Page 34 of My Five Daddies

He’s silent for a second. I can’t help but feel a little surprised by this. It’s the new Will, all introspective andmelancholy.

I think I like it. I love Will, he’s one of my closest friends, but sometimes he can be too much, too outgoing. Sometimes I wish he’d tone it down. This version of him though, this version is interesting. I don’t want him to be so down, but I do like that he’s actually thinking this through instead of diving inheadfirst.

“You’re right,” he says finally, looking more confident. “Sorry to be such a fuckingdowner.”

“It’s okay. Honestly, I likethis.”

“Why?” heasks.

I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe it’ll bring us all closer together, instead of pushing usapart.”

He gives me an odd look. “You really think five grown ass men can get anycloser?”

“If they all share a single woman? Sure, whynot.”

He laughs softly. “Yeah, guess you’re right. Never thought I’d want to be closer to youassholes.”

“Here’s toTori.”

“Here,here.”

We clink glasses and drink. Will’s mood improved considerably, but I’m still thinking about what hesaid.

So far I haven’t been considering the consequences. I’ve been living like he usually does, doing whatever feels good and not worrying about anything else. I’m normally the introspective one, the worrier, but our roles are reversed rightnow.

It’s interesting, and maybe it’s good. We can all come closertogether.

Tori doesn’t know what she’s infor.

11

Tori

“This fucking sucks.”Dustin throws the guitar down on the ground. It hits the rug with a twang and a hollow thump. I look at Ethan and his eyes are wide. I can tell he wants to say something, but he bites histongue.

“I got this,” I say, gettingup.

He watches me without a word as I walk around and head into the recordingspace.

“What’s wrong?” I ask Dustin as I head over tohim.

He stands up, flipping his shaggy hair from his eyes. “That fucking guitar. It sounds likeshit.”

“It sounded pretty good in there,” I say tohim.

“What the fuck do you know aboutmusic?”

I bite my tongue. “You’re right. We can get you a differentguitar.”

“It’s the whole fucking part,” he says. “The whole thing fucking sucks. I mean, seriously, a minor chord? Right there? Like what thefuck?”

“The songs are good, Dustin,” Isay.

“Fuck the songs. I didn’t even write them. I want to do myoriginals.”

I cringe a little bit. I heard some of his originals. The lyrics are childish and the melodies are just passable. He’s not a great songwriter, but he might become better one day. Right now though, we need him to do these songs. They’re all written by talented people, and Ethan pulled out all the stops to get them. Dustin has no clue what he’s talking about, but clearly he’smad.

I do my best to calm him down, but it doesn’t help much. Eventually he tires himself out and we all agree to take a littlebreak.

---