Pavane for a Lost Boy (Or Rather, How to Survive Loss after Rejection)

Chapter Thirty

PRESENT-DAY

Demario's POV

The next day, I was still at home with Noreen keeping me busy as I was looking over some of my old music composition notes that the Tuckers gave me yesterday. "It's been a long while since I had these," I murmured to myself, sitting up in the living room chair as I glanced over some of my original pieces. "And they're still in good condition, too."

Noreen came over from the kitchen with a glass of juice in hand. "What you've got there, Demario?" she asked me, handing me the juice.

"My old musical pieces that the Tuckers brought over," I replied. "When I had to fend for myself and Mom would lock me out of the apartment while she and everyone else went out do whatever, I would spend time with them and enjoy their company. At times, I would be taught how to play the piano by Mrs. Tucker and I caught on quick. I even start writing my own classical and jazz pieces, but left them all there since Mom wouldn't allow it and would likely tear them apart."

"Smart," Noreen hummed, nodding her head. "A good student, athlete, and a musician. Your mother doesn't know how good she had it."

"Tell me something I don't know. Anyway, I haven't had these since that fateful day and it's surreal holding these musical pieces in my hand." I inhaled deeply. "Some of these aren't even finished yet since I either lose interest or they weren't right. And some of these took days if not weeks to finish because I needed them to be full of life and I needed to get everything arranged perfectly. But there's one that..."

"What is it?" Noreen asked me.

I closed my eyes, a wave of emotions crossing through my mind. "One of them is still unfinished because the day that I planned to do so was when my life took a drastic change with my parents, brothers, and sisters dying that day," I explained. "They were on their way to Houston while I was taking finals at my old school and my plan was to finish the music before looking forward to a summer vacation of playing house-maid and whipping boy."

"But then they got into that car wreck and things went topsy-turvy," Noreen finished.

I nodded, steeling away a few tears that threatened to fall. "And now, here I am after everything and I'm still debating if I want to even finish that one piece of music," I replied. "If anything, the cynical voice of my mother in my head wants me to burn this stuff and move on with-"

There was a knock at the door, interrupting my speech. "Come in," Noreen hollered.

In stepped Oliver with what looked to be more homework in hand alongside a fresh bag of pastries from the coffee shop. "Guess who's here with homework and some food," he announced. "Everyone's been asking about you, Demario."

"Well, I'm planning to come back tomorrow and get back into the groove of life," I replied tiredly, placing my musical pieces to the side before accepting my homework assignments and the pastries. "And how are things back at PGHS?"

Oliver smirked as he sat in the loveseat across from me. "Like I  said, everyone's been asking about you," he replied. "Coach said that the first meet for the season is in three days, so you're going to use your PE classes for gym workouts and diving practices. And tomorrow, you got three tests to take during break, so no piano practice until afterwards."

I nodded. "Thanks," I hummed as I took out a strawberry Danish and took a small bite.

"But I want to talk about what Ryan did yesterday," Oliver commented, his face now serious. "He had no right to kiss you like that while you were off-guard. And you knew firsthand that Kendricks would be out for revenge against anyone she deems is a threat."