Page 484 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

“Aight. I’m out. All you, Allie.”

He leans over to Andrew, the talkback still latched open, and their voices cut through my headphones.

“She didn’t trust me for shit at first. Had me hands-behind-the-back at my own board.”

Another laugh buckles out of Andrew,

breaking his nerves for a split second.

“Who, Allison? Control issues? Nah.”

I roll my eyes. “I can hear you bastards, kill the talkback.”

Ace jumps forward to kill it.

Callista and I lock eyes,

her knee bouncing a mile a minute.

She admitted to me once that the first listen always terrifies her.

It’s the fear of hating it, then having to find a way to look me in the eye and break my heart.

My fingers ghost over the keys.

The studio around me is dead,

a soundproof tomb.

So quiet, I can hear my pulse in my ears.

The song fills my chest like a lungful of cold air. Half of me wants to hold my breath and keep it safe in the dark forever. The other half is begging me to open my mouth and finally set it free.

I close my eyes, and the first notes drip into the silence, spilling out the same way they were born on the paper in my notebook. Only me and the music, no one else, filling up every empty corner of the room, as if it's trying to prove it’s good enough to fill up every corner of the world.

And when I open my mouth,

the words slip out of me…

VERSE

Today, you called me crazy

Fixed your face while your hands shake

Last night, I was your soulmate⁠—

Babe, give your mouth a break

Now it’s ‘sorry, I need space

from you.’

Crazy’s a strange thing to say

from a guy who can’t explain

why he keeps a piece of me⁠—