Insomniacs (#1)

19. extraordinary

Luca.

Music's a beautiful sort of thing. I've always thought it. Able to create emotion, without speaking a single word.

Watching Ria play on that stage, with such comfortableness even with how she played to perfection - to call it beautiful would be an understatement.

I'd only come to school to see her until Everest caught up to me and told me about the memorial in the auditorium.

The two of the three musketeers were looking for the third. Asking where Aria was and once her name was called out and she'd walked up onto that stage, they froze just like I had. So I assumed she hadn't told anybody about her talent and it only made me wonder why.

She looked at home. So easily able to play and so flawlessly, like something so complex took her no effort at all.

Her hair swept over one shoulder. Her black and white flannel bunched around her wrists. The way her fingers glided over the keys, the way it looked as if the rest of the world for her had withered away and all her focus remained on was that piano. She took everyone's fucking breath away, my breath away.

I'd seen how tense Aria usually became when eyes turned to her, when she received attention that she couldn't care less about but up there, it was as if she was another person. I don't know when, or how, I started paying so much attention to the girl but I do. I fucking do.

Every single set of eyes fixed on her when the parents of the girl had hugged her. And despite how discretely tense her posture become, she smiled and hugged them back. She spoke whatever words she did and made those parents look at her as if she was an angel.

She's so beautiful it makes my chest hurt. With a heart bigger than she gives herself credit for.

And that's all I was thinking when she walked out of her house, wearing a black sweater that was many sizes big for her and with sleeves long and baggy.

She walked right up to me as I leaned against the streetlamp, a smile already curving up my lips at the sight of her.

"Hey, fuckface. We may need to postpone living for tonight." She said, gesturing to the several plastic bags she was carrying that looked heavy.

"What's in those?"

"You wanna stick with me tonight or not? I need a solid answer otherwise I need to get a move on." She snapped back impatiently.

I shouldn't like it so much when she's mean. When she glares or snaps at me. Makes me fucking hard because she's painfully goddamn hot.

"I'm sticking with you." I tossed my cigarette to the ground, crushing it underneath my shoes. I saw the smile she tried to hide.

I took the bags from her, putting them in the backseat as she slid inside the passenger seat. I liked seeing her in my car, seeing her get in and cross her legs on the seat as if it was routine.

"Can I connect to the aux?" She asked and I nodded, pulling out of the spot I parked. She scrolled through her phone for a bit before picking a song and setting it down.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The Pits." She answered, pulling out a cigarette and perching it between her lips.