Page 68 of Never Been Shipped

“I’m sure people would still be excited to get a bracelet,”John said. “Even without the exclamation point. You should give them away, that sounds like a great idea.”

“It’d be awkward,” she said. “What would I do, just walk around with my case, stopping people to open it up and present my wares? It’s stupid.”

John looked over to where Steve and Frankie were still standing by the entrance to the casino, talking with the same group of people they’d been taking pictures with before. Micah envied how easily they seemed to move through the crowds on the ship—even with things not being nearly as bad as she feared, Micah still found it a little nerve-racking, the idea of just being out among everyone.

“All right,” John said finally. “Newnewidea. Follow me.”

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

The bracelets might’veinspired John, but he was excited to do this regardless of anything to do with them. It felt right. It felt like the best possible send-off they could give ElectricOh!, if this cruise was in fact the last time they’d ever play together.

There were couches set up in the main interior lobby of the ship, near the concierge desks, which had been strategic on John’s part because he thought it wouldn’t be a bad place to be on the off chance his idea ended up backfiring in some way. He sat on one of the couches, reaching down to flick open the guitar case containing all the bracelets at his feet.

“I want one,” Steve said, bending to sift through the bracelets, turning them over to read the words. “Oooh,ElectricOh. This one doesn’t have an exclamation point, though.”

“Take as many as you want,” John said, unpacking his own acoustic guitar from its case, holding his pick between his teeth as he grabbed the second acoustic and handed it over to Micah.

“Why would I—”

“What did Elvis use to say,” John said. “About how he only knew four chords and he only played three? He admitted that his guitar was a prop for him at first, a security blanket, but he still managed to get by. I think you should try getting used to holding one for a while and just see how it feels. That way if you feel moved to play along to anything, you can, and if not, no problem, you’ll still look sexy as hell.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Frankie said as they settled onto the arm of the couch next to Micah. They hadn’t brought an acoustic bass on the trip—because, why would they have?—and they said they only wanted to hang out for a few songs, anyway. Steve had a mini set of bongos because that just seemed like something Steve would travel with no matter what.

John glanced at Micah, giving her an exaggeratedwhoopsface at his slip, but she just grinned at him.

“I’m worried people are going to think they’re supposed togiveus bracelets,” Micah said. “Like it’s a tip jar or something.”

“We’ve been doing quite well for ourselves, if that’s the case,” John said. “But that’s an easy fix.” He rifled through his stuff until he found the paper he’d written the chords for “If Only” on earlier, together with the black Sharpie.TAKE ONEhe wrote in large capital letters on the back of the sheet, and propped it up on the guitar case.

“Listen to this tech for Halloween,” Steve said. “You get a bowl, and you dump a single small bag of some fun-size Kit Kats, that kind of thing. Then you put a sign on it that saysTake One, but the candy runs out super fast, right? Only people don’t think that’s on you for not putting out enough candy, they thinkit’s on everyone else for being too greedy to read the sign and taking too many.”

“Look at you, finding ways to rig suburban Halloween,” Frankie said. “You can’t cash one of your ElectricOh! checks to afford a couple big variety packs?”

“Also, why put any candy out at all, in that case?” Micah said. “You could just put out the sign and have everyone blame greedy people from the start.”

“For therealism,” Steve said, then did a little drumroll on his bongos. “And I’m not saying I’ve actually done this, I just think it could be a good idea. If you were low on candy.”

John strummed a chord, adjusting one tuner a final time before he strummed it again. “Are we ready?”

There was already a small crowd of people forming, trying to figure out what was going on, but no one had approached to take a bracelet. John didn’t know why he was suddenly nervous about this—more nervous than he even was about their big performance tomorrow night—but he was.

They’d agreed that they wouldn’t play “If Only,” since it was already slated for prom night, but other than that, any ElectricOh! song was fair game. John started with “Open Mouth,” since they’d already rehearsed and played that one the night before. Still, they weren’t used to playing it acoustic, and it took a minute for them to all settle into it together even though it was a song they knew every tiny nook and cranny of. Micah performed it in the most straightforward way possible, the way she might have sung a song around a campfire, and Frankie backed her up when the song built and wanted to get bigger.

By the time they rolled into another song, even John found himself singing along, which made Micah skip a lyric as shesmiled at him. She occasionally tapped the guitar, playing percussion along with Steve, but didn’t otherwise move to strum it. He noticed she also smiled every time someone came up to grab a bracelet or two from the guitar case, which meant she was smiling a lot, because there really was an obscene amount of bracelets and they seemed to be unending. The crowd gathered around got bigger and bigger, and eventually they were all singing along to the songs, too, until John forgot to feel self-conscious about his voice or worry about whether Micah was having a good time or any of it. They were just hanging out and playing music. It really could be as simple as that.

Someone requested a particular song that John couldn’t remember as well, and so he was trying a couple different notes, traveling up the fretboard until he could find the right key.

“I think it was—” Micah strummed a chord, and then played the next until she’d figured out the entire first verse. “Now see if I can remember the lyrics, they went like—”

But that was where it was great to do this here, like this, because there were people in the crowd who seemed to know the lyrics better than they did. They started singing the first line, and then it was Micah who was singing along withthem, making a cute little face the couple times she flubbed a word.

Steve and Frankie stayed longer than they originally said they would, but still they peeled off sometime around two in the morning. There weren’t any bracelets left in the guitar case, which was a shame—John realized he’d meant to grab one for himself, and hadn’t.

“You’re not wearing your voice out, are you?” he asked Micah. “You’ve been using it a lot today.”

“Nah,” she said. “I have one more in me, at least.”

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