Wrong Number

How Do You Do?

Song: How Do You Do?

Artist: Palaye Royale

^^^

"I mean, luckily she was nice about the whole thing, but it's still disappointing," I sighed. "I really liked Clara, and if she gave me the wrong number on purpose... I don't know. I feel like I failed or something."

"So, there's nothing you failed at," Simon said, kicking himself off his locker and placing his hand on my shoulder. He pointed at me and smirked. "I'm going to find out what happened for you."

"What?" I exclaimed, slapping his hand off my shoulder. "Don't. I think I might just wait the month unless Chad says something to me."

"Or me, which he will, because I'm going to ask him," Simon claimed as he ran down the hall to chemistry class.

"Jackass," I shouted at him.

With it being my free period, I headed to the music hall's practice room to rehearse lines for the play. There were still a few paragraphs that tripped me up and I'd say out of order. With the play being in a month, I needed to fix and memorize these lines before tech week. No one tolerated screwed up lines during such a critical time.

As I approached the hallway leading to the practice room, a loud curse ruptured from the first practice room. Laughing, I assumed some of the other castmates were messing up their lines as well. As I peeked my head through the window, I saw someone playing the piano. That wasn't something I saw every day.

The person held their head in his hands, clearly distraught. I felt bad for them, so, wanting to check on him, I knocked on the window. They glanced over at me and quirked an eyebrow. I waved and pointed at the door, and they nodded.

I recognized the guy. We didn't share any classes, but we passed each other in the halls a lot. It was hard to miss him. With his head shaved on the side, the rest of his platinum blond hair fell in layers over the right side of his face. Thick, black eyeliner outlined his eyes, which his nails always matched. Despite being short, lanky, and a little feminine, he had clear "fuck with me, and I'll fuck you up" vibes.

Pulling his hood off his head, he nodded at me. "What's up?"

"Sorry," I softly said, and pointed back into the hall. "I heard you cursing from outside. You okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied, turning back to the piano. "Just working on a new song, and the stringendo keeps throwing me off."

"Stringendo?"

"It's when the music quickens in tempo."

"Wow," I awed. "You know a lot about music."

The guy chuckled. "I try." Quirking his eyebrow at me again, he asked, "Did you... need me for something?"

"Oh, no," I cringed. "Like I said, I just heard you curse outside, and I wanted to check if you were okay. You seemed depressed."

"Oh," he snickered. "It's nothing. I'm just working on a new song."

"Did you write it?"

"No, I just find it easier to practice new music on the piano instead of guitar."

"You play guitar, too? That's awesome!"

"Thanks," he smiled shyly, looking away from my eyes.

"Are you learning the song for fun, or do you have to sing it somewhere?"

"I'm in a band. We do covers and originals, and this is the newest cover we're doing."

Walking up to the sheet music, I read "Hand of Doom" by Black Sabbath

"It's not a piano song, but I like to convert music to piano so I can sing it better. It works best for me," he explained.

"What kind of music does your band play?"

He smirked. "Metal."

"Wow," I murmured. "I don't know a lot of metal music, but I know it's passionate and fast. That's impressive, man."

"Thank you."

"How long have you been in this band?"

"Two years now, since I was a sophomore."

"Really impressive," I said as I sat down on the spare chair in the room. "Is... does the rest of the band go here?"

"No, the other guitarist goes to Parkview. The drummer and bassist are in college."

"Other guitarist?"

"Yeah, I sing and play lead guitar. He's rhythm," he replied. "It used to just be me and the college guys. Jesse was in another band we were friends with, but when they disbanded, we took him in."

"What are you guys called?"

"Sludgehammer."

"That definitely sounds like a metal band," I chuckled. "I don't know much about metal music, but I would love to see you guys play sometime."

The guy chuckled as he ran his hand through his hair. "If you ever have the time, we'd love to see you there. But in the meantime, I need to learn this song for our next concert, so..."

It took me a second to register that he was asking me to leave. I jumped up from the chair and walked over to the door. "No, yeah. Sorry. I just wanted to check that you were good. I need to practice lines anyway, so..."

"Lines?" he asked. "Are you in the play?"

"Yeah. I'm playing Randy."

"I don't know who that is."

"Sorry, he's the one in the gay vignette."

"Our school is allowing a gay scene?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah. It's tame, so they're cool with it. Plus, it's more supposed to be about two friends who fall in love with each other. Literally, actually."

"Damn, I didn't know there would be a gay scene," he hummed as he leaned back. "I'm going to have to check this play out."

"Perfect! I'll come to your show if you come to mine," I joked, and he laughed.

"Sounds like a deal." He leaned over and reached his hand out to me. "I'm Tylor, by the way."

"I'm Damon."

"Well, Damon, it's been nice meeting you. Thanks for checking in."

"Of course. Have a good one," I said, opening the practice room door.

"Yeah, you too." When I closed the door, Tylor immediately played the piano again. Instead of heading into a practice room of my own, I leaned against the wall and listened to him play. His voice came out muffled through the door, but from what I could tell, he had a beautiful voice. I looked forward to hearing him play live one day.