Wesley
T he first I learned about the videos was at lunch with my mom. I still made a point of meeting up with her once a week, and I loved the validation she’d give. Well, that, and she had a gift for keeping me grounded.
“And we ended up falling asleep after the session. I was out for hours,” I explained between bites of fries.
She nodded, picking at her Caesar salad. “I know. I saw it in the video.”
“Video?”
“I like the new one. You kids seem to be having a lot of fun.”
“The new one?”
“Yeah.” She twirled a fry in the air humming the song we were experimenting with last week. “Catchy. Can’t get it out of my head.”
I choked on my drink. “Where did you hear that?” I asked when I managed to breathe regularly again.
“That YouTube channel Evelyn made for you. The videos usually only get a thousand views, but that last one has more every time I look. I’ve emailed it to everyone in my contacts.
” She took another bite. “It’s different from your other stuff, but it suits you guys better.
I can picture it on a massive stage with all these fireworks.
” She fanned out her fingers and wiggled them to imitate sparkles.
I paid for our meal once we were done. Mom made a fuss about it, but we’d gotten decent royalty checks from our single. I liked finally being able to take care of her.
Everyone was at the house when I got back. Jared and Luca were playing ping pong while Garrett was hogging our new computer to study. After some bickering, I convinced Garrett to save his work and let me look up the video.
On the screen, Jared started playing his guitar, then Luca added the drums. The lyrics fit, and Jared and I started dancing around the room, sharing the mic.
Garrett joined in and was even smiling. Avery came into the room.
When I saw her, I stuck the microphone into its stand, still singing as I took her hand and spun her around.
She rolled her eyes as I dipped her. She was in a pair of low-rise jeans that looked painted on and one of our merch T-shirts cinched in the back with a hair tie.
I couldn’t help myself. We danced and sang, jumping around until we were dizzy and the lyrics muddled into nonsensical improv.