Sample Sunday - Call & Response - A Little Pitchy

(Call & Response is currently a Patreon exclusive project)

“You’re really taking that hairline on stage?” Royal asked, the first actual question I got between him and Anika. They were tag-teaming manager duty today, and even though I was just volunteering, they were the obvious people to talk to about leaving.

And they were family.

Anika gave Royal the stink-eye as I ran a hand over my head – I was due for a line-up that I’d planned to drop by the shop for next week, but now that my brother had brought it up…

“I bet Troy can squeeze you in for a quick cleanup,” Anika offered in a soothing tone. “And if not, this is the exact kind of situation they make hats for – shut up, Royal.”

“Why I gotta shut up, I’m looking out,” Royal shrugged. “The blogs will say he on that shit if he pops out looking raggedy.”

She sucked her teeth. “Blogs? You’re ten years late.”

“You know what I meant girl.”

“Do I?” Turning back to me, she smiled. “This is exciting. Are you excited? I didn’t even know Audra sang. How does she sound?”

How indeed.

Definitely  not something that should be a question in my mind – at least, not if I was making good decisions.

“Uh… she sounds good,” I guessed, trying to sound more certain than I felt.

Audra was pretty major in the industry – major enough to have mega-stars in The Heights tonight for the concert she’d curated. Surely she wouldn’t get on stage and embarrass herself by not having the voice to back up her presence.

There wasn’t that much misplaced confidence in the world.

Right?

Anika and Royal exchanged a look – clearly neither of them believed I knew what the fuck I was talking about, but they were nothing if not supportive since I’d been back in town.

“I’ll shoot Troy a text and see if he can squeeze you in – quickly, because doesn’t the concert start soon? Like… real soon? Like… is there time for a rehearsal soon?” Anika asked, glancing at her watch.

“I’m supposed to be meeting her at the rec center in two hours – more like an hour and a half now,” I corrected myself after my own time check. “Her set is a bit later, so I think she wants to run through some things first.”

“Good,” Royal nodded. “Give you a chance to shake the cobwebs off.”

I frowned. “What cobwebs? I’ve been fine performing with Ky.”

“Eh. You’ve been a little pitchy,” he argued. “Why you think Ky ain’t ask you to perform with him for this?”

“Kiss my ass,” I chuckled, getting off that topic as I finally broke out of my semi-frozen state.

I had to get out of there.