Juliet Won't Wait Forever

(4) - Aaron

Chapter 4

“Fifth time this day! Your strumming, your strumming is off!” Mrs. Brenans' English accent scolds me from behind the glass. She's pressing on a button to be heard inside the recording booth I'm in. She put the back of her hand to her forehead, as if feeling for a fever. “I have no idea what to do with you anymore, your demo CD is due next week and you can't even get one of your songs straight and going. Get your butt over here right at this moment.”

Mrs. Brenans can be very demanding for a twenty-seven year old mother of twins. Seeing her expression right now, her grey eyes squinting to give her face a scowl, I could tell that she was really aggravated.

I hop off of the stool, almost hitting my acoustic guitar on the wall. “Sorry ma'am,” I say sadly as made my way to the door separating the two rooms. “My mind's just very… it's really messed up and tired right now.” I chew on my lip as I sit down on the comfy couch, thinking of my date with Juliet on Saturday. What if I mess up? What if I gag on her shoes because of drinking too much because that can happen..? What if-

“Hello? Anyone in there?”

I look up and blink.

She sighs and sits down next to me. “I just asked you when will your brain not be messed up and tired.”

“Oh, I- I'm actually not so sure...”

“It's about her isn't it?”

That catches me off guard. I'm still not used to people knowing. In my video it sounded like Juliet's a good friend of mine to anyone, but everyone on campus knows that I have a thing for her because of that video. Dedicating a song to someone is serious business. “What are you saying? What do you mean by 'her'?” I start laughing awkwardly. If she doesn't know yet, it's best to keep it that way.

She scoffs. “Oh you know who I'm talking about, Aaron.”

Heat rises to my face, partly because of anger at Riley, and partly because of the way Juliet makes me react to things. “Yeah… her. We have this date thing on Saturday… and I just don't know, I'm very, very scared to mess anything up. It's the only thing that's been on my mind since morning.” I put my face on my hands, stretching the muscles on my face to calm down my nerves.

“Is that why you were very horrible today, despite the fact that you sounded amazing in your cover? No hard feelings about the horrible part, eh?”

“Yes, and yes.”

Well, I think that's the reason. The whole time during my recording session, all I could think about was about what's going to happen on Saturday.

“So if I lay off your back 'til Saturday, are you sure you can get your act up for next week? We'll have five days to record the demos if we start on Sunday.”

“Of course!” I jump off the couch, grinning.

“So I shan't see you until Sunday, Kennedy?” She's grinning as well, showing off her pearly whites. She loves making people happy.

“Yeah, Mrs. Bre-”

“Natalie,” she corrects me.

My grin grows even wider. “Yes, Natalie. I guess so, too.”

------------------------------------------

“Fuck you.”

Riley turns around to look at the offender, ready to punch. When he realizes that it's me, though, he just grins. “Well good afternoon, my fellow bastard. What happened during recording? Your scowl is more unattractive than usual.” He takes two trays from the pile, handing me one.

In my introduction, let's just say I may have missed some stuff about my best friend. He comes from a rich family, as so most of the people in this school. With that, he's got the temper of a three year old; call him a douche, and he'll punch you, beat you up, even. As you see, though, it doesn’t apply to me.

One of the differences Lisbourne has with the other ones is that not much take it too seriously. Yes, we take things mighty serious here, just not serious enough to beat up whoever's at the top of the talent ladder to take their place. Here at Lisbourne, we don’t mind other people's business. It’s kind of like a rule. Like how 'age doesn't matter,' is a rule, too. It's not surprising why so much people like it here.

My stomach grumbles suddenly at the smell of the caf. Others like the rules implemented the best, but for me it's the food that has me locked down.

 ”Mrs. Bren- I mean Natalie said I sounded horrible.”

“Owww.” He looks up at the lunch lady. “Do you guys happen to have steak today? I'd like a Coke with that too.”

“Nah, I didn't take it hard. I actually agreed with her because I could hear myself and I did sound pretty damn bad.” I hold out my plate and ask for barbeque and Barq's.

“Well hey, at least you were truthful,” he says, scanning the crowd for our homies.

“I was only 'truthful' because… well I don’t even know what took control of my mind then.” I really don't. In case you haven't noticed, too, I'm the very arrogant type of guy. I can be not arrogant when I want to, but times like that usually involve Juliet so…

“Juliet's taken over your brain,” he snickers, beckoning me to go to a table full of girls. He wasn’t looking for our homies moments before… he was looking for the girl he made out with two days ago.

“Ey, girls. Can I steal Rach for a moment?” He asks them, smirking. I stand there awkwardly, starting to get annoyed because my food's getting cold.

This girl laughs, and the others join in. “If you're going to ask our Rachel out to the Rivers' party this weekend, you have to ask her in front of all of us.” I laugh, too, maybe this isn’t going to be as bad to watch. Although, knowing Riley, he probably would do more than ask her in front of them.

“Everyone! Everyone listen up!” When the noise doesn’t even lower down a bit, he puts down his tray and does his signature whistle. The noise dies immediately. “That's more I like it.”

I look at Rachel, a pretty red head who was blushing like mad.

“I'm here because I have to make an announcement.” He looked at Rachel then. “Would you, the beautiful Miss Rachel Kingsley, allow me to take you to the Rivers' party this Saturday?” His eyes flicker towards the table where the Rivers twins are, and they're both giving him a thumbs up. “So what do you say? You want to party with me?”

“Well,” Rachel starts. “Only if you're prepared to party with me. Then of course I'd love to.”

Riley looks proud, and his life must be the greatest right now.

But mine? It's pretty wrecked. Hopefully things change after Saturday. Maybe.