Nova Academy

Music and Tapestries

"Are you sure you wanna sit in? It's gonna get really hot."

They all shifted around and nodded, clunky headphones making their necks strain to keep up appearances.

"We've never seen you make music before. That's where I'm willing to bet the interesting stuff happens." Adam leaned back against the wall, more comfortable on the floor than a chair.

"Connie wouldn't shut up about La Da Dee, these are the consequences," Jasmin put in.

Jacob said nothing at first, only grabbed her hand and squeezed. "You helped me with Happier. But that's all I know. Which as far as I do, it's 100% worth your guys' time."

"You guys are forgetting the coolest thing that's ever happened! Steven is literally the Phantom of The Opera!" Hazel exclaimed.

Steven laughed at that and brought his lips against the mic, "Not quite."

Anna giggled and threw her hands up. "Close enough!"

"And it's not new music, it's a remake of... a really, really old one. Well, if 8 years is old." Steven pressed a button and a tone dial started in their ears before disappearing as he evened it out.

"You've been making music for eight years?" Jacob gaped.

The hybrid only nodded, a small blush rising. "I used to constantly write music. My first was (We Are) The Crystal Gems. I think I was five."

Everyone knew not to ask more when he brought them up. Every time his face would harden, as if remembering something he'd rather not. So, they unremembered with him.

"What was your last?" Alex spun the exposure dial back and forth between his fingers restlessly.

"Cradles." The feedback made them yelp and Steven giggled, turning it down a little.

"Okay," Connie tried. "So what's this one called?"

His eyes twinkled. "You'll know it when you hear it."

Adam sat up and shushed everyone. "Everyone shut up! Let the man work his magic."

Steven was spoiled, he knew that deep down. Regardless of his rocky childhood, he never had wants that couldn't be fulfilled. But as he dimmed the lights and activated his gem, he felt it reached to his core. To share his music with his friends, with his girlfriend, was the ultimate form of creature comfort for him. He knew once he showed Connie one, he'd show her them all. Despite everything, the darkness she'd seen and collided hands with during his panic attacks afterwards, she stayed.

She stayed.

She stayed.

Yes, this was the highest form of overindulgence.

He pulled up his different mixes, fiddled with the dials as the first start of the notes came in. It hurt to hear it, but that was why he was remixing it. He had to see it as new, he had to change the story so he could move on.

He heard Connie sniffling and whispering something to them all. He'd turned off his headphones to them because he wanted to be alone in this, this was the only way to move on from hurt.

He had to add, subtract and multiply. He had to divide. The future was not the past, a part of him had to know that not everything goes in dreadful circles.

The music was nearly forceful in breaking down his emotional walls, and he let the tears and congestion go on for a moment as he basked in the memory of fresh destruction. He wasn't upset he'd proposed, he was more upset he put her in such a spot because of his own shortcomings. It was humiliating to no end, but again, he reminded himself, he could change.