Star-Crossed Love: A Story of I'm Sorry's and I Love You's

Chapter 2: Alex

3 years after the disaster of a break-up.....

"Okay, now, crescendo! Lots of crescendo!" I exclaim on the podium as the teacher watches my conducting. The rest of my class pretends to oblige as I conduct them to the tempo that my teacher had given.

After another two minutes of conducting, the teacher stops the tape and looks at me with his ever stoic face and gray eyes.

"Excellent. You have passed your text, except for the ten-page essay you still have to turn into me. That will be the other half of your final for this class. But other than that, you are dismissed Alex," the teacher announces as he hands me the assessment sheet and I smile excitedly.

"Thank you, sir. I hope to be just as good a music teacher as you are someday," I reply, looking at my sheet with hope filling my chest as my professor clears his throat.

"Yes, just have fun moving back to your hometown for the Pierce Orchestra. You'll be a great percussionist for them," my professor pats me on the back, cracking a genuine smile as he does so. I could practically hear the rest of my classmate's gasp as he does, seeing as our professor almost never shows emotion other than serious.

"I will try my best, sir," I grab my things from off of my desk and hustle out of the classroom, excitement rushing through my veins as I race down the halls back to my dorm room to finish packing.

"Woah!" A girl suddenly exclaims as I run headlong into her and papers go flying everywhere.

"Oh! I'm so sorry," I apologize while bending down to pick up some of the papers that had been strewn everywhere in our collision. The girl looks at me with a soft smile on her face as I pick up the papers and then hand them to her.

"You must be Alex," she states with a spark in her eyes that told me she knew me the way everyone else did, "The kid who is supposed to be the prodigy of the music department." I hesitantly nod in response before taking my final assessment paper and shoving it into a folder. Looking back at the girl, I realize that she was pretty cute. She had deep red hair with ice blue eyes and freckles covering almost every inch of her face. She had the cute girl next door vibe that radiated off of her in waves.

"Um, yeah, well, I gotta—" I'm about to excuse myself when she interrupts me.

"Do you wanna go out for coffee sometime?" She asks me hopefully, her ice blue eyes lighting up. I'm about to say yes when I glance down at the end of the hall and see the poster for the Pierce Orchestra hanging up next to the Music Theory classroom. The Pierce Orchestra that I would be moving back home to be apart of in three days.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I'm moving back home in three days and have a lot of packing to do before then," I answer resignedly, feeling a bit awkward standing there as her face falls slightly and the spark in her eye dampens.

"Oh, okay, I understand. Have fun with your packing," the girl walks around and past me without saying goodbye and I look down at the ground for a second with guilt.

Why couldn't I have just said yes? I probably had time to go on at least one date with her. Even if I wasn't coming back for another three months, I could've gone on a date with her just to see what would happen. So why did I say no?

"Hey! Alex!" I hear someone suddenly shout my name so I look up from the floor as I walk. I spot my roommate Chaz racing down the hallway toward me.

"What's up Chaz?" I ask as he begins to slow his run and stops at my side.

"Your parents are here to help you pack, man," Chaz answers as he pats my shoulder and then heads past me and back down the hallway.

"Thanks for the heads up, Chaz. I'm gonna miss you while I move back home for the Orchestra," I reply with a smile on my face as Chaz turns and salutes me with a smile of his own.

"I'll miss you too, bro," Chaz responds with a chuckle before turning around and heading back in the other direction to wherever he was going.

I turn back around and continue walking toward my dorm room, taking a deep breath to prepare myself for my parents.

"Oh! There he is!" My Mom exclaims as I open the door to my dorm room and get rushed into a hug. My breath escapes me as both of my parents squeeze me into a death grip of a hug. 

"Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. I'm finished packing and ready to head out whenever you guys are ready," I wheeze my best greeting before my parents finally release me from the hug and I gasp for air. 

"Are you excited to move back home for a while and see everyone again?" My Mom asks as  I stack some boxes and prepare to take them out to the car. 

"See who, Mom? Everyone else is in college too," I reply as I double check underneath of my bed for anything. I feel my Mom watching me as I try to dodge what she was letting on.

"What about all of your underclassmen friends that you knew three years ago?" My Mom asks gently as I stand up again and feel her hand set on my shoulder softly. I turn to look at her, feeling my Dad's eyes on us as he picks up a couple boxes. I take a deep breath and let it out in a sigh, memories of my senior year in high school flashing through my head. A certain face replaying, again and again, her brilliant green eyes causing my heart to race a little. 

"Mom, after how I acted at the end of my senior year, none of them will ever speak to me again. I broke her heart and made so many mistakes," I whisper, glancing at the floor in shame of those three months where I wasn't myself at all. 

"Honey, you've grown so much since that time. And I think it'll be best for you if you go back and make peace with her. Because I do recall, she was the one who wouldn't stop believing in you when everyone else did," My Mom tips my chin to look into her eyes and she smiles at me softly, cupping the side of my face with one hand and squeezing my shoulder with the other.

"I'm probably not going to see her. She probably doesn't ever want to see my face again. Which is totally understandable. Looking back on the things I said to her, I hurt her a lot," flashbacks play against the backs of my eyes like a horror movie on loop and I shudder at who I used to be. 

"If you don't, then that's fine. But if you do, then you'll know if you want to or not. How old would she and the rest of them be now? Seniors?" My Mom asks as she turns and picks up a box and I grab the last one from off of the desk I used in this dorm room.

"Yeah, they're starting their senior year right now," I reply as I replay what my Mom had just said in my head and something strikes me, "And what do you mean I'll know?" My Mom sighs and looks at me with a soft smile on her face as she glances back at me and heads down the hall.

"I mean you'll know when you see her, honey. That sweet girl used to light up your world. That kind of feeling doesn't go away very easily," she answers mysteriously as a memory of her laughing and twirling around the cafetorium in front of me, her smile lighting up the whole room as a song played. My heart aches a little as her eyes connect with mine in the memory and my heart skips a beat. 

"Do you want me to take that, son?" My Dad suddenly asks, pulling me from the memory. And that's when I realize that I was losing my grip on the box I was carrying. 

"Um, yeah, sure," I mumble as I brush off my hands and try to shake myself from the memory. But the shimmer in her eyes kept nagging at me. 

I shake my head slightly and pick up to a jog to catch up with my parents who were out of the building and halfway across the parking lot already. I glance back at my dorm room which had served as a sanctuary and fresh start for me. My heart aches a little at the fact that I had to say goodbye to it now that I had finished with my summer semester and was graduating early. But then I look back at my parents who had everything loaded up into the car and I can't help but smile. 

Maybe things will be better back home this time around.