"Help, it's Ashley." He passed me the phone.
Ashely: hey joshy! I had a good time today. I think we should go out by ourselves and do sometime this week! What do you say?
I sighed, then started forming a message.
Josh: hey, I'm super busy working with Tyler this week so I won't be able to hang out. Sorry.
I sent it without asking Josh for approval. He looked at the message, looked a little concerned, then just let it go.
"I just can't do that on my own, I feel horrible for saying no."
I smiled at him and lied across his lap on the couch. He played with my hair and hummed the same tune from a few days ago.
"What are you humming?" I asked, picking my nails.
"It's from our unreleased album. The songs called glowing eyes," he twisted my hair around his finger.
"You have an unreleased album?"
"Yeah, the kitchen sink song is on it. we put it out right as we were switching labels so you can only find it on YouTube. Can't be bought anywhere unless you wanna put a serious dent in your bank account." He smiled as he talked about it.
"Don't you have a copy?" I asked.
"Well yeah, I've got the CD. Tyler has that plus everything we've ever recorded on his computer. There's tons of stuff on there that nobody but us has heard."
"That's so cool. Most bands just record what's written for them." I picked at a hang nail, then pulled it out.
"I hate that." He untwisted my hair and smoothed it out on the couch.
"I feel like playing the ukulele again," I said with a smile.
"You should learn the drums, drummer girls are hot," Josh joked. I laughed and sat up, smoothing the static out of my hair. We went to the music room.
"Josh, I have zero rhythm, I can't even dance." I said as he pointed at the stool for me to sit down.
"Kyndall I can't dance either, and look at me. I'm totally awesome at drumming," he laughed, handing me two sticks. I was intimidated by the size of the set compared to me. There were so many drums and I didn't know what they sounded like.
"Stick with these three and you can make a lot happen." He pointed to the kick drum, the snare, and a two-sided cymbal on the left.
"I'm seriously confused." I said, looking back up at him. He grabbed the sticks.
"Okay, to the hi-hat cymbal in a steady pattern, then just find a way to incorporate the other two."
"Josh I can't do this," I laughed, tapping the hi-hat. Josh shook his head.
"Scoot forward, we'll make this work." He sat behind me and positioned is foot on the kick drum pedal. He tapped it a few times.
"Okay, I'm gonna do the kick drum, start with the snare and it hit twice as fast."
It took a few laughs and a lot of tries for me to finally get it.
"Okay, now put in the hi-hat where you think it sounds good."
I tried, I failed, throwing off the whole system. Josh started laughing as I did.
"I'm telling you I'm not a drummer." I laughed.
"Hold on, one last try, repeat after me. He grabbed his own stick and tapped a sudden, fast pace beat on the drum.
"That's from another song called ruby." He incorporate the kick drum in it.
"That looks hard." I said, holding up the sticks.
"Two beats, then the snare. Try it."
I started with the kick drum, two beats, then the pattern on the snare. It was a little slow, but steady. I smiled when I did it. Josh smiled too and got up from the stool.
"Just do that over and over and you've got it!" He said.
I messed it up on the second try. I sighed.
"That's enough, I'm really bad at this," I put the sticks back and stood up from the stool. Josh shrugged.
"I think you did pretty good," he smiled. I rolled my eyes.
||TIME JUMP||
My birthday was tomorrow. I was a little bit excited, but still nervous. I was really worried that Josh was going to spend too much money.
"Hey did you ever get that email from Phoenix?" Josh asked from the kitchen, making his coffee.
"Oh my gosh! I totally forgot!" I ran for his laptop on the couch and signed into my email. It was one of the first emails I had received. I clicked on it.
Congratulations! You are eligible for our online journalism program! Please use the link below to fill out the remaining forms and begin your courses at Phoenix online!
"Yes!" I yelled, standing up from my seat.
"You got in?!" Josh ran into the living room, steadying a cup of coffee.
"I did!!"
He set his mug down on the coffee table and embraced me in a tight hug while we jumped around, cheering.
"And you're for sure on this?" He asked.
"I wouldn't want it any other way." I smiled.
We kissed.
PROBLEMATIC: part 15
Start from the beginning
