Hearts Parade of a Lyrical Life

Playing the Keys that Unlock Inner Truths

Friday, October 13th

Despite sending numerous texts of apologies to Dallon he had left me on open every time. I was so worried for whatever problems I may have caused and how it could potentially affect Ryan and the rest of the band should Dallon take what I said to heart. I sent him another text this morning.

Dallon: "Lose this number."

I closed my phone in defeat, I didn't know what to do. Class started later on fridays so I had up until after lunch, I figured they must be doing a morning band practice session and decided to stop by to make sure everything was okay. Grace and I had plans to meet at the library later so I wouldn't be gone long.

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When I showed up to band practice they were in the middle of playing when I walked in. Everyone was there, Dallon was there. More surprisingly they seemed to be getting along. Jon looked unpleased to see me walk through the door to disturb them once again.

He pressed he fingers to the space between his eyes in frustration, "Yes, what is it Y/N?" Jon sounded like an overworked parent.

I looked at Dallon who was shaking his head at me and motioning for me to leave, Ryan and Spencer looked at me blank-faced. "Nothing, was just checking in." I replied, I stood for a second in disbelief, before Jon shook me out of my trance.

"That's very kind of you, we're all good though so catch you later!" Jon was not-so-subtly hinting that I should leave, and I got the message. I left shortly after, exchanging polite waves to Spencer and Ryan who were the two people I could rely on to be consistently happy at my appearances.

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I met up with Grace at the public library again to work some more on our project for class. Before I had even caught her eye I noticed she was chatting and giggling with the librarian she liked by a cart of books, Grace seemed to be helping her out and she seemed happy to be in pleasant company as she worked.

I gave Grace a small nudge to say hello before passing her by to set up my laptop with the rest of Grace's things, she smiled and walked over.

Grace spoke to me in a hushed tone, "Y/N mind if I catch up with you in a bit? Jess is talking about grabbing coffee together, I think it could be a date!" Grace sounded so excited.

"Jess?"

Grace subtly pointed behind her to the librarian, I nodded. "Yeah course, I'll let you know what I find." With that Grace smiled in appreciation and walked back off stifling little hops in her step as she resumed flirting with the pretty librarian.

I opened up the laptop to see where we had left off and what more there was to pick apart. Ryan was insecure about people's perceptions of him and he fears people getting closer to him, but under all that he wants someone to care enough to know him. That's most of what I had gathered so far, regarding Ryan at least, the poem notes were a little more detailed. I had made a separate document for me personally, it was for Ryan analysis. I tried to justify it in my head because it seemed a little creepy, but since it helped me understand the poem, and the poem was helping me understand Ryan I didn't see the harm. It was a way for me to organise my thoughts that were less relevant to the essay that I would imagine Ryan wouldn't want me speaking about in class either. I also doubted his partner Oliver would appreciate it very much if I laid out just how obvious it was of how little he had participated in writing their poem.

The next thing I set out to understand were the characters, the main two in the story was an aspiring court jester, and the princess that he falls in love with.