to see his
ripped chest. "If you must know, we're going out tomorrow
night."
    "Does Adam know?"
    "Why should he?"
    Eli shrugs. "Didn't know if you guys talk about that
stuff. "
    "More like we don't talk."
    "Adam's a nice guy. Thought you might want to give
him a second chance."
    "Are you on crack? He wrote a song about what a bitch
I am. And I should give him a second chance? Puhleese." I
know my face is all red. Nothing new these days.
    "Don't have a hissy. He was just going through a rough
patch."
    "A rough patch? Since when did you become a shrink?
Why don't you try dating Adam?"
    Eli pulls out his little notepad and reads from it. "Okay,
but if you could say anything to Adam about this whole
experience, what would you say?"
    "I'm sick of this crap!" I slam the door in his face
before I can wring his neck, which by the way, is getting
harder and harder to do these days because we are now the
same height and I fear he will surpass me pretty soon.
    But seriously, whose side is Eli on?

     

'm the first one to the studio, with copies of "Sugar Rush"
stuffed in my backpack and my guitar in tow. Okay, so
that's nothing new, but today I have a renewed sense of purpose. I actually feel good about this. I'm running on four
hours of sleep, but the deprivation has not kicked in yet.
    Mike, the sound guy, is checking the equipment. He
gives me a high five. "Whassup, dude?"
    "Not much. Ready to roll."
    "Good. I'm almost done in here and Gina's on a breakfast run."
    Food does sound good right about now I take the copies of "Sugar Rush" out of my backpack and flop down onto
the couch. I read it over to make sure it actually makes sense
the day after. I pull out my guitar, too, and fiddle around with a couple of chords. The song needs to end with a bang.
Maybe Zach can come up with something. He's good with
finales.

    "Sounding good, bro." Tommy clomps into the room
in a new pair of Timberlands.
    "Nice kicks." Money burns a hole in his pocket. If
there's anything left over after he pays bills, it goes right
into his shoe fund.
    "Thanks. Just got them. Is that the new tune?"
    "Yeah, I was working out the last few chords."
    "Cool." He nods and goes to check out his bass.
    The door flings open again. "Who's hungry?" Gina asks.
    We join everyone in the entrance where she's laid the
food out on the table. Zach's already scarfing down a muffin. No food in the studio, so it's now or wait until break
time.
    "Got song?" Jack asks as he slurps down a chocolate
milk. He rubs the tip of the bottle against the top of his
mouth so that he has a mustache. That boy's sense of humor
is so messed up.
    Everyone keeps looking at me like I have the key to the
universe in my pocket.
    "Right here, man." I pat