He could imagine that anyone else would find the task of manually sorting a musical library as dull as watching paint dry but Cypress had taken it upon himself to re-arrange and catalog all of the station’s music. He’d already imported all songs from old albums into a digital format into the computer system. Re-filed all songs and made sure they had correct titles, artists, and genre attributes. Now he was just finding a way to put away all the albums in the studio’s collection to protect them instead of always seeing them piled on the tables and spread out in a scene of disarray. This to him, was actually enjoyable. It was more engaging than college lectures and coursework at least.

This musical project he had undertaken had been a long road. He’d started at the station last year, but as a radio broadcast assistant—someone who kept quiet and behind the scenes, helping any producers run a show that didn’t overlap with his class schedule. It also, annoyingly, consisted of him making runs downstairs to the café to pick up coffee for the DJs and musical guests. However, that changed this year when he was granted a later time slot where he could present and produce his own two hours of air time.

He finished filing away albums by artist V through W and took a moment to stand as he’d been crouching for a while. His calves ached and the left one had even fallen asleep. He stood and hopped a bit as all his weight shifted to his right leg to avoid the needle-like sensation in the other one.

It was about time for a smoke break anyway.


Since no one was at the station, or at least he hadn’t seen anyone else around—it was a holiday weekend and even the café was closed—he took the narrow stairwell to the roof to light up.

He liked the view from the station roof anyway—he could see all the campus buildings–across the quad and toward the library and the gym. He could even see the place he lived a few blocks down on the other side of some apartments.

He fished out a cigarette from the pack in his back pocket and lit it, shielding it from the wind so the flame would take.

He kept telling himself he’d stop but had yet to find the will to ignore the craving. Maybe I’ll quit next week, he leaned against the roof’s edging and thought.

Suddenly the door to the roof exit swung open and a woman came walking through it, nearly strutting her way over next to Cypress as she said, “What the hell are you doing here on a Sunday?”

He almost swallowed his cigarette at the abrupt invasion, his eyes grew wide—she was the station’s director.


Instead of swallowing the cigarette, he’d inhaled a lot of the smoke he had been trying to initially exhale and started coughing. She swung her purse onto the roof ledge and seemed satisfied at his unexpected response, “Mind if I join you?”

Cypress was still coughing but managed to shake his head, no—as he swallowed gulps of fresher air.

She dug through her purse and produced her own pack of cigarettes. She extracted one and pushed it between her lips and mumbled, “My question still stands, Cypress,” before she lit it.

“I was filling in the gaps of the station’s music library,” he finally answered.

“You know it’s a holiday weekend right? You aren’t getting paid for extra hours.”

Gabriella Lavillos had only been the station’s director for a few months since; she was promoted after the previous director retired. The year before, she had been the station's assistant director and Cypress used to get her coffee along with the rest of the other upper management. She was the one who had granted him his current position as a Thursday night DJ. He hoped that his project would be the thing that would get him onto be a midday producer so he’d have to stop talking to the public but yet still could create programs for a wider audience.

“I know—it’s just—I really wanted to get my project done.” Cypress explained and then narrowed his eyes suspiciously, “Why are you here on a holiday weekend?”

“My family is all too busy to do anything together so I figured I’d catch up on some paperwork. Didn’t realize I wasn’t the only workaholic in this place,” she answered, took a drag and released a puff of smoke while eyeing him.

“The same could be said for me too,” Cypress flicked some ash off the end of his cig over the edge of the roof. His parents surely would be working and his brother probably had plans with friends.

“You’re a good-looking guy; you don’t have any dates lined up?” She wondered.

Cypress gave a small, amused laugh, “No, not really the dating type.”

“So, a one-night-stand type then,” she teased and took another drag.

He shook his head and then swiped some of his loose, dark hair back behind his ear, growing a bit uncomfortable with the topic of his non-existent love life, especially discussing it with his boss. It had never been a priority and never would be. Though most people acted as though it should.


“Your family—what are they so busy with?” Cypress asked to change the subject. His own parents barely had time to spend with him as a child and his poor brother had the same fate—though Cypress had been there for Cedar, practically raising him.

