Hey Sunshine

Figure Out How to Hot-Wire a Car

IT WASN'T LIKE HE NEEDED MONEY, Wylan thought as he imagined his bank account. There were a lot of disappointment his father had in stock for him, but he was ninety percent sure he wouldn't be left out of the house starving. Probably part of the reason his credit card still worked.

But he was going to need a job eventually (seriously, he was surprised his father hadn't cut him off yet) and so lo behold, there he was in an empty highly suspicious street awkwardly holding his flute and praying that it wasn't a secret attempt to lure musicians somewhere and plan a mass murder.

He thought back to the newspaper he had taken a picture of, and the happy couple in it, both grinning widely. The address was clear and in bold, so Wylan halfheartedly tugged on formal clothing and studied the address once more. He looked up at the street around him, and then at the address. His phone told him that he was on the right place, but as he looked around him, he couldn't help but question himself if was going to volunteer to photograph two members of the local mafia's wedding.

Nobody has luck that bad, he told himself. Nobody. Not even you Wylan.

But then again, he had somehow managed to get himself stuck in an elevator between two of the most sexually charged people he had ever been around, heard their confessions of love to each other, and then had to physically climb his way out of the damn thing. He wouldn't be surprised if it really was a wedding for the local mafia.

He looked at his phone for the address again before raising his head to see the bare buildings surrounding him. He was on a seemingly empty street, with leaves flying around due to the breeze. Even the sides of the buildings were suspicious - covered in half-hearted graffiti that spoke about equality and the evil government. The paint was long faded, and even the basic layer of building paint was cracking and layering off.

He tugged his phone out again and looked at the address. It had told him to go to the building on his left, but it looked like the shadiest of them all. He resisted the urge to call Jesper.

Screw it.

Switching to the message app, he dialed in the number of Jesper and pressed the phone to his ear, silently thanking whatever existed in the world for the idea of asking Jesper for his phone number after the trauma of the whole YMCA thing. A smile rose on his face as the beginning of the song began to play in the back of his head. Hastily he tried shutting it off once more.

"Hello?" Jesper's warm voice spoke and for a while Wylan wasn't sure whether it was just Jesper that managed to sound amazing all the time or his phone finally not ruining a voice.

"Hey, Jesper," Wylan started awkwardly. "Okay, so this wasn't meant to happen but I wanted to earn some money and I saw this advertisement in the newspaper that was like 'Musician for wedding needed' and I was like, hey I need money and they need music - easy but I got to the address and the building they want me to come in is chipped and honest to god looks like the mafia holds their meetings there and ohmygod I'm going to die like this Jesper." He took a long breath trying to reclaim all the lost air in his lungs. "I am going to die."

"Hold on merchling," Jesper said loudly, fitting his own soothing voice in. "You're not going to die, and I'm pretty sure Kaz has contacts with all the mafias around this area and Inej can probably convince him to trade you for something if you get kidnapped and why are we even talking about this? The mafia isn't going to release their address in the newspaper okay Wylan? It's okay. It's just a shady neighborhood."

"It's not okay," Wylan hissed. "It's terrifying and the buildings are all graffiti-ed and they look like criminal activity will happen there. I swear, it's not me being a rich kid right now, everybody here will immediately turn around and walk away and oh dear God I'm going to die like this and also a virgin and-"