" She said that she loved me," Alan Twitty said in a quiet voice to Louis Stevens.
It had been maybe twenty minutes since this all had happened and the girl still paced about the upstairs apartment on the phone with whom she had apparently claimed to be Jordan, her older brother.
" What?" Louis said with a smile. He was happy for his best friend.
" What did you say to her?"
" I…I didn't get to. She just said it and acted like it was an accident. Then the phone rang and she answered it. Then I came down the steps and walked into the crowd. Then I started talking to you. What am I gonna do man?" Twitty rambled on talking fiercely with his hands.
" Hey guys, where's Randy?" Tawny said as she approached the two.
" She's upstairs talking to Jordan," Twitty said.
" Brother Jordan?" Tawny asked, " Hmm. I'm gonna go up and check on her. This seems a bit sketchy to me,"
Tawny made her way through the garage to the door that held the upward stairs behind it. She turned the doorknob, pulled open the door and proceeded to climb the thirty-two steps to the living room of the apartment. There she found Randy sitting on the couch with her knees pulled to her chest, a stuffed dog in one hand, and the phone in the other.
" Okay. Jordan, no it's not your fault. All right. I love you big brother. Bye," Randy said and then clicked off the phone. Then to Tawny " Hey girl. What's up?"
" I'd like to ask you the same question," Tawny replied.
" Yeah, I've just been missing him," Randy said.
" I know it would take a little more than that to get out Roscoe,"
" Really, I'll be fine. C'mon, don't we have a party to get back to?"
It was after school about four days later; the Connection had met down in their usual spot in the Stevens's basement. They were waiting on the arrival of their lead singer, who was busy with one of her many after school projects.
" When she suppose to be getting here?" Twitty said from while he was hanging upside down over the couch.
" Like, twenty minutes ago," Louis answered. About that time, the phone rang upstairs and Eileen answered it.
" Hey, kids? That was Ren, she's running a bit late and said that you could start with out her,"
" Okay, thanks mom!" Louis screamed upstairs. He then took his seat behind the skins and snatched the sticks up off the floor, " Lets do this,"
" Okay, so, you want me to do leads for right now?" Randy asked as she positioned her bass.
" That's cool, babe," Twitty said.
" Alright," Randy said as she put herself in front of the center mic. She tapped the back of her heal to the music that they wailed out before letting out the first couple of lines of Sacramento Girl. When they were just getting into it, that's when Ren came running down the stairs.
" Hey, guys, sorry I'm late. Thanks Randy I can take it from here," she said as she basically bumped Randy out of the way.
Randy didn't say anything just looked at Tawny and arched an eyebrow. They just picked back up and continued playing. Everything was like normal. Twitty and Randy flirting and Louis looking for an opportunity to show off while Tawny kept professional. You know, the normal. Everything was going great until….
" Randy, you missed that note," Ren said suddenly.
" What?" Randy said standing up from the position that she and Twitty were in with their backs pressed against each other.
" That last note, you missed it," Ren said.
" No. I think not," Randy protested.
" Yes, you did. So lets go back over it,"
Randy purged her lips and furrowed her brow and played the note again in an angry manner.
" No, that's still not right," Ren said.
" It sounded fine to me," Twitty said.
" Of course it did. And I'm not trying to be mean, I just want it to be perfect,"
Randy shook her head and gave a sour look.
"What do you want to say?" Ren asked.
" What do I want to say? Here's what I want to say, you want it to be perfect? Fine, take the stupid thing and be perfect. I quit," Randy said and unplugged her bass and started up the stairs.
" Randy? C'mon," Twitty said as he yelled at her from the base of the stairs, " Come back here and work this out, please baby,"
" Just let her go, Twitty, she'll cool off in time," Tawny said, " Something's up and I don't know what, but I know its got to be family stuff,"
" Yeah, I don't know either, and its really bugging me that I don't" Twitty replied.
" Doesn't mean she has to take it out on me," Ren said.
" Hey, sis, why don't you just be quite for a little bit," Louis said.
" Why am I suddenly the bad guy here?" Ren protested.
" You're not," Tawny said, " Just cut her some slack, okay?"
Twitty let out a heavy sigh and got a very sad look on his face as he sat down on a step. He leaned back and stared at the ceiling. He felt like he had a huge gaping hole right through the center of his chest. Do you blame the guy though? Four days earlier, she'd told him that she loved him and he didn't know what to say. She acted like it was like she vomited the words out by the look on her face even. But, that was his normal way of doubting things.
He wanted more than anything to tell her how he felt too. But to be honest, he didn't know. He didn't want to say that he loved her just to say it back. That would be horrible. He wanted to tell her when he knew for certain that he did. All of this was new to him.
" Twitty? Twitty!?" Louis shouted at the boy.
" What man?" Twitty replied.
" You've been laying there for an hour almost. We'd like to get upstairs sometime,"
" Sorry," he said as he stood up and got a sudden feeling of swimmy head and found that his legs didn't want to work. This means he soon found himself on the floor, face down.
" You know, this love stuff is painful," Louis said.
" Could you maybe help me up off the floor here. I can't feel my legs," Twitty said as he flipped over onto his back.
" But this is too funny with you on the floor," Louis said.
" I'm not in the mood for funny. Now come one and help me up," Twitty pleaded with out stretched arms.
" No," Louis said as he started up stairs.
" This so isn't funny Lou," Twitty yelled, " Louis? Tawny? Ren? Hello? Hey, hello?"