Playing For Keeps Read Online Free PDF Page B

private set for him and, surprisingly, my fingers were a little shaky. I played through the notes, forcing myself to be steady and, satisfied with the changes, stuffed my sheets into my folder and placed my guitar in its case. I flipped the locks and slid it across my bed while I contemplated my closet. Not much to think about, really. Mini-skirts and fitted tees had been my uniform since the day I picked up my guitar, ten years ago.
    “What do you want to do for lunch?” I asked Bea as I stepped out of my dirty clothes and into fresh ones. “Taco truck?”
    “Sounds good.”
    As I wrapped a line of black liner around my eyes, I peered at Bea’s reflection in the mirror. She hadn’t once asked me to come to the voice lessons she’d scheduled. Never brought it up again after the first time during lunch. And maybe that was the reason I decided to go to the audition. Bea could talk about everything under the moon until my head was pounding. When she didn’t say much, though, is when I knew she was being serious.
    I still wasn’t sure what all this meant for my future. Our futures. Probably nothing. Then again, if the stars aligned and Jimmy Keats liked our sound, it would become a whole different ball game. I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. So maybe, just maybe, I decided to go to the audition to make sure it didn’t happen.
    “Ready to go?” I grabbed my cell phone from my desk and tossed it into my slouchy, metallic silver bag. Bea zipped her boots back on and stood.
    “I’m weirdly nervous,” she said, tying her hair back with a filmy scarf. I turned back to my mirror to fluff the top of my hair evenly. I was nervous, too. But I wasn’t supposed to be, and I knew it would help Bea to at least pretend I was cool.
    “It’s no big deal,” I said.
    We walked to El Corazon, the food truck that parked a few blocks away, and ordered tacos to go. We ate them on our way to Bea’s apartment, licking juices from our fingers.
    “I am so glad you introduced me to that place,” I moaned, stuffing the last bite of a corn tortilla in my mouth.
    “It’s good. But hurry up, Kaitlin said she was going to meet us after work and she’s probably there already.”
    “How is life in the six pack this year?” Bea and Kaitlin lived in a three bedroom apartment with four other girls. The reality of high rent in L.A. They were packed in like sardines. Last year, there so many fights that Bea practically moved into my room at Delta Gamma. Even now, she spent a huge chunk of her time at the DG house, and I still couldn’t entirely understand why she quit rush in our freshman year. It’s not like things were quiet and calm at her place
    “Better, so far. But I’ve learned not to be there too often, and now that Kaitlin’s working at the coffee shop, she’s not there too much, either.”
    “If it’s so hard for you all to get along, why live together?”
    “Because we all pay rent on time and honestly, that’s a big deal.” Bea’s boots clomped up the stairs to her front door. Before Bea had pulled out her keys, Kaitlin opened it.
    “Hey,” she said. “I just got here. Just have to finish my makeup and I’ll be ready to go.”
    I noticed Kaitlin had lined one eye perfectly with dark blue liner, but the other was a smudged mess. It shouldn’t have mattered. Doing makeup was hard sometimes. But I imagined Kaitlin standing in front of her bathroom mirror, her hands shaking with nerves, and suddenly I felt sick to my stomach.
    This audition was real, and it was big time.
    Kaitlin disappeared down the hallway and Bea and I sat on the living room couch. I pulled out my music notebook and a pencil. Bea started singing random lines from our songs. I tuned in, impressed by how well she was hitting her notes.
    Since Kaitlin was a music minor, she’d booked half an hour in a rehearsal room for us to practice in before our audition. I’d wanted to practice more than that in the past few weeks, but Bea had insisted that