You're the Music of My Heart

Five: Subs, Spills, and Sappy Movies (pt. 2)

After a few minutes of getting everything planned out and take a short 10-minute drive, we found ourselves at Trost Sandwiches. Now don't get me wrong. The campus is just outside the main city but not all of the areas are "entirely" safe. But fortunately, the students of Cambridge University are smart enough to stay away. Even though most of us have bad street smarts, we still have book smarts so we know to be careful in these areas. 

But it was surprising the owners had put a nice shop like this in the outskirts of the city; it deserved to be downtown. It had big recommendations with huge chefs and top-notch rates so I wish it could be closer to the campus.. oh well.

When I walk into the shop ahead of Annie and Armin, the bell on the door clinks lightly and smells incense the air. Not like the coffee shop with pumpkin and cinnamon and all, but wafts of freshly-baked bread and platters of an assortment of vegetables and Italian meats. This place truly had a good vibe. 

"Hi! Welcome to Trost Sandwiches! How can I help you?" a bubbly, girl with flowing blonde hair responds, her goddess-like and honestly quite angelic voice smoothly rings in my ear like a lullaby. She looked like any college girl working for extra money. If I was straight, I would ask her for her number already. Gosh, I'm such a dork. 

"Hey Krista!" we all respond quite enthusiastically except for Annie. "We'll be looking at the menu for a minute. So how's campus life treating you at Cambridge?" I ask her. "Well, the theater class is really nice! Mr. Rivaille is pretty awesome, actually! Sometimes he can get pretty harsh to the others if they're being annoying but mostly he was good. Strict but good." 

I grin. "Well that's good! I guess most people say that he should never have become a theater professor because he's too serious for it. Sometimes, we do joint-classes with the afternoon classes and he's often there. I guess he doesn't seem too bad." 

"Yeah! I see him around near the fine arts wing when I walk to my law class. Normally he just talks to Mr. Smith," Armin points out. 

"Eh, he's alright. He just looks for the normality in people. The people that don't fuck around in class or get in trouble. Those are the type of people that makes his eyes glint," Annie expounds. 

"Gosh, Annie, you're too Tumblr," Krista whines immaturely and I have to laugh. "How is that Tumblr?" is all I can say before the door behind us rings. I turn around and silently gasp. 

"Oh, uh, hey Marco. How ironic seeing ya here." His two-toned blonde and brunette hair crisp with the frosty air. His gray Fall Out Boy hoodie fit a little too snug emphasized his chest. He wasn't muscular to be honest, but it did show sometimes. My heart felt like it had skipped a beat. 

"Oh... hey Jean!" I squeak. Oh my god Marco, you are ruining your life. I blush a little too hard and I guess he notices, he murmurs something to himself. 

"Can I get your order?" Krista asks him and he must have zoned out and stutters. I wondering what he was thinking of.

"Oh uh, that's right! How 'bout a BMT on Italian. And then I'll have a Dr. Pepper and some chips. And that should be it."

"Alright, your total is $8.03.  And I'll go fix up your sandwich and your sides. Oh and are you guys ready to order?" 

"I think so." I clear my throat quietly. "Can I have a BLT Italian, a vanilla shake and some chips, please?" I also giver her Bert'l's and Reiner's order requests.  "I'll have a Chicken Salad and a Pepsi please?" Armin asks politely and she grins. "No problem! And you Annie?" "I don't mind really. Just a Roast Beef sandwich, a chocolate shake and a Coke." "Got that! And is your orders altogether or individual?" "Indi-" Armin begins to say. "Altogether. My treat. I asked you guys to come so it's on me," I beam. "Ya know, I'll pay for Jean's order too, is that okay?" "Most certainly! And that's really sweet of you too do that," Krista radiantly smiles. "Are you sure, Marco? I mean that's a really kind gesture but I can pay myself," Jean says. "Yeah, me too," Armin follows. 

"Yeah, you honestly don't have to do that. Like really. I have no intention for you-" "No, seriously! It's fine! Just add his order to ours, Krista?" "Got that covered.., now!" she states. "Oh. and your total is $41.57." She turns around and begins to get our orders done. 

