“WHY DIDN’T YOU tell me you play guitar?” Derrick asked as he and AJ walked toward Main Street. From the school, it was about a mile and a half walk to Sherman Music and the entire way, they talked about nothing but music.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” AJ said. “This is awesome! I finally have someone I can jam with!”
“I don’t know. It never came up,” Derrick said. “But I’m glad it did!”
The walk to the music shop took them through the residential neighborhoods, past the large houses that got smaller as they approached Main Street. From behind them, a loud whoop of a siren went off, and both Derrick and AJ turned around.
“It’s the cops!” AJ said, but Derrick just rolled his eyes.
“It’s my mom’s fiancé,” he said as Doug pulled up next to them in a police cruiser.
“You guys going somewhere?” Doug asked out the rolled-down passenger window. He slowed the vehicle down to match the boys’ walking speed and sidled next to them on the road.
“We’re going down to Sherman Music,” Derrick said. “AJ needs some new guitar strings.”
“Axe slinger too, huh?” Doug said.
“Yes sir,” AJ said.
“I have to take this car to the mechanic shop, which is just a few blocks from Sherman’s,” Doug said. “Why don’t you boys hop in? I’ll give you a ride there.”
AJ’s eyes went wide. “In the back of a cop car?”
Derrick was about to tell his soon-to-be stepdad that they would be okay walking, but AJ cut him off with an excited “That’s awesome!”
The two boys climbed into the backseat of the cop car. The plastic seat was uncomfortable, hard against their backs, but the air conditioner was a welcome reprieve from the late-summer heat outside.
“Do you have a lot of bad guys back here?” AJ asked.
“No, not too many. I’ve probably had a few of your classmates caught out after curfew though,” Doug said with a grin.
“Nice! Who?” AJ asked.
“Can’t tell you that part.” Doug winked in the rearview mirror.
“Can you run a red light?” AJ asked.
“I could if I wanted to.” Doug grinned. “Graduate high school and join the academy. We need young officers.”
AJ shook his head. “No way, man. I’m going to be a rockstar.”
Doug let them out at the curb and told Derrick that his mom would be expecting him home by five o’clock. Derrick thanked him for the ride, as did AJ and they went inside the music shop.
It was a musician’s dream. Dozens of guitars hung on the wall, separated and organized by acoustic, electric and bass. There were Fender Stratocasters, Telecasters, Gibson Les Pauls and more. Derrick feasted his eyes on it all. He could spend hours in here and still not play every guitar. Near the back of the store, several drum sets were set up, and someone was playing a four-beat rhythm.
“This is the coolest guitar shop I’ve ever been in,” Derrick said, amazed. “We had a music store back in Clearwater, but it was kind of run down, and they didn’t have the nice guitars. Definitely no Gibsons. This, though. This is like heaven!”
“Come here,” AJ said. “I’ll show you the one I want.”
Derrick followed AJ to the guitar racks and AJ pulled down a candy apple red Fender Telecaster. The instrument had a white pickguard and chrome pickups.
Derrick beamed. “I have that one,” he said.
“Shut up,” AJ looked at him incredulously. “Seriously?”
“Yup. Doug got it for me when we moved here.”
“Wow,” AJ said. “I need a Doug in my life!”
“Come over this weekend and we can jam on it,” Derrick said.
“Okay!” AJ said. He sat down on a bench next to the rack. Pulling a cable hanging from a Fender amplifier on the ground next to them, he picked at the guitar, the tone warm and clean. He played a couple of riffs and licks before handing it to Derrick. “Let’s hear what you can do.”
Derrick took the guitar and sat on the bench that AJ vacated. He sat the guitar in his lap and thought for a moment. He adjusted the tone settings on the amplifier and started playing a riff from the song “Tomorrow” by Silverchair.
“Oh, I know that one!” AJ said, excited. “I love that album! Turn it up!”
As Derrick got to the chorus of the song, he hit the distortion on the amplifier. AJ belted out the words to the song, his voice loud and cutting through the guitar’s crunch and tone. Derrick was impressed at how well he sounded and how he made his voice sound nearly just like the singer from Silverchair.
“Wow,” Derrick said after he stopped playing. “That was really good.”
“You think so?” AJ asked.
“Better than Taylor Hanson!”
“I swear to God, dude. I will impale you with the neck of that guitar if you mention that name again.”
Derrick laughed and handed the guitar to AJ. “I’m never going to let you live that one down.”
AJ hung the guitar back on the wall-mounted rack. “I’m glad you think it’s funny. It was so embarrassing. I really thought he was a girl!”
AJ walked toward a display rack of guitar strings and pulled a bright pink package from its hanger. “Ernie Ball Super Slinky,” AJ said, holding the package of strings up for Derrick. “These are the best strings on the planet.”
“I know. I use the same ones,” Derrick said.
“Of course you do. It’s like we’re the same person.”
Though he had friends in Clearwater, Derrick never felt like he had someone who seemed to understand him, who had the same interests and style. And here in Mount Vernon, he found someone like that almost immediately. For the first time in nearly two weeks, he was actually glad that they’d moved here.
AJ checked out at the register and they left the store.
“Let’s grab a Slurpee.” AJ nodded toward the 7-11 across the street.
They crossed Main Street, dodging a few cars and went into the convenience store, the door chime dinging above them as they did. AJ paid for their drinks and started their way back home.
They walked back to their neighborhood, Slurpees in one hand and guitar strings in the other, and never once did the conversation stop as they talked about their favorite bands, childhood memories and everything else that came to mind.
For the first time in his life, Derrick felt like he had a best friend.