An Endless Serenade

Chapter Twelve

As more proof of Olivia being the note harasser, they'd stopped after that Monday morning. For the rest of the week, I'd received no threatening notes, or insulting letters. There was still a profusion of snide looks and comments from her though, and a few other choice students from my piano class, but other than that, everything was back to normal.

Well, if one considered how often I'd been making unnecessary stops into Mr. Tucker's classroom normal.

And Paul's less innocent and more flirty comments to and about Olivia.

Not that I cared. It wasn't like she'd harassed me or anything.

"So make sure to be at the diner for four... Hey, are you listening to me?"

Peeling my gaze off of Olivia, who was obviously flirting with Paul, again, tossing her hair over her shoulder every five seconds, and batting her eyelashes, I turned to Elliot, forcing a smile. "Sorry, what?"

After giving me what I assumed to be his best bitch face, he repeated the information to me. "And you said you'd stay until close, right?" he double-checked.

I nodded. "Yeah, anything to stay out of the house."

Elliot's eye twitched, the way it usually did when he felt he had to ask about my personal life. "Something wrong?"

"Paul is just... I don't know," I admitted, sighing lightly. "I shouldn't even be annoyed with him, but I am."

"That doesn't explain anything."

"Yeah, I know."

Elliot scowled at me for a moment, crossing his arms. "Whatever. I don't care."

"Will you ever play the piano for me?" I questioned randomly, resting my chin on my hand and staring at him imploringly. "I want to hear you."

"No."

I winced. "Ouch. Not even a second of deliberation?"

He purposefully scrunched his face up into a look of concentration before letting it fall back into its normal, expressionless way. "No."

"Boo, you suck."

"Whatever."

Sighing again, I glanced at the clock. There was still ten minutes until class was over. Open mic had been short today. I'd opted not to play— Paul hadn't haggled me about it. In fact, he'd let Olivia play two songs for the class. He had to be doing it on purpose. There was no way he liked Olivia.

Or rather, I really didn't want to believe he actually liked her. There was just nothing to like about her, aside from her pretty face.

"Oh, guys! I have one quick announcement before the end of class!" Paul spoke suddenly, gaining everyone's attention. "The annual, statewide Winter Wonder music competition is coming up. Auditions begin next week on Thursday." An excited murmur rose throughout the classroom and Paul had to speak louder to be heard over it. "So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be helping you guys prepare. Hopefully you've also chosen your pieces by now..."

I frowned. Paul hadn't mentioned anything about a competition to me. Maybe because he'd been too busy being a grumpy child. "What music competition?" I asked, turning to Elliot.

"You don't know?"

"Obviously not. That's why I'm asking."

"Don't need to be a bitch about it," he grumbled in response.