Sliding Down the Sky by Amanda Dick Page B

from the bedroom.
    “Hallelujah!” I cried, throwing my hands up in the air. “It’s a miracle!”
    Maggie flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder, and I noticed she was wearing Ally’s black Pearl Jam t-shirt with her jeans.
    “Half an hour and you come out wearing that?” I asked, standing up. “What the hell took so long?”
    “You think it’s easy, looking this good?” Maggie quipped, grabbing her handbag and standing at the door. “Are we going or what?”
    I threw down the last half of my beer to quell my nerves – nerves that had been sitting at the bottom of my gut, twiddling their thumbs until now. What I needed was several beers, consumed in quick succession.
    Maggie was the designated driver tonight, by rotation, and we piled into her car and headed for the other side of town.
    “What’s with the name, anyway?” Maggie asked, as Ally searched for a decent radio station.
    “I wondered about that myself,” I mumbled, taking in the suburban neighbourhood via the street lights. “What kind of name is Sass? Must be short for something. God knows what, though.”
    The car fell silent and I looked over at Jack, who was sitting beside me, grinning.
    “I meant the bar’s name,” Maggie chuckled. “Man, it’s pretty clear to see where your head’s at tonight!”
    Jesus. I needed to get a grip, and fast.
    “Anyway,” Ally said, coming to my aid. “It’s pretty cool that they’re having live music. It makes Harry’s jukebox look kind of crappy.”
    “Ooh! Leave it there!” Maggie said, nodding approvingly at Ally as Counting Crows’ Einstein on the Beach blared through the car speakers.
    “Rock, apparently. And soul.”
    I didn’t say anything about the country music Sass had mentioned because I knew Jack wasn’t a fan. Also, I didn’t trust myself to say anything else.
    “Leo seems pretty cool,” Jack offered. “I went around a couple of days after they’d moved in, just to make sure everything was okay, and they have a piano in the living room. They must be a pretty musical family – he showed me his guitar collection. I say collection, because he’s got three.”
    “So he plays piano and guitar?” Ally asked, turning around.
    “Apparently, yeah. Wonder if they need a singer?”
    He began to sing along with the radio, loudly and off key.
    “Okay, enough!” Maggie yelled over the music. “Cease and desist! Please! I’ll buy the first round if you just shut up!”
    He immediately quietened down.
    “Cars are for amateurs – I sound way better in the shower.”
    “Now there’s a stage show I wouldn’t mind seeing,” Ally said, giving Jack a playful wink.
    Maggie laughed like a hyena, but I had trouble raising a smile. He was keeping a secret from her that could change everything. It made me nervous, like the ground was shifting beneath my feet. If Jack and Ally could fall apart, what hope did anyone else have?

Chapter Nine
     
    “With the power of soul, anything is possible.”
     
    – Jimi Hendrix
     
    Sass
     
    My heart felt like it was about to jump right out through my ribcage. Collecting coffee from the diner when it was practically empty was one thing, but serving drinks to a room full of people was something else entirely.
    I tried to keep busy, working through the checklist that Leo had hastily scribbled on a piece of paper. It helped to keep my mind off things. I thought I was doing okay, too, until the band turned up.
    Leo let them in, and I tried not to pay them too much attention as they unpacked and began to go through the motions of a soundcheck. This was all part of normal life, I told myself. Don’t pay any mind to them, just let them do their thing. It sounded like straight-forward, sensible advice, but it didn’t take into consideration the emptiness that hummed like a tuning fork inside me.
    I hated them.
    No, not hated them – was jealous of them. Jealous as hell. Green with envy. I could feel the jealousy burning a hole in my