Matchmaker (a Brandon Flowers fanfic)

|chapter 5|

"Sure," I replied, and he helped me to my feet. The keys continued to play on their own as Brandon took my hand in one of his hands and placed his other hand on my hip. I gradually put my hand on his shoulder as we started to dance, and he laughed.

"Why are you so afraid of me?" he asked, smiling but being truthful. I didn't know what to tell him. 'I'm just hoping you don't turn out to be a mass murderer' is not something I am going to say out loud.

"I haven't been to one of these kinds of things before," I uttered, and it was definitely true. Matchmaking events had always been a mystery to me.

"Well, that isn't exactly an excuse for being so cautious around me," he shot back.

"Well, maybe I'm worried because I've never met you besides now!" I admitted.

"No reason to be worried, darling," he whispered, brushing a piece of unknown loose hair past my ear. My knees were ready to buckle, and I didn't know whether it was from fear or from how romantic he was. "I'm just a guy looking for a girl to spend a very long time with, possibly his entire life."

"And you're looking for that in girls that are in high school?" I asked, keeping my emotions in check. I can't let my guard down, especially not in a place like this.

"Only Ivory and you are in high school. The rest are either in college or they are just taking a break from school and working," he corrected.

"Still," I said. "How old are you anyway?" Suddenly, I saw a flash of fear shoot through his eyes, even though the rest of his face showed no emotion. Why?

"Thirty-two," he sighed. He was thirty-two. I, a sixteen year old girl, was invited to a matchmaking party of a thirty-two year old man. Plot twist of the century.

"Hm," I responded, not knowing what else to say. How was I supposed to respond?

"I know that this whole event is a bad idea, but to be honest, I didn't expect to find anyone that I was truly interested in," he admitted. Did he mean me? "And, it was just an idea at first, but Orrey was worried about me being alone for the rest of my life. He said that I could get any girl that I wanted and that I should use that to my advantage."

"Are you the one who even chose the girls that came?"

"A couple. You were one of the ones that I chose. I only knew about you because of a wonderful newspaper article written by you that talked about how self-harm was becoming a mainstream topic. You were invited because you sounded smart, and I can tell that you are." He looked over at the hands that were together and flipped over my wrist to see it. My heart stopped. Three faint but visible lines ran across the pale skin. His eyes glanced from my face to the cuts.

"I..." I started, but couldn't finish. He let go of my hand and wiped away a tear that I didn't know was running down my cheek.

"And you know what else?" he asked. I shook my head, taking in a deep, shaky breath. "You are beautiful. So beautiful." He gently took my wrist and lifted the cuts to his lips. I barely knew this man and he already knew one of my darkest secrets. How could I let this happen? He lowered my arm as his hand slid back down to mine. After that, I laid my head on his chest and we danced in silence. I honestly didn't know what to think or how to feel. Was Brandon to be trusted? Would Ivory leave me alone when I went back to the dining room? Was the rest of this whole event going to go smoothly? Time would only tell.

*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*

After the song ended, Brandon fully let go of me but continued to watch me like if he would look away for a millisecond, I would disappear.

"What was that song?" I inquired, breaking the silence.

"Oh, it's the first part of the Metamorphosis series by Philip Glass," he replied. I decided to make a mental note to find the song later so I could download it. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of music I had ever heard.

"How did the piano continue to play the song?"

"Well, I had to play the entire song just right and record all of the notes. I'm currently working on recording the third part of the series, and it gets harder as it goes along."

"So you have the second part recorded?"

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Why?"

"I-um-I just-" I stuttered. He watched and smirked as I choked on my own words.

"Just what?" he urged. My heart was beating a million miles a minute, and I could barely breathe. "Were you wanting to hear it?" Sighing, I played with the charm on my necklace.

"Yeah, kind of," I laughed. "But I can look it up when I go back home-"

"No!" he exclaimed. Immediately, I stopped talking. His sudden outburst surprised me. "No, no, I can play it for you."

"Wouldn't that take a while, though?" I questioned. The first part lasted about five minutes.

"It would only take about eight minutes," he clarified. Eight minutes! Didn't he have other people to talk to, though? However, it didn't matter to me. As long as I got to spend more time with this mysterious but wonderful man, then I was fine.

"Okay," I sheepishly muttered. He smiled and took my hand again. Butterflies flew around my stomach as he brought me over to the piano again. We both sat down in front of it, and he cleared his throat as he laid his fingers on top of a few keys. I noticed that his fingers were as shaky as mine. Maybe he was interested in me...? No way. There was absolutely no way. Pushing those thoughts out of my head, I gave all of my attention to the song. After a minute, he lifted his fingers from the keys and once again, the song continued to play. It already sounded as beautiful, maybe even more beautiful than the first.

"Did you want to dance again?" he asked, looking over at me. I did the same, looking away from the keys and into his warm brown eyes.

"I'd love to," I said, fully smiling for the first time in that entire 'date'. He mirrored my smile before helping me to my feet once again. As soon as we were both standing, we both started to dance just like earlier. It remained silent until he looked down at my necklace.

"Your necklace is very pretty," he whispered. Out of habit, I glanced down at the small flying cardinal.

"Thank you," I said. For the rest of the song we didn't talk; we just danced. The strange thing was that I actually felt safe while I was with him. We had met barely fifteen minutes before, but Brandon Flowers already gave me a sense of security. Now that was more of a plot twist.

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PLEASE READ AUTHOR'S NOTE

AN: 5 votes! yay! :D this makes me super happy! however, you know what would make me even happier? a comment! (translation: please leave a comment before you leave the story.) as the story gets more popular, the expectations start to increase! i would like to have feedback! thanks :)