“Uh huh.” Colette said with a playful roll of her eyes. “That’s all you know?” She asked him, nodding her head. Not that she had a problem with that, she was a superstar. She was one of, if not the best talent to come out of Rosewood and she could say that without a doubt but maybe she should let people get to know her a bit more. ‘I guess I’m just going to have to show you who I am then.” Colette tilted her head. “So what’s it like?” She asked, because if Brodie was going to be there for her… she would be there for him. “Wait, you mean to tell me you’re not some Kpop star?” She asked him with a small laugh. “And before you ask, no I’m not Selena.” She added. “Come on, show me what you’ve got.”
“That and that you’re gorgeous, I mean those are all the obvious points,” he added with a soft laugh, unable to help himself. He was sure that when Willow said he should get out there with someone new she didn’t mean Colette but then again, she hadn’t been specific. “Uh well I can..play you something if you want,” he told her, excited and confident but also nervous about what she might think. Still, he had been looking for a real shot at this and he wasn’t going to turn away the opportunity. “Alright alright,” he replied with a laugh as he got up and grabbed his guitar but not without connecting his phone for the music he had recorded. “I wrote this a few weeks back,” he explained as he went into the song, having to admit that it felt good to be performing, even for an audience of one.
“Go for it, every donation counts. I’m going to try to get donation boxes in Rosewood in case you prefer to avoid coming back to campus,” he smiled. Kirby wasn’t envious of his friends for moving on since graduation, but it had been the first time in his life he felt directionless. This week was the first time in a long time Kirby felt some semblance of normalcy. Coordinating a clothing drive was like putting a pair of old jeans for him. “I mean I believe it. You’re the tallest one out of everyone. Hopefully, Marnie is better at basketball than her dad,” he teased. Thankful for the help, he offered Brodie half of the pile of flat boxes. “Thanks man. Tell me you at least caught up on sleep today. If Aiden’s free later, maybe we play Battlefield” he said.
“Hey fuck off, I’m..decent at basketball, okay? I look amazing in basketball shorts and that has to coutn for something too.” He laughed as he took the boxes and shrugged. “Yeah I slept in a bit but I gotta say waking up without Marnie jumping on my bed and sometimes kneeing me in my side by accident? I kind of miss it when she’s gone. That’s fucked up but that’s parenting, I’m learning. Battlefield? We could. Or we could leave the house. Get some fresh air. Do something..active? I refuse to let myself have a dad bod. I absolutely refuse. And I’m sure Aiden could use not looking at a screen of some sort.”
“I definitely helped, but that was really a lot of Jarrah’s impact.” Colette had to give credit where credit was due. Jarrah had implored her to explore things that she’d never considered doing and thus far, that’d made her latest project one that she couldn’t wait to put into the world. “I like to think different is good. I don’t want to be one in the crowd, I want to make my own crowd.” She nodded. Even if this body of work flopped, at least she was proud she’d done something original. Something completely Colette. “Does that mean I’m going to have to teach you a couple of things?” She asked Brodie, smiling brightly in his direction. “Now, mi amor.” She reached over, taking a hold of his chin. “When have you ever known me to get drowned out?”
“I mean you definitely could,” he replied with a soft laugh, smirking when she took a hold of his chin. “Well that’s the thing, I don’t know you. I just know that you’re a superstar. I mean I’ve got new stuff coming out but not like that,” he told her with a soft laugh, still pretty surprised that she had asked him for his opinion in general. “But different is always good, I mean look at me. Everyone expected me to be some kpop star because I get it, they’re amazing. But man I just fucking love my guitar,” he said with a shrug. “Making your own crowd sounds like fun.”
“Impossible, 2019 is currently the second hottest year on record– which started in 1880 by the way.” She was just saying that to be a pain in the ass though, and gave a little cheer when she caught the popcorn in her mouth. “I thought a tree was a tree but okay, whatever Marnie wants, I’m just a vessel put on this earth to deliver it.” It was sweet how invested he was in the holiday, always doing the most when it came to his daughter. It reminded her that even if their father was the world’s biggest disappointment, she was lucky to have a brother like Brodie to make the holidays a bearable thing for her again. “I draw the line at a snow machine indoors,” she pointed out, “but yeah, Kirby’s gifts with those crisp wrapped corners? Front and centre, for sure.”