"Marco, I'm serious. Like you don't need to." "Jean, I really don't have to. But it's a nice thing to do so I have no problem with that!" I mean, hey, it might help me one-up him and he might think it's cute. But I could never tell him. What would he think? He might never talk to me and even though we haven't known each other for a long time, there's something that I feel like is special between the two of us different than I normally feel around like Annie or Armin or any of my friends. It felt... romantic.

Krista returns with all of our orders and I thank her, paying for the sandwiches. "Oh, hey Krista, you free later tonight?" She looks up at me with interest. "Yeah, you guys got plans or something?" "Well, I was thinking we all have a movie night at my dorm at 8. Oh! Ymir is invited too if she wants to come!" "Yeah sure that sounds like fun! I'll let her know and we both should be there!" "Cool!" Alright, see ya then!" I pivot around and I smash into someone, dropping my shake. 

"Oof!" I hear and the person in front of me with a gray hoodie has the shake stained all over them. "Shit" I hear him say and I gasp, shutting my eyes in surprise. Oh no, it's Jean. I reopen them and I instantly freak out. His sweater was covered in the ice cream and he looked down, dumbfounded. "Oh my God! Jean, I'm so sorry-" Before I can even finish, he begins to bellow in laughter, almost hysterically. I was deadpanned. "Jean! Really though! why are you laughing!" He always just lays his entire back while howling with laughter. "Haha... you got so apologetic! Like I've never seen anyone be that sorry... ever! HAHA!" He begins to cool down and gets up. "Can I at least make up for it somehow?" I blurt out. He looks up at me. "Why? I'm fine, especially with lunch-" "Do you wanna come over to my dorm tonight for a movie night tonight with us?" He stops mid-phrase and looks at me in surprise. Oh no, is that too awkward? God what if he finds it weird? Or creepy? I mean... it's just with friends so I don't know how he could think of it that way- "Yeah, sure. What time and is it the same dorm as earlier?" I wince, that's right. When he heard me playing the piano in my dorm. "Oh, uh... yeah. That's the one..." He smirks. "Just text me a time. I gotta go back in town to get some things at the grocery store. I'm probably going to make something good tonight. Well, I almost always do." I blush at the thought of his slightly-perceived arrogance. I wonder what type of food he normally cooks... French? His name sounds French and his last name is German too, well the phonetic sound of it. Oh my gosh, Marco, pay attention to him while you can, not zone him out and think of his nationality. "Just come over at 7:30, that's probably going to be when we get the movie started or anything else we want to do." I state and he nods. "What movie is it?" I blush in embarrassment at the thought of that. "Emperor's New Groove, courtesy of Armin's wonderful movie taste." I give him a smile towards him and he grins back. "Hey! There's no problem with that, right? Besides! Yzma is hilarious!" Jean laughs and that at least showed some sort of sincere acceptance. "I haven't seen the movie in years. My parents didn't let me watch those movies after I was like 10." I almost gape at the thought of it but then he piped up again. "Well, they were strict other than letting me play soccer and stuff and I guess they didn't want me to become a music geek." He lifts his arms up almost like he's gesturing the area. "Well here we are in the middle of Musicville." That actually almost stung, his statement was bittersweet and that hurt me. Did he just diss music? i mean, I've committed my entire life to it and now he just wants to talk crap about it? He must've picked up on my reaction. "Well, I love music and I always will but they weren't too thrilled with my decision. As a matter of fact, not at all. They wanted me to go into law or-" "Don't talk about music like that, okay? There are people that care about it a lot. People that have completely devoted everything. Their lives, their heart... their soul." My eyebrows furrow into a frown. "Like Mozart, for example. Had his first concert at 8 years old in Linz, Austria. Or Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert. Or Haydn, Bach, Verdi, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Strauss, Brahms... they did everything to make their dreams come true. A conductor. and I don't want people like you trying to ruin my life goal to be like them. Because I have let myself get hurt so much so I could be the person I am right now. So much more than you could ever imagine." I could hear Armin gulp as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down. This now hurt too much, and I wasn't ready for a mental breakdown here. I push myself aside and start walking towards the door. "Now you can go do whatever shopping you need to do and enjoy your lunch." I push the glass swinging door open and walk out of the sandwich shop, clutching my leather wallet harder than ever.