Page 15 of Hittin' the Right Note
He alsowouldn’t have admitted Mikey lookedgood.The years had been kind to him; he could’ve passed for someone at least five years younger. He was dressed as stylishly as usual–all slim cut jeans and tight button-up shirt–and Luke felt his lip curl. He still had the same mop of untidy blonde curls he’d had when the two of them were teenagers and, even morefrustratingly, he also had the same smile, a smile that said he didn’t take anything too seriously, the world was his oyster, he could do whatever he wanted, and no one was going to stand in his way.
It was always the thing Luke had both admired and hated about him, just like he admired and hated it now. If he’d had any hope seeing Mikey in person would clarify any of his mixed feelings, he quickly realized it wasn’t going to be the case. If anything, his head and his heart were in even more conflict, and he was tempted to get in his truck, throw it in reverse, and get out of there as fast as possible.
Unfortunately, he had already seen Luke and was walking toward him with an all-too-familiar fake smile, and it was clear he was going to either give Luke a hug or shake his hand. Neither was an option Luke wanted to take advantage of.
As it happened, however, he was saved from having to do so by the timely arrival of Brenda, who somehow looked exactly as she had all those years ago when she’d been Luke’s music teacher: same straight black hair; same blandly pretty features; same square-framed glasses taking up her whole face; same pantsuit.
She looked from Luke to Mikey and then back to Luke, and he wasn’t sure he liked the knowing look she had in her eye.
“It’s so nice to see the both of you!” she said, hugging them each in turn. Luke wasn’t usually the hugging type, but somehow it just felt natural with Brenda. She’d always been a warm and welcoming presence, someone who took her job at the Center seriously and did everything in her power to make sure her charges were welcomed and loved, no matter how old they were. Breathing in her lilac-scented perfume, Luke was transported back in time to those first days when he’d stepped inside NACA, not sure he was supposed to be there but still going to do his damnedest to prove himself.
As she pulled away the spell started to evaporate, and his attention was drawn back to Mikey, who seemed to be observing it all with the ironic distance he took to everything. It made Luke’s hackles rise, but he pushed down his anger. He could play nice for today.
And for several more days,he thought.Even if it kills me.
“It’s good to see you too, Brenda,” Mikey said, and surprisingly enough he actually seemed to mean it.
“As you can see,” she said, “the Center’s in pretty bad shape. However, everyone is buzzing about the concert you two are going to put on, and we’re hoping it’ll not just raise the money we need but also give us the momentum we need to keep going. It’s certainly going to take a lot, but we all know how the people of our community are. If you give them a reason to believe in something, they’ll believe in it, and they’ll make you believe in it, too.”
Luke had no doubt about that. What hedidhave doubts about was whether Mikey Smiles was willing or able to see this through. Somehow, he doubted it very much.
“Why don’t you two come on in, and we’ll take a tour of the place. I’m sure it’s changed a lot since you were here.” She paused and frowned. “Mostly for the worse, I’m afraid.”
She then led them inside, and it soon became clear it was in even worse shape than the outside. Everywhere Luke looked he saw signs of decline and neglect, from the way the carpet was starting to pull back from the walls to the undeniable water-stains on the ceiling. His heart broke at the signs not just of neglect but of a building which seemed to have been totally left behind.
A lot like West Virginia,he thought sadly.Left behind by everyone who can’t be bothered to give a damn, let alone do anything to help.
He liked to think Brenda wasn’t responsible for the problems, but he couldn’t help but feel a flash of irritation that she hadn’t done more to keep the poor old building from falling into such a disgraceful state.
Something of what he was thinking must’ve shown on his face, because a flush of embarrassment crept up into Brenda’s cheeks.
“I’m sorry you have to see the place in such a state,” she said. “I’m not trying to pass the buck, but the truth is my predecessor, well, he really fucked us, if you’ll pardon my French. He made sure he took all the money he could and then left the rest of us holding the bag. Then they asked me to step in and take up the position he’d left behind, and I did, and I’ve been doing my best ever since.”
She rattled on. “Belive me, I hate to see it in such bad shape, too. A lot of the board…well, if you don’t mind me speaking ill of them, they don’t give much of a shit as to what happens around here. You know me. I’m the type to shoot straight from the hip, and I’m not going to sugar-coat anything or pussyfoot around the truth. NACA is in some pretty bad shape, and if you two don’t manage to pull off the concert, then I’m honestly not sure what we’re gonna do. And not to pile on, but we’re hoping to have it in June. I know it’s an expedited timeline, but I don’t want to give the board any more of an excuse to pull the plug on the whole thing.”
“No pressure, though, right?” Mikey said, joking as he always did in order to lighten the mood.
“Some of us take this pretty damn seriously,” Luke said at once. His hackles were already up, and having Mikey make a joke just added insult to injury.
Mikey put his hands up in a defensive posture, and Luke huffed out a sigh.
He opened his mouth to start an argument, but Brenda interrupted.
“Let’s just keep the tour going, shall we?” she said, giving Luke a pointed look which said she knew exactly what he was getting ready to do and was warning him not to do it.
Luke swallowed his anger, and they kept walking through the decrepit halls of the Center.
The further inside they went, however, the more Luke’s sense of disquiet and disgust and disappointment turned into something else: nostalgia. Every hallway they went down seemed to echo with the sounds of plucked guitar strings and the voices of two seventeen-year-olds finding themselves and exploring their love.
Luke remembered quite well the way the two of them would glance at each other from across a classroom, eyes sparkling with mischief and a shared understanding. He even remembered stolen makeout sessions in some of the more distant and underused hallways, the fact they might get caught adding a little extra spice to their encounters.
Luke looked over at Mikey, to see if maybe he was feeling nostalgic, too. However, he looked like he was a thousand miles away, like he couldn’t even be bothered to be here and present with the rest of them.
Luke’s resentment boiled up, and he didn’t hold back.
“You know,” he said, “you could at least pretend like you care about NACA. I mean, I get it. You’ve been places and done things. You’re too big for a small arts center in the middle of nowhere. But a lot of us still have fond memories of it, and I’d think even someone with his head up his own ass as much as Mikey Smiles could find it in himself to at leastpretendto give a shit.”
For a split second Luke thought Mikey might actually lash out at him in return, and he secretly wished he would, just so thetwo of them could get some of their complicated feelings out in the air rather than letting them simmer, but then, just as quickly, Mikey was the same grinning idiot he’d always been.
