The first time Dylan found out he was good at singing was when Janet played him the song she wrote for him.

In time Janet would grow up to become a local celebrity with her rock band fishnets, but at the moment she was just a thirteen-year-old girl fumbling with her first guitar. She didn't know how to write quirky lyrics yet. The chorus of the song was just a repeat of his name.

He knew she meant to cheer him up, and he also knew he was very difficult to cheer up these days. When there was nothing useful to say, it wasn't a bad idea just to say his name to show him he was important.

Janet strummed the guitar. With the seemingly mindless turn of her wrist, a string of soft Dylans flowed out, like they were riding on a wave of melody. Dylan Dylan Dylan Dylan ooh Dylan. It sounded like incoherent mumbles of someone only half awake.

It was simple but nice. By the third time the chorus came around, he joined in.

Her fingers paused in mid-air. "You have a really nice voice. Did you know that?"

"Really?"

She nodded. She picked up the guitar once again and readjusted the position on her lap. "You sing and I play."

He cleared his throat. He couldn't remember when his voice set into the current state, but he was a lot more comfortable with how low and resonant it was to the ear now. He started singing and she played chords.

The afternoon turned into a mini concert, him being the lead, she watching his face with her fingers flying over the fretboard. Her feet tapped to the beat. She smiled. It was magical how she could keep right up with him.

Her pale blond hair was always too short to his liking, and Dylan used to agree with Sean that Janet was like a brother to them and any thoughts about her would be deemed near incestuous.

Janet stopped playing and thrust the guitar in his arms. "Here. Give it a try."

Dylan pressed his finger down between the metal strips. Tentatively, he practiced moving up and down the fretboard, testing out the sound. He pressed a little harder until he got a clean sound.

The other hand started strumming lightly. It felt like stroking the back of an animal and waking it up.

"That's good. That's really good, Dill."

He could blame it on the amateurish song she wrote or that learning and teaching was an intimate act, or that she gave him a compliment that made him feel good about himself, or that music was a remedy when the heart was bruised and tired, but the truth was, a crush was hard to explain and neither did it require much explaining.

That afternoon he found her pretty, and he still did in the many afternoons that followed. He pretended to be hungrily interested in learning to play the guitar. Janet was an over-zealous, super strict teacher who came off as a little bit of a know-it-all sometimes, but it didn't matter to him.

What really mattered was when one afternoon after the session, he ignored his erratic pulse and asked her if she wanted to see a movie, and she said, "Maybe tomorrow. Sean can't make it today."

Isn't that the whole point?

"We can go without him?" Dylan asked. They usually hung out as a trio, but since Janet and Sean were next door neighbors, they never seemed to find it a problem to leave Dylan behind when they came up with something spontaneous to do.

"Nah, it's just one day. Let's wait till Sean comes back from his grandparents'."

Jealousy was a new, scary emotion. He had always known that Sean was taller, smarter, better looking, and had even been the first to kiss a girl, but they were best friends and Dylan was never jealous of him. Not until now.

Sean was required but Dylan was optional. Sean was a priority while Dylan was an afterthought.

Some secrets could be shared, but some should be kept from even the best of friends. Dylan swallowed his premature crush before it could fully develop. He thought it was better this way. The three of them remained platonic, even when Janet grew out her hair and started wearing dresses.

He still played guitar, though, and had come to genuinely enjoy it. He had also gotten over his bitterness towards Sean, who was oblivious through the whole drama and would go see a movie with whoever asked him first. It was stupid to waste his jealousy on a guy like that.

Besides, Sean was an absolutely awful singer.