you, me and music (the only escape)

chapter 6

I was never really good at working together with other people, but Alex and I really had a connection. Talking to him felt so real, his voice was so deep and so beautiful. I didn't have feelings for him, I just thought he was a beautiful person.

When I arrived at school on tuesday, I saw him smoking a cigarette on the parking lot. He was standing alone, so I just walked over to say hi.

"Hi, how are you?", I said as I walked over to him.

"Amanda!", he cheered, "I'm okay, you?"

"Okay.", I instantly noticed how he responded with 'okay' and we both know what that response means, so that kind of bothered me.

"I was thinking we could maybe work on our chemistry project today after school?"

"Yeah, sure, you can come home with me after school if you want to."

"Awesome.", he smiled at me with the cigarette between his teeth.

"Okay, I'll see you then", I smiled back.

"See ya.", he threw his cigarette away and went to class.

...

I opened the front door and let Alex in.

"So this my house and this is my mom"

My mom smiled and Alex introduced himself and my mom said that he could just call her Mary instead of Mrs. Springs. So he did.

We went upstairs and as we entered my bedroom Alex went straight to my photo wall of bands.

"Wow, this is so cool! And you can play the guitar?", he pointed at my guitar. I got my guitar when I was 12 for Christmas and it was my favourite thing in the world. Until now, it was always my only friend.

"Play something for me.", it was more a demand than a question.

"Uh, okay", I tried to think of a song to play but suddenly every single song dissapeared from my mind.

So I just played Wonderwall.

Because it was the first song I learned, back when I was 12 and it was always one of my favourite songs.

I didn't like singing for other people but Alex was so enthousiastic about it that I didn't mind.

"That was absolutely amazing, Amanda, your voice is, just, wow.", he stuttered of amazement.

"Thank you so much", a little shy smile appeared on my face.

"I'm serious, you should become a singer."

"Yeah, it's a dream. But it's not gonna happen."

"Are you kidding me, come on, Amanda, you would win Grammy's and awards and everything", he sounded so sincere I thought he was joking.

"Okay, if you say so", I said knowing it would never happen.

He raised his eyebrows at me saying he would never admit.

"Let's work on the project", I said to change the subject.

"Can we do it there?", Alex pointed at the roof on the outside of my window.

"Ofcourse", I was glad he asked it.

...

We finished the biggest part of our project faster than I expected. The other part we had to do the next day in class.

So we just sat on the roof.

Alex lit up a cigarette. "Want one?"

"I don't smoke."

After what seemed like a decade I broke the silence.

"What kind of music do you like?"

Alex didn't seem shocked or anything with the question.

He said he liked The 1975 and I said I liked Arctic Monkeys. He said he liked All Time Low and I said I liked Fall Out Boy. He said he liked Blink-182 and I said I liked Two Door Cinema Club. He said he liked 5 Seconds Of Summer and I said I liked You Me At Six. He said he liked Bastille and I said I liked The Neighbourhood.

It just went on and on and on and on.

I said his music taste was beyond amazing and he said he absolutely loved mine.

We talked about music and watched the sunset and Alex smoked cigarettes.

It was the first time in years that I felt alive.

It was just me and him, and nothing else mattered.