Straight as Guitar Strings

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟴 [𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵]

AFTER a few seconds of silence, Grace pulled out a music player with earphones from her pocket. It was a gift from her late brother, the former drummer of the Libertadlibs who passed away from cancer last school year. His final request to Sir Richard was to have Grace take his place, knowing how much she idolized him. This was his best gift to her, fulfilling her dream.

We were given a thirty-minute break after that since Sir Richard received a call. This gave Grace and me time to chat, while Leo busied himself talking with other members and seniors. He had found his voice again and was chattering away.

"No wonder I was surprised when I found out you were already a member of this band!" I exclaimed when Grace told me how she was immediately trained and placed in the band after her brother's death. I expressed my condolences for her loss.

"Yeah, it was my brother's request to Sir Richard. He was such a strong performer. By the way, why didn't you transfer to another school?" she asked, her eyes revealing a sadness she tried to hide.

"There's a college here, so why move?" I smiled as I spoke, but I noticed she looked away. Following her gaze, I saw her eyes locked on Leo.

"Yeah. Anyway, that guy you're with... that's Leo, right? The bass guitarist from Rhythmix when we were in senior high school! What's this, befriending your enemy?" She turned back to me, shaking me playfully as if I were a piggy bank, expecting coins to fall out.

I looked over at Leo before answering Grace's question. "Yeah, that's him. I didn't remember, but he did mention it. I'm more convinced now that I've heard it from you."

"You're unbelievable!" She tapped my shoulder, incredulous. "You? You don't remember Leo Quintero? My gosh, so many girls had a crush on him back then, including my classmates and friends!"

"Did you?" I asked, glancing back at her with a teasing smile. Her cheeks flushed, and she was momentarily speechless. I got it.

"Hey! No, I'm just saying," she found her voice, gulping before continuing, "But I did admire his talent. He's so cool. Why don't you call him over? Introduce me to him!"

Catching Leo's eye, I called him over, telling him someone wanted to meet him. I gestured towards Grace, and he came over immediately.

"Hello," he greeted Grace with a smile.

"Oh, why so formal? We're the same age!" Grace said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Wow.

I introduced them to each other.

"So, you're a drummer now? Weren't you a vocalist with Leo in Euphony back then?" Leo asked, still holding Grace's hand after their handshake.

"How do you remember that?"

"You're easy to remember, and you're beautiful too."

"Oh, stop it! But thanks. At that time, there was no slot for a drummer. I really wanted to join Euphony, so I agreed to be their vocalist. And then I found Liam—they were also looking for a male vocalist back then..."

"Ah, I see. Now I know. Good thing you found Liam, otherwise, we wouldn't be together now." Leo laughed, and they continued chatting. I felt out of place, only chiming in when they involved me, which was just once.

The day ended like that, and we went home tired after practicing one song. It wasn't particularly difficult, just tiring because we played it repeatedly. I probably wasn't used to playing with a band again after so long. I'd make up for it tomorrow.

When I got home, I quickly did everything I needed to do until the only thing left was to close my eyes and sleep. I texted my Papa to let him know I was tired and might be asleep if he called.

I made sure to set three alarms for tomorrow so I wouldn't be late for class. As I was setting the alarms on my phone, I received a text message from Laura.

"Don't mind the new post on Libertad Wall on X. I'm already asking Elfin to help report and take it down," the text read.

Laura's message only fueled my curiosity. I knew it was another hate tweet about me, but I couldn't imagine what it was about this time. All I did today was rehearse with the band. If it was something else, I needed to find out.

Before I could open X, my phone buzzed with a notification. Seeing Leo's name, I quickly tapped on it.

"That's bullshit, man! Let's just act like we don't care. Haters gonna hate, right?"

I replied, "Yeah? Shake it off?"

He sent a GIF of Taylor Swift dancing to "Shake It Off." It made me smile, but I still checked the tweet on Libertad Wall. My feed was filled with tweets and rants from Libertians about their relationship issues, school subjects, professors, crushes, or anything else they could think of, posted every five to ten minutes. I kept scrolling until I stopped at a tweet that was rapidly gaining retweets and views. The caption read, "Liam and Leo: Leaked Scandal of the Newest Members of the University's Band."

This was definitely clickbait to gain followers, so I played the video, which had a black background.

"Can you put this in after that?"

"Ow, ow, wait... take it easy, will you?"

"Stop moving around, I'm almost done."

"Oh."

"Oh!"

I heard our voices, mine and Leo's, and I knew exactly what had happened that day. But with the editing done by whoever made the video, likely Elfin, it sounded scandalous. The cut-up conversation and added moans from some porn video made it seem like Leo and I were having sex in the bathroom.

I remembered that day clearly. We were brushing our teeth and washing our faces together in the second-floor bathroom, something we did regularly. Leo's ear was freshly pierced, and I was helping him put on an earring, which hurt because his ear was still swollen. After that, we ran into Elfin and Laura on the first floor while I was checking the bulletin board for Libertadlibs band audition announcements. I had suspected something off about Elfin's behavior, which led to today's fiasco.

Because of this edited audio scandal with added moans that sounded disturbingly real, I lost all drowsiness and felt at a loss about what to do.

I closed my eyes and prayed to God, hoping that tomorrow I'd have the strength to be indifferent to the situation and let it blow over so it wouldn't escalate.

Who would be foolish enough to believe an audio scandal without any photos or videos as proof? Leo was right; we shouldn't care.