Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Thirty-Eight

    When Mia returned to her room, she found a pair of bulky pink headphones on her bed. A box with a media player pictured on it rested beside the headphones. She walked to the bed, leaving the bedroom door open behind her. She sat on the edge of the bed and opened the box.

    A soft knock sounded on the open door.

    She turned. "You got this for me?"

    "To help with your homework," Drake told her, leaning against the doorframe.

    "The songs are loaded into the player?" she asked him.

    "Yeah. Want me to show you how to work it?"

    She nodded.

    He entered the room and sat beside her.

    She handed him the box she'd opened.

    He accepted it from her and removed a plastic tray from the box. The small, metallic pink media player sat in the middle of the tray, along with a user manual and corded earphones. "I wanted to make sure you had real headphones so you're able to hear 40's music clearly," he explained. He powered on the device after tossing the corded headphones back into the box. "There are subtle things 40 does that are often not picked up as well as they could be on small earphones like those. In addition to listening to my lyrics, I want you to listen to the music."

    "Okay," she said softly.

    He waited for the device to power up. Once it did, he leaned in close to her and showed her the different menus she was able to access on the device. "The music I loaded into it is in this folder here. All of the music you download on your own, it would go directly to this folder."

    She watched his hands accessing the different menus, but had a difficult time focusing when he was sitting this close to her. She was more interested in how it was possible that a t-shirt could fit his biceps so perfectly, or how strong his hands looked. How good he smelled, or how warm his thigh felt against hers.

    "Got it?" he asked, lifting his eyes and looking at her.

    She blinked. "Got it? Yeah. Yeah, I got it."

    He smiled and handed her the media player. "I queued up the song 'Trust Issues' for you. I want you to listen to Vanessa's...suggestions...first. Then you can move onto a few of the other songs. I don't expect you to finish them all tonight. I do want to stay and see your reaction for the first few songs, though."

    She looked surprised. "Are you sure? What if I hate them?"

    He laughed outright. "If you hate them, I'd want you to be honest with me. You won't hate them, though."

    "Cocky much?" she muttered, looking down at the media player screen.

    "More confident than cocky," he said, but thought about his words. "Well, I don't know. Maybe a little cocky." He reached behind him and grabbed the headphones. He handed her the headphones and plugged in the 3MM jack to the media player.

    She placed the headphones on her ears. "I can't change clothes first?"

    "Why would you change?" he asked, hooking a finger in the strap of her swimsuit.

    She swatted his hand away.

    He stood up from the bed and walked over to the window.

    She scooted back on the bed until her back rested against the headboard. She held the media player in her hands and, while watching Drake stare out of the window, pressed Play. Slow music filled her headphones. She leaned her head back on the headboard and closed her eyes while listening to the music. Soon after the music started, she heard Drake's voice singing over the track.