Unrequited

Wherever You Will Go-The Calling

Wherever You Will Go-The Calling (1)

IF I COULD, THEN I WOULD. I’LL GO WHEREVER YOU WILL GO. WAY UP HIGH OR DOWN LOW. I’LL GO WHEREVER YOU WILL GO.

I kept on listening to this song—our song (well, our song before it all fell apart)—and kept on writing on my hardbound red leather notebook. I stopped briefly to look at the picture frame hanging on my wall and began to write down again all the thoughts I have inside my head.

The song stops and I looked down to find a call by an unknown number. “Hello?”

“Hey, remember what I said yesterday about the singing competition put up by the council for the festival on October? I signed us up but I have this problem about the name because they all have like these cool codes like, you know, death shits and everything.” The blabber came to the abrupt stop and I took that as my cue to answer.

“Matt, is this you?”

“I am the only one you were with yesterday, right? At the pizzeria…?”

I smiled. “Yeah, you were the only one.”

“So, B, any thoughts on the name thing, I need one right now.” He pushes and I groaned inwardly. “Hello?”

“Yes, I’m trying to come up with something at this second but let me call you back.” I said quickly and hung up.

I was still astonished with the fact that he signed us up. I didn’t even know that he really wanted it or that we were serious during that conversation. I just knew that now, I was enthusiastic about something. And I was hoping that this will go off without a hitch.

-

I was tapping my pencil on the window sill as if to create a beat but all I’m really doing is thinking. What do I have for a name?

I’ve written tons that aren’t just good enough. Most sound really stupid. I can’t even think straight because of the problems I’ve only overcame yesterday when Matt took me out.

This is such a rush.

I looked down at my list and wondered where the hell I got all of these names and they were really terrible. Take for example; Destructive Two or He & She (it’s like saying Hershey’s but in a really mumbling way) and the worst so far is ‘High to Low’ which is really, terribly, stupid and weird and I just can’t think!

“Beatrice, dinner,” Mom calls from downstairs and I looked at the clock and it was six. I hadn’t even noticed. I sighed and got out of the room, walked down the stairs but stopped short on my way to my usual seat.

I stared at him as if I couldn’t comprehend the reason as to why he is sitting right there…

He glanced and then looked at me finally. “Good evening, Beatrice.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked and risked eyeing my mom. But she wasn’t in the room.

“I thought I should come by. After all, I was driving from school and your house was on the way so you know—idea,” he replies. “Dinner…?” He pulled back my seat without standing and gestured for me to come.

I sighed. Do I have another choice?

He raised a brow at my reaction and I only stared at him blankly. “What’d I do?” He asks me but I merely shrug. “What? Your mom let me in.” And that was his only defence.

“Don’t come uninvited, Matt. But hey, you’re welcome any time.” I said. “You just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

“Alright,” he murmurs and hands me a glass. “So, the name, do you have it?”

I groaned aloud and wished that I could wrap myself in bubbles. “No. No. I don’t. I couldn’t think. This is all too fast and all too much—”

“B, I’m not asking you to marry me. And besides,” he leaned into his seat and grinned. “I’m not even asking you out.”

I narrowed my eyes at him in irritation but he didn’t wipe that grin off his face.

“Yet,” he added and I suddenly became aware of what I was wearing. I became too self-conscious I hated him for that.

Mom enters with a bowl of Pasta Putanesca with a little smile on her face. “Dinner is served.”  

-

We retreated to the music room after dinner and Matt sat by the window, fumbling with the guitar. The image of him in the room was eerie. But with him holding the guitar was much more disturbing.

“I never realized you know an instrument.”

He smirked at me. “I know plenty, Beatrice.”

“Well, I have no doubts in that.” I said and pulled the chair in front of the keyboard. I sat still and lowered my hands. “Do you have an idea for the name?” I ask him and he started playing some chords.

He shook his head. “That’s your part I’m not willing to play.”

I sighed at that. “It’s not like I’m good at coming up with anything, M.”

“Yes. You are.” He replied. “Don’t pretend like I don’t see you during free period. You bury yourself in that hauntingly dark library but it didn’t take long for me to find out that you don’t read those books. You take inspiration from them and you write through those long hours.”

My hands hung suspended in mid air as I turned to him. I studied him from across the room and slowly, a smile began to form. “I didn’t know someone was watching.”

“I wasn’t watching.” He whispered and then looked at me. “I just notice. It’s one thing more than the other and with that comes another meaning.”

I counted three seconds before I realized what he meant and he confirmed this.

“I do a lot more than your charming Keith—”

I began to play the keys and head on for long notes just to avoid hearing his name. “Do what you did yesterday, Matt.” I said. “Take me away from that.”

-