A Minor Chord

      “Damn I miss her.”
      “I know man, it sucks. But I’m glad to see you get off your ass and make it over to jam.”
      “The hell does that mean?”
      “I’ve just been worried about you, clinging on to a girl that did you wrong. But you ain’t moping around now, you got out and we’re gonna finish this song. If we get this down, we could even play it at Epicure next Thursday.”
      “I don’t know, I feel alright with the singing and all, but I can’t figure out the chords. I just can’t be happy with anything”
      “Yeah, the bass line is good,” he chuckled, “so my job is easy.”
      The bass line was good, smug bastard. It’s a little different when you gotta figure out harmonics. “So we’re on the same page, something about the chords is off,” I paused. “I really ain’t sure what to do.”
      “To do about what? She ain’t worth worrying abou-“
      “I meant the song, asswipe, you changed the subject. And now you’re bringing her up again.”
      “Look, Mel, I’m sorry man, it’s just that you’re losing focus here. We both want to nail this song down, and who knows, there’s a lot of cute chicks there.”
      “What, at Epicure?”
      “Yeah man, and maybe they’ll be into your music, y’know, unlike Di-“
      “Dude! Leave it alone!”
      Casey sighed.
      I know he’s looking out for me. It would be nice to meet a girl that shared some of my interests. How did he handle his break up so well? “Damn, I must be doing something wrong.”
      “What’s that?” Casey asked, looking up from his amp.
      “These chords, it should be simple, just a fucking four bar run-of-the-mill thing. But this major scale just turns up too high on the last chord.”
      “Well, you write this stuff. You like those blues scales, you wanna tone down the mood then?”
      “No, then the feel is kinda lost, like overdone. Plus, we’d have to change the bridge around and Trevor would get all pissy. He’s got his beats down. What is Trevor up to anyways, he didn’t pick up my call?”
      “I haven’t heard from him either, I think he’s chilling with his girl though. She’s always really busy, I think today is the only day of the week where they’re both free.”
        Trevor is a solid drummer. I’m happy for him and Nancy. She’s a good fit, and since he’s stopped doing all that wild shit, I think she keeps him grounded. I wish Diana could’ve been there for my time in the valley. “I crawled out myself…” Dammit, I guess I am really still hurtin’ from all this.
      “Huh?” asked Casey.
      “Nothing, my thoughts are bouncing all over the place.”
      “We like your lyrics man, I mean, you can do what you want. But I think we just need to work on your guitar part, that last chord you know?”
      “Hm? Oh, yeah, no, that’s just a- uh, another song I’ve been putting together.”
      “Sweet! Lemme hear what you got.”
      “No, it’s just scraps and scribbles right now, just something to jot down.” Here I go again, fucking dodging my buddy cuz I’m going mental. “Nothing’s together enough to play.”
      “That’s cool. Hey, so check this out. You remember that one chick there that was making all them sexy stares at you a few weeks back? Laughed at your stupid jokes on the mic?”
      My jokes aren’t stupid. “With the long brown, curly hair?
      “Yeah, I hit her up on facebook after that night and I just told her to come out Thursday to see us.”
      “Good for you man, you wanna do a lovey-dovey cover song for her?” We didn’t have any love song originals.
      “Sure, your pick,” he said with his endearing smile.
      “Why me? You’ve been talking to her, not me.”
      “I’ve been talking to her about you dude. I think she’s really into you.”
      “Since when? I only just broke up with Diana, what the fuck man?”
      “Look, don’t be pissed, we’d all been waiting for that gun to go off. I just… I’ve got your back man, if you think you could move on.”
      “You were talking to her before Di and I even broke up? That’s messed up man, fuck you.” Shit. “Shit, my bad Case, it just hurts you know?”
      “I know,” still smiling.
      I gotta know how he pulled through his break-up so quick. “Case, I gotta know, how did you pull through your split with Melanie dude? You seemed so solid, and y’all were with each other longer than any of my relationships. I mean, I’m barely holding together here. What was it?”
        “I got to replace one Mel with another, ha!” He laughed, still with that smile.
        Handsome devil. He meant me. He never called her Mel except when he wanted to
mess with us, well, mess with me. “No, seriously Casey, how?” I was begging.
      “I had you man, and Trevor, and my mom. C’mon, don’t get all emo on me.”
      Wait.
      “Yeah,” he knew I didn’t get it, “You had my back man, looked out for me and stuff. Couldn’t have been alright without you man.”
      That was it? Damn. And I’m ripping myself to shreds over a minor chord. A fucking minor chord. “It’s a minor chord dude. We’ll roll with that alright?”
      “Sounds good,” and he kept up that tremendous smile.
      That smile is just a crack for his soul to shine out. “Well, tell you what man, I can’t hog all the glory,” I smirked, “How about we rock some Soul to Squeeze by the Chili Peppers, let you flash some of that Flea shit.”
      He laughed, “Alright man, alright,” and threw a pick at me.
      A fucking minor chord.



My first short story, written for my creative writing class. It was suppose to center around dialogue. Any critique is more than welcome, as I'm new to non-poetry. Thanks for reading.