Out of Tune

Chapter Twenty-Three

"What do they want to know about us?" Spencer asked Taylor.

She shrugged. "The usual. How you all met, why you started a band, what your plans are for the future. That kind of thing." Taylor swallowed a bite of her lunch and then added, "Also, on the weekend while you guys were getting ready for your performance, I reached out to a few of the local radio stations here in the city asking how we would go about getting your music on the radio. They do some amateur-hour type shows and said that if we send them good audio recordings then they might put it into the rotation. No promises, but I need you guys to go over your recordings and see which ones we could send out."

Lennon blinked at Taylor, stunned at all of these progressions. When they'd hired Taylor on as their social media coordinator, Lennon had hoped that Taylor might help them get a little bit of exposure to reach audiences that performing at Quincy's couldn't accommodate.

She'd never anticipated this.

It was abundantly clear that while Lennon, Spencer, Miles, Zeke, and Charlie had been learning how to work together and act as a single unit onstage, Taylor had been doing learning of her own. Not only had she become exceptionally proficient with handling their social media accounts, work like this – coordinating with The Diane Furley Show and reaching out to radio stations – made it clear that she had earned the title of Band Manager that she self-proclaimed a few weeks earlier.

"We'd be lost without you," Lennon said to Taylor. "Like seriously lost."

Taylor winked. "Oh, I know."

"Please tell me that you're not still planning on working for your dad's tech company one day. You're way too good at this kind of work. Managing bands, coordinating people, dealing with schedules and events and everything else that we've thrown at you. Even if Imagine Reality never goes farther than we are right now, I think you'd be able to find another group or person to manage."

"Well, I have been exploring other options for college," Taylor admitted. "There are a few schools I've been looking at that have music and art management major options. I'm thinking of maybe trying to double major – business and management or public relations. But if I've already missed most of the application windows for most schools. A few have later admission or rolling applications, so I'm exploring my options."

Lennon grinned but it was Charlie who said, "Glad to hear it."

"Yeah," Miles echoed. Then he looked at the other boys and said, "Tell me again why we didn't invite girls into our band sooner? We work at it for three years and nothing happens. They show up and shit gets done."

Everyone all laughed just as the bell rang, signifying the end of their lunch period. As they packed up, preparing to face the onslaught of people no doubt crowding around lockers and outside of classrooms, Spencer took the chance to sidle up next to Lennon.

"Miles is right, you know. You and Taylor show up and everything changed in a major way."

"You guys weren't doing too bad before. You managed to convince Quincy to give you a chance before I did anything."

"And we would have crashed and burned without you," he said with a flash of a grin and a roll of his eyes. "You changed everything, Lennon. We're – I'm – really lucky to have you around."

Lennon thought back to how it had all been when she'd first arrived in Los Altos. How alone she'd felt, the way that life had seemed to have leached out of the world, almost as if it had never been there in the first place.

There were still parts of her that were cracked and broken – the lines of grief running deep. She had talked to Anna about it briefly, leading Spencer's mom to reach out to her therapist and help book Lennon an appointment for later in the week. Though Lennon had no idea if it would truly help, it was a step in the right direction.

That, combined with all of the music therapy she'd been doing these past few months had brought joy back into Lennon's life. A lot of it could be traced back to the band and to Taylor but Lennon owed most of it to Spencer. His unwavering friendship, the steady and quiet strength he carried, the way he was content to listen, and when he allowed the silence to wash over Lennon like a warm, comforting blanket.

Sometimes, he was better at reading Lennon than she was at reading herself. It was a feeling she wasn't altogether comfortable with yet as it had the ability to throw her off guard.

But more often than that, Lennon looked at Spencer and it was as if she had known him for longer than what had truly transpired. As if she'd always been destined to wind up here with him and the rest of their friends. As if she'd somehow been searching for him and hadn't known it until he was right in front of her.

So, Lennon smiled and squeezed Spencer's hand. "I'm lucky too, Spence. More than you know."