Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz

Author:Hannah Moskowitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

16

IAN, JAMES, AND BIANCA ARE already at the pub when I get there, and Mason shows up a while after. (I’m the one who told him, but I was coming from chorus so we didn’t come together. It doesn’t mean anything.) We pull an extra chair up to this little circular table and I have my fake ID ready but the waitress clearly doesn’t care and brings a pitcher of beer to the table, whaaat why do I never come to this place? It helps that Mason looks pretty old. Mmm, he looks good tonight.

There’s a piano in the corner and after two glasses of beer James shows us why he needed to bring his piano in his fantasy moving van and damn, he is good. Bianca leans her head against my shoulder and we listen while he bangs out songs and sings and the other people in the pub are at least good-natured about it and I say to her, “How come you don’t play piano, huh?”

“I took violin for a little but I hated it. Mom let me stop.”

“Ugh, my mom never let me quit anything.”

“You quit ballet.”

“Yeah, when I was too old for her to stop me. And she never had to talk me into that in the first place. Plus, I dug my shoes up, so who knows. Potentially un-quitting.”

Bianca sits up. “You did?”

Ian says, “Wait, were they actually buried?”

“Yeah, in my backyard.”

“Aren’t they all full of worms or whatever?”

“No! My best friend and I buried them and we made a coffin and everything. Wrapped duct tape around a shoe box, buried it, made a little gravestone. ‘Here lies Etta’s subjugation to the masculine ideals of beauty.’ ”

Mason says, “You guys blame us for everything.”

Ian says, “That’s what ballet’s about?”

“I’m beginning to think maybe not,” I say.

James comes back to the table and kisses the top of my head, then Bianca’s, then Ian’s, then, after a shrug, Mason’s. Mason laughs and tackles him back into his seat. “Mason plays piano,” James says while Mason’s sitting on him to pin him down.

“You do?”

“Uh-huh, he’s really good. Play us a yarn, Mason.”

Mason rolls his eyes and heads over to the piano, and I don’t know what he’s singing (it’s not show-tuney, huh) but it’s nice, especially with all the beer. I rest my head on James’s shoulder.

“So you two,” Ian says, gesturing between James and me, “must be soul mates of some kind?”

“Whaaat?” I kiss James’s arm. “No such thing.”

“Etta is our fairy godmother,” James says.

I say, “Etta’s making this group slightly less white.”

“Nah, come on, you know why I say that,” Ian says.

I say, “No, we really do not.”

“Come on! Etta James!”

“Ha!” James says, and then he and I burst into “At Last” together, obviously. Bianca joins in, sinking into the low notes, and Mason’s immediately playing it on the piano, and I see Bianca smile at Ian and then James, and maybe it’s not as good as smiling at Ian and James together, but this girl is trying so hard.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.