If It's Easy.

CHAPTER V

Quick Note- I really do appreciate all the love that all of you great people have for Prince and Licia's story. Thank you!
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Prince and I had been hanging for almost a month. We were becoming closer with each passing day, much to the chagrin of my cousin, who wanted to know why we spent so much time together. I was glad Andre decided to keep his distance, aside from a few questions here and there. The whole month consisted of Prince trying to make passes at me and me not really stopping him. I wasn't sure on what it was that we were doing. But I couldn't deny that having some male attention was making me feel better about my break up. Even if it did come from someone I didn't quite understand. Prince was a complex person, and it'd taken me long enough to get over how fast he went from disliking me to liking me. It seemed like the more we talked in person or over the phone the less I thought about Stuart or Cynthia, so I kept coming back. So there I was. All the while wondering when I would stop coming to see him, for fear of an inevitable heartbreak was sure to be in store. A heartbreak that I somehow knew would hurt even worse than the last if it ever occurred. The thought alone was almost enough to make me flee the room for a quick breather. I almost did, until my eyes wandered back to him, totally oblivious to my fearful thoughts. I stayed because of him.

"Your not trying hard enough." He snickered. As he reached over and played the melody, as if it was nothing. His large fingers connected with the strings as it was a mere extension of himself, a talent I'd quickly come to admire. Unfortunately for me, the swift movement had only made me all the more self consciences. I was a slow learner when it came to musical things, this fact, I'd tried to express to him. Prince on the other hand was more musically inclined than anyone I'd ever met in my life. And impressively so, because my cousin was no slouch on the bass. Though Prince's attempt to relate to my musical ability or lack there of was kind, to say the least.

"What do you think I'm doing then?" I questioned, resting my tired hand on the nape of the guitar. My fingers literally ached from pressing on its metal strings.

"I don't know but it ain't enough."

I sat on a pillowy bean bag in the center of Prince's very small bedroom. Aunt Wanda was allowing him to use the spare bedroom while he stayed there. I held his old mahogany acoustic guitar in my lap. I was getting frustrated because my slender fingers struggled to wrap completely around the neck of the instrument, he'd insisted I learned to play. Prince sat in the bean bag next to mine trying not to laugh as I tried to strum the chords to the Peanuts theme song once more. The sounds coming from the guitar had to sound pretty bad, considering this was my first attempt at playing. Anybody who heard me was sure to be amused, for that reason, I was glad he'd locked the door. I tried hard to hide my embarrassment. It made it worse, that I had some master guitarist judging my amateurish skills.

"You said this was going to be easy."

"It is, if you just tried a little bit harder, but look..." he pointed to my hand. "...you ain't even holding the pick right." He chuckled.

"Hold the pick like I showed you."

I sighed aloud, for what had to be the nineteenth time.

"Look, your going to learn this song it's the first one I ever learned." He coaxed, a hint of laughter in his voice. "So I know you can do it."

He came and kneeled in front of me, placing my fingers where he wanted them. I flipped my braids from my face, sighing aloud as I tried again.

"There you go, remember to switch from the first chord." He said encouraging my horrid playing. "There you go." He said chuckling.