Learning Baseline Bass Lines - Inanimate Insanity

CHAPTER FIVE: Waiting in open doors.

'what's her problem!?' Paintbrush started to walk towards the elevator to get an explanation but stopped,

A bit angry, but more... confused? They felt the uncomfortable spark of fire in their bristles, unballing their fist they quickly raised a hand to cover their head and marched outside.

"Uhh you good, paintbrush?" Fan asked from across the room,

Paintbrush kept their march towards the door, "I'm FINE, I just need a minute!"

"Didn't she ask me for bass lessons yesterday!?" Paintbrush grumbled to themself, "And here I was thinking one of the two actually wanted to do something on their own."

Paintbrush sat underneath the wisteria tree as the sun set, their mind wandered, replaying the scene in their head trying to make sense of it.

"Maybe she decided against it? Or did I do something wrong?" Paintbrush kept running their hands through their bristles, to keep the flames down while their mind was running.

"I think the other lessons today were fine though?" Paintbrush looked back on the intro music class they held, trying to find a mistake. Yin and Yang liked the keyboard, Trophy messed with the bells for a while, and Mic even brought in Soap, who was surprisingly good at the drums.

Everything seemed to go fine?

They picked themself up and started walking down the hill, "geez, I guess she just must have decided against it," Paintbrush rolled their eyes with a sigh, "and here I was excited about it." and pushed open the door to the empty lobby,

empty for everything except Pepper.

She was sitting on the orange couch, staring at the phone in her hands, but it was off and her thumbs covered the screen, pushing each other.

"uhh, Pepper? what are you doing?"

"Oh! it's perfect you're here! So like, about earlier when I sa-"

"No, P, it's cool, if you were just trying something out, and you don't want to do it, that's fine. I mean, can you just tell me next time?" Paintbrush coughed a bit after they felt their voice go soft on the last part of their sentence.

"No! that's Like, not it at ALL!" pepper waved her arms in front of her looking up at Paintbrush from the couch, "I wanted to come to apologize about that! I kinda blew you off earlier, but I just..."

Pepper stopped, trying to not out her real plans.

Paintbrush cocked an eyebrow, "Go on."

"I just- okay so it's gonna sound like- Uhm, crap, how do I say this."

Paintbrush sat down a few feet away from her, trying to get closer to eye-level with her. Pepper squeezed her shoulders tight to her body and looked away with a sigh.

'you could probably tell them, they'd understand, they can keep a secret, right?'

"P? Are you okay? Is something wro-"

Pepper spun around to look paintbrush in the eyes and gripped their shoulders,

"OkaySoLikeIHaveACrushOnSomeoneAndTheyReallyLikeBassAndIThoughtLearningItMightImpressThem."

"..."

"..."

"...Was that too much?" Pepper's voice softened to almost a whisper.

Paintbrush blinked a few times, staring just over her head processing what Pepper said,

"Uh, yeah I guess that's f-fine. As long as you're also doing it for yourself, it's none of my business."

"Huh?" pepper let go of Painty's shoulders.

"Like, you have to also want to learn for you," Paintbrush waved their hands in the air before gesturing at pepper, "it's gonna be hard to stay motivated if you just want someone else's approval."

"Oh... I didn't like, think about that."

Paintbrush stood up to leave "Well, maybe you can for a bit. And I'm not saying to quit or anything, I think You could go really far if you try, but you gotta try for yourself."

"..."

Orange light streamed through the windows of the lobby, as the sun lined up with the horizon, the beams reflecting into Pepper's glass and off her metal rim, she stared off into the opposite side of the room with furrowed brows.

Paintbrush took note of her pensive expression and decided to stay till she got her words out. The seconds grew to a minute as the air grew still, it hardly seemed Pepper took any breaths as she was lost in thought.

Pepper stood up and faced away from Paintbrush.

They started, "...We can always talk this over tomor-"

"TOMoRROW!" Pepper jumped up and pointed at Paintbrush, ignoring her voice crack, "what time can we practice tomorrow!?"

Pepper watched Paintbrush try to hold back a snicker, and fail.

"w-what? did I say something wrong?"

"No no, you're fine. I can do anytime after 3:00 pretty much."

"how about 11:00 pm!? when everyone's asleep?"

"...maybe earlier?"

"Then I'll be there at 3:00!" Pepper had a cheerful smile on her face as she spun on her heel towards the elevator, "see you tomorrow, painty!"

"Well, I-" Paintbrush watched Pepper skip into the elevator and wave as the doors shut, with the sun well gone now, Paintbrush was left alone in the lobby lit by the dim evening lights.

"Tomorrow it is."