From Mountains to Lone Stars

I watched Maverick move slowly. She was finally out of the hospital and in a slow but steady recovery. Her mom had headed home after Mav had insisted she was okay. They seemed to be in a better place now that the surgery was over. Even though Maverick was moving achingly slow, she looked better.

The hard part now was that I definitely had feelings for her. I had thought they were bad before her cancer scare, but now, it was like she was an entirely new person and all I wanted to do was kiss the shit out of her. Because of those feelings, I needed to get away from the building for a bit. Miranda had gladly let me take a few days.

Brian, my best friend in the entire world, smacked the back of my head. “You have been zoning all day. What’s up with you?”

Zacky, Johnny, and Jimmy all looked over to us. We were supposed to be working on a new set list for our next gig, but my mind just kept going back to the woman with purple hair. I wanted to be with her, to be in her arms. I wanted our tongues to dance together again, but if I told the guys that, I was going to get all kinds of shit. And for once, I was actually okay with it.

“I’ve been thinking about one of my resident assistants.” My eyes met Brian’s.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Alright, that still doesn’t explain why you’ve been so out of it. You’re normally the most involved in the writing process.”

“She just had surgery to remove her lady parts… she had cancer.” I looked down at the ground. I felt bad for revealing a part of Maverick’s life, a part she hadn’t shared with very many other people. Most of the staff still treated her differently.

“Jesus,” Jimmy said, placing his drumsticks on the ground. “Is she okay?”

I nodded. “But that’s only part of the reason I’m thinking about her.”

Zacky picked up on the change in my voice. He was the most sensitive out of us, and he definetly understood women better than we all did. Out of the five of us, he had been the one with the long-term relationship. We just didn’t care; we just wanted to be young adults.

“Oh my god, you like her, don’t you?” Zacky asked. Now all of them were paying a lot more attention to me. It made sense that they would pay attention now. They all worked in Housing too. They knew what it meant that I was crushing on one of my employees.

“Yeah… and I don’t need a lecture. We both know that we can’t get involved. But it’s like we’re drawn to each other. We… we kissed a couple of times.”

Brian smacked the back of my head. “Get her out of your head. You cannot ruin your career for a girl you may just want to fuck.”

My eyes stayed downcast. How could I explain to him that it was much more than that? I didn’t want to fuck Maverick; I wanted to be with Maverick. I wanted to be there for her like I was a few weeks ago. She was so much more than a fuck to me, and we hadn’t even had sex.

“You think you can focus on a song just for a few hours?” Zacky understood what I was going through. He could see it in my eyes. He knew that I was struggling here.

I nodded at the guys. “Can I work on the piano part? I think we should start with an organ or something.”

Johnny’s eyes met mine. “I’ll come help you.” He was also a hall director, and I think he just wanted to talk to me more. He knew all of my RAs and I knew all of his.

As I sat at the keyboard, Johnny examined me. “It’s Maverick, isn’t it?”

My eyes widened in surprise. Our little gnome was more observant than I thought. “Yeah…”

“I’ve seen you two in all-campus meetings.” He smirked at me. “I’m surprised no one else has noticed. You two are like two magnets. She isn’t someone you just want to fuck, is she?”

I shook my head and played a little tune on the piano. “No, I want to actually try something with her. I want to be more than just a hall director and friend, but we both love Bruce and want to stay there.”

The gnome nodded at me and motioned at the keyboard. “Why don’t you write about her? Get Mav out of your system and then move from there. If you can write about her, you can get back to our music.” He patted my back and left me to think about my feelings for Maverick. Could I put them all down in a song?

The tune floated out of my head the second I put my fingers to the keyboard. It was like a song that wanted to be written. It just flowed out of me, verse after verse and line after line. I hadn’t written like this in years. Maverick had somehow become my muse.

It felt like only moments later I was presenting a finished piece to the guys. Jimmy grabbed it first, his eyes hungrily taking it what I wrote. Out of all of us, he understood my writing process best. We did most of the lyrics and tunes. We all added in our flavors, but lyrics were always me and Jimmy. And for this song, the lyrics were the most important part.

“Jesus, Matt. What exactly is this woman doing to you?” Jimmy handed the sheets around.

“I don’t know, Jim. She has some sort of hold over me.”

Zacky and Johnny looked at me, both smiling. They could tell I was really happy. Brian read the sheets next, tapping his fingers along the neck of his guitar. A smile formed on his face too. “I have a solo already playing in my head. This is brilliant, Matt. Is this about her cancer?”

“Sort of. It’s more about what would have happened if she didn’t make it.”

Brian stared at the sheets. “We should divide it into two songs. I’ve got an idea.”

I watched as he and Zacky went to chug out some chords on their guitars. Those two working together was like magic. Johnny looked at the sheets again and pulled Jimmy over so they could figure out the best beat. I had put a few on the page. I stared at my friends as I looked over the lyrics. They were a little dark, but I think they fit the vibe of what we were trying to do. It was cathartic to write, and now I wanted to write more, so I headed back over to the piano to figure out the other melodies stuck in my head.

Notes

So, we finally have the boys in here!