The Treehouse

I Conversate with People who Know if I Flow on a Song I'll get no Radio Play

     •Tyler•

      Jenna and I wait at my car after school for Josh and Mark to come out of the building. Josh told me he wanted to meet me after school for something. I put a hand over my face like I'm gazing into bright light and squint my eyes at the  crowd streaming out of the school. "See them yet?" I ask Jenna.
   She peers into the distance. "There they are!" She points to the boy with flaming orange hair. Josh walks toward us across the parking lot with Mark trailing behind him.
   "Hey, what's up?" I ask Josh when he approaches.
  "Well, I was thinking that we could come to my house to go over some of our songs that would be in our set list."
   "But we don't have any gigs coming up."
   "Actually, Mark is working on that." Josh nods at Mark.
   I shrug and point at Jenna. "I have to get her home, though."
   "I can call my mom and ask if I can come over. I want to see you guys play," she says. "That is, if you don't mind, Josh. I've never been to you house before."
He shrugs, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "It's not a problem."
   Jenna nods. "Well," I say. "I guess we'll all head to your house."
   Josh turns to Mark. "It's your turn to get Taco Bell."
   He nods. "See you at your house, then." Josh and Mark depart and head to their cars as Jenna and I climb into mine. A cell phone is pressed against one of Jenna's ears.
   "Yeah...Tyler, Josh, and Mark....Josh and Mark are his friends...yes, Mom, an adult will be home....I'm not a little kid anymore, I'll be fine! I'm watching their band rehearse....you can trust them....I'll be home by six....Love you, too. Bye." She hangs up and looks at me. "Well, my mom is letting me go. I can't wait to see you guys perform!"
  I give a feeble smile, forcing a mask upon my face. "Thanks." She'll just hate your music. She's just doing this to make you feel better. She thinks your songs are annoying, but she's afraid to hurt your feelings by telling you that. You're—
   "Tyler? Mark is going to be at Taco Bell by the time we pull out of the parking lot," Jenna teases. I shake my head.
   "Sorry, I got lost in thought. Away we go." I turn the key in the ignition, and we're off to Josh's place.

