Page 23 of Losing the Rhythm

Everyone dove right in, fighting over different candies, determined to make the best candy project in all eternity—Toby’s words, not mine.

I went along with Calvin as we worked together on how to build a gnome with a pumpkin belly. The apple idea ended up being the worst failure, but we were able to get a lot of laughs out of it.

And I could see why their tradition was so precious. To spend each day doing one Halloween-themed activity. It was a togetherness I’d never felt before as Bryan swore at his project while it fell apart. Or when Justin’s zombie attempt turned more into a freakish looking ghost nightmare.

Like all things, it had to come to an end though. Paxon loaded up an overly excited Calvin, along with our gnome pumpkin creations.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, giving me a tight hug. Then he drove away.

“This taxi is about to take off,” Bryan called out to Justin and Toby. The two of them came running out of the house before they were left behind. Toby looked like he might have been on a bit of a sugar high. It was hard to tell, but he definitely ate a good portion of the candy that Seth bought. I hadn’t understood why Seth bought so much, but I did for sure now. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had enough with how much candy the others ate.

At least Paxon was able to portion control Calvin, but there had been no stopping Toby. Even as we kept on swiping candy from entering his mouth.

His poor aunt had no idea what we were returning to her.

“She’s going to call and give me an earful,” Seth said.

“What?”

“Once Aunt Laura sees the state we returned Toby in, she’s definitely going to call. I’ll give it an hour tops.”

“Should we feel bad?” I asked.

Seth chuckled as he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. “Not one single bit.” He kissed my forehead and turned us to go back inside. “Now let’s get real food in our stomachs before we get sick.”

“I didn’t eat that much.”

“No, but I did.”

Chapter Six

“Stop playing with the lyrics,” I said to Toby. He was hunched over in the cafeteria, ignoring the burrito I made him as he messed with the lyrics even more. He leaned forward, his mouth moving as he went over the words, a hand in his short light brown hair. He looked like he was ready to pull out his hair.

“I just want it perfect.”

I grabbed his free hand as he went to erase something. I held his arm still and squeezed it. “Toby. This is an important lesson even I struggle with, but sometimes, we need to just step away. Accept what we completed and move on. Or we’ll become obsessed, and working while obsessed leads to dangerous results.”

Toby’s hazel eyes snapped to me as he seemed to consider what I said. “Okay. Fine. I’ll just focus on this feeling of wanting to throw up.”

“You’ve performed before. What’s with you?” I asked. Toby definitely seemed more on edge with this song.

“Everything, Cadence. Everything. The song. You. Us.” His cheeks got a little red and he looked away from me, staring really hard down at our music sheets.

“Me?” I leaned closer to him, resting my hand on his thigh. “It’s just me. We’ve been singing this song together for a couple weeks now.”

“I know.” Toby finally straightened away from being hunched over the table and grabbed my hand and squeezed it. He ran a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. “I know. But I don’t know. The idea of singing in front of class, and that song. It feels more intense than any other project to date. And now I’m a nervous mess.”

“Do you know what my favorite advice was, not because it worked, but because of how ridiculous and stupid it is?” I asked.

“Picking a focal point in the back of the room?” Toby asked.

“To imagine the crowd naked.”

That got a snicker out of him.

“My dad used to tell me to do it when I first started performing. I hated it. It was terrible advice, and I think he just got it from the Internet. It was so stupid that I’d laugh. And you know what?”

Toby seemed to take in every word I said. I gave him a smile, trying to push away the sweet bitterness of my memories.

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