Black Honey

eight

"Oh wow!" I said. 

I had absolutely no clue how to respond to that except maybe to rip Sam's head off his body and feed it to the fishes. 

"Yeah it's a small world! Anyway, I should probably get back to work. It was nice meeting you, hopefully I'll see you around!" Carmen said, cheerily. 

I smiled and nodded. I had nothing against her, I was mad at Sam. She seemed too polite to be with him. I doubt that she knew all the things he had been up to. I tried to enjoy my fries and shake, but I couldn't focus on anything else beside my anger. Once my pencil lead broke from all the pressure I had been applying to it I snapped back to reality. I was gonna go see Sam. I paid my bill and headed out. Sam's house wasn't far from here, maybe half a mile, so I stomped straight over and rang the doorbell. It was 4 in the afternoon, so I didn't expect anyone to be home. His brother, Jake, opened the door. He was half clothed in boxers and an open robe, holding a cig between his lips and his hair was toussled. I couldn't help but look. 

"Hey, what's up?" He asked. 

"Is Sam around?" I asked, trying to divert my eyes.  

"Nah, he's out with some chick" He said, taking a puff of his cig. 

"Can I have a puff?" I asked.

"You smoke?"

"I do now" I cracked a smirk.

He laughed and handed me the cig. I tried to imitate how he did it. The smoke circled my lungs and I coughed so hard. That caused Jake to laugh harder. 

"Easy there, you'll only get more numb to that over time"

"I'm not sure I can keep the cool act up"  I laughed

"You're pretty cool without the cig, just be you" 

"Thanks"

"Hey listen, you wanna come in and wait for Sam?"

"Nah it's cool, I don't want to interrupt anything" I said, eyeing him up and down. 

He looked confused at first, but then got it. 

"No worries, I'm just playing my guitar. It's what I do when nobody is home" He grinned. 

"You play guitar?" 

"Yeah, a little" 

"Can I listen?" 

He nodded and opened the door wider for me to come in. I went in and followed him. He was set up in his room. I had never seen Jake's room. Hell, I had barely seen the house. Every time Sam had brought me over, we had gone straight to his room, as quietly as possible. Nobody knew I was ever over. Except when I had knocked into Jake on the way to the bathroom once. Jake's room was gray, but didn't look dull. The bed sheets were gray plaid, and the walls were lined with band posters and a few records. Books lined the shelf in the corner, some laying horizontally, as there wasn't enough room for all of them. I tried to take it all in, but it was impossible. Jake sat on the edge of his bed, pick in his mouth, tuning his guitar. He adjusted the volume on his amp, and started playing a riff. It had sounded somewhat familiar, but I couldn't quite remember where I had heard it. 

"What song is that? I've heard it before but I can't remember where I heard it."

Jake smiled at me from ear to ear. 

"What?" I asked, confused

"That song is an original. My band and I wrote it." He said

"You're kidding."

"Nope, it's called When the Curtain Falls." 

"What the heck? I didn't know you were in a band."

"Yeah, my twin, Josh is also in it. Along with Danny Wagner and Kyle Hauck, if you know them." 

"Yeah Danny and Kyle are in my band class! That's so cool. You guys are really good."

"Thanks! Do you remember where you heard it play?" 

"Um I think it was at Grooves down on main?" 

"That's awesome, I didn't know they were playing us there" 

"What's the name of your band anyway?"

"Greta Van Fleet" He said, proudly. 

"You guys are gonna blow up one day" 

He smiled at my comment. 

"Wait you said you were in band right? What instrument do you play?" He asked me.

"Well jazz band, I play guitar." I said, shyly. 

"Wanna give it a go?" He asked, holding out his guitar for me to play. 

"No, no, I can't play like you."

"Rock and Jazz are two very different genres, just because you don't play the same genre, doesn't mean you can't play" 

I couldn't argue with that. I took the guitar and sat next to him on the bed and started playing something from band. My teacher was such a tyrant that he had drilled the music into our heads. I hadn't even heard the door open, I just saw Sam standing in the doorway of Jake's room. 

"What the fuck, Y/N? My brother? Really?"