“My mother said she was entering a quilting competition, and my brother threw me over to go to Kashmire Point with some frat buddies,” Gabriella lamented and tossed her hair with a huff.

“You have a little brother too?”

She made a wistful half smile,“Yeah, though he’s taller than me now so I guess not so little anymore.”

Cedar had yet to reach Cypress’s height, although he was growing fast. It had been at least a month since Cypress had last seen his brother, so who knows how tall the kid was now?

Cypress tossed his cig to the ground and stepped on the tip with his toe to put it out. Gabriella did the same and then picked it up carefully between her two fingers as she grabbed her purse. He followed her lead and also snatched up his, figuring it was technically littering if he left it on the roof though he usually threw it off the building and into the bushes below after it was extinguished.

“How did you know I was here?” Cypress asked as they made their way back into the building.

“I heard you stomping on the roof,” she stated as she unlocked her office door, walked in, and threw her cigarette butt in the trash.

“Come on, I wasn't stomping,” he protested as he threw in his after though he didn’t follow her all the way inside.

“Well I heard you from down here so let’s just chalk it up to your heavy footsteps.”

Her office was very cool. It was modern and fun, dressed in mostly slick whites with pops of color. She had a large pop-art canvas on one of her walls that looked like it could have been one giant album cover, hanging plants, and a sort of bean bag chair to relax in.

“By the way I wanted to ask you about something,” Gabriella said as she took a seat at her desk and wiggled her mouse to wake up her computer. Cypress remained near the doorway, unsure of what she wanted exactly.

“We’ve been getting calls since Thursday of people requesting some song I have never heard of before. I’ve looked it up in our system but can’t find it. I did some digging and found out that you aired it during your last shift.”

Cypress crossed his arms, knowing he’d been caught—he’d have to explain where it came from, and the fact was that he’d had people hanging around at the station after hours that weren’t scheduled guests.

“So, that song was played live by one of my friends…” he began to explain and Gabriella’s gaze snapped sharply to him with surprise. She had told him before not to have extra people hanging around during his time slot! “…Sorry! It’s just that he’s a really good musician and no one ever gives him enough credit.”

“Come here and see something,” she demanded in a stern tone and Cypress shuffled around the desk, and leaned on the top of it waiting to see whatever she wanted to show him. She nodded at her computer screen where there was a form of logged song requests and whether or not they had been played. If they were, the cell would highlight green and if not, it would be red.

There was a lot of red on the log, and mostly associated with a song titled ’unidentified jackass love song’

She sat back and crossed her arms, “We can’t meet standards if you air songs we don’t have in our library.”

Cypress bit his lip with regret, but then smiled at realizing he shouldn’t have any, “But it could be.”


The station director grinned, anticipating his solution. Cypress didn’t always follow the rule book but he made up for it in his passion, knowledge, and ingenuity when it came to music. Cypress motioned for Gabriella to follow him as he went across the hallway and into the tiny technical studio where he worked. He pulled out the chair for her to sit on and then handed her a pair of headphones.

She put them on without question and Cypress flipped a switch on the board.

A pretty acoustic melody floated out and into her ears.

“This is it?”

“I recorded it,” Cypress said proudly and leaned back against the table.

“Can you add it to our library so we can keep on playing it?”

Cypress nodded enthusiastically. He didn’t add it originally because it was proof of his misconduct but if the station director wanted Orion’s song to play, Cypress would happily let her play it. Orion should be credited as the great musician that he was.

It’s just a pity his break was with a love song about Cain Nova.


“Great!” Gabriella smiled and continued to listen to the song, bobbing her head from side to side. When it was over she took off the headphones, stood, and patted Cypress on his shoulder–“No more unscheduled folks in the studio during your shift though—I’m not going to ask again—and I’d hate to have to fire you before your next promotion.”

“My next promotion…?” Cypress was befuddled and his gaze followed her as she stepped back into the hallway.

She didn’t elaborate but gave him a wink before disappearing. She wasn’t playing when she said she would fire him for another breach of conduct, and he was only slightly unsure if she was dangling the hint of a promotion next semester as truth or as a means to keep him in line.

