But I never made friends and here in LA, I’m already settling. Otherwise, people don’t even know I play the guitar. The idea sounds great and Gary is a nice guy. But then I think of something else.

“Is Tina in the band?” I ask him warily.

“Yeah, is that a problem?” he sounds like he had already feared that.

“No, it’s not.” Yes, it is. I don’t want her to kiss me again. I have a girlfriend! I’m off limits, she should know that. You don’t want to be tempted by her. But it’s too late now. And you can be civil with her. You can be more than civil with her. Stop!

“So, you’d like to join the band?”

“Yeah, I guess I would. Wait, what kind of music do you want to make?”

“We’ll see, but we’re complete now and I have the idea most of us like alternative rock, you know. But we can add other stuff, we’ll try new things. We’ll see.”

“Okay. And what’s the bands name?”

“Shades of Silence.”

“Who came up with that? It’s a great name!” It does have a ring to it.

“I did,” he says, pride sounding in his voice. “I’ll give you a call with a time to meet. We can practice at my place, my parents are rarely home.”

“Okay, talk to you later. Bye!”

“Bye!”

…A Few Days Later….

I am sitting in Gary’s huge living room with my guitar. He has the first floor to himself. I look up as the doorbell rings. Everyone is there already, except from Tina, so it must be her.

Seth is the bass player, he looks like a cool guy. We haven’t really talked yet, but I have this feeling we’ll get along. Tuomas, who’s parents are Finnish, plays the keyboards. Lee is the drummer and Gary also plays the guitar. He jumps up excitedly and practically runs to the front door.

A few seconds later, both Tina and Gary walk in. It’s the first time I see Tina since the kiss and I gasp for breath. It’s almost as if I have forgotten how beautiful she was. She looks great wearing a simple black shirt and jeans. The shirt hugs her perfect body and the jeans look like they are made for her.

Tina leans closer to Gary and they kiss intensely. I can’t believe my eyes and my heart stops beating.

“Are they a couple?” I ask Seth in amazement.

He shrugs and frowns his eyebrows, clearly surprised I didn’t know that yet.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Oh, just because.”

Tina ignores me and I don’t know if I’m glad for that or not. We all talk about what music we want to make and agree we’ll start off with practicing some covers. We’ll make stuff of our own as well. We decide to do a song so we’ll see what the others are capable of.

When it’s done, Gary suddenly says: “Why don’t you play your song, Bette?”

I blush, why does he want that? “I don’t know… it’s kinda… personal.”

“We can’t force you,” Gary says, “I would just like it.”

“Just play the song already, Bette, it’s not like it’s a big deal,” Tina says in an annoyed voice that hurts me real bad. But I would do anything for her, I know that deep inside. So I play the song.