Page 34 of Doc Rock
She nodded and forced herself not to drop her eyes from him. That was something shy Mai would do.
She was Sie.
She didn’t get embarrassed.
“Sure,”Ford said, breaking eye contact and shrugging at his friends.
Mai’s stomach lurched in disappointment, as it did every time Ford’s attention shifted away from her. She lived for those small moments.
“Woo-hoo. We’re out of here!”Scotty exclaimed joyously, jumping to his feet and making a beeline for the door.“Seeyou tomorrow.”
“Bye, guys,”Joel called, following closely on his heels.
“Bye,” Mai added belatedly.
When the two boys left her parents’ house, silence settled over the kitchen, and Mai became very aware thatit wasnow just her and Ford. But as usual, she shoved her growing feelings down and returned to the business of writing songs.
She flicked through her notebook and tapped on some lyrics, with a scribbled title above them.“I really like this one.”
“Summer Days?” Ford queried.
“Yeah. Let’s work on that now.”
They had never been hugely productive when writing with Scotty and Joelthere, making helpful—actually unhelpful—comments. And she'd glossed over these lyrics, as she didn’t want toheartheir opinion on her words about first love and heartbreak.
When she wrote them, she was thinking only of Ford. The elation shefeltwhen they were together, the rightness of being with him, compared to the heartbreak that accompanied every new girl he turned up with. He was a serial monogamist, every few weeks bringing a new girl to band practice or to a gig. Girls who would stare at him with adoration.
Mai would have to channel Sie whenever Ford locked lips with one of those girls, acting as if she wasn’t bothered at all, even as she fell more and more in love with him.
At seventeen, sheknewwithout a doubt that she loved Ford. He occupied her waking hours and dreams. It hurt when shesawhim with another girl. The only thing that comforted her was that none of them were ever around very long before he moved on.
Ford had just dumped another of the never-ending lineup. Stacey or Sally or something like that. He’d told the rest of the band that she got too clingy. Mai tried to tell herselfit wasjust a coincidence that the other girl got dumped after she started being bitchy to Mai and complaining loudly about Mai spending so much time with the boys.
Lately, Mai had begun to think that Ford might like her as well. She often caught his eyes on her, and he would smile lazily at her before he looked away. And he seemed to be touching her more—brushing his hand over hers. Handing her things and making sure their fingers touched before he let go.
Nowit wasjust her and Ford sitting in her parents' kitchen, the airfeltheavier.
“Cool,”Ford said. Interrupting her whirling thoughts.“Sing it for me.”
Mai picked up her acoustic guitar from the chair and kept her eyes fixed on the notebook.
“It’s very rough at the moment. It needs a lot of work.”
“That’s why we’re here,”Ford replied.
Mai’s eyes rose to his, and her heart skipped at the smile on his face. A warm, genuine smile that she’d never seen him use on any of his many girlfriends.
Dropping her gaze and ignoring her skipping heart, she began to play, singing the delicate verse, then raising her voice in the chorus.
When she finished,therewas only silence in the room, and finally, she looked up.
Ford was staring at her.
“That was brilliant.”He grinned broadly.“That’s the best song you’ve written so far.”
Mai controlled the blush that tried to rise at the praise. She’dknownshe had something when the lyrics and music swirled through her head.
It waslike that for her—sometimes she had lyrics only, snippets of words that sheknewshould be woven into a song. And sometimes a whole song would appear in her head, looping around untilit wasfully formed.
