Just Listen

At lunch each day, Annabel and Owen discuss and argue about music, then ease into other topics. She listens to Owen’s radio show every Sunday morning now, and she’s unafraid to offer her candid opinions. Though she doesn’t like techno music, Annabel is getting used to Owen’s eclectic taste and his vocabulary of anger management terms like “inflammatory language” (158). One day, he decides she needs to be exposed to more music to enlighten her, so he gives her multiple CDs he burned. The titles range from “True Hip Hop” to “Just Listen.” He tells her to start with the other CDs and work her way up to the “Just Listen” album since it’s the most “out there,” and that Annabel shouldn’t think or judge it but just listen (165). She agrees and starts listening to the CDs that week.

Annabel also gets to know Owen better. His music obsession started about two years ago when his parents went through a tumultuous divorce. Owen felt trapped in the middle of his parents, who screamed or gave each other the silent treatment. Music provided an escape for him. Annabel learns that he also works as a pizza boy and never holds back his honesty, even about how he preferred her long hair after she gets a haircut.