“Yeah well, if the world does dies, I at least want to be able to say I had a kickass Christmas tree,” he replied with a laugh and popped a piece of popcorn in the air for himself but it just came down and hit his forehead. “This is true, this is very true, we’re full time Marnie servers,” he joked. As much turmoil as it had been when they had left the house they had grown up in, he and Willow had really made a home out of this three bedroom apartment. They had their routines, the fridge stayed full, his daughter stayed happy and Willow always had a place, a room, to call her own and to him, that was more success than any hit track could bring him. “Okay no snow machine, maybe noise machine? The sound of snow,” he joked, “But we get enough of it outside,” his eyes widened as he thought about it, “Our first snowfall with Marnie, holy shit. That’s gonna be fun. I just hope she doesn’t start singing frozen because we’ll both lose it. I’m telling him that he should do a gift wrapping instruction course. All the Rosewood moms would be at the mall lining up to take it. Also,” he cleared his throat, “On a scale of 1-10, how fucked up is it if I try to set Kirby up on a date and if it’s not fucked up…do you want to help me?My mans needs some company.”
“Nah, a friend over at Big Brother Big Sister reached out to me needing help with their clothing drive,” Kirby explained, his mood lightening up at the sight of Brodie. Given the abundance of free time he had now, he accepted. However despite the slow start, he couldn’t resist taking over the entire project. “Are you saying my shoulders don’t look amazing right now?” he teased, arching a brow.
“Okay that’s ten times cooler. You think I can add some stuff in with your boxes? I have kids clothes too. Marnie is fucking growing by the second, I don’t know how, but somehow she’s gonna be taller than all of us.” He looked at him and shrugged. “Eh they could look better,” he teased, “You need help carrying these boxes? I’m kid free today so of course I have zero fucking idea what to do with myself.”
“So, what do you think?” Colette asked Brodie Balcoin, watching his face intently for his reaction on the last track she’d finished for her upcoming body of work. Given her purposeful distancing from her fellow PA kids and well, the lack of Jarrah and Kid in her life at the moment… the only other person she had to run her tracks to was… Brodie. “Honest opinions, only.” @b-balcoin
Brodie sat up as the track played, not sure he had heard anything like it, at least not from any musician coming out of Rosewood. “Did you mix this yourself? That shit is…fire,” he told her honestly, not really having any interest in lying to her. He was still surprised she had come to him in the first place but he wasn’t going to turn the universe away when it was clearly trying to help him out. “I mean it’s different, not something you usually hear on the radio or out there but that’s the point, right? Different is good, real good and I mean it gives ton of space for choreography. Now..I don’t know any fucking spanish so I have zero idea what you’re saying but I know I like it. Love it even. You just gotta make sure when you perform the band or music doesn’t drown you out.”
“We’re in the midst of a climate crisis and you want to chop down more trees?” Willow spun her seat away from her desk, opening her mouth not unlike a baby bird in the hopes that Brodie would throw her a piece of popcorn. “Kidding. We should definitely do that. I saw these cute decorations at the mall the other day and I don’t think a fake tree would do them justice.”
“Alright Greta Thunberg, chill out,” he replied and threw the a piece of popcorn into the air. “And do you really want to be the person who tells Marnie we’re getting a fake tree when she starts walking around singing Christmas songs in like the next week?” He smiled and stepped further inside to take a seat. “Perfect, I like this plan. I’m trying to have this place look like Santa’s freakin workshop. And then lots of little gifts so the tree looks really full, yanno? We’ll put Kirby’s expensive, thoughtful ass gifts towards the front.”
“We gotta get a tree.”Brodie stood in Willow’s bedroom door eating some of the popcorn they had gotten from the supermarket. “Like we should go for a real one. Chop it down ourselves and shit. What do you think?” @wind-in-the-willow-balcoin
