“Opener girl!”

Mars parked at the end of a long paved driveway, lined with clean cut hedges on one side, and a lawn made up of the darkest, greenest grass Devi had ever seen. 

The young man that called out to her made his way down the driveway. Devi recognized him as the drummer of the band. Shorter in stature, yet still taller than Devi. 

Right behind him was the young man who alternated guitar segments with Mars, and next to him followed the one who played the 4-stringed guitar.

That one frowned at the blond young man, “She has a name Koda.”

Koda ignored him and held his fist out towards Devi. “I’m Koda.”

Devi bumped her fist against his. Despite finding the gesture odd, she had seen it before and knew what to do.

“I’m Noa,” the second young man thankfully kept his hands in the pockets of his hoodie when he introduced himself. 

He was the tallest of the three and dressed the most ‘normal’. The other two dressed as they had on stage, with dark tees with sharp artistic graphics on them, and the sleeves cut off at their shoulders. An interesting aesthetic that Devi wasn’t sure if she liked, but wrote off as a band thing. 

“And I’m Salem.” The last of the young men waved. 

Devi remembered Salem because his hair had been a bright green color the day of the concert. It was a baby blue today, a better color for his tan complexion, she thought. 

“I’m Devi.” 

She didn’t know what else to add, so she looked at Mars who pointed straight at Koda. 

“You can ignore that one,” she said then pointed at Noa. “He’s the brains, and Salem’s the money.”

“Mars, what the hell?” Koda shook his head at her.

“Come on in,” said Salem ignoring the comment and smiling at Devi. 

He waved them up the driveway, towards his house that was large and flat, not multiple stories like Mars’ building. Mars’ building was nice, well taken care of, but older. Salem’s home was modern, and stylish in its own right. 

They entered what Salem called his ‘garage’, that had an interesting entrance. The wide door opened up instead of to the side. Inside, guitars lined the walls, some sleek like Mars’ and others blocky like the one Devi had been practicing on. Her eyes were drawn to one that looked most like the acoustic guitar. Even if it was not the same, its presence comforted her for some reason. 

“My dad collects them,” Salem explained. 

“And I still can’t believe he trusts us to practice here.” Koda smirked, “It’s like he doesn’t know us.” 

“He doesn’t trust you for shit. He trusts Mars to smack sense in you if you touch anything that isn’t your janky drum set.” Noa snapped, flopping onto a squarish purple couch pressed up against a wall. 

Koda walked up beside him and nudge/kicked his legs out of the way in order to make a spot for himself on the couch. Salem in the meantime brought out three folding chairs, and set them up around the small brown coffee table in front of the couch. 

He gestured for Devi and Mars to sit, addressing Devi, “You’ve obviously got the pipes, and your piano skills are solid, but how will that translate into our sound?”

He took a seat directly across from Devi, he was serious unlike his companions. Everyone else was smiling nervously. 

“I—um… I prepared something.” Devi fidgeted in her seat, glancing briefly as Mars who nodded and gave her a thumbs up with both hands. It was not all that reassuring because Devi could tell that she was nervous too. 

Salem dropped his expression. “Oh? I was pulling your leg, but if you did prepare something please, I’d love to hear it.” He jumped up and grabbed an acoustic guitar off the wall. Excitedly, he handed it to her and sat back down.

With the guitar in her hand, she felt safer, confident. Like the instrument protected her from all her anxieties and pending misfortunes. She sat up, “I’m going to need your help on a couple of parts, in terms of harmonies.”

“Lay it on us,” Koda winked which earned him a look of disapproval from Mars.

“When I start with ‘alright’ sing ‘ohhhhh’ in that key until I get to ‘kind of slow’ a couple lines later. The line after you’ll start with ‘ahhh’, and hold it until ‘this is my sound’.” Her instruction came naturally to her. Music she knew well, and she knew how to make it form to her choosing. Giving guidance was another skill, one that she was unexpectedly enjoying.

A long, long time ago, music would tingle in her fingers. She couldn’t say for sure when she’d lost it, she just knew that she didn’t want to lose it again. 

“This sounds fun already,” Koda leaned forward, as did Noa who nodded in agreement.

She tucked her hair behind her ear and counted off the beat with the tap of her foot. The start was strong, and chord heavy, the riff she introduced the song with was solid, firm, quick.

“I’m trying to find an exit, again. I spoke when I couldn’t have known.” Her voice was hearty and the timbre was the same as the last two times Mars had heard it: light, but rich.

“And while I know there is no escape, it’s a part of what makes us whole.”

Mars realized that what made it hearty was her temperament. She was having fun. Her previous songs had been seductive, passionate, heavy. This was much more light-hearted.

The riff changed, and the boys joined in with the harmony. Koda even started improvising with the beat, adding his own dynamics here and there, smacking the side of the coffee table. 

“Alright no more slacking, gonna send me packing, I’m only slightly kind of slow.” She entered her higher range here, notes very pleasing to the ear. Honey-colored.

“And while I can see you frown, you’re gonna sit back down. I think I have said, this is my sound… This is my sound.” The guitar built up towards what Mars anticipated as the chorus.

“Boy you got me so beat!”

Noa, Salem and Koda were into it. They continued to harmonize despite not knowing where she was going with the song. They settled for repeating the last couple of words of each line, “so beat!”

“You know I’ve got nothing concrete!”

“Concrete!”

“I’m the only one of my breed,”

“My breed!”

“So don’t toss me back on the street,”

“The street!”

“I swear I’m more than ‘maybe’, oh more than maybe…” She trailed off songwise, finishing the tune with the riff from the beginning.

“And that’s all I got.”

Salem clapped giddily, “Mars, when you were going on about layers the other day I had no idea what you were talking about. Now, I understand what you meant.”

Noa had a wry grin on his face. “If you ask me, you don’t even need us Dev. We couldn’t replicate that if we tried. Mars probably could, but—” Koda silenced him with a punch in the arm

“Devi wants to join our band Noa! Isn’t that right Dev?” He asked, adopting the nickname.

Devi nodded, “I’ve sung by myself for a long time… it’s not as fun. I want to make music with other people and their experiences.” 

Mars hadn’t said a word. The performance was beyond anything Mars could have taught her. Devi was a music making machine, something wired into her DNA, beyond anything she could aspire to be.

She couldn’t help but think that Noa was right. Devi didn’t need By The Coast, By The Coast needed her.