Lacy walks into the building. Her father and grandfather behind her as they take the few short strides down the hallway. It wasn't long, maybe eight feet at the most, and at the end a small front desk with a rather large man sits in a small chair in front of a small computer.
That's how it all began. It began with being almost twenty minutes early, and the teacher almost five minutes late. That had taken the pressure off, but something else has taken its place.
Me...
That feeling that sits in the pit of your stomach and haunts your dreams. Lacy and I rarely meet, yet we are great friends. Usually, Lacy sees me coming and chooses to walk in the other direction, and when I'm with one of her friends she gets jealous.
But, she will always remember the moment that I crept my way into her mind as the tall man with a faux hairstyle and small swirly gages in his ears. The way my breath felt on her neck as he walked her to the practice room and closed the door. Cain Phelps was a rather interesting man, the type that I rarely ever come a cross. Cool, and controlled, yet willing to be free and have fun.
By the end of their first lesson, I was pushed into the corner; where I stayed for a very long time, that is until she met the large group of teens that she'd be in a band with. They were all confident and slightly proud.
This made it hard to fit in. With a large lack of confidence and talent, I mean. But some how, the one boy in the large group found a way to help her through all that. He seemed loud and outgoing at first, but on then inside Sam was rather quiet. Though he has amazing advice, he never is too sure if it is welcome or not.
Lacy loves Sam's opinion and values it high above the rest. After singing together, they formed a bond that brought them closer.
That is until Rowan came into the picture.
Lacy always knew of his existence of course because he was the assistant director for the group. She just never really realized he was more than that. He was funny and loud and just plane simple. She loves simple.
So when she and he started to talk, they became rather close. It all started with just simple flirting, and then it became more than that. Funny jokes became sexy messages.
Silly faces emojis became Lacy...
But she didn't mind like she had when other guys had asked her for pictures in the past. She felt like it was totally okay and that he even deserved to see them.
Then they moved even further... They would call each other and whisper through the phone things that would make anyone blush... She never told me what they said exactly, but I got the gist of it. She wasn't ashamed to tell me. She wasn't afraid to share the things that they talked about. Lacy had true feelings for Rowan. More than she thought she even could feel for anyone else in the world.
And then she called me today.
Evidently, Rowan felt that even though they're only an hour apart and they see each other every Thursday, that it just wasn't enough. That he couldn't stand just not being together and it was best that they just end it. Lacy sobbed to me for hours, holding his sweatshirt against her chest.
"I'm not worth it," she cries out as I run her back, "I'm not worth trying to make it work..."
What was I supposed to say to her?
I couldn't tell her he's an ass, because then she'd defend him which would only make the pain of losing him even greater. I couldn't tell her he's right because he's wrong.
"Shhhh...." I whisper and stroke her hair gently, "it's all going to be okay... I know it may not seem like it now and you don't even have to accept it yet... But it will be, I promise. He's just trying to save you both from an even bigger heart ache... He's protecting himself. You can't blame him for that."
Lacy didn't say anything. She was either disagreeing with me or just not wanting to accept that all at the moment. I wouldn't want to if it was me. She left later and sat in her room alone. She didn't want to have her parents wonder why tears are running down her face and why for once in her life she wasn't hungry. Lacy just sits there and strums her guitar. Humming through the silent Niagara coming down her face.
