Musician for a Night.

The breakfast bell rung and students get up from their seats to head to the cafeteria. I’m busy cleaning my desk when Ivy Wolf comes to my desk.

“Muhzim,” She says, flashing me her obviously fake smile. She’s done this to me loads of times when she asks for favours. I groan. “What.”

“I’m having a party this weekend,” Ivy tells me, her hand sliding across my table. “A party wouldn’t be a party if there’s no music.”

I sigh. I knew exactly what this girl wanted. “Fine, I’ll come to your party this weekend to play music. Do you want acoustic or rock?”

Ivy’s face lights up at this and she squeals with delight. “Acoustic!”

I nod and she squeals a ‘thank you!’ She scampers out of the classroom where her other friend is waiting for her. I guess she told her friend I’d agreed to play music at her party as they were both squealing with delight.

“You’re really up for it?” My friend, Zafa asks me. I thought he was waiting for me at the cafeteria so this took me by surprise. I glance back at him for a second before continuing my clean up.

“It’s either that or I help my younger sister Swafa with her chemistry homework. We both know I’m smart but explaining chemistry to her is like explaining chemistry to an animal. Trust me, even you’re smarter than her,” I deadpan. Zafa throws a pen at my head and I grin.

We head out of the classroom together. “Did Ivy invite you to the party?” I ask.

Zafa scoffs and says, “You wish. I have no idea why she hates me so much.”

“Maybe she has yet to invite you,” I mumble, shrugging as I speak. Zafa rolls his eyes and tells me, “Her party is this weekend. Muhzim I don’t know if you haven’t noticed but it’s already Friday and yet no invitation. She’s been inviting people since Thursday.”

“Hey, she only invited me, the musician, today. I have yet to figure out good acoustic songs to play at the party,” I remind him.

“I’ll sneak you in if you’d like. Could tell Ivy that I need someone to help with… stuff,” I say. Zafa’s face immediately lights up and I roll my eyes. “Thank you,” he says prolonging the ‘u’. I nod and give him a deadpan look. Nevertheless it makes me feel good to see that I’ve made two people happy under an hour in a day.

…

I grab my guitar and bag and walk towards the door. I grab my hat and as I’m walking out of the house, something grabs my sleeve. I jump and turn to see Swafa, staring at me with her eyes wide opened.

“Hey, Swafa,” I say, trying to hide my fear. After my years of experience Swafa can smell fear apparently. I learn new things every day with her in the house. “What’s up?”

“What’s up?” She asks in disbelief. “You were going to help me with my chemistry homework! Miss Jones said I was getting better at chemistry!”

“Sure, and I’m going to marry the Queen of England,” I deadpan, raising an eyebrow. Swafa smacks me on the arm. I grin. “Look, I have a party to go to tonight. I’mma be a musician there. We have Sunday Swafa so I’ll help you then.”

Just as Swafa was about to say something, an antic mustang stops in front of our house with Zafa in the driver seat. Zafa honks and I whisper, “bless that soul.” I grab my guitar, put on my shoes and run towards his mustang. I turn back to Swafa and say, “I promise I’ll help you tomorrow!” Swafa glares at me before going back in the house.

“You came just in time,” I tell Zafa as I climb into the shotgun seat, hugging my guitar to my chest. Zafa smirks and says, “Obviously. Looked like Swafa was about to beat you up.”

“You bet,” I say with a laugh.

“Have you told Ivy about me coming?” Zafa asks as he drives away from my house. My blood runs cold as I remember that I’d totally forgotten about that. Zafa’s staring at me now and he can obviously see that I’ve forgotten.

“Muhzim, what the hell,” he says, smacking the steering wheel as he takes a left turn. I take my phone out from the pocket of my jeans and begin looking for Ivy’s name in my WhatsApp contacts.

“Telling her now,” I say, not looking at Zafa. Zafa curses under his breath and I just grin.

Ivy, sorry for the last minute update but Zafa will be coming along. It’s either the both of us or nothing. I text.

Ivy reads my text instantly and types. Oh god, Muhzim. What the heck? Ugh, fine. Bring him along but make sure he’s on a leech.

Thanks Ivy. Cya there.

I slide my phone back into my pocket. Zafa glances at me and asks, “What did she say?”

