Soul Mate

Chapter 22

Lilly's P.O.V.

"Are you sure you have everything?" my mother asks as we finish loading up the car.

"Yes mom, and if I don't, it's a train ride home to grab it." I assure her, knowing she is just worried about me living in a dorm in the city.

"She will be fine Rue, you're the one we're all worried about." my father says pulling her in for a hug while giving me a wink.

Vivi and I smile as we climb into the car. "You didn't have to come with you know?" I tell Vivi

"A day off school, and a trip to the city? Why would I not come with you?" she jokes

"So glad you came to support me sis"

"Of course. Have you talked to Andy yet today?"

"Considering it is three am in L.A. right now, no, I have not talked to him TODAY. Last night though," I say, smiling, and rubbing my eyes, "I may have been on the phone a while"

"You are ridiculous" my sister teases

"Your father and I used to talk late on the phone when we first found each other." mom chimes in from the front seat.

"Yea, until one of your brothers would run in and push down on the receiver," dad laughs, "or your father would say 'you're running up my phone bill. Wrap it up, or pay up'"

Now everyone in the car is laughing, and we talk the whole way into the city. When we get there we get lucky and actually find good parking. We start unloading the car. Dad takes the box with the heavy stuff, mom takes my clothes, Vivi takes my bedding, and I grab my violin. We came up here last week to get my schedule and dorm assignment so all we have to do is head there. When we get to the room I share with other student starting this semester I knock, wondering if they are already here. After a few moments I assume they aren't here and I unlock the door myself. I push it open and see that while my new roommate isn't currently in the room, they have already been here. We start putting my things on the side of the room that wasn't claimed, and the small closet space we will be sharing. Once we are almost done, I look at the clock and see it is 9:30. I have my first class in two hours, and suggest that we grab coffee and the little shop I saw on campus on the way to the dorm before they leave. We have coffee and baked goods before I said goodbye and headed to class. When I get to my first class, music theory, I realize I am a few minutes early. I really want to text Andy, but it is still only 9:30 in L.A. and I know the guys have been working really hard on the album, and we stayed up super late on the phone. He is probably still sleeping, plus he has a meeting with the label later today regarding a new tour, I really can't have him sleepy for that. Just then my phone dings, and I think there is no way it's Andy, and it's not.

[Hey girl hey] says the text from Jenny

[Hey, are you on campus yet?]

[Yes ma'am, got here and settled last night. Haven't met my roommate yet though. She never came last night.]

[Maybe she dropped out and you get a single? lol]

[That would be perfect, if your roommate turns out to be weird, we can bunk together]

[How do you know I'm not weird?]

[We've been friends for months. I know EXACTLY how weird you are, and I can live with it. In small doses. LMFAO]

I actually laugh out loud at her last message, and am about to respond when the professor walks in, and I put my phone away.

"Today we will start the class by listening to two different songs. You will tell me what is real music and what is not"

I am taken aback by his statement. Granted I felt that not all music was "music" a few months ago, but that was before I met Andy. Just as I am thinking this the video screen fills up and my heart catches in my throat. On the screen is a video titled "Black Veil Brides-Knives and Pens". The professor plays it and multiple people in the room begin to whisper and make faces. Meanwhile I can't take my eyes off the screen, off my man, and I can't help the huge smile on my face. When the video is over, the professor puts on "Flight of the Bumblebee". I watch around me as everyone starts to nod in happiness. I am appalled, did I used to act like this? When the video is over the professor asks the question again. Everyone in the room says the second song is real, and the first one is obviously not. The professor nodding his head to every declaration of hate towards the band, towards my man. I feel hot tears in my eyes. How dare they say that about him? I raise my hand, and the professor calls on me. I wipe the stray tear that has fallen,

"They are BOTH real music. Just because one is classical, and the other falls into a different category doesn't make it not music. Those people worked hard, practiced hard, just as hard as any of us, to get to where they are. Where they were when they made that video. They put their art out there for other people to enjoy, and they don't care what anyone thinks of them."

Everyone stares at me like I'm crazy, and maybe I am, but I refuse to stand by and let people trash my man, my soul mate, "You are entitled to your opinions, but you don't have to right to say what they do is not art. If that's not music, nothing we do is music, nobody in this school creates art"

With that said, the professor claps. Like really, full on clapping, "Thank you miss..."

"Gutierrez"

"Gutierrez. That question was your first pop quiz. Everyone but you has failed. You are correct. What everyone in this school does is an art. No matter what anyone thinks of it, you create art. You are going to face critics in the world who tell you what you do isn't good. What you just did isn't worth their time. It is up to you, to be proud of whatever you do, no matter what anyone says. That band you just cut down, happens to be my daughters favorite band, she just saw them perform here in the city a few months ago. She likes what they do, as does everyone who was there in that venue that night. So keep that in mind."

With that he proceeds with the remaining thirty minutes of the lecture...