Free Our Song by Jody Morse, Jayme Morse Page B

reacted too much. It was nearly impossible to be in the same room as Colton without wanting to drop your panties. He was just that hot. It was a fact.   
    “Are you free to write again at the same time tomorrow?” Colton asked, glancing over in my direction.
    “Yeah, sure,” I agreed with a shrug. I figured we would take a day off in between sessions, but I was already starting to adjust to the routine of seeing him every day. Plus, the sooner we got this over with, the sooner we would be done with each other for good, I reminded myself again.
    “Okay, cool. I’ll see you then.” He took a few steps toward the front door. I stared at his back until he slipped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
    Skylar came out of her room a moment later wearing a pair of terry cloth shorts and a tank top. As she headed into the kitchen, she said, “Well?”
    “Well, what?”
    “How did it go?” she asked, as though the question should’ve been an obvious one.
    I thought about it for a moment. Arguing with the asshole aside, we’d actually come up with a really cool melody. That had to count for something .
    “It went good… surprisingly good, actually.”

 
     
     
    Chapter 10
     
    For dinner that night, Skylar and I went to Ricardo’s Pizza, which had always been one of our favorite afterschool hangouts. We ordered a “pig pie,” which had to have been the greasiest, most fattening pizza ever . It was covered in way too much cheese, bacon, sausage, and pepperoni.
    Screw what my trainer, Manny, thought or what those girls at Ambrosia’s had said about me being chunky. With all of the stress in my life lately, I was pretty sure I deserved a couple of slices. I’d worry about burning off the thousands of calories later.
    We chose the same booth we’d always sat at in high school. I immediately glanced at the wall where, years ago, Skylar and I had written: VP & SK were here .
    To my surprise, our initials were still there.
    Skylar followed my gaze to the wall. “Wow. They never painted over them.”
    “Yeah, I’m sort of surprised.” As I took a sip of soda, I thought about how much the two of us had changed since then. Not only had we fallen out of touch, but I’d gone on to be this famous musician and Skylar…well, I didn’t really know what she’d been up to since then. The only thing I did know was that she’d changed.
    Her brown eyes no longer gleamed with happiness the way they once had, and she seemed a lot more reserved—a stark difference from her naturally bubbly self. I didn’t know what had happened while she was there, but I had a feeling that, whatever it was, it couldn’t have been good.    
    I glanced over at her. “So, I know you said you didn’t want to talk about Nashville, but I feel like there has to be something you can catch me up on. I mean, you were gone for three years. That’s like the equivalent of a lifetime or something.”
    “Yeah, I know.” She sighed and glanced out the window, avoiding my gaze. “I met a guy out there. It didn’t work out. That’s pretty much it.”
    “Well, what happened?” I pressed. Even though I didn’t want to push her, there was a part of me that was hoping she’d share so we could somehow relate. It was obvious we’d both gone through painful breakups. We clearly had more in common than she realized.
    Skylar met my gaze firmly. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
    “Okay,” I replied. “Sorry.”
    “It’s fine.” She shrugged it off. “So, tell me more about your music career.”
    “It’s not going so great,” I quietly admitted, glancing down at my recently manicured nails.
    Her eyes widened. “Really? But I hear your songs on the radio all the time!”
    “Yeah, I guess my fans think I’m whiney and stuff. That’s why I’m pretty much being forced to work with Colton on this next album,” I explained.
    She just stared back at me in awe. “Wow. I figured the two of you actually wanted to work