One afternoon after school...
Maybe asked if I wanted to take a walk.
Normally...
I wouldn't have hesitated.
But one of the guys was staying late after rehearsal to work on a couple of new songs.
I remember standing there...
looking from Maybe...
to the auditorium.
"I'll catch you tomorrow."
She smiled.
"Okay."
She made it sound easy.
I told myself it was only one afternoon.
Funny...
that's exactly how drifting begins.
A couple nights later...
We sat on the porch swing.
Just like we always had.
Maybe talked.
I listened.
Or at least I pretended to.
Truth was...
my mind was somewhere else.
Songs.
Stages.
Rehearsals.
The musicians I looked up to.
I was sitting beside Maybe.
But I wasn't really there.
There was an old belief that seemed to drift through every group of
young musicians.
Nobody ever actually said it.
It simply hung in the air.
If you were serious about music...
girls and music didn't mix.
The funny thing is...
I don't think any of those guys really believed that.
If I'd told them I was thinking about breaking up with Maybe...
they probably would've told me I was out of my mind.
The problem wasn't what they believed.
It was what I quietly convinced myself they believed.
I never asked.
And somehow...
I answered a question...
that nobody had ever asked me
I thought I was making one big decision.
Truth was...
I'd already made it.
One rehearsal.
One conversation.
One standing ovation.
One missed walk.
One small choice at a time.
Until...
there really wasn't a decision left to make.
A few days later...
I asked Maybe if we could talk.
