Stray

Chapter 10

“Nobody said it was easy

 It's such a shame for us to part

 Nobody said it was easy

 No one ever said it would be this hard

 Oh, take me back to the start.”

                -Coldplay (The Scientist)

                After a couple minutes of Rhyet trying to convince me I was wrong and this would all make sense soon, I ignored everything he said because I knew it didn’t hold true, he gave up and we sat in silence for a couple minutes. Leaning forward, he began flipping over the books on the table and reading the description on the back nonchalantly, looking bored with each and every one of them.

                While he busied himself with that, I found myself staring at the beautiful black grand piano sitting over by the huge glass doors that were propped open to the small stone veranda covered by the shade of the vast oak trees. My mother had taught me to play from the time I turned six and I had to admit to myself, I had become pretty good. Standing up, I walked over to the piano, pulling the bench out and lightly running my hands over the keys without making any sound. I could feel Rhyet’s eye’s burning into my back curious of what I was doing, but before he could wonder any further, I began playing slowly and lightly playing a song I had been working on for years, You Found Me by The Fray.

                Feeling my fingers slide over the keys gracefully, I closed my eyes and titled my head up to the roof, letting my slender fingers lead the way across the ivory. I could feel my closed eyes glassing over with tears at the thought of me and my mother sitting at the small upright piano in our living room every Friday night as she taught me her refined skills her own mother had passed down. We would have been sitting there tonight, as she helped me craft this song into a flawless perfection she did with everything I played.

                And that was enough to break me. I was only half way through the song when I went off key then completely stopped and leaned my head against the piano and let my tears roll down my cheek soundlessly. Rhyet’s steps hurried towards me heavily thumping on the floor.

As he slid in next to me, he started rubbing my back “Lacey, what’s wrong? That was beautiful.” I could feel his face contort as he said this without even looking at him.

The lump in my throat felt startlingly large, so large I felt as if I might choke but I managed to squeak out a “No.”

He laughed nervously and started to run his hands up and down my arms “It was.”

“No, this was me and my mother’s thing. She taught me.”

Rhyet didn’t seem to have anything to say and his hands froze on my arms. The whole room seemed to be enclosed in a delicate silence that only swelled the lump in my throat. Feeling the tears roll down my cheeks suddenly made me feel awfully ashamed, sitting in a room crying in front of a guy I barely knew. My conscious chimed in though reminding me of everything that happened on the trip here and the tears were become even harder to keep silent.

Quickly I pulled my hands to my eyes, wiping away the tears carefully trying not to smear the mascara that I had applied earlier even though it was likely a lost cause. I carefully wiped my cheeks then scooted to the end of the bench, breaking away from Rhyet’s gentle grip on my arms.

“Where’s the washroom?” I asked him timidly, looking at the floor attempting to hide my inevitably red cheeks.

He stood up and walked back through the arch into the kitchen then into the hall again with me following him. Once in the hall he showed me a powder room just a door down from the kitchen and I quietly thanked him and stepped inside.