“Dude…” Tyler said to no one in particular. Blake looked left to see his friend gazing off over the horizon. It was dark, and the lights on the hill looked like flickers from fairy wings through the leaves of the oak tree that dominated the front yard. With legs dangling fifteen feet above the ground, the autumn air crisp against their bare arms, both boys sat on the ledge of the upstairs window in the barn that they both called home for the time being. Blake is leaning to the side, his slender torso propped up against the window. His thoughts wander, weaving him in and out of lucidity like the intoxicating melody of an acoustic guitar. He wonders how his little sisters are doing as he brings the cigarette that’s between his fingers up to his lips and takes a deep drag. Feeling the smoke take root in his lungs and mingle with the essence of stale coffee in the back of his mouth is a sensation most familiar to artist and musicians.
Twenty year old Blake spends his days playing board games; his nights, writing and recording music. When he set out to be a musician, he had no goal, no end game in mind. He wanted to do something that he was good at and that made him happy. He had loved music from a young age. The first album he ever owned was the Space Jam soundtrack, followed closely by Eiffel 65, and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. His sophomore year in high school, Blake was in a band called The Sherlock’s, and played their first show in a punk coffee house downtown.
Lying in a cot, staring at the ceiling, he hears Langston rustling around downstairs. Langston is the majestic Welsh Sheppard he and Tyler had found wandering in the woods. When they stumbled across her, she was starved half to death so they went to Wendy’s and bought her some chicken nuggets. Blake wanted to name her Nugget, but Tyler was a big Langston Hugh’s fan and their new found friend never seemed to leave his side, so Langston it was. High school, aside from music and his crowd of friends, had been a bore and he didn’t go to very much of it. He finds most things in life to be boring. What he doesn’t find boring are games, especially board games. He loves