“Why the Hell would I wanna babysit your sister?! I burst, yelling louder than I should’ve.

“Because, Alexander, she’s a musician too. A good one in fact. She’s never published her own music, but I know for a fact that she’s got some songs lying around. See it as a trade, 

A deal, 

A partnership. 

You let her sleep on your couch, keep an eye on her. Don’t let her get into any trouble and in return I’ll see to it that she assists you with your little… slump. How about it?”

He knows what he’s doing. Using words like slump to try and get inside my head. It’s not happening. I see through it. 

“This really doesn’t seem like a good deal if you ask me.” I said, trying to sound confident again. “It sounds like I let a junkie sleep on my couch and in return I have her tell me how to do my job.” I said, silently smiling to myself about how strangely good being a jerk feels.

“Well no one asked you. It wasn’t an offer” Dave said back bluntly. I felt the smile slip away from my face and join the intestine soup in a heartbeat.

“I was giving you a chance to be nice. It clearly failed, so what I’m going to say is; congratulations Al. You’ve got a new partner. A new roommate too. She’ll help your writing block and you’ll make sure she doesn’t get in trouble again.”

I sat upright at the sound of this news and smashed my head against the underside of my desk. I loudly let out an F-bomb and choked on my own saliva. 

“And if you accidentally lose sight of her and put her back into rehab…

I’m firing you.

Chris can write songs for me

…..hah.

I’m kidding about the Chris part. Everything else I’m serious about though.” Dave continued, ignoring me choking to death on my end of the line.

“This’ll be an interesting partnership to bear witness to. Unless you can write a song before tomorrow afternoon, I’d like to introduce you to Octavia.”

Dave promptly hung up and I was left on the dusty floor under my desk, choking on my own spit.

ALEXANDER:

I need you over tomorrow.

Dave is making his junkie sister

Live with me to try and help me

Write better. My place is a mess

And I need someone here to

Complain to.

CHRIS:

Yes ma man

I will be straight over

CHRIS:

Now go to sleep.  

CHRIS IS OFFLINE

ALEXANDER IS ONLINE

CHRIS IS ONLINE

CHRIS:

I’m serious. 

CHRIS:

S L E E P.