Page 12 of High Notes & Hail Marys

“Yo, Kai.” GoGo nudges you, the sweat on his arm rubbing off on your skin. “How’s it going? With, you know? Sterling?”

You crack your eyelids for just a second. “C’mon, bro. You don’t want to talk about all that.”

“That’s pretty dope,” Jameson adds. You get the sense that he’s playing a role in this conversation, alieutenant to GoGo’s general. “Sterling seems cool.”

You say nothing.

“Don’t be like that!” GoGo wheedles. “Is it going good? We know you went backstage at that concert.”

“I don’t kiss and tell.” You don’t even open your eyes. “My mama raised me right. Sorry.”

“Naw!” GoGo smacks your arm. Hard. “We don’t wanna know about any kissing.”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” Jameson insists.

“‘Course not. We just, you know. Bruh. Sterling’s gotta have a lot of females around. Right?”

Your eyes are already closed, but you wish you could close them tighter. Or that your ears had shutters, too. That you could just nope out of this conversation.

“It’s the twenty-first century, G. We don’t call womenfemales.”

“What do we call them, then?” Jameson sounds genuinely mystified.

But GoGo has set himself on a path, and he will not be diverted. “Yo. I’m just sayin’, there’s a lot of ladies that appreciate Sterling’s music. The Grayheads? Gotta be a bunch of them followinghim around.”

You shake your head. “Saw lots of teenagers at the concert. Didn’t think you were into that.”

Even without looking at him, GoGo’s voice tells you that he’s affronted. “I ain’t tryna hit with no little girls, man. Come the fuck on. I’m just imagining, you know. Sterling’s walking around, you know. Doing superstar shit. And there have to be women. Just hanging around.”

“Acting like Pepe LePew?” you ask sarcastically.

“Who?”

“Never mind.” You roll your shoulders. You’re carrying a lot of tension at the base of your neck. Could be getting your ass beat at practice, could be this conversation. You need to book a massage.

“I think that, what G’s tryna say,” Jameson ventures, “is that, maybe, since you aren’t interested in pretty ladies, you could send a few our way.”

“One in particular,” GoGo asserts.

Sucking in a deep breath, you give up and open your eyes. Ignoring them isn’t fixing the problem.

“Who are you after, bro?”

“My future wifey,” GoGo smirks. “Gabrielle Rose.”

“Gabrielle? The opener?” Your face has to be asblank as your brain is. “I’ve never even met her.”

“The opener!”GoGo repeats, mortified, clutching his chest like there’s an arrow through his heart. “I know you’re gay, dude, but you ain’t blind.”

“She’s pretty?” you venture, racking your brain to recall what you remember of the opening set. You mostly remember the bunny ears and thinking about Sterling. You didn’t get much of an impression of Gabrielle. Blonde. Short. Good dancer.

“Pretty!” Jameson spits.

“Man,” GoGo sighs. “God himself created that girl’s fat ass. Shawty’s perfect. Literally flawless.” To illustrate, he shapes an exaggerated hourglass figure in the air with his hands. Licks his lips. “Dawg. I can’t even. You gotta get me a meet n’ greet.”

You raise an eyebrow. “G, you’ve been on the cover ofMadden. Call your agent and have him get her number. I don’t know her any better than you do.”

“But you knowSterling,” GoGo insists. “I know they’re close. I’ve seen them in pictures online.”

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