A house is only as fun as your house mate

Chapter 7 and 1/3: Lance

The highway flashed before our eyes as Keith and I drove, cruising and trying to find somewhere to go together. The journey was pretty silent and serene until Keith spoke up. “hey do you mind?” he asked politely and pointed to the stereo system. I nodded and smiled. He flicked a few buttons and hooked up his phone to the wireless. I was half expecting My Chemical Romance to start blaring through the car speakers. However, something I was not familiar with began to play instead. “whats this?” I asked.

“Christina Perri.” He answered. He turned his head away from mine, a slight dusting of red across his cheeks. Violins sung softly and rumbled within the car, followed by a fainter EDM drum beat. The vocals were soft yet alluring. Was it cringy for me to be listening so deeply to a random song that had been played by chance? I took another quick glance over to Keith who was drumming his fingers and subtly mouthing along to the lyrics. He was so deep in concentration and completely invested in the song. It was hard to believe he was the same person from ten years ago. He looked so vulnerable and open. He rarely held a stony expression and smiled more than he ever used too. “there’s some things I should have said, I was too afraid. It was just so hard to let you know, but now it’s all too late. I wish I was brave enough to love you.” I listened, never taking my eyes off the road, but it was like I couldn’t see the road. My mind was too occupied as it was. “Lance!” Keith yelled as I had begun to veer off of the road. I decided to pull over into a lay-by for the time being, just to clear my head. Much like what I had done yesterday. “what was that?” he scolded. I ran my hands through my hair anxiously and mentally cursed myself for getting so distracted. “i don’t know what came over me.” I sighed. Keith bit his lip gently while still giving me a stare that could kill instantly were I not used to it. “you can’t zone out while driving.” He continued. Dropping his gaze too. “why don’t I take over from here?” he offered. I nodded, getting out of the car and trading places with him. Keith clambered onto the soft seat of the driver’s side and ran his hands over the wheel before gripping it tightly. Once we had settled, he pulled away and made a U-turn to go back the way we came. “are you okay?” came his soft voice after some time had passed of just cruising down the roads of Japan. “yeah, yeah, no I’m cool.” I reassured, shooting him a wink and finger guns. He shook his head.

“no Lance, tell me. What happened? You froze up out of nowhere. You looked lost.”

“Im fine.” I assured again. He left it there but refused to accept what I had said. To be honest, I didn’t know what had happened myself. Something just came over me. One minute I was listening to the song, the next, I nearly killed us. “why did you play that song?” I muttered to myself, it was not like Keith to play something like that. From what I knew of him, he only ever listened to My Chemical Romance, and Muse. “it means a lot to me.” Keith said. I hadn’t expected him to hear what I had said, then again, when does anyone expect anyone to hear what they say when they mutter it. “oh?” I replied.

“it made me realise one of the gravest mistakes I had ever made in my life.” He mumbled. “and what would that be?” I smirked.

“You.”  

                                 *

Keith drove back to the house in silence and got out of the car to then head back inside and leave me to go back to work. I guess he had figured while driving that I didn’t have a lot of time left and so decided against doing anything remotely fun together. He was about to enter the house when I rolled down the window and called after him. “we still up for tonight?” he nodded and gave me a weak smile before waving and disappearing into the state that was our house. I left, praying that I was not going to be late for class.