Coffee Shop Soundtrack (Marianas Trench)

Chapter Ten

“Josh!”

Josh rolled over in his bed, placing the pillow over his head in a futile attempt to stay asleep for longer.

“Jooooosh!”

There the voice was again. He groaned.

“Josh, get your lazy ass out of bed!” It was Josh’s dad, yelling from upstairs. “There’s someone here to see you! I’ll send them up.” Someone was here? Eh, it was probably Ian. He merely sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. Then he heard the knock on his bedroom door, which was unfamiliar. Ian never knocked.

“Uh, come in?” A head poked round the door, pushing it open slightly. It was Matt, not Ian. He smiled at Josh, whose eyes widened in surprise. “Matt!”

“Hey, Josh. I-I didn’t mean to wake you up, I thought it was an alright time, and I did text you...” Matt trailed off, letting himself into Josh’s room. He was wearing a hoodie, despite the heat, and he had a guitar case in his hand.

“No, it’s fine. Besides, it’s...” Josh grabbed his phone from the side and checked the time. “Two in the afternoon. I should be up anyway, and I did tell you to come over, after all.” Josh sat up further; suddenly realising he was just in his underwear. Blushing profusely, he pushed his hair back with one hand. “Do you mind just grabbing me a shirt or something please?”

“Sure.” Matt smirked a little, setting the guitar case on the floor and heading over to the dresser.

“Top drawer.”

Matt pulled open the drawer to find many different shirts strewn across the space, unfolded and messy. He picked the first one up, which happened to be just a plain black shirt, and tossed it over to Josh who hastily put it on.

“So where’d you want to start?”

“Well, I can’t quite get this, uh, this chord quite right...” Matt pointed to a note written in his notebook. The teacher had told him to learn it, so he’d made notes for a change.

“Mhm, that’s easy to explain. Come here.” Josh patted the seat next to him, smiling widely. Josh hooked his arm around Matt, positioning the boy’s fingers across the guitar strings. He murmured the name of the chord again, telling Matt a technique on how to arrange his hand to make it easier, and asked Matt to play a song using that chord rather than a simpler one Matt knew well.

After twenty minutes, Josh still had his arm around Matt, but the younger boy was learning a load. Josh was a good teacher, and it felt nice to have someone’s arm around his shoulder without feeling threatened. He sighed quietly, contently, as he perfected that last chord that was bothering him for a while.

“That’s it! You got it!” Josh grinned widely, smiling down at Matt.

“I did!” Matt was beaming brightly. “Thank you, Josh.”

Josh laughed, tossing his head up in the air. “I did nothing, you learnt it.” He returned his gaze to Matt, only to find the brown eyed boy staring straight back at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

“You helped.” Matt stated simply. “Thank you.”

In that moment, Josh wanted to just lean in towards Matt. Kiss him, and hold him tight. But Josh knew he couldn’t. First, Matt had a boyfriend, and Josh couldn’t do that to him. Even if the singer did suspect that he wasn’t being good to Matt. And Matt’s just a friend, only a friend. He couldn’t do this. There was no way.

“I, uh...” Josh gulped and cleared his throat awkwardly, removing his arm from around Matt and opening his laptop. “I had a song idea the other day.”

“Oh, really?” Matt sat up, putting the guitar to the side and leaning to peer over Josh’s shoulder.

“Here.”

Matt silently read through the page, smiling more and more as he got the gist of the song. “My god, that’s amazing!”

“It’s nothing much. Just a little song.”

“It’s awesome. And I have a tune that will fit that pretty well. Here.” He rifled through the guitar case to find his notebook, flicking through to the right page and setting it in the older boy’s hand before leaning back and picking up his guitar again.

“Wow, Matt.” Josh grinned. “That fits perfectly.”

Really? We might have to tweak it.”

“Hey, you could use that new chord in it.”

Matt grinned, glancing over at the page again. “Good idea. What if I replace this one...” He reached over and pointed to a scruffy note written down. “... with the new one?”

“Good idea!”

They spent the rest of the day just tweaking the lyrics around to make the perfect song, stopping only to eat in the evening.

“I think... I think that’s done, Ramsay.” Matt grinned, looking up at Josh, who shared the same huge grin. Without a second thought, Matt pulled Josh into a tight hug, the older man freezing but then relaxing after a second. He allowed himself that tiny piece of comfort, relishing in the strong scent of peppermint and cheap aftershave. It was all too soon when Matt broke away.

“Holy shit, it’s late.”

“Hmph?” Josh turned over to check the time on his phone. It was nearing seven.

“I gotta get home, okay?” Matt shoved his guitar back in the case and zipped up the sides. “Ty will be worried.”

“Your boyfriend, right?” Josh sat up properly; fiddling with a loose thread in his sweatpants he’d slipped on earlier.

“Yeah, he’s my boyfriend. I’m sorry for leaving so quickly. I’ll call you later, alright?”

“Sure, whatever’s good for you.” Josh forced a smile, considering saying something about his suspicions but thought better of it. He was sure Matt’d be okay.

“Thank you for today. It was nice being with you.” Matt smiled as he rushed out of Josh’s room.

As soon as Matt shut the door behind him, Josh flopped back down onto the bed and groaned. No, he could not have feelings for the younger boy after just a couple of weeks knowing him.

He grunted when he felt something digging into his ribs, shifting slightly to find the object. He held it up. It was Matt’s notebook; he left it behind in his haste. Josh bit his lip. He shouldn’t look through it... but just a peek wouldn’t hurt, right? But his good side overran his inquisitiveness and he dropped the book, shameful he even thought of looking through it.