“That I had to keep you on a leech,” I say with a laugh. Zafa glares at me and deadpans, “I swear I’ll be on my best behaviour.”

I shake my head and look out the window, letting the sun’s setting glow keep me in awe.

…

Ivy’s party had just begin and she beamed when she saw me although she scowled when she saw Zafa. Zafa only waved his hand meekly before hiding himself behind me. Ivy led us both to where she wanted the music to be.

“She can’t still be mad about the whole 5^th grade incident,” Zafa whispers to me.

“What did you do to her in 5^th grade?” I whisper back.

“I gave her a bruise on her face during camping. We were playing paintball and her mask fell off! How the hell was I supposed to know it was going to fall off right before the deadly ball of paint hit her face?” Zafa whispers loudly. Probably too loud as Ivy stopped in her tracks and glared at Zafa for a few seconds.

“I think she’s going to give you a bruise too tonight,” I whisper despite the tense environment.

“Here’s your stage, boys,” she says, pointing to a mini stage located at one side of the living room. There was a stool and a microphone attached to a microphone stand already prepared for me. I smiled at Ivy and said, “Thanks, Ivy.”

She smiled back at me and walked away. I turn to Zafa and smile, saying, “let’s get started!”

For the next few hours, I sang and played my guitar as Zafa hung out with some other guys at the party. I couldn’t care less honestly as I’d only brought him here in sympathy as he wasn’t invited. As I sang, suddenly, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out and saw a text from Zafa.

Your ex, Qizy, 2 o’clock. He’d texted. I looked up and sure enough there she was, dancing with another guy. Qizy and I’d dated last summer but of course, the typical summer relationships don’t work out and I guess we were one of them. Qizy was like any average high school girl; beautiful, attractive, smart and witty. Alas, those were only outward beauty; inner beauty was and still is what matters.

I tried to lower my hat so that it’d cover my face but it was too late; she’d seen me. She walks over to me with her new guy and I feel like she has a point to make (mind you that I was the one that broke the relationship off, not her).

“Hey, Muhzim!” She says, coming up onto the mini stage. She gave me a hug as I hugged my guitar to my chest. It felt awkward to see Qizy; what more have her hugging me. She lets go of her embrace and I smile awkwardly.

Her new ‘guy’ comes up too and gives my hand a shake, introducing himself. “Jeremy.”

“Muhzim,” I say, shaking his hand back.

“What’re you doing here?” Qizy asks. I give her a deadpan look and gesture at my guitar. “Isn’t it obvious?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

She doesn’t say anything but instead, she nods and says, “Well, we’ll uh, cya!” She awkwardly walks away, taking Jeremy’s hand in hers. Jeremy glances over his shoulder to smile at me and I smile back.

For the next few hours, I play my guitar and sing. Soon, people leave and the party ends. Ivy Wolf pays me 30 dollars but I tell her to keep her money. She hugs me instead and I leave the party without Zafa as he wanted to catch up with an old friend of his.

“Will you be okay walking home?” He asked me. I nodded. He pats me on the shoulder and gets back into Ivy’s house. I put on my hat and sling my guitar over my right shoulder, and walk out of Ivy’s house.

I play a little tune on my guitar as I walk home. It’s around half past ten when suddenly, I see a brunette girl sitting on the sidewalk, crying. I stop playing my guitar and stop in my tracks, staring at her. I walk over to her after a few seconds of standing, and ask, “Are you okay?”

Mind you that I had no idea who this girl was and I was just trying to help. She looked up at me for a few seconds before digging her head back in her knees. “Go away,” her voice was muffled but clear enough for me to hear.

“I could accompany you home, if you want. It isn’t safe you know for a girl to be out at night all alone,” I realized that I sounded like my mother whenever she spoke with Swafa and I absent-mindedly grinned. I realized that I was doing so and I hoped this brunette didn’t see me grinning.

She shrugs and says, “Just leave me alone.”

“It isn’t-”

“Just. Go.” She says fiercely. I close my mouth and get up, walking away. I hug my guitar to my chest. I feel bad to leave the girl alone. God knows what might happen to her. I turn back to see if she was still crying.

But she was gone.

To be continued in: Last Night’s Gal.