I let him walk in front of me and then I stood in the doorway and watched him as he looked around. On the wall there was a poster of Eddie Veddar singing onstage with long hair. It was from back in the grunge days; he was shirtless and sweaty. His eyes were closed and he was gripping the microphone.
Pointing to the poster, Will smirked. “Not your father’s, I take it?”
“This used to my room during the summers.”
In his best girly voice he said, “It’s like he’s singing right into my soul.”
“Shut up!” I whined sheepishly, “Take it down, do whatever you want.” I pointed to the window. “You can smoke out there.”
“Oh, I quit.”
“Good for you,” I said. The room had a bed with blue bedspread and a dresser in the corner. I had taken everything else out.
“This is perfect,” he said, smiling widely.
“So we have to figure out some kind of rules for privacy and all that.”
“Well you work days and I work nights, so I’m sure it will be fine.” He stared at me and then continued. “What did you mean, like a sock on the door type of thing?”
“No, no. You’re right, it will be fine. Anyway, we can just figure it out as we go.” I had no idea how meaningful those words would become.
“Sounds like a plan, Roomy.” Then he winked.
“Okay, so where’s the rest of your stuff?”
“That’s it,” he said, pointing to the big duffle bag he brought in. “Oh, and my guitars and a little practice amp that Dustin, our drummer, is bringing over in his van. He’ll be here in a bit.”
“I just realized I know nothing about you. Do you have a family? Where are you from?” The idea that I just invited a relative stranger, who owns nothing, to live in my apartment gave me a stomachache, but the weird thing was that I felt like I had known him forever.
“I’m from Detroit; my entire family still lives there. My mom works in a bakery at a grocery store and my dad is a retired electrician. I have twelve brothers and sisters.”
“Really? I’m an only child. I can’t imagine having a huge family like that—it must have been awesome!”
Relaxing his stance, he leaned his tattooed forearm onto the dresser and crossed his feet. Jackson came over and sat next to him. Will unconsciously began petting Jackson’s head. It made my heart warm. “Actually, I don’t have twelve brothers and sisters. I have one brother and eleven sisters.” He paused. “I’m dead serious. My brother Ray is the oldest and I’m the youngest with eleven girls in between. I swear my parents just wanted to give Ray a brother, so they kept having more babies. By the time I was born, Ray was sixteen and didn’t give a shit. On top of it, they all have R names except me. It’s a f**king joke.”
“You’re kidding? Name ‘em,” I demanded.
In a super-fast voice Will recited, “Raymond, Reina, Rachelle, Rae, Riley, Rianna, Reese, Regan, Remy, Regina, Ranielle, Rebecca, and then me, Will.”
“Surely they could have figured out another R name?”
“Well my brother was named after my dad, so my mom felt like I should be named after someone too, being the only other boy and all. So I was named after my grandfather… Wilbur Ryan.”
“Oh my god!” I burst into laughter. “Your name is Wilbur?”
“Hey, woman, that’s my poppy’s name, too.”
Still giggling, I said, “I’m sorry, I just expected William.”
“Yeah, it’s okay. Everyone does.” He smiled and winked at me again.
The winks were making me blush. “So you don’t like your family?”
“No I love ‘em, they’re great. Most of them are married with kids. I have so many nieces and nephews I don’t even know all their names. When I go back home, I just call them by some physical trait like freckles, dimples, small fry, things like that. They love me. My family doesn’t get the music thing though. They always thought I was a little weird. Instead of G.I. Joe, I wanted records. I’m totally self-taught and I can pretty much play anything. During the holidays, I bust out a bunch of cheery holiday songs that my family can sing along to. They tell me things like ‘You’re so fun, Will, with your guitar music,’ but to them it’s not a serious thing.” The buzzer rang. “That’s probably Dustin.”
We both walked to the speaker. I pushed the button and said, “Hello?”
“Dude, get down here, I’m double-parked.”
“Dude?”
“Oh. Sorry, dude, can you tell Will to get down here?”
“Sure.”
I looked up at Will who shrugged. “He’s from California.” Like that explained everything. “Come on.” He motioned toward the door. “You should meet them.”
When we got out to the street, I saw Will take a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, tap the bottom, and grab one out with his teeth. “I thought you quit?”
“I did.” He tossed the pack to one of the guys leaning against the van, then took the unlit cigarette from his mouth and tucked it behind his ear.
He pointed to his ear. “That one’s for looks.” He turned toward the van. “Hey, guys, this is Mia, my roomy. Mia, this is Dustin and Nate.”
Dustin had long, brown hair and a skinny, wiry build like a typical drummer. Nate was taller and thicker with a shaved head. Both guys smiled politely at me as we shook hands. “I saw you guys play at The Depot the other night. You were so good, but you have to get rid of Pete.”