HARMONY

Chapter 3 - Depressed Delinquent

Chapter 3 - Depressed Delinquent

After only a few weeks of hanging out together, Harmony was surprised to find she looked forward to Derek's company. He was quite smart and often had different views on things. He also was very affectionate and liked to hold her hand as they talked. He was constantly putting his arm around her and running his fingers along the back of her neck or through the lengths of her hair. He kept her busy and Harmony liked the distraction.

Spending time with Derek was much better than spending time alone, and with her aunt away so much with work, Harmony had a lot of alone time. Sadness was bad enough, but compounded with loneliness, it was almost unbearable. Derek became her best distraction.

The first time they were alone together at his house, he asked her to sing something for him. His request came out of the blue and she immediately stiffened in his arms. She tried to pull away from him as she shook her head no, but Derek wouldn't let go of her hand.

"I don't get it." His voice was low and directed right into her ear as he pulled her back in close. "It's just me here." He lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. "I hear your voice on the radio all the time, so what's the big deal?"

She stayed firm though she was a little shocked by his admission. Whenever she was around his radio had been tuned to a Heavy Metal station, so it surprised her that he had heard her country song.

A few days later she was even more surprised when Derek left his room to get them some snacks and she decided to surf through his playlist. She had been looking for a specific song he played for her earlier when she came across one that was very familiar - 'Cadillac Sky.' She scrolled through and found the entire 'Dessert Rain' album uploaded on a separate playlist. It was entitled simply 'H.' She was shocked and maybe even a little flattered.

Another time when the whole gang was hanging out at Derek's place after school, Dessert Rain's newest single 'Bangles and Boots' came on the radio. The fact it was being played on a major pop station was huge. Usually, it only played on the country stations, but this song had a quick enough beat to give it a good dance vibe and the pop stations were starting to pick it up. One of the girls in the group must have switched the usual heavy metal station over to pop.

Unfortunately, the minute Harmony heard the song, it was like having a knife stabbed into her gut. Everything became muted and she could only hear her mother's beautiful singing voice. Everyone in the room disappeared as visions of her last night on stage consumed her. She was right back there, performing in front of the largest crowd they had ever seen. Shame washed over her as she remembered what she had been thinking about at the time. She was thinking how awful it was that she had to wear the identical matching sequinned costume to her mother's, and she had been regretting having to sing country music. Now she would give anything to be able to do either of those things.

The gut punch hit her hard and she immediately got up to leave. Somehow Derek knew right off what had happened and quickly switched the radio station, but it was too late. The damage had been done. He grabbed her hand and asked her to stay. She couldn't hide the tears already running down her face. Seeing them, Derek wrapped his arms around her and nodded for his friends to leave. Harmony wanted to protest, but she couldn't find her voice. Once everyone was gone Derek led her upstairs to his room. He seated her on the side of his bed and then kneeled in front of her. He gently brushed her tears away and then leaned in and softly kissed her. It wasn't long before his kisses turned more passionate.

For Harmony it was the first time she realized she could get some temporary relief from her grief by getting lost in Derek's kisses and he was a great kisser. The only problem was, once they stopped kissing the grief came back twofold, because then it was accompanied with guilt. She felt guilty that she was feeling happy when her mother had only just died a few months earlier. The guilt was almost worse than the grief. That was the first night she ignored her rules and drank more than three drinks. That was the first night she drank until she was sick.