Page 50 of Paint Our Song

Is his terrible singing doing this? He might just sing even worse.

When the song ends, he tries shoving the other mic in Calvin’s direction, and almost gets kicked in the shin for it. There’s a lull, an unknown melody playing as the machine waits for the next chosen song.

“Why am I making you nervous? I’ve heard you sing countless times,” Miles says. “Is this like when you don’t want your family watching you perform?”

Strangely, Calvin looks embarrassed by Miles’s statement. Maybe he’s hit the mark, somehow. What changed, even? Why won’t he let Miles hear him sing?

“No,” he says, and Miles is unconvinced. “It’s because this is weird. Like I said.”

Okay. Now Miles is taking this as a personal challenge, and Calvin yelps when Miles holds him back by the shoulder and shoves the mic to his face. It’s kind-of funny how much Calvin is resisting, and it’s probably just pride at this point. He’s like a kid who petulantly sayshe doesn’t want to do something and then sticks to that decision.

“Miles, knock it off!” Calvin protests, pushing him away.

“One song.”

“No.”

“This was way more fun in my head when I thought you were going to sing,” Miles admits.

Calvin squints. Then he rolls his eyes and groans, grabbing the other mic from the table. “Fine.”

“Yes!”

Miles quickly realizes, in horror, that this was another bad idea in his growing list of bad ideas. Calvin chooses the first song that he recognizes, which is “My Girl” by The Temptations. He sings it so fucking effortlessly that Miles forgets he’s supposed to be singing along, and only remembers when Calvin shoves his shoulder.

Together, they sound horrible, all thanks to Miles. He shouts out the words in the worst tone ever and Calvin ends up laughing more than once.

He wouldn’t have it any other way. Miles is having fun, and judging from the way Calvin’s grinning, he is too.

Between songs, Miles falls back against the couch and wheezes. “I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self I’d be singing with Cloverlily’s guitarist one day.”

“You make it sound like we’ve been playing forever.”

“Five years is a long time.”

“I guess.” Calvin’s expression falters, and Miles instantly regrets his comment.

“How impossible would it be to get your band mates here, too?I’d give up all my money for that.”

“That reminds me… Chase and Gil want to come to Ridgeford. They’ve been bugging me about my posts all week. They say this place must be a dream if it’s got me posting on social media.”

Miles spins toward him excitedly. “Do they know you’re helping us out?”

“Yes. They want to help out, too. We don’t have a gig for another week or so, and I think we’ve all somehow agreed that we’re done rehearsing as a group, so now everyone’s just doing their own thing and trying to get through these remaining shows. So… yeah. They’re both bored out of their minds.”

“You should tell them to come.”

“Might be fun.” Calvin takes his phone out and starts typing a message.

While Calvin’s preoccupied, Miles rapidly scrolls through the list of songs. Then he spots Cloverlily on the list, in a random spot right below Madonna. They should really do this alphabetically, or include a search function. “Hey! Your songsarehere!”

“No, they aren’t.”

“They are.” Miles bounces his knees, beaming.

Unfortunately, Calvin’s glued to his phone and not paying attention to his awesome discovery. “Chase and Gil are driving here, maybe this weekend.”

“Awesome. I’ll let the front desk know.”