I walked back to town with more quartz the next day, with vigor in my step. This was seriously getting done! It was barely going to be three days, and my old farm was going to be an aesthetic wonderland of produce!

I was so lost in my drive for completion that it took me passing by the clinic before I picked up on what sounded like… some sick guitar riffs coming from somewhere. They were muffled, as if they were coming from within a building.

Did the saloon ever have bands come in to play, I wondered? How much space was there in the place for a band to play?

Then, the riffs stopped. Suddenly. They hadn't even played a complete piece of music, and that was easy to tell. This wasn't a performance; this was practice.

Who did I know that practiced a guitar?

The thought didn't cross my mind yet. I shrugged it off and headed for home.

I couldn't even take a step before the guitar boomed from whatever building it was being played in again, but this time, there were some additional notes that sounded like they were being played by a different instrument. I stood in the middle of the path and tried to pick out what that instrument could have been.

The music had to stop for a minute and start again before I realized that the second instrument was a keyboard, or some other kind of electric piano.

Then, it occurred to me. What other circumstance is there for more than one instrument to be playing the same music over and over again, stopping abruptly and starting over again?

I immediately knew who had the guitar, at least. And I could make an inference as to who was playing the keyboard. Sam had said he and Sebastian were "trying" to get a band together, and after hearing a bit of their material, I started desperately hoping they made it big.

Then, a feeling I could only describe as a lovesick spell came over me. I felt a weird sort of stress, a light and fluffy one, make me want to keep hearing the music. Like, this was some bomb stuff, but… that wasn't all there was to it, you know? He was making this music, partly.

I even started visualizing what it could have looked like, him holding the guitar and making these sick riffs. What sorts of facial expressions was he making? Did he look more passive, or did he really get into it?

So I saw the river, remembered the pole in my bag, and knew what I had to do. Actually… had I even fished at the river before? Maybe I could find some new stuff.

That's precisely what I did. Every new specimen I pulled up, I examined with curiosity before stashing it away.

And the whole time, I listened to the song Sam and Sebastian were putting together from within Sam's house.

At one point, something sorta unusual happened. A melody started coming to my own head. A melody to the music that was already happening. It was a short melody, maybe two bars at the most, but it was there.

I started out by humming it whenever the part of the song it belonged to came by.

Eventually, I started thinking of perfect ways to add on to it, and did so.

Soon, they were playing an entire song. And I was humming an entire melody.

The sun was slipping beneath the horizon at the point when I started singing the melody aloud, in a "la la la" form, not too loud, but enough for it to feel like I was really singing.

Soon enough, it was 11pm, and I was starting to feel a bit drowsy. The music had stopped, and I was waiting for it to continue again, reeling in fish one by one. Were there any lyrics I could put to this melody, I started to wonder?

Just as I started to seriously reach into my mind to come up with the right words, I was jarred back to reality by a loud noise. I physically jumped a little, having to fumble with my fishing rod to prevent dropping it into the river.

As my head unscrambled, I looked around to see that Sebastian was walking away from Sam's house, and registered that the loud noise must have been the front door. It wasn't even that loud; it just jarred me out of the repetition I had gotten so used to.

Sebastian saw me sitting there, looking at him, and said "Oh, hey."

"Hey," I said, internally still trying to compose myself. "How are you doing?"

"Okay, I guess," he shrugged. "…Were you… listening?"

My heart skipped a beat. I hoped I hadn't just shattered one of Sebastian's boundaries by hearing him play.

"Yeah," I answered. "You guys are seriously good. Like… I hope you guys get super big."

"Thanks," Sebastian replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

I turned away, putting away my fishing pole, thinking he was done talking to me and was going to head home now.

But as I zipped my bag, he asked "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," I said.

He then walked over to where I was sitting and sat next to me. This must have been serious if he was going to do that. My heart sped up a bit as I tried to go over the possibilities.

"If I disappeared," he asked. "Would it really matter?"

Well, that wasn't good.

"It would," I replied. "I haven't talked to you much, but… from what we have said to each other, I think you're an interesting person. There'd be a certain personality that would be missing from this place if you left."

I was overcome with an embarrassed warmth, one like "What was that? Why did you say that in response to his talking like that?"

He did a "tch" sort of thing. I initially thought it was best for me to shut up and leave, as if I had fucked up.

But then, after a bit of silence, he said "Alright." Not in a sarcastic way, but as if he maybe picked up what I was putting down. I had to catch myself to stop from breathing a sigh of relief.

He then said "I'm sorry, I'm probably being a bit dramatic."

I made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

I spent the next few seconds looking down at the water, thinking of what to say next. Sebastian, of all people, hadn't gotten up to leave yet. He wanted to talk, then, right? For all I knew, he could have needed it. He ended up beating me to the punch.

"Sam says a lot about you," he said.

My whole nervous system skipped a beat.

"Sam?" I asked, trying to play dumb. "Really?"

Was Sebastian… smirking?

"Yep," he said. "Says you're really cool, funny… stuff like that."

My mind was holding a list of all the different articulations of "What the hell?" and reading them off individually.

"That's… nice of him," I replied.

"Yeah," he said.

A few more seconds went by.

Then, he said "You two are probably my only friends in this town, if I'm being honest."

"Really?" I asked. "I mean, I understand Sam, but-"

"You're cool," Sebastian answered. "I'm… almost sorry we don't talk more often."

"Almost?" I laughed.

"You know what I mean," said Sebastian. "But… yeah. You and Sam are really the only ones I feel close to. Well, Abby is nice, too, but…"

Okay, A.) He very clearly stopped himself short. B). Not even Sam called her "Abby."

"Umm… never mind," he said.

Ah, "never mind." My arch enemy.

Sebastian then stood up and said "Well, I should get home."

"It was good talking to you," I smiled. I wanted to ask if we could talk more often, but I feared that would be too forward.

"We should talk more often," said Sebastian, beating me to it.

"Agreed," I said, standing up myself. "Well, I'll see you around!"

"Yeah," Sebastian replied, waving.

We went our separate ways, toward our respective homes.

A few steps in, though, he called "Oh, yeah, tell Sam I know what he was trying to pull at the saloon."

"Wait, what was he trying to pull?" I asked.

"Not important," he said, continuing to walk.

Damn, was Sam that bad at doing things secretly?

Author's note: I had fun writing this one, but… I also want to ask that if I'm making someone go too out-of-character, you let me know. A story feels less genuine and more like a personal fantasy to me if someone's not who they really are.

I also wonder if my specialty hasn't gone from lengthy romantic prose… to dialogue. I love when I can go into a chunk of dialogue between two characters.