Amazing You

Chapter one: the beginning

I walked down the hallway like I've done a hundred times this year. The distance to the other end isn't far, only separated by ten or so classrooms but I like to think that it wouldn't matter if this hallway was familiar. I could follow this sound anywhere. Being able to separate music from a crowd and focus on the melodies has always been a habit of mine. A coping mechanism one might say. That is how I got my nickname Bird when I was younger, which was given to me by my sister Gwen and the name was adopted by my friends as time went on. Part of me knew this wasn't due to that little habit of mine, this was a melody my heart knew. The sound of that steel-string acoustic was burned into my memory, my heart and apparently body a betrayer to me as I got closer to the creator of the familiar music.

There were a few kids lined up against the wall on the outer sides of the doorway where the music was coming from. You couldn't say it was a classroom, it was more of a janitor's closet that had been emptied for the sake of a 'student" lounge, and yet after adding two chairs and a few lights, you couldn't fit more than two people in there comfortably. Gwen sat on the right side of the door, her mind absorbed in a book as she waited for her boyfriend Isaiah, one of the two occupants in the room. With his trusted drumsticks, he could make anything an instrument; A practice he did often.

I placed my bag down next to Gwen once I reached her, the only sign that she noticed me being her hand popping out from the edges of her book to grab my bag and pull it closer to her. She was attuned to the little ritual we had at the end of the day, waiting for her boyfriend to finish his jam session so we could leave the building. Except this time was different, Isaiah was already next to her, his eyes closed and head against her shoulder as he absorbed the tune he was hearing from his best friend, Kai. My tracks stopped cold. My brain caught up to the song that he was playing and I knew it to be a cover of "See you on the other side" by Brian Fallon. Number 8 on the playlist I made last night. Did he see my Spotify? Was he checking up on me?

No. I stopped that thought before it could begin to fester. That wasn't a path we were on anymore, if ever. After a quick shake of my head, I walked over to the room and took my usual spot inside of the door frame. My back to the rest of the students, my knees are drawn to my chest, and my eyes on him.

His caramel-brown met my blue-green. Instead of the pain I braced myself to feel I was just drawn into a sense of safety and comfort; My normal realm when I allowed myself to fall into the world created by a good song. And this was a good song, one of my favorites.

The side of his mouth quirked up in a small smile, the way it normally did when he saw someone enjoying his playing. Definitely not for me, I reminded myself.

I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift into the type of peace that only music could give me. My thoughts cleared and I drifted into a trance, my mind reflecting on how today, the last day of the school year went, and trying not to think of the emotional (and busy) summer ahead of us as everyone but me prepared to go off to college. This year was my sophomore year and Gwen's Senior. Her whole friend groups senior year to be specific, although calling her small circle of friends a group is a bit of a stretch. Aside from her ability to befriend every person she met, Isaiah and Kai were the only people she was close to in this school. Separate from me, of course. 

Gwen and Isaiah have been dating since she was a freshman and where Isaiah goes, Kai is always close behind. Mun Kai moved here with his family from Korea when I was nine and he was thirteen. I remembered it vividly because Gwen and I were over at Isaiah's house for his twelfth birthday, once their friendship started Kai instantly was dubbed Isaiah's favorite birthday gift.

One would think that with Kai being the singer and instrumental God that he is, he would be more of a social butterfly but to truly describe his personality would be to align him with something akin to a shadow, or moonlight. Which would make sense, as his family name 'Mun' translates to moon. He used to joke that people only paid attention to him because of Isaiah, the town artist, and percussion prodigy but we were a small town- even if you felt unnoticed, someone was noticing you. That someone for him was me.