The Arts

12 - The Bassline of Morality

ANDI

          She couldn't keep lying forever.

Eventually, Andi was going to have to either fess up to Robbie that she couldn't actually play the bass, or she was going to have to purchase an actual bass guitar with money she didn't have and just...learn to play it.

And that latter option sounded pretty darn impossible.

Still, Andi hoped for a miracle.

The last time Robbie texted her asking about another jam session, she faked sick. It was a classic fib, and it made Robbie a jerk if he was mad at her for that. Especially since, to some extent, it really wasn't that much of a lie. She had taken a nasty fall that last weekend due to an embarrassing over-consumption of weed brownies. Worse yet was not the fact that she fell, but why she fell and who she fell into.

Maybe a part of her always knew that she and Tyler weren't a good fit. They had always been on completely different planes of existence. Liking music was the only thing they had in common anyway. She couldn't help replaying the memory over and over in her head, or at least, what she could remember. After the fall, the rest of the night basically didn't exist.

Tyler had also started making it a point to ignore her after that. Not that they had ever had a conversation prior to Andi's shameful attempt of flirting with him at the party. But now it was like he wouldn't even look in her direction. When they were both in the same room it was noticeably tense and awkward. Andi was starting to hate the very idea of him. How could he be totally fine with making someone feel so awful for no reason?

Andi tried to shake the thought from her mind. That was three weeks ago. He didn't deserve to take up any more space in her head. She was his replacement in The Flaming Wolves now. That was both her biggest blessing and her biggest issue.

Another Saturday had rolled around, and Andi walked down the wing of practice rooms in the music building. One of the doors happened to be propped open, and Andi braced herself, thinking Robbie might be inside waiting for her. It was a shame that she couldn't come up with a convincing lie.

          Then a glossy,  deep red instrument caught her eye.

          Four thick strings; a long, dark wood neck; it was undeniably a bass guitar. And it was just...sitting there out in the open. Did it belong to someone? Or was it school property for any student to use?

          A wave of deja vu washed over Andi. She thought she had seen that specific bass before, but she couldn't quite place it. Maybe she had passed someone carrying it in the hallway? Either way, it confirmed what she had first suspected: the bass definitely belonged to another student, and taking it would be kind of a garbage move on Andi's part.

           That is, unless the owner in question didn't ever know that Andi had taken it.

           She'd only use it for jam sessions. As she stood in the empty room staring down the instrument, a series of justifications flooded her mind. She could just ask for a bass guitar for Christmas. So she'd only need to borrow this one through the next three and a half months. And if she only ever used it for jam sessions, then the chances of the owner needing it at the same time were slim to none. They probably had totally different schedules, anyway.

          Andi had never stolen anything in her life. Nor did she think she ever would. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

          She quickly surveyed the room and peeked her head out into the hallway to be sure no one was heading her way. Then, without further mental debate, she grabbed the bass guitar off of its stand and darted out of the practice room, slipping into the one next door where Robbie and Matt were waiting for her.