Me, You, and Mason

36

He couldn't sleep.

His body was tired— so tired— but his nerves were high. His excitement drummed and hummed, beading and rolling to the tips of his fingers. Chugging along from the fear in his heart to the core of his gut, balling up and hardening before finally sinking into oblivion. But only for a while before the very thought of performing would reawaken his adrenaline.

He called Melvin, who he knew better than to bother so late at night. But as he ran through every wrong scenario possible, he needed a bit of reassurance. Who better to give it than his drummer?

"Yo, dude. What'chu— I thought you wasn't workin' tonight. What'chu up for?" The man grumbled and whined on the other end of the phone.

"Can't sleep. We got the amps ready for tomorrow, right? Vic got 'em, right?" Sage, on the other hand, sounded as wide awake as an owl.

"Yeah, man. I know you ain't callin' me 'bout this show tomorrow."

"Of course I am. What am I, crazy?" He scoffed.

Melvin kissed his teeth.

"Yo, you sure you got the setlist down? We was makin' a lot of changes these last couple days."

Melvin rolled his eyes, "Yeah, nigga. It's only a few songs for real. Come on."

"What are they?"

"Dude, you tryna quiz me right now? Come on, Sage. I got another gig to worry about, remember?"

"That tour ain't for another couple days. You got enough time to readjust. Besides, you was the one askin' me to challenge you, right?"

"Challenge me, not call me in the witchin' hour, mane!" He hissed.

Was it really that late? Sage looked at the time. 2:53 a.m.

"Look, foo'. It's 'Heart' then 'Up' then 'January'. Happy? Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Yeah, but—"

"You stressed. I get it, dude. But next time, go do some damn jumpin' jacks before you call me at critical hours. I thought somethin' happened, you callin' me at damn 3:00 in the morning."

"My fault."

"Yeah. Get some rest. Night."

With that, the call disconnected.

Sage took a deep breath as he resumed pacing along his bed. He thought he'd tire himself out, but as he walked and spun his brain until his thoughts ran together, there proved to be no remedy.

Until his phone vibrated.

It was Darcy-Ann, a different picture of her now popping up on his screen. He recently came across a memory in his camera roll and saw it only fit to make it her new contact photo. It was a picture taken on the Fourth of July, her broad smile beaming with her cheek squished against his.

Simpler times.

"Hey."

"Oh, you're up," she said, surprised.

"Yeah. I can't believe you're up though."

"Couldn't sleep."

"Well, you better get'chu some rest before we miss our nail appointment tomorrow. Right?"

Her voice was melodic as she began, "Actually..."

A smile found his face at the tune.

She continued, "I thought I'd paint 'em for you."

"I thought you ain't want to," he teased.

"Yeah, well, I had a change of heart."

"How convenient."