Chapter 7 Part 3
Dylan and his band members were in the midst of a heated rehearsal. Every time they played this song, Larry missed the high-hat cymbal.

“You missed it again. God Larry you can’t do that live. That sets off the guitar solo,” snapped Dylan.

“Dude, what’s crawled up your butt? You’ve been snapping at me all day,” quipped Larry.

“I haven’t you’ve been missing the cue all day,” said Dylan, miffed, running his fingers through his hair.

“Okay everyone, it’s time to take five, too much tension going on, I’m gonna have a smoke,” said Ant.

“I’m just gonna go outside to get some air,” said Larry moving in the other direction.

Dylan stood watching his band members walk in the opposite direction.

He pulled a chair towards himself and sat down, noodling with the tune he’d started yesterday.

“I can’t make her come to me no more,” he murmured again and again, this time hashing out a more intricate riff than he had the first time.

It would fit nicely over the chord progression of the song.

“What’s that you’re playing,” said Larry.

“A song,” said Dylan softly.

“Smarty, I know that. Is it an old blues song,” said Larry.

“Nah man, I wrote it. Sorry I just snapped at you, just then and earlier. I’m not in a good mood,” said Dylan.

“I can tell. Hey man, that was a really good tune. Is it finished?” asked Larry

“Nah, always a work in progress. I think it always will be, I won’t ever figure it all out as long as I live,” he added softly.

Larry gave him a puzzled glance.

Dylan resumed his playing and Ant returned to the room.

“Sweet riff dude. Is that our next single,” asked Ant.

“Nah. It’s not finished yet. I can’t believe you all like this. It’s slow,” said Dylan.

“Not slow, slower than what we are used to. It’s sexy,” chuckled Ant.

Fitting that a song he pinned when he thought about Khrystine would be viewed as sexy. That woman was the epitome of all things sexy.

They continued with their rehearsals things moving along better than before their break. Over the course of an hour, Dylan was satisfied with their progress.

“We’ll be already set to pound these things out when we get to the studio,” said Dylan, turning off his amp and unplugging his guitar.

As they were packing up, Ant waved him over.

“Hey dude I saved something for you. I saw it in the paper this morning,” said Ant.

“In the paper,” said Dylan quizzically taking the article from his bandmate’s hand.

As soon as he glanced at the picture he knew who it was, the breath taking Khrystine, her gorgeous pouty lips curled into a soft smile, hair delicately framing her shoulders.

“Gosh, she’s beautiful even in black and white pictures,” he stammered like a little boy.

He turned the page, scanning the rest of the article. In the corner of next page, he saw a picture of Khrystine, and Derek Thompson. He had his arm plastered around Khrystine, and she was brining from ear to ear now, none of the seductive pouting of the former pose.

He felt his lip quiver with the intensity of his jealousy. Here he was thinking he should call her, and he’d been too hard on her the previous day when she said she had another engagement.

This was the other engagement. The caption read:

Toast of the Town two Hollywood Hot shots, Derek Thompson, and Khrystine Morgan clubbing at the Indigo.

And he thought she had interviews she wanted to be fresh for today. Some interviews. He’d been beaten at his own game, but this time, he didn’t want to play, he was serious. It served him right that fate was being such a cruel master.

He believed the vulnerability he saw at their little picnic pizza lunch, and had comforted her. She may have been truly hurting at one point, but she’d allowed herself to be so hurt by her boyfriend’s death, that perhaps she’d taken to being a playgirl.

He couldn’t fathom how else she could go out with him in the afternoon, and go out with Derek that evening. But maybe she didn’t consider it a date. Who was he kidding, he didn’t even know how to ask a woman out on a date. And that Derek cat was a lot more dapper than he was. He looked perfect for her, with the Italian suit, his neatly cut hair, plus he was black. How could he compete with this multiple Oscar nominee, conservative black guy for the attentions of Khrystine? Did she even want him to compete for her attentions?

He wished that was him holding Khrystine in that picture. It could never be him though, because he didn’t hobnob with the industry folks, he didn’t feel comfortable.

And the more he thought about how angry she’d acted at the suggestion of spending more time with him, the more he felt like a fool. She probably thought it was childish of him to want to take her back to the house to play some videogames, when this Derek person took her to all the fancy spots like the Indigo. She was probably off somewhere with him right now, or some other Hollywood playboy, laughing at how corny Dylan Taylor was.

He’d comforted her with the sincerest portions of his heart, and he’d shared with her things that he shared only with his closest buddies with out even knowing her, and this was the thanks he’d gotten. Karma was teaching him a lesson right now. He’d done it a million times to other women, and now it was happening to him, with the one he really cared about.

He angrily crumpled the article in a ball after finishing it, and Ant gawked at him.

“What’s wrong with you,” said Ant dumbfounded.

“Nothing. She’s not so hot anyway,” said Dylan, squeezing the article further into a ball, as though trying to demolish it from memory.

“Could’ve fooled me. You’ve been drooling at her since you first saw that video,” said Ant.

Ant’s statement embarrassed him in his present state of mind.

“Yeah well, she’s real shallow and spoiled,” spat Dylan.

“Shallow, spoiled? What happened to all this wanting to get to know people and treat them as human beings,” said Ant.

“I did get to know her, and she is a shallow and spoiled human being,” snapped Dylan.

“Since when have you cared. How much did you know her Dylan, oh man, did you,”

“No, I didn’t,” snapped Dylan.

“Oh that’s it. She wouldn’t let you. Is that why you don’t like her. Now that I think of it she seems like she wouldn’t be an easy pushover,” said Ant.

“No it isn’t like that at all. Look, I don’t wanna talk about it okay. She’s beautiful sure, but all that glitter’s ain’t gold, surely you know that by now,” said Dylan.

“Yeah, and I know you’ve bagged fools gold by the truck bed full, it never stopped you before,” laughed Ant.

“Maybe I’ve changed. Look I’ve gotta go,” said Dylan.



- posted by Mahogany @ 4:43 PM