Behind The Mask

Chapter 6- Akari

I took a step back. He'd seen. He'd seen my face, and I'd seen his reaction to it. He was horrified. And why wouldn't he be? After all, with that 'smile' that sits permanently on my face, it'd make even the most war-torn soldier lose his stomach. The second he'd turned around to close the door, I put my mask back over my face. I knew that he'd closed the door to keep the girls from seeing me, but I didn't care: I knew Kian was judging me. He was the first person outside of my aunt, cousins, and sperm donor to see my full face, and it terrified me. I did the only thing that I could think of in that moment. I begged.

"Please, don't tell anyone. Please. I don't want to the fear and the judgement. If you're going to abandon me, I understand, but please: don't tell anyone. I-"

And he did the one thing I never expected: he hugged me. "I would never judge you for that. Never. You are who you are, and your face can't change that. Now take some deep breaths and calm down. This will stay our secret. I promise."

It all just felt so... comforting, I felt obliged to do as he said, and I took a few deep breaths and dried my eyes. "Will you tell me about it?" he asked. I just shook my head before promising to tell him one day, when we knew each other a bit better. It was 5 minutes after Kian had closed the door before he opened it allowing the girls to come in.

"Jeez!" Kio exclaimed, "Way to hog him all to yourself! You know we wanted to see him too, he's not your property!" Kian just blushed at her comments before Akai chipped in by giving her best friend a tap on the head saying: "leave them alone, you can't blame him." I didn't understand what she meant by that, and apparently Kian didn't either. The girls just giggled at our clueless expressions. If the girls noticed my quietness, they didn't mention anything. Eventually I just settled into a rhythm. Then Kio made her request. "We heard the violin being played before, WAS THAT YOU!? Can you please play something for us? PLEASE?" She asked, making sure to elongate the vowel in the last please.

I just sighed and handed them a book full of all my favourite songs and asked them to choose a song before I made my way over to the rack of instruments and grabbed out one of Auntie Eliza's spare violins, not ready to use my personal one in front of them. When I got back to where they were sitting. They handed the book which was opened to the page with the title "Play Date by Melanie Martinez". I set it on the music stand and placed the cd with the piano backing track into the cd player before pressing play. I sat there and blocked them out, focusing solely on the music: every string change, every vibrato, and every slide of the bow.

When I finished, they all clapped, with Kio bouncing up and down non-stop while telling me how I did so well and that I was amazing. I just blushed and mumbled about how I wasn't that great. They eventually stopped and asked me how old I was when I first started playing, and I responded by saying that I first started when I was 4 and took a big break from it until 3 years ago when my aunt started teaching me. I told them that when she was younger, she was known as one of the greatest violinists of her era and won many international competitions which is why she could afford to build this house.

After my little show, we all decided to head next door to my room. But when we opened the door, we found my twin cousins sitting there with their ears sitting where the door was. I yelled at them about spying on me and my friends and threatened to tell Auntie Eliza if they did it again. That had them running as they remembered the sort of punishments their mother used to give them when they were younger. I apologised to the others about that, and we walked into my room.

Kio went absolutely crazy about what it looked like. She started gushing over the music posters sitting framed on my walls, the big bed sitting against the back wall, and the computer sitting at my desk. It was a good thing Akai was there to keep her from going too crazy about it. We ended up just sitting in there, with me leaning back at the top of my bed, Kian sitting at the foot of it, Akai sitting on the desk chair and Kio sitting on the floor which she claimed was comfy enough for her. We chat about a variety of things including music, what subjects we were looking forward to the most, and even if I had any other masks that I wore other than my plain grey one (which prompted me to show off my collection of red, green and multicoloured masks).

The trio ended up having dinner at my house (after contacting their parents of course) and most of the conversation was based around music, with Kio being the most active, as usual. She kept asking about Auntie Eliza's time playing, teaching me, she asked the twins about what instruments they play. She eventually asked if they could teach her. They told her they'd think about it, which just made her get even more excited. One thing that I noticed the entire time at dinner, is that whenever Jade looked at Kian, it was always with hard eyes and sometimes a glare. I made a mental note to talk to him about it later.

After dinner, Jade, Sophie, and I agreed to perform a song together for my friends, so we headed up to the music room again, where I grabbed out my violin, Sophie sat at the piano, and Jade grabbed a harp. We played a soft, mellow song called "Dream of Dreams". By the end of it, everyone gave us a round of applause and we bowed. Then it was time for the night to end, and for my friends to leave. My cousins were planning on staying the night, then heading out early tomorrow to visit their father. I guided the trio to the front door while my aunt ad cousins packed up from dinner. As I was walking with them, the main thing I heard was "Can we come over after school every day? Pleaseee?" and I had to tell her: "Not every day, but we can definitely work something out about you guys coming over more often."

When we got to the door, Kian pulled off the jumper that he wears to school (he said he wears it because he hates the uniform) and handed it to me. He said to me that he thought it would look better on me. I held onto it and gave him a quick hug as a thank you, and I meant it. When I got back, Sophie was talking to Jade about the looks he kept sending in Kian's direction. I stepped in and said "I saw them to. You need to back off of him, he has done nothing wrong."

"I don't trust him," he replied, "He's to end up hurting you in some way, Aki. I don't like him."

"WELL I DO! Over the last 2 days, he has done nothing but support me. I trust him, and I am going to be friends with him- I don't need your approval for that, so leave him alone." And headed up to bed. As I laid there thinking about the day that had happened, and as I thought about the way I was comforted today, even if we didn't really know each other, I realised something. And it changed my life. I was in love.