She popped her head back inside the studio and said, “Also, get out of my radio station.”

He openly laughed because the way she said it was playful but the way she meant it was serious, “I will, just let me finish adding the song to the digital library and put away these albums.”

She raised a quizzical brow, “How long will that take?”

“Like five more minutes, tops.”

She held out her hand with all of her fingers extended and said pointedly, “Five. Minutes.”

“I promise,” Cypress assured. He quickly woke the studio’s main computer up, and then transferred Orion’s song from the sound board’s recording storage. He still didn’t know what Orion had meant to call it so typed in:

In Love with a Raging Jackass
By Orion Loche

He applied it to the library, then quickly maneuvered to the other side of the room to finish filing the albums. What would he even do the rest of the day if he wasn’t finishing his project here? He thought he remembered Orion saying he was running errands, if so then Orion wouldn’t be home. Nick was all over the place lately, ever since he got that email from the finance office.

Something Gabriella had said struck Cypress about her brother being too busy to spend time with her. He had been waiting around for Cedar to call him and reach out but maybe Cedar was the one waiting for him to be available.


He placed the last album of the pile into the crate and pushed it under the table with the rest. He locked up the studio and waved goodbye to Gabriella so she would know he had left.

While he was walking back to his place, he decided to call Cedar and see what he was up to. Cypress assumed he had plans, after all his brother was a social, teenage boy and had a three-day weekend.

“Hey bro,” he heard Cedar greet him after a few rings.

“Hey kid, what are you doing?”

“Just sitting around and binge-watching TV shows, why?” Cedar responded, his voice sounded strangely far away.

“Do you have me on speaker phone?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?"

"This is the cool way to answer phones now. Jeez, get with the times old man,” Cedar taunted.

“Anyway, you don’t have any plans then?”

“I plan to finish season 5 of Fashionista Fury,” Cedar sounded determined, and his answer made Cypress laugh. “I’m serious, they made a bomb-ass dress out of literal trash.”

“You mind if I come over?”

“Not at all. I mean, it’s kind of your home too, right? Mom and Dad are working though, so it’s just us.”

“I figured. Okay cool, I’ll be there in like a half hour.”

“You should stay over too since there’s no school tomorrow.”


Cypress agreed and smiled after he hung up because unlike poor Gabriella, his little brother actually still wanted to hang out with him.

It was even more evident that Cedar had missed having his older brother around because before Cypress even walked through the front door to his parents’ house, Cedar busted out and grabbed Cypress into a tight hug which momentarily startled him.

“Hey there, miss me much?” Cypress chuckled in question and patted Cedar’s shoulder.

“You need to come around more often, it gets pretty lonely,” Cedar told him before letting go.


“Don’t you ever have friends over?” Cypress wondered. He remembered Cedar to have quite a social circle–enough that Cypress couldn’t keep their names straight when Cedar came home from school and told him about his day as a child.

“Yeah but that’s not the same—they come and go. We’re bros for life,” Cedar said and Cypress felt uncommonly emotional at hearing that. He’d made countless bowls of Mac and Cheese to satisfy Cedar’s hunger, spent countless hours playing drums for Cedar’s entertainment, had told Cedar a countless number of times to go to bed by 9:00 and had their parents come home a countless number of times to the sight of both boys jumping on the sofa because Cypress figured that was the quickest way to expend his little brother’s energy.

Cypress followed Cedar into the living room, and Cedar picked up a controller to the video game system, “I got this new game. Watch me play and then you can try to challenge me when you see what it’s all about!”

“What about Fashionista Fury?”

“That can wait,” Cedar began to flip through the screen options, choose a character and begin the game.

Cypress was decent at video games—that was always more of his cousin’s hobby but Cypress had learned a lot from watching Nick as they grew up. He was actually glad now that the director had told him to leave the radio station—because hanging out with Cedar was long overdue. As he watched the character on screen jump around and fight a wave of nostalgia hit him and he found himself grinning because he realized he had missed his brother too.