3 TOWNS, 4 HEARTBEATS [RINI AU]

ten

Following the completion of his newest soon-to-be hit "Only Angel" (which would probably be the next single off of the album), Ricky went right to the doctors to get his finger looked at.

He knew it was stupid, playing guitar with a broken finger, but the inspiration from the fateful Halloween night at Nina's apartment had him in a chokehold, and his mind couldn't focus on anything but the melody and the lyrics that were exact account of things that were not only done, but said word for word that night.

He and Nina hasn't spoken since that night, and frankly, at the moment, Ricky didn't care to speak to her. Her irrational actions and loyalty to her prick boyfriend bothered Ricky to no end, and he felt that maybe some time apart from her would do them good.

Their time apart, though, wouldn't be lasting long, because as soon as Ricky left the doctors office, his finger in a metal cast meant to keep his appendage from bending, a message from Nina came through.

Ricky re-read the message almost twenty times over throughout his walk back, he practically had the words memorized. He didn't want to respond until he had thought it over completely, unsure if asking to see her before she left would be the best thing to do.

Arriving back at his building, he drafted the response in the elevator, and even though it was more than flawed and not worded as eloquently as he would've liked, he sent it along.

Ricky allowed himself to let out a small laugh, but he didn't reply to the message. Suddenly Ricky had been forgetting what he was so upset about with her in the first place, when he nearly tripped over the sheet music to "Woman" that was strewn across the floor in an frenzy when he went to write a new song.

Right. Darren still exists. He thought to himself, as he began to gather up all of the loose sheets sorting the songs into finished and unfinished piles.

The "finished" (because are songs ever truly finished?) pile consisted of the songs like "Meet Me in the Hallway", "Woman", and his newest one, that he was able to mostly finish even with a broken finger, "Only Angel".

So far the "unfinished" pile was made up of one song, "Sweet Creature", which Ricky had tossed aside to make room on his music stand for one of his other songs.