This is a rawfeed story, which means that it’s coming direct from my brain to the computer screen. There may be word usage errors and editing problems.
THAT TIME I TOLD YOU
by Sol Crafter
They met for the first time in the lunchroom when they were 10 years old. It wasn’t an instant connection–it took two weeks of sharing a table before they got to talking–but they became best friends after that.
To Conrad, meeting Jamie was the first time he felt alive. It was as though color flooded into an otherwise empty world.
It had never been great at home. His parents were always fighting, always yelling, always looking at him with resentful eyes as though to say “It’s your fault all our dreams are dead”. Going to school was his chance to get away from the tension and the loneliness. He did okay in his classes.
Until Jamie came, he only went to school to get away from home. The other kids were just the kids he played with at school–he wouldn’t call any of them a best friend.
Jamie was his best friend.
And so, because Jamie played the guitar, Conrad learned to play the bass. Because Jamie loved singing and music, Conrad learned to carry a tune and even started writing songs in a spiral bound notebook.
He would spend the night at Jamie’s house with Jamie’s doting mom who always tried to get Jamie whatever he wanted, even though she was a single parent without much money. He might have been jealous if she hadn’t been so nice to him, welcoming him into her home as though he were another son.
He became part of their family.
*
“We should start our own band.”
They were in Jamie’s room, each taking up an opposite end of the bed as they flipped through magazines and listened to music. Jamie had a tendency to flail his feet with the music, so Conrad had thrown a pillow across his ankles and had his arm propped on top.
“Huh?” he asked, looking away from the glossy pictures of pocket monsters fighting a guy in mecha armor.
“I said,” Jamie raised his voice with a mock-serious frown that turned into a smile, “we should start a band. What do you think?”
Conrad looked at him. He seemed serious, or at least determined to have his way. They were already playing instruments together. It didn’t bear much consideration. “Okay.”
Jamie grinned. “Yeah! We are gonna be rockstars.”
