Watercolour

Sixteen: Part Two

Sorry it's been so long! There are lots of P.O.V changes in this chapter so I hope it still makes sense...? Xx

Alex's P.O.V

It was first thing on Monday morning and I had just left registration and was heading towards the music corridor. To be honest I was still more than half asleep and all I wanted to do was clamber back into bed.

The weekend had been a drag. The constant feeling of guilt eating me from the inside out only left me tired and unwilling to speak to anyone. I had, however dropped round to Alana's house as soon as I had woken up the following morning. Admittedly, that wasn't at the crack of dawn but I went nonetheless. Her dad had answered the door and add soon as he did my heart sank in my chest.

"She isn't home, is she?" I'd asked.

"No, sorry son. She's out with Charley."

"Of course," I'd said, mentally kicking myself for forgetting; they'd been talking about it last night.

"Do want to come in for a drink or something?" her dad had asked, gesturing towards their kitchen.

"No thanks, I'd better be off anyway," I'd lied. "Thanks anyway though."

"Mate," Lucas said, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Are you coming with us or not?"

"What?" I asked confused as I banished the previous thoughts from my mind.

"Practice... are you practicing with me and Isaac?"

"Uh, yeah sure," I said, getting up from my seat and following him out of the classroom and into one of the larger practice rooms that Isaac had already occupied.

"You know Keiran's not in today?"

"Yeah... well, I guess you could play drums for today - unless you're desperate to play bass still?" Isaac suggested.

"Nah, that's cool. I'll drum. I can practice on my bass at home if I need to," I said as I hopped over a box and sat down at the kit before adjusting the snare and hi-hat. "Let's go."

Lucas and Isaac quickly tuned up their guitars before grabbing a pick each, strumming their starting chords and looking back to me.

I clicked the sticks together three times before we all started on the fourth.

Three and a half minutes later, we finished the song and I grabbed my bottle to take a few gulps of water.

"That was wicked!" Isaac announced as he sat down with his guitar leant against his knee. "I mean, it was a bit empty because of the bass... but it was still awesome."

As we all took the opportunity to have a short break, I subconsciously swiveled the sticks back round in my hand and quietly started playing a beat. It wasn't anything complex; just a double on the bass and a rim-tap on the snare.

Isaac pointed in my direction, halfway through a sip of his water and quickly emptied his mouth so that he could speak.

"That sounds like the beginning of 'Weathered'. Do you know that song? By Jack Garratt?"

"Sounds familiar," I responded, genuinely believing that I had heard the title before.

"You should listen to it. It's a good song."

"Will do."

"Hey guys, do you want to come over to mine later?" Lucas asked, looking up from his phone.

"I've got to get home... need to catch up on my art coursework. Sorry mate," I answered, half-lying. It was true, I did have art to do, but to be honest I really wanted to try and talk to Al tonight. It needed to happen at some point and I'd rather get it done now before I had a chance to talk myself out of it. Or she had the opportunity to do the same.