Page 19 of Surviving You, Scotch and Sammy 1

“You and Sammy. It’s going well?”

“Oh.” I change gears in my head. Sammy to music. Music to Sammy. Sammy, Sammy, Sammy. “I thought that was a pot shot.”

“Nah, dude. We voted, we actually like her.”

I laugh as I finger the pick in my hand. “You actually voted?”

“Yeah--”

“That reminds me,” Angelo murmurs from behind the keyboard. “We need to vote on the band name. It’s weird we don’t have a name yet.”

“Eh. Who cares?” Marc brushes away the same argument we’ve been having for years. “People already know who we are.”

“Who are we?” Luc smarts. “Sam Turner and the others.”

“You jealous all the girls know my name, Luc?”

“Fuck off,” he laughs. “Girls know my name. Girls scream my name every day and night.”

“Jesus.” Angelo throws a balled up scrap of paper at his head. “Can you shut up? Let’s vote, then let’s practice.”

“We still didn’t hear about Sammy,” Luc argues. “You think I’m bullshitting, but we like her, even if she does take up all your damn time lately.”

“It’s going good, man. It’s going perfect.”

“That pedestal hasn’t fallen yet?” Marc asks with a smile. “You set her up pretty high. She still all shiny and perfect?”

“She’s even better than I thought.”

“Alright.” Angelo steals our attention again. “Band names. Last week Luc suggested Whiskey Business… show of hands.”

Luc lifts his hand, but no one else does.

“Alright.” Ang crosses it off on the paper in front of him. “Dumbass here also suggested The Hearing Pandas.”

“You get it?” Luc argues when my face snaps to his. “Like, they have Def Leppard, we can be The Hearing Pandas.”

“Show of hands.”

Luc’s hand snaps up enthusiastically, meanwhile I look around for something to throw at his head.

“Next.” Angelo crosses that name out too. “Abracadabra? Ya know, cause of my magic hands?”

I roll my eyes.

“Nope? Okay. Marcus? Any suggestions? You being quiet doesn’t make you thoughtful, it makes you lazy.”

He shrugs his shoulders. “Who cares? Let’s just play.”

As if on cue, Luc starts a low bass drum beat, and taking that as a group decision, Angelo moves his notebook aside and begins pressing down on the keys. Alrighty then. That is why we still don’t have a name. I don’t really care though. I just want to play.

I press my foot down on the loop peddle and Marcus chimes in with the rhythm, and we don’t surface again for over two hours.

***

Early in the morning a few days later, I jog down to the lake and I smile at her sitting on the dock in her bikini. “Hey there, pretty girl.”

Sammy’s eyes come to mine and her smile spreads across her face. She’s so beautiful. I want to be a gentleman, I don’t mean to be such a guy, especially considering the fact she’d never even kissed a boy before, making it a safe bet she’s never had sex either, but I still have to rearrange my dick in my shorts. She’s sitting in front of me in a teeny tiny sunny yellow bikini with silver buckles, and I’m an almost eighteen-year-old virgin. I’d never pressure her, but damn, my dick knows when beauty and sex is right in front of it.

---