Dreaming In Stereo

Part 21 ~ Just Friends

Ethan's POV

The past several months passed really quickly. With preparations for finals, and even more frequent band practises, I was pretty busy. Our typical audiences usually consisted of Oscar the dog, Steffi the cat or Max and/or Lara.

We were currently writing a new song, bent over sheets of paper with sharpened pencils in hand. Max sat next to me, helping us out with the lyrics.

"So this is what we've got so far," Chris announced. "Oh, oh, oh yeah, oh oh oh oh oh oh... Oh oh, oh yeah, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh..." And Chris hummed the rest of what he had thought up of. "We're not the best lyricists."

"No sh*t Sherlock," Max replied. "Okay, what's the song about?"

"A hot girl," Jakob replied, and Max smiled and I rolled my eyes.

"It's about an awesome girl," I told Max. "Like, we're singing about a girl who's the kind of girl everyone wants to date. Smart, beautiful, awesome personality."

"Ah," Max nodded. "Okay, I get it. How about, um... Time stops when I see her, skinny jeans and... Yeah, that's all I got so far."

Chris nodded and sang: "Time stops when I see her, skinny jeans and a bla bla bla bla..."

"I don't think skinny really works," I noticed. "Too long."

"What about tight?" Jakob suggested.

"Sure," I replied and sang the line, replacing 'skinny' with 'tight'.

"Now, for the rest of the lyrics," I said, and we all sighed. There was a long job ahead of us.

After we'd nailed a couple more lines of lyrics and I tried to convince Max to sing for the thousandth time (yes, I'm still doing that) we finally decided it was time to head home. Chris set off on his skateboard, band practise was at Jakob's, and Max and I walked home together.

"This is nice," I finally said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah," Max replied. We were just walking down the road. The wind, soft but steady, whistled past, brushing strands of hair across Max's blue eyes. I leaned over and helped her brush them out of her face.

"Thanks," Max replied quietly.

"You're welcome," I said. We continued the walk in silence. "So um... yeah."

I glanced over at Max. A wave of mixed emotions washed over me. I was suddenly intoxicated by her dirty blond hair, her humble blue eyes. The same face I'd been with for months, but I saw her differently.

"Ethan?" Max asked, and she glanced up at me.

Max's POV

"Ethan?" I asked, glancing up at him. He grinned at me, a toothy, happy grin, his brown-hazel eyes with a slight glint and messy brown quiff of tiny, loose waves. He wrapped a long skinny arm around my bare shoulder.

I realised, at that moment--

Ethan's POV

I liked Max.

Max's POV

I might have had liked Ethan. 

Ethan's POV

But she can't know, I thought to myself.

Max's POV

I can't tell him, I told myself.

We're only just friends.

3rd Perspective

The girl's hair danced into curls along the soft, whistling wind, which blew steadily past the boy's messy quiff. She glanced at the boy when he wasn't looking, and quickly looked away when he turned to stare at her smiling eyes. The boy and the girl, just two good friends, walked, her head resting on his shoulder, down the long, empty road. 

This is a really, really short chapter (like half of the length of my usual chapters) but it's one of my favourite ones so far so I hope you guys enjoy it. thanks for the votes, the next chapter will be a long and eventful one so stay tuned :) 

p.s. we're 9/10 of the way to be at 1K views!