Songs of Our Breakup (Playlist Book 1)
Published on August 22nd 2015
by Jay E. Tria
Genre: New Adult Romance/Chicklit
by Jay E. Tria
Genre: New Adult Romance/Chicklit
Synopsis
How do you get over a seven-year relationship? 21-year-old Jill is trying to find out. But moving on is a harder job when Kim, her ex-boyfriend, is the lead guitarist of the band, and Jill is the vocalist. Every song they play together feels like slicing open a barely healed tattoo.
Jill’s best friend Miki says she will be out of this gloom soon. Breakups have a probation period, he says. Jill is on the last month of hers and Miki is patiently keeping her company.
But the real silver lining is Shinta. Having a hot Japanese actor friend in times like these is a welcome distraction. This gorgeous celebrity has been defying time zones and distance through the years to be there for Jill. Now he is here, physically present, and together he and Jill go through old lyrics, vivid memories, walks in the rain, and bottles of beer. Together they try to answer the question: what do you do when forever ends?
Excerpt
Jill took one beer bottle and chugged, her eyes on the door again when Kim entered, trailed by a girl too.
She coughed out beer on the table, splashing Nino’s shirt. Nino didn’t seem to mind. Nobody did. Their table seemed as frozen as her lungs as Kim approached them, a stranger in tow.
Jill couldn’t see her, could not make out any details. Something clouded her eyes, and the familiar vacuum was in her ears. From somewhere far, she heard Kim speak.
“Scary crowd tonight. I hope no one’s drunk yet.”
“I don’t know. I think that might come helpful.” Nino had pressed Jill’s hand around a new beer bottle.
Kim said the girl’s name, and the girl said some things.
“You’re the girl from Math 100!” Son exclaimed. “Were we classmates from my first take, or the second one? Was that a June?”
The girl laughed. Already she was connected to Jill’s friends by more than Kim’s hand.
She coughed out beer on the table, splashing Nino’s shirt. Nino didn’t seem to mind. Nobody did. Their table seemed as frozen as her lungs as Kim approached them, a stranger in tow.
Jill couldn’t see her, could not make out any details. Something clouded her eyes, and the familiar vacuum was in her ears. From somewhere far, she heard Kim speak.
“Scary crowd tonight. I hope no one’s drunk yet.”
“I don’t know. I think that might come helpful.” Nino had pressed Jill’s hand around a new beer bottle.
Kim said the girl’s name, and the girl said some things.
“You’re the girl from Math 100!” Son exclaimed. “Were we classmates from my first take, or the second one? Was that a June?”
The girl laughed. Already she was connected to Jill’s friends by more than Kim’s hand.
“There’s a free table.” Kim spoke again, and said hand reached the girl’s waist. “We’re up in about an hour, guys. Nobody get wasted until after! Later.”
Jill kept sitting up straight, knowing Kim and his friend had taken the table just behind them. His voice still reached her in this vacuum, interlaced with the girl’s giggles, as Jill’s insides filled with dead air and her stomach shrunk in itself.
The vacuum broke, bile rising to her throat. Jill shot up and flew out the door.
Her sneakers pounded on the concrete. She made it past the queue of patrons outside, through the metal gate of the parking lot. Acid, air, alcohol, and whole peanuts spilled from her mouth to the gravel floor. She sunk on her knees, her hair on the stones, one arm wrapped around the clenching pain in her stomach.
“Up you go.” Miki took her arm and gently pulled, one hand running soothing circles on her back.
“I didn’t hear you come,” Jill muttered, staggering upright. “Go away, I’m gross.”
Miki turned her to him and wiped her mouth with the back of his hand. “There.” He smiled. “Clean as new.”
He towed her to his car, which was nearer the scene of Jill’s vomit crime, and they sat on the hood. Jill breathed in the cool air, the bitterness in her tongue aching for water. Darkness still clouded her eyes, cold sweat covering her arms. She blinked and waited for the colors to return.
She turned to Miki and concentrated on his face. Soon his image sharpened, the deep crease between his brows a curious contrast to the calm lines of his mouth.
“Do you wish you met Ana in Economics 100 instead of me?” she said, mouth dry and tasting of bile.
“Where’s that coming from?”
“She’s cute and perky and obviously socially adept.” Jill paused as she processed this. “She’s like the anti-me. That’s so strange. But then she’s also tall and skinny and she moves like a boy, like me.”
“Huh.”
“I never understood why you of all people never had a girlfriend. Or so you claim.”
Miki pulled out a clean handkerchief from his pocket and pushed it on Jill’s hand. “Sometimes girls can be very cruel.”
Jill took it, noting how old fashioned her best friend was, carrying a white handkerchief around, as the tears made a free fall down her cheeks.
“Boys too,” she murmured. She allowed Miki to pull her head down to his shoulder, so he wouldn’t have to see her noisy, ugly cry.
About the Author
Hi! I'm a writer of contemporary Young Adult and New Adult romance. These days I'm writing paranormal/fantasy too, and it's a fun exercise. I'm often inspired by daydreams, celebrity crushes, a childhood fascination of Japanese drama and manga, and an incessant itch to travel.
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