Suzie’s House 557 : Sound Reasoning

“Do you sometimes get the feeling our luck is a bit too good,” Emma said.

“Yeah. All the worst stuff we do to ourselves.” Justin looked morose. But that was to be expected.

She felt sorry for him. Even if he didn’t say much about it, she could tell he felt responsible for Kate leaving the band, even though Kate hadn’t really said anything official. She just never showed up or answered anyone’s calls or hung out with them at school anymore.

A part of Emma wanted to scream at her friend for being like that. But when she though back to how Kate acted in middle school, it was no surprise. Kate just went back to doing the kinds of things she always did – sitting wound with her friends gossiping and being snarky.

For a second she considered joining her at their old haunts. The thought just made her feel tired. Wasn’t it those sick friendships that made her want to throw up all day every day? Wasn’t their snark and condescension half the cause of her nervousness?

Better to be here without her than try to go chasing after her again. Besides, Bruce was actually better at kit drums than Kate had been.

Still, if Kate wanted to come back, Emma wouldn’t mind it any.

Ah, she was getting distracted. Everyone was talking about Peter’s offer to pay for everything to cut this song, and the sound man Pete was saying something about Peter not having the money.

“Yes he does,” Emma said without thinking. “He’s probably rich enough to buy that whole new building they just build across the street from the capital – the one what has the bank and the MacDonald’s and stuff on the first floor.”

“Are you talking about the Brinkly Building? Actually, I’ve got a partial share in that venture. How’d you know?” Peter smiled, but his eyes were narrow.

“I kind of overheard you talking on the phone.” Emma couldn’t quite meet his eyes even though it really wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t like she asked him to be making business calls at the breakfast bar which she was getting a bowl of cereal.

“Now I feel bad,” Pete said.

“Why?” Tracy was the one who said it, but they were probably all thinking it.

His face worked through a whole bunch of expression, a lot of which weren’t really fun to look at. Emma wondered if he knew what he looked like. Probably not, but it wasn’t a big deal. Just part of who he was. They all gave him a minute or two to get it out.

“Alright. That settles it. A song like this should be heard by everyone in the world. Maybe it will even change things so this is a better world to life it. I won’t just donate my time. I don’t have much, but I’ll help pay for it, too. Plus I have some connections. I can get you a newspaper interview so you can tell everyone about the album and this song and everything.”

It kind of made sense. Pete was always talking about how he wanted to make the world a better place. Plus the song was about not really selling out when everyone thinks you are. Or maybe more about how you end up selling out when you think you aren’t, depending on if you were asking Bruce or Tracy. Gene was the one who wrote it, but you could never get a straight answer out of him.

“A newspaper article?” Tracy perked up.

“I don’t know. That’s only local,” Bruce said, looking all serious for several seconds before he grinned.

“Ok, but, what do you think? Do we need to redo the song?” Emma more than half hoped they’d say yes because she had a better idea about how to sing it and wanted to try.

“Sure. No one else is scheduled for this afternoon anyway,” Pete said like he hadn’t been harping on them about getting out fast enough before.

No one stuck around to argue. They all ran back to their instruments.

Their luck really was a little too good. But Emma wasn’t about to say it again. She just knocked on Tracy’s guitar as she walked past, just in case.

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