Torn » h.s./marcel

Chapter 15: Bonding Time

Chapter 15: Bonding Time

Allie's POV

I followed Marcel up his front steps and into his house, not really registering what I was doing. I was still upset about the whole Aaron-Adam-Kendall thing. The whole school knew about it and respected me less. Some kids even made fun of me. It wasn't fair.

I took off my shoes and put my jacket over them. I did notice when Marcel's mother didn't come running into the foyer. Instead I found her in the kitchen cooking something, her back to us.

"What's up with her?" I asked as Marcel and I stomped up the stairs.

"Oh, um... I just... we had... I made her mad," he finally mumbled.

I raised my eyebrows. Marcel was a perfect little goody-two-shoes. What could he have done to make his mother mad?

"Well, I hope she brings us snacks again," I said nonchalantly as we entered Marcel's room. Mrs. Styles had been giving us snacks ever since that one day. They were always Oreos and carrots, which I was perfectly fine with.

Marcel just nodded and sat at his desk. I sat on his bed and took out my lyric book. I flicked through the pages till I found our lyrics.

"I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath," I sang quietly. "Scared to rock the boat and make a mess. So I sit quietly, agreed politely. I guess that I forgot I had a choice, I let you push me past the breaking point. I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything."

"What should the bridge be?" we asked at the same time. Marcel looked down; I blushed a little bit. I shook myself. Whatever.

"Well, since the song is about getting back up after being pushed down, and we left off at falling for everything, the next few lyrics should be about getting up," I said.

"But isn't that the chorus?" Marcel reminded me.

I thought about it. 'Louder, louder than a lion. Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar'.

"No," I decided. "The chorus is about being noticed and standing up for yourself. Very similar to my idea, but not exactly the same thing."

Marcel nodded again in agreement. "Okay...." he said slowly. "So we're down on the ground but we're getting back up...."

I thought hard about it again. "You held me down, but I got up," I said and my eyes widened. "I think that sounds good! I like that." I wrote it down. So did Marcel.

"Already brushing off the dust," Marcel murmured, but I heard him.

"That's... that's good too," I said, sounding confused. But I shouldn't be confused. I already knew that Marcel knew his music. We wrote down that lyric as well.

"You hear my voice, you hear that sound," I added. "Like thunder gonna shake the ground." Marcel gave me a strange look. I bristled. "What?" I demanded. "We're leading up to the chorus. We're gonna roar like a lion, remember?"

Marcel nodded for a third time and wrote those down. "We'll use the held me down lyrics again because it's really close to the chorus," he said. He pushed his glasses farther up his nose.

"Yeah," I agreed. "We deserve a break. We can slack a little. So after that, what else should we put?"

Marcel frowned and tapped his pencil against his forehead. Nothing happened for a moment. Then he perked up and said, "How about, 'Get ready because I've had enough'?"

"I like that," I said a little slowly, and Marcel jot them down. I had stopped writing. What was the point of two copies?

I still had a little trouble admitting Marcel had good ideas sometimes. I should be used to it since he was a super smart nerd and all that, but I had good ideas too. We should use mine more often.