    •Jenna•

   Josh lives only about two streets away from Tyler, so the ride home will be short. Tyler parks in the driveway after Josh pulls in and we all three climb out of our vehicles.
   "Welcome to my house," Josh says, gesturing to the two story building. He leads us through the front door and into the entrance hall. "There's not much to see. I'll just take you guys upstairs to my room." Someone clears their throat, making the three of us whip around. "Oh, hey Mom," Josh says awkwardly.
   "Hey, Honey, who is this?" Mrs. Dun's eyes land on me.
   Two round kids round the corner of the living room. "Ooo, did Josh finally get a girlfriend!?" A small girl teases.
   Tyler grabs my waist and pulls me to close to him. "No, he didn't." I blush.
   Josh rolls his eyes. "Jenna, meet Abigail and Jordan. Both are elementary kids that don't know how to mind their own business." Mrs. Dun laughs.
   "Well, it's nice to meet you Jenna. You look like a very nice girl. I'll let you guys go back to whatever you were doing."
   "Thanks, Mom," Josh says.
   "Yeah, thanks Momma Dun," Tyler replies, earning a laugh from Mrs. Dun. Josh leads us upstairs toward a door at the very end of the hall. I study photos hanging on the walls as we pass by. I suddenly knock into someone.
   "Oh, my bad," a teenage girl says. She studies my face for a moment. "You're new. Did Josh finally get a girlfriend?"
   "No, I did," Tyler declares.
   She nods. "Cool." She continues walking the opposite way down the hall.
   "That's Ashley." Josh points behind him with a thumb. "She's a year younger than me."
  "Interesting," I say. Josh pushes the door open to his room.
   He rubs the back of his neck and shrugs. "It's not the cleanest it's been."
   "It's okay," I reply.
    The three of us stride through the doorway and step around clothes strewn across Josh's bedroom floor, which he hastily tries to cram in a hamper. A drum kit and keyboard sit against the right wall under the window looking out to the street. A bed and dresser sit on the opposite side of the room. A calendar with crossed out days hangs on the above a desk parallel to Tyler and me, the red paint around the thumbtack chipping. I turn to see my reflection greeting me in the mirror of a closet door.
   "So, yeah, this is my room. It's...not much," Josh says sheepishly.
   "It's...cozy," I say, trying to find the right word. Tyler laughs.
   Loud footsteps thunder up the stairs, and Mark appears at the door with a Taco Bell bag in one hand. "I'm here."
   Josh, Tyler, and I plop down on the carpeted floor as Mark pulls out the greasy fast food.
   "So, what songs are we practicing?" Tyler asks around a mouthful of chalupa.
   Josh wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "I was thinking we could start off with Ode to Sleep." He glances at Mark, who nods in agreement.
   "Sounds like a plan to me," Tyler replies.
    I glance over at the drum kit. "Do your folks ever get tired of hearing your drums from downstairs? I'm not saying you're a bad drummer or anything. I was just wondering." I turn red.
   Josh laughs. "It's okay....um, I don't think they have, at least, they haven't told me. I know that Tyler's drum kit is in the basement, but we don't have one. I usually just play in my living room or here in the bedroom." I nod.
    After a couple minutes of eating, we all ball up our wrappers and toss them back into the Taco Bell bag. Tyler stands up and stretches as Josh goes to his desk and opens up a laptop. Mark joins him, leaving me to stand awkwardly in the middle of the room. I watch Tyler move over to the keyboard to turn it around on its stand to face me. He takes a seat on a stool and plugs the cord into the wall behind him.
   Josh plugs the laptop into a set of speakers by the desk. Mark pulls up a chair, a hand poised over the mousepad. Josh hops behind the drums and pull outs a set of sticks. He looks at Tyler.
   Tyler clears his throat. "Jenna, we have a very important job for you. Very important." He walks over to me and takes my hands gently while looking me deeply in the eyes with a very serious expression. "Would you...do the honors...of playing....the triangle." Tyler finally starts laughing; I can tell it was difficult for him to hold it in.
  "Tyler, I'd be honored." I start laughing myself.
   He grins playfully. "Great." He moves to the closet and opens the door, then starts rummaging through Josh's stuff. "Josh will cue you so you know when to play. It might not be for a while." He pulls out a triangle with a little metal stick to hit it with. "So, just stand over there by Josh," he says, handing me the triangle and pointing to Josh on the drums. He takes a seat at the keyboard and nods to Mark, who taps the mousepad.
    A weird computer-synthesized noise radiates from the speakers. Tyler joins in on the piano about thirty seconds into it, then jumps up.
   "I wake up fine and dandy, but then by the time I find it handy to rip my heart apart and start planning my crash landing,
   "I go up up up up up to the ceiling, then I feel my soul start leaving, like an old man's hair receding." (A/N: I don't wanna type out this whole song because I know you guys already know the words by heart).
   The music sounds all dark and depressing for about a minute, but then it takes a different turn and gets lighter, like the sun peeking out from behind a cloud. I get so lost in Tyler's voice and the music that I almost miss my cue from Josh. I come back to earth and hit the triangle with a ping every few measures. The music then plunges back into darkness as Tyler raps faster than I can probably run (A/N: story of my life right there). I figured out by now that the triangle is not needed in the dark parts.
   "...But I'll tell them, 'Why won't you let me go? Do I threaten all your plans? I'm insignificant.' Please tell them, 'You have no plans for me, I will set my soul on fire. What have I become? I'm sorry." Tyler's hands press down the keyboard's keys until the final chord fades to silence.
   "Tyler, that was amazing!" I cry. "Do another one!"
   Tyler grins. "You were pretty good at your triangle part, too." He looks over at Josh. "What song should we do next?"
   Josh shrugs and glances at Mark. An idea pops into my head. "Wait," I say. "When we were having the water balloon fight, you texted a hint to Zack and told me it was from a song. It was something like,'We'll sing a chorus, one that everybody knows.'"
    Tyler chuckles. "That's Forest. You cool with that, guys?" he asks, turning to Josh and Mark.
   "Sure," Josh says. I see Mark scrolling through audio files on the computer before finally clicking and opening one. He whispers,"1, 2, 3, 4." Then, the audio starts playing. Tyler and Josh join in, sounding amazing as ever.

    Tyler drives me home around 5:30 after some good practice time. We ran through two other songs besides Ode to Sleep and Forest. One was called Slowtown and another one that Tyler said was from the previous album was called Johnny Boy. Each song grows more beautiful as I listen to them.
   "So," Tyler starts, breaking the silence in the car,"did you like rehearsal?"
   "I loved it!" I exclaim. "Your music gets better every time I listen to it!"
   He blushes. "I'm glad to hear that."
   I stare out the window, my house coming in sight as we turn a corner in the road. "You still need to come over for dinner. My siblings are dying to talk to you."
    "I don't know why," he says, shrugging. "I'm just a guy."
    I slug Tyler in the arm. "Just a guy!? Excuse me? You are more than just a guy!"
   He glances at me. "Then what am I?"
  "You're the best guy I know! How can you not see that?" I question.
   Shrugging again, he pulls into my driveway. "I've just never really thought highly of myself."
  "Well you should, because you and your band have great potential."
  Tyler puts the car in park and opens his door. I climb out after him as he pulls my bag out of the back seat. He doesn't meet my gaze as he hands it to me.
  "Hey, are you okay?" I put a hand on his shoulder and use my other hand to raise his chin, forcing him to meet my gaze.
   "I'm not even sure if my band will get very far. We barely have any fans."
   I don't hesitate to step forward and hug him. "Oh cmon, this isn't the Tyler that I know. Forming a band is like...growing a plant. Or raising a kid, however you want to look at it. You have to feed it and nourish it. Just give it time. Believe in yourself."
   "Okay, I'll try," he mutters into my embrace. We break the hug and walk hand-in-hand to the porch.
   "See you tomorrow," I say with a sad smile.
   "But it's the end of today," Tyler replies. I laugh, resting a hand on the doorknob.
   "Goodnight."
   "Night."
   I open the door and step inside, then head upstairs to my room before I can make any other human contact. I really hope Tyler will be okay.

A/N: I didn't mean for this chapter to be this long, lol oops.