Deer in the Headlights

Part 15 - Never Been So Afraid

[Brielle's POV]

I don’t know how long we spent sat together making music in the basement; time was simply irrelevant as we played around with the instruments, recording riffs and bass lines, racking our brains for lyrics and touching up some of the older tracks Adam had made. I was quite a dab hand at music myself, over the years Adam had taught me about all the new instruments he used such as the synthesisers and vibraphones, I wasn’t much of an expert with them but I was still able to provide him with plenty of fresh ideas. As a child I had taken piano lessons so I had been able to teach Adam about quite a bit about the piano, although to be honest he had practically mastered it on his own; it was quite amazing to think he had learnt all of this from scratch, alone. He seemed to be naturally gifted with music and not only that he had a voice like an angel, a dreamy light voice that set chills racing down my spine, igniting off a trail of goosebumps over my pale skin. He was still a little shy singing around me but I didn’t mind, it was a pleasure to hear his voice as he sung the whimsical lyrics of the songs we were making.

I don’t know how long it was till Joan walked down into the basement, time just seemed to fly when I was in Adam’s company.

“Do you want to stay for tea Brielle?” She asked.

I turned to look at her, from the corner of my eye I could see Adam averting his gaze as he touched some switches on the great soundboard in front of us. I quickly pulled back the cuff of my sweater to reveal the watch on my wrist, it was almost 5 o’clock.

“Wow it’s that time already?” I didn’t attempt to hide the amazement in my voice; I knew I’d been here a few hours but I didn’t realise it was this late. Joan gave a chuckle, beside me I saw Adam was now looking at me, a faint smile on his face.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to stay here this long, I should be going.” I said awkwardly. Joan just smiled and shook her head gently. “It’s fine Brielle, you’re more than welcome to stay here.” I smiled thankfully at her.

“It’ll be ready in ten minutes you two.” She said with a kind smile before closing the door and going back upstairs, I sighed as I heard her footsteps on the carpet treads. I really got too nervous sometimes.

We again descended into a peaceful silence as we began to tidy away the sheets of paper in front of us and put the instruments back to where they belonged; in a strange way I liked these kinds of silences with Adam, it was like we didn’t need words we could just feel what was going on.

After a few minutes the basement was tidy, looking around the room I happened to glance out of the thin slatted windows near the ceiling that overlooked a portion of the front garden, it didn’t surprise me that the sun was beginning to set, deep rays of golden light diluting the blue sky with hazy shades of orange.  I turned away from the window and looked at Adam who was stood by the door; he must have been waiting for me because he was watching me intently, our eyes locked for a moment and he blushed profusely.

“C-Come on let’s go upstairs.” He said quietly; I think he was a little embarrassed that I’d seen him looking at me, nodding my head with a smile, I followed Adam out of the basement and into the spacious dining room where a large polished mahogany table stood proudly in the middle of the room surrounded by several equally magnificent chairs. Randal was already sat at the head of the table with a phone in his hand, a deep frown was carved into his face as he sat there grumbling to himself.

As we walked in he smiled warmly and offered out his hand to the chairs around the table, walking around we sat ourselves down on the plush chairs. Putting my hands on the edge of the table I began to subconsciously rub my knuckles, tracing my fingers over the harsh lines of the bones.