This Song Is (Not) for You Read Free

boyfriend?”
    “No,” I say. “We’re friends. Bandmates.”
    “But that’s him that just went in?” Tom motions with his head toward the door.
    “Yeah. He plays guitar.”
    “What kind?”
    “Every.”
    “Every?” And finally Tom kinda smiles. Kinda. I decide it doesn’t count. And suddenly I really, really, really want to see this guy smile. Really smile.
    “Every,” I say. “He plays bass and twelve-string acoustic, and he even owns a sitar.”
    “Huh. That’s cool.”
    “And a resonator. Anyway, our band’s called April and the Rain.”
    “Is one of you April and the other the Rain?”
    I’m surprised that he’s the one to make me laugh.
    “The name is about springtime, new beginnings and stuff. The rain has to come first.”
    He nods. “I can dig that,” he says.
    I feel myself smile again.

Sam
    I went into a trance again while I was playing. “Trance” sounds too serious. It’s more like I kept playing but I also forgot that I was playing, and I was just listening to the music and not really thinking about anything. And then I remembered that the music was my guitar that I was playing, but luckily it was near the end of the piece.
    There were five adults behind this big table. They’d taken some time to make sure they looked official and cold. After I finished, I looked up at them and they nodded.
    “Thank you, Mr. Peterson,” one woman said in this clipped and crisp voice.
    I nodded back and opened my guitar case. They were done making notes now. They were just watching me. It was a little unnerving. I wasn’t sure how I did.
    “So I’m done? I can go?” I motioned toward the door with my head.
    “Yes. Thank you, Mr. Peterson,” the woman said again.
    As I approached the closed door I heard Ramona’s voice on the other side.
    “No, no, no, no, no,” she was saying. “Prog rock is not dead!”
    When I opened the door, Ramona and that sad guy were smiling at each other. It took a moment for her to look up at me.
    “Sam!” she said. “I found him!” That seemed to confuse this guy as much as it did me. “Wait,” she added. “How was your audition? Did you kill? You totally killed, didn’t you?”
    “Thomas Cogsworthy?” One of the blank faces was standing in the doorway. The other guy stood up and shuffled past me. Ramona was still grinning. I heard the door close behind me.
    “I think I did all right,” I said. She jumped up and hugged me.
    “This is so awesome!” Ramona said in my ear. “We’ve found our third bandmate, and we’re all going to Artibus!”
    She smelled nice, but I let her go and took a step back.
    “That guy you were just talking to?”
    “Yeah, he’s totally hardcore. And he does all this experimental stuff, and he can do some vocals for us! You’re gonna love him.”
    “Does he even want to be in our band?”
    “Of course he does! I mean, of course he will after we ask him.”
    I shrugged. Ramona’s hard to resist when she’s excited. We could talk to the guy. It probably wouldn’t work out. Ramona would forget about him by tomorrow.
    “Okay,” I said. “Let’s wait for him.” We sat back down. Ramona swung her legs back and forth, singing under her breath.
    Really, Ramona is always hard to resist.

Tom
    And somehow I’m sitting at a booth in a greasy diner across from two kids who go to the same smarmy private school as Sara. Ramona, the hyperactive spiky-haired girl, is kinda fun. Right now she’s drumming on the table with two straws. The guy is probably okay, but he hasn’t said much. They were waiting for me after I finished my audition. Apparently this diner is their special place or something.
    “Hello again, Janet!” Ramona stops drumming and smiles at the waitress. They order a platter of chili cheese fries to share. I just have a soda, which annoys the waitress, but I don’t care.
    “So, Tom,” Ramona says after Janet leaves us. “Sam and I would like to discuss the prospect of you joining April and the