I ran into the band room, tears in my eyes, my head throbbing from pain. It happened again. The same group of bullies beat me up behind the school. I can still remember how they laughed at me and hit me and pushed me. I threw myself into the backroom and sat on the floor. The tears in my eyes flowed over as I sobbed. Why does this always happen to me? Now my mom is gonna be mad that I'm late coming home. I'll be lucky if I'm not grounded for another week. I sat there for a good fifteen minutes before getting up. As soon as I stood up, the band's piano player walked in with a folder stuffed full of music. He looked up at me with confused blue eyes that became soft and worried as he further looked at me. He set his music on the piano and stared at me for a bit. I glanced down and avoided his gaze, wiping away a few tears. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked. "Yeah, I'm fine," I mumbled. He walked closer to me. "You don't look okay. Did something happen?" I felt the hot tears stain my cheeks as my embarrassment left a red blush across them. He stood there for a moment before hugging me. It felt nice to have someone show me some form of kindness. When he broke the warm embrace, he wiped away some of my tears. I forced a fake smile onto my face. He kindly smiled back. His eyes lit up with ideas. "Hey, you wanna hear some music? Come on, you'll love it," he said as he grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the piano. He had a hold on my few scars from cutting and I winced from pain. He noticed my pain and looked confused. He glanced down at my wrist and stared at me questioningly. He sat down on the piano bench, not letting go of my wrist, and told me to do the same. I listened to him and sat down. He gently pulled up my sleeve revealing the cuts I made a few nights ago. I avoided his glance, expecting the same bullshit response of "everything's gonna get better". But he didn't say that. Instead he said, "Let's just act like this here never happened," while he motioned to my scars. I was shocked. He rolled down my sleeve and opened up his folder of music. He flipped through the different pages and I saw things like Mozart, Beethoven, other famous composers, and a lot of piano versions of popular songs or video game music. He pulled one out that was called "For River". I didn't recognize it at all. He started playing the piece, but it was two notes over and over again for most of the song. It sounded good, but why just two notes? He played the piece, it was only a minute or so, and flipped through more of his music. He stopped on a page that was titled "Everything's Alright". "No it isn't," I muttered under my breath. The unnamed boy frowned at me, but began playing and singing the music.
Short steps
Deep breath
Everything is Alright
Chin up
I can't
Step into the
Spotlight
She said
"I'm sad"
Somehow without any words
I just
Stood there
Searching for an answer
He glanced at me and smiled before he continued.
When this world is no more
The moon is all we'll see
I'll ask you to fly away with me
Until the stars all fall down
They empty from the sky
But I don't mind
If you're with me
Then everything's alright
He stopped for a moment half way through and wrote a few changes into the music. "It sounds great," I said. He smiled at me. "You wanna try to sing the next part?" He asked. I chuckled slightly. "Thank you, but I don't sing." He nudged the music towards me. "Neither do I. Just give it a try." I rolled my eyes and read off the page as he played.
Why do
My words
Alway lose their meaning
What I feel
What I say
Theres such a rift between them
He said
"I cant
Really seem to read you"
I just
Stood there
Never know what I should do
Before I realized it, he joined me through the chorus.
When this world is no more
The moon is all we'll see
I'll ask you to fly away with me
Until the stars all fall down
They empty from the sky
But I don't mind
If you're with me
Then everything's alright
If you're with me
Then everything's
Alright
I looked up from the music and for once in a long time, smiled. A genuine happy smile. "By the way, my names Michael," he said holding out his hand. I shook it. "Alexa," I said. He smiled, then took a look at the clock. I looked too. "Oh damn. I'll never make it home before my mom. I'm gonna be in so much trouble." Michael frowned and furrowed his brow. "Hey. Maybe you could stay here overnight. I'm good friends with the janitors I could tell them I cleaned up here and you could stay overnight." I rolled my eyes. "What am I supposed to tell my mom?" He wracked his brain for an answer, pushing his brown hair out of his eyes. "You had to stay and study for classes and you decided to stay overnight for a study group slumber party thing. Hey it's the best I got. That or you were kidnapped." She would probably believe kidnapped more. I followed with his plan though, and told my mom. She was surprisingly compliant and only grounded me for a few days. Once I got off the phone I smiled at Michael and he flashed one at me. I had made a new friend. One that was willing to take care of me and had my back when I needed it. Plus he's gonna teach me how to play piano. I mean he's gotta play all those duets with somebody. I might as well do the trick.
