I sighed and placed my phone back down.

Yay, more time wasted I thought with another, deeper sigh. I leaned back on my chair and closed my eyes.

“I’m never gonna get this done” I said miserably as I dragged my hand down my face. 

“My boss is gonna kill me… Oh, yeah, sorry Dave, no new music today…again. Yeah I know it’s been almost a year. I am trying… Not hard enough? You try to do this crap. Takes a lot of brainpower, a lot of 3am burger runs, and a lot of talking to yourself. 

A lot of tears too, Dave.

A lotta tears.”

 I said in a mocking voice,  creating an imaginary conversation between me and my music producer, David. I sat there for a couple of minutes, listening to the ticking of the clock.

“I’m gonna throw that thing out the goddamn window.” I said through gritted teeth, turning slowly towards the clock mounted on the wall behind me. As I moved slightly to go and murder my arch-nemesis, my phone rang and startled me off my chair. I hit the floor with a painful thud and scrambled to reach my phone. I picked it up and faced it towards me checking the screen. Every muscle in me tensed and died as I read David Lucose. I shuffled under my desk and brought my knees up to my chest. 

“Crap Crap Crap Crap, I do NOT need this right now. What does he even want? It’s twenty to one in the morning!” I hesitantly answered the call and put it on speaker, answering with my best I’ve done a successful amount of work voice.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” Dave said as I took a deep, worried gulp.

“I’m just kiddin’ ya kiddo. You’re always awake.” he said with a chuckle. “Kids are asleep and I need something to do, so I thought I’d give you a call and see how you’re moving along.” he said optimistically. He was currently all the way in Hawaii on a family vacation, living the life while I sat here and rotted from the inside out.

“Uh, m-moving.. Yeah, uh… Well. Movings the wrong word, but, um, it’s happening, it’ll happen.” I said, forgetting to sound confident.

“No further than last time then I assume.” Dave said,

“Well… last time…. I didn’t have this many balls of paper wandering around, so, maybe a tiny bit further?”

Dave only replied with some sort of mix between a chuckle and a sigh.

“I did think that may be the case,” he eventually said. “So I’ve got some news for you.”

Upon hearing that I felt all of my insides turn to liquid and try to force their way up my throat. 

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad-sorry- nothing too bad.” He said quieting down for that last part.  

“I got an interesting call earlier. They finally let my sister out of rehab.”

“That’s… Nice?” I replied, slightly confused.

“Yeah, well, they said that she needs to stay with someone. Needs someone to keep an eye on her. I’d gladly have her over but I don’t want her anywhere near my children, my wife or my house. She’s not the best influence you see.” He said, sounding more cheerful that he should. 

“...What are you getting at?” I asked, feeling like I don’t really want to know the answer. 

“I’m just saying that you don’t have any children, Al. Not a girlfriend either. There’s no one for her to scare in your life. Apart from Chris, but, we all know Chris now, don’t we? She won’t affect him.” He continued with a chuckle.

I was completely frozen in shock.