Tidal Waves | Jalex

Chapter 3

"Did you write that song by yourself?"

Alex froze, he didn't know whether he'd be able to speak - he hadn't preformed in front of anybody since him - so he just nodded and Jack smiled. "You're really good at singing and playing guitar, by the way"

Rian then chimes in "I agree, your voice is great", Zack nods too, and Alex quickly picks up on the fact that Zack doesn't like to speak much.

Alex takes a breath and speaks "Thanks...I-I don't really sing in front of people that often so I don't really get told that"

Jack smiles "Do you mind if we sit beside you?"

Alex shakes his head and begins to strum random chords on his acoustic. The stumming quickly turned into I Miss You by Blink-182 and Jack, Rianand Zack's eyes immediately lit up.
"You listen to Blink?," Jack nearly yelled those four words, startling Alex in the process.

The latter nods softly and a comfortable silence falls again, quickly broken by the sound of Alex's guitar and humming, Rian quickly joining in with drumming on the plastic chair.
Zack quickly walks away and comes back a few seconds later with an amp and a bass guitar, plugging the bass into the amp. Jack then runs off and gets two electric guitars - one for himself and one for Alex - and two leads. He plugs both guitars in and hands one to Alex, who quickly takes it and begins to strum I Miss You again.
Soon, Alex starts quietly singing along and Zack joins in, singing melodies from time to time. Alex smiles and the four continue to play the song.
Eventually, the song comes to an end, with the last chord being stummed and the last words leaving Alex's lips.
The four boys didn't realise it at the time, but the entire class had turned to listen to them playing. Alex quickly realises and blushes, remembering that he had been singing in front of about 20 people and he hadn't even thought about it. He looked down and started playing with his hands, biting his lip softly as he tries to will all the faces to look in the other direction.

Eventually, the bell rings and Alex quickly packs up the equipment, grabs his bag and rushes out the door, desperate to get to the cafeteria so he could spend his next two free periods by himself listening to music and writing songs that will never get sung or letters that will never get read by anyone but him.
Alex arrived at the cafeteria and quickly spotted a rare empty table, he quickly sat at it and pulls out his notebook, phone and headphones. He plugs the headphones in and begins to play Anathema by Twenty One Pilots on the highest volume. He grabs a pen and begins to continue to write a song that had been abandoned after only a few lines. Alex read over the words
'Manage me I'm a mess
Turn a page I'm a book, half unread.
I wanna be laughed at, laughed with, just because.
I wanna feel weightless and that should be enough'
He smiled, still liking the lyrics. More lyrics quickly flood his brain.
' Maybe it's not my weekend, but its gonna be my year.
I've been going crazy I don't wanna waste another minute here'
I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear.'
He shakes his head, slowly deciding to put the line 'I've been going crazy, I don't wanna waste another minute here' after 'To everything I fear'.
He sighs, looking over the text, unsure of if there should be something inbetween the two paragraphs.
He nods to himself and quickly looks through his notebook, immediately finding an unused paragraph.
'But I'm stuck in this fucking rut,
Waiting on a second hand pick me up
And I'm over getting older.
If I could just find the time,
I would never let another day go by
I'm over getting old'
He decides to put that verse in-between the two paragraphs of text, quickly deciding to make the last paragraph of text the chorus.
Alex grins and changes playlists to a playlist featuring Blink-182 and Green Day.
He hums along quietly as the bell rings, smiling as he remembers that he has another free period.
As students walk past, the music blaring in his ears drown out nearly all the noise made by them, he continues to write, listening to the muffled whispers of the students passing him.