Ally threw a peanut into the air and caught it neatly in her mouth. She had gotten pretty good at it, and could do it for hours without missing a single one.
The truth was, she didn't have anything else to do. She was sitting at the piano with an empty piece of paper in front of her, but without Austin around, she didn't have anything to write. He was her inspiration. A simple word from him could inspire an entire song. Austin wasn't a songwriter, but sometimes he walked in the door whistling a tune that wasn't from any song and it wasn't from her, so he must have made it up himself. The song "Better Together" had come from a ditty Austin said he came up with in the shower.
She needed him. Austin hadn't been at school that day, and she'd texted him and asked him to meet her at the music store. Now she had to wait until he got there.
Footsteps bounded up the stairs, and she knew it was Austin just by the sound. He took two – sometimes three – stairs at a time, always loud and eager.
Ally knew something was different as soon as Austin walked in the door. His clothes looked normal, except his buttons were done even sloppier than usual, and his shoelaces were untied.
But what really stood out was his right arm. It was wrapped in an orange plaster cast from his elbow to his wrist, and a sling held his arm close to his body.
Ally stood up and knocked over the piano bench. "Austin! What happened?"
"I broke my arm."
"I can see that! But how? And where? And when?"
He crossed the room and used his foot to lift the piano bench upright. "This morning, while I was skateboarding. Didn't you get my text?"
Ally brought up the text on her phone, and showed it to him. It read, "La I bk mayy rm. emrgeeEkny rumm."
"Oh, yeah," Austin said. "That was my text from the emergency room. I had to use my left hand."
"That makes a lot of sense. I thought you were drunk," she said. "But I'm so glad you're okay. Did it hurt a lot?"
"Pretty bad. I broke my board, too. But at least I got this cool cast. And you can be the first person to sign it!" He pulled a black marker out of his jeans.
