Interview Location: Jason's Bedroom -- Jason Pritchett
He's on his bed, phone in his hand, staring at a blank text.
"Tommy said text her about The Thing. That's good advice. That's genuinely good advice." He looks at the phone. "I'm not going to do that though. I have my own thing."
He sat on his bed after school, phone in hand, and typed it out.
Jason: be afraid. be very afraid... bc im about to attempt a first text
He stared at it for a second. Hit send before he could talk himself out of it.
Two minutes went by. His phone buzzed.
Camille: omg so corny lol
He smiled at the screen.
Jason: hey a laugh is a laugh
Camille: ok fine. that counts
* * *
They went back and forth for a while. He asked about her day, she asked about his. He tried to keep it from going flat, which mostly worked.
He asked about her family because it felt like the kind of thing you asked when you actually wanted to know someone. She told him her mom was a lawyer and her dad was a dentist. Both of them. Together. A lawyer and a dentist.
Camille: its a lot yeah
Jason: wow. and im over here like. artist
Camille: hey me too lol
Jason: wait ur parents are ok with that
Camille: they accepted fate a while ago
He laughed at that one. She had a younger sister too, couple years younger. He filed it all away.
She asked about his family.
Jason: theyre weird
Camille: omg it cant be that bad
Jason: it is
Camille: how weird
He looked at the ceiling for a second. How do you even explain the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker situation in a text. You don't. Not yet.
Jason: like a tv show weird. ill tell u sometime
Camille: ok now i need to know
Jason: next week maybe lol
Camille: ur keeping me in suspense on purpose
Jason: maybe :)
* * *
He came downstairs at some point to get food and found Gloria on the couch with her laptop and Jay in the chair watching something.
Jay looked up. "Hey. You never told me what you want for your birthday. It's been two months."
Jason grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter. "Motorcycle. But I need space to move my instruments sometimes so I don't know if it makes sense."
Jay waved his hand. "We'll figure that out. We'll get you a used bike."
Jason stared at him. "Why are you being so nice right now?"
Gloria looked up from her laptop. "Because I reminded him."
"Thank you, Gloria."
"You're welcome, baby."
"I only have one class left before I get my license," Jason said. "I pass it in two days. Can we get it after that?"
Jay nodded. "Yeah. You pass, we get the bike."
"Thanks." He headed back upstairs.
* * *
He turned on the TV when he got back to his room. He'd been doing this thing lately where he put on one of those teen dramas while he wrote, which he would not be telling anyone about. It helped. The drama on those shows was so big and obvious that it gave him something to write against -- like he'd watch some guy do something stupid and think okay, what's the real version of that feeling, and then go find it.
He had his notebook open and his guitar on his knee, not playing yet, just holding it the way you hold something when you're thinking.
His phone went off.
Tommy: bro come play drums real quick
Jason: there are presets for that
Tommy: just come
He walked over. Tommy had a beat running when he got there, slow and kind of heavy, not in a bad way, more like it was waiting for something to happen on top of it.
"Just play to it," Tommy said.
Jason sat down at the kit and listened to the loop once. Then played.
He kept it simple, didn't try to do too much, just let the beat breathe and put the drums underneath it like they were already supposed to be there.
When he stopped Tommy was already nodding.
"That's it," Tommy said.
"I want to use this beat," Jason said. "For something."
"Who else would I give it to."
Jason looked at the setup. Something was already forming in the back of his head about the beat, what it was asking for, the kind of song it needed. Slow and dramatic and honest. He filed it away.
He walked home and put the drama back on.
He watched for a while and found an episode where a guy cheated on his wife. Not interesting because of the cheating specifically, just interesting because of the part before it -- the way the show built up everything the guy wasn't saying, all the stuff sitting under the surface pretending it wasn't there.
He wrote for about forty minutes. Just pieces, nothing finished, but the shape of something was there.
His phone lit up.
Camille: wat r u doing
Jason: writing. watching tv at the same time
Camille: wat show
He paused.
Jason: a drama. dont judge me
Camille: lol which one
Jason: not telling u that
Camille: omg ur embarrassed
Jason: im not embarrassed i just have a reputation
Camille: u have a reputation after 6 weeks at a new school
Jason: yes
Camille: ok lol. wat r u writing
Jason: still figuring it out. might be something
Camille: about the show?
Jason: sort of. its more about the feeling under the thing thats happening in the show
Camille: ok that actually makes sense
Jason: i know right
He set the phone down and looked at the notebook. Then picked the phone back up.
Jason: u wanna hang out next weekend
He put the phone face down on the bed and looked at the ceiling.
It buzzed after a minute.
Camille: lets hang at school a few days first. then ill let u know
He read it twice. That wasn't a no. That was a process.
Interview Location: Jason's Bedroom -- Jason Pritchett
Late. Notebook open. TV still on quiet in the background.
"She said hang at school first then she'll let me know." He pauses. "That's not a no. That's just how she does things. She wants to see if it's real before she commits to it." He looks at the notebook. "Which honestly, fair. I can respect that." A beat. "Also I have a beat from Tommy that is going to turn into something. I can feel it."