The Middle | ✔️

Chapter 61

Jamie

A couple of weeks after Jays house party, and things are ticking along pretty well in the life of Jamie. The morning after the party, I had some explaining to do with my friends. Everyone wanted to know where I disappeared to so early, and I gave them the half truth. I told them I went home because I'd had a fair drink and I was tired. I didn't mention Shaun Campbell though. I still don't know exactly why I'm not telling my friends about him, but it's fine. Nothings gonna happen with him, so there's nothing to tell.

Kim spent most of the night with Zach, and she's been seeing him pretty regularly since. She still hasn't slept with him, and I've been extremely supportive of her decision to make him wait, knowing what I know about him. I've been true to my word and I haven't told her about the sharing game. But, like I said to Noah, I will tell her if I ever so much as suspect foul play on Zach's part.

Aubrey and John are still going strong of course. They haven't slept together yet either, and it's a subject that Aubrey is a little sensitive about. She's not a virgin, but she's only done it once before, last year. I think she's a little nervous because she's probably thinking what the rest of us are; there is a very good chance that John is still a virgin. It's totally cool if he is, it's so not a big deal. But still, it makes sex a bit of a touchy subject for Aubrey. We don't ask, and she doesn't tell, but I think she will tell us when it does finally happen.

Much to my dismay, Aubrey asked me what happened with Noah at Jay's party. Turns out he'd asked around at the party because he was looking for me. Aubrey and John seemed to think he was rushing over to my house to declare his undying love for me or some shit. Yeah, right. I set them straight. I told them he just wanted to apologise for a shitty conversation we had had, and that was all. And that's it. I haven't talked to him since (we've both kept our distance from each other in English Lit class). I'm aware that we really do need to talk, in the interests of not failing English Lit, and we will talk soon. But these past couple of weeks, I've been happily distracted by other things.

The guys and I finally got some studio time at NBU, and I am proud to inform that we finally have our music on Spotify! It is beyond fucking exciting, and it's the reason I've been smiling so much lately. Being able to listen to our recorded music is fucking undescribable. I can blast Sensitivity in the car and sing along at the top of my lungs, I can put on Dream Without the E and get lost in the emotionally provocative lyrics Jay wrote about Erin, I can listen to Mediocre Fuck and laugh at the memories of me and Will. It's the most incredible feeling in the world, and seeing our listens go up and up on Spotify is so fucking cool too. Knowing that other people are downloading our songs and listening to them and enjoying them is so incredible. Without a doubt the coolest thing that has happened in a while.

It took 8 long sessions in the studios on campus to get most of our songs recorded to perfection, and I'm not stupid, I know that putting music out there digitally doesn't come without a cost. We're independent, obviously, so we don't have the financial backing of a record label. We do, however, have the financial backing of Moneybags Montgomery. Joel, Patrick and I begged him to let us contribute to whatever the cost was, but he wouldn't hear of it. He assured us that it wasn't that expensive, but I know he was playing it down. Patrick and I even went behind his back and asked his mom about it. She totally brushed us off and told us not to worry about it. She supports us, which is extremely cool. She told us our music is a good investment. So Patrick told her that every penny will be paid back just as soon as we start earning any money out of this thing. I whole heartedly agreed.

So right now, I'm on my way to the music building on campus, studio 4 to be specific, for our final session. We only have one more song left to record, and it's the newest one we've written, Apples and Oak Trees. Jay came up with the name, and all of the lyrics. I helped him write it. It's pretty slow and emotional, and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that it's about Erin, like pretty much all of our other songs. We haven't asked Jay to explain any of the lyrics (we never do) but I was curious about the title. None of the songs lyrics refer to Apples or Oak Trees, so it's a seemingly random title. His reply was simply "Did you see any oak trees in New York?" to which I simply shrugged my shoulders, but it made a little sense. Apple, as in The Big Apple, New York. And my guess is that oak trees are in reference to the either the North Bridge park, or Jays back yard. Whatever that's about, I have no idea. I thought it might be about what Erin carved into one of the trees in the park when we were younger (E + J), but Jay doesn't know about that as far as I'm aware. It's an awesome song, anyway. I'm super proud of it.