The Bard

A very short story about Brae getting their Master's degree. Part of a short story collection I'm slowly but surely working on.

I heard a knock on my door and pulled my headphones out to go answer it. It was Kye.

“Hey Brae, ready to go to the park?” she said, her grin almost as bright as the sunset-orange hijab on her head.

“Oh god, I completely forgot,” I shook my head, “Are you sure you don’t want to just come in and have a cup of tea?”

She rolled her eyes, “Come on, it’s just the park. There’s a free concert happening. We’ll take my car. It’ll be great!”

“Kye, I’m exhausted. I barely slept all week thanks to my thesis defense. The park is full of people. Can we just catch up over a documentary and some tea?”

She cocked an eyebrow, “Oh come on. You know as well as I do that I’m taking you to one of Lupio’s famous ‘surprise’ parties. Could you just humor me and hop in the car?”

“Of course I know that. Why do you think I’m dragging my feet so much?” 

“Brae, you just got a Master’s degree from an Ivy League school! You’re telling me you don’t want to celebrate? Not even a little bit?”

“Just… come in and sit down,” I beckoned her into the kitchen, “I already started lunch, and I’m sure Lupio won’t mind if we’re late.”

“Lunch, eh? What’s on the menu?” Kye asked as she took a seat at the kitchen table.

I set to work slicing a chicken breast, “Chicken and apple salad with raspberry vinaigrette.”

“Let me guess, the chicken is certified halal and there are exactly two servings,” she said smugly.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Oh, maybe because people don’t usually custom tailor their lunch to a guest they forgot was coming?”

I silently finished constructing her salad and set it in front of her, “Don’t question it. Just eat the free salad.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” she retorted, shoveling a forkful into her mouth. After chewing, she added, “So, why are you really avoiding this party? Are you pissed at someone or what?”

“No, I just…” I sighed, “I guess I’m not ready to say goodbye to my thesis, yet. Does that sound ridiculous? That probably sounds ridiculous.”

“That’s what this is all about? You’re mourning the completion of a manuscript?” Kye snorted, “You’re a bigger nerd than I thought, Brae. Which is saying something, since you were already the biggest nerd I know.”

“Okay, that’s probably true,” I chucked and nibbled at my salad, “but really, I’ve been eating, sleeping, and breathing this musician for three years, now. Four if you count restoring one of her songs for my undergrad thesis. I’ve really gotten to know her, y’know? I read her journal. I wrote her biography. I played her songs. I’m just not ready to let her go, yet. She’s become such a part of me.”

Kye rolled her eyes again, “Says the giant dork who created a tabletop roleplaying character based on their Master’s thesis. Come on, Brae. She’s still part of your life. You pretend to be her every Thursday night, for goodness’ sake! It’s gonna take more than a graduation party to end your weird obsession with this nameless Renaissance music lady.”

“I guess you’re right,” I said with a nod, though my voice was still heavy, “We probably shouldn’t keep everyone waiting for too much longer. I’ll go get ready as soon as we finish eating.”

“Excellent,” she replied, glancing at her phone, “Because Lupio just texted asking if we’re getting close.”

~*~

“Don’t forget to act surprised,” Kye whispered as we approached the park in her alarmingly orange sports car.

“Of course,” I whispered back.

We parked and got out of the car.

“This way,” Kye said, motioning me towards a nearby pavilion.

As soon as we were near, our friends exploded out of the surrounding bushes, shouting “Surprise!” as if they were at a 10-year-old’s birthday party. They were covered in leaves and decked out in varying degrees of Renaissance faire costume, from Ash’s pin-on fox tail to Mario’s extremely detailed Tyrion Lannister costume.

“Oh goodness, I wasn’t expecting this at all!” I declared as I accepted a hug from Lirpa, who was wearing a squire costume with a rather unorthodox purple polka-dot motif.

“That’s your idea of looking surprised?” Kye hissed in my ear.

“You didn’t want to tell me there would be costumes?” I hissed back.

Before Kye had a chance to respond, though, Lupio stepped up to the pavilion entrance and cleared his throat. Everyone became quiet and turned to look at him. He was wearing a white gown that shimmered with a pinkish iridescence under the early afternoon sun. The outfit looked like it might fit in better at a modern drag ball than a Renaissance faire. “I’m sure our guest of honor is wondering where their costume is, so why don’t we begin with your graduation gift!”

Perfectly on cue, Pulse stepped forward in her vaguely steampunk fairy costume and handed me a gift bag, “This is from all of us. I sewed, everyone else helped pay for supplies.”

I reached in and pulled out my gift: a costume inspired by the very bard whose biography I had just completed.

“We knew you were saving up for a costume for your bard character,” Lirpa explaimed, “so we beat you to the punch and made it for you, in honor of you finishing a whole book about her real-life counterpart!”

“It’s perfect,” I murmured, “This is perfect. This is her.”

“Hey, uh…” Mario piped up, arms crossed, “I don’t got much money. S**t, I couldn’t even afford a pack of buttons for that damn costume. I make jack s**t as a tattoo shop apprentice. You know how it goes. So listen, I owe you that music tattoo you were talking about, okay? ‘Cuz I mean, you translated it or… whatever you call it when you fix it up. You deserve to get that s**t inked on you.”

I clutched my new costume to my chest and closed my eyes, “Thank you,” I breathed in, “Oh my god, thank you all so much. You have no idea how much this means.”

Kye glanced at me sideways, “Does that answer your question?”

I smiled at her, “It does indeed.”

Author's Note

*How does the pacing and dialogue sound (bearing in mind that Kye and Brae have a really awkward friendship, so the dialogue is supposed to sound slightly stiff)?
*Please suggest alternate titles-- this title is just a placeholder because I couldn't come up with anything better