"This is what she had become."
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Cleopatra Banks' last week in the small town of New Chelsea is nothing like she would have imagined it, but nothing could have prepared her for the stinging betrayal she's faced with and suddenly the prospect of...
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I spend the rest of the day with my head held high and an extra bounce in my step like I've just accomplished the greatest task on earth.
Making a detour to the nearest bathroom before my last class of the day I cut through the arts division of the school and on my way there I cross the music room. Now that I know my way around this mammoth school I know where all the short cuts are and how to get from point A to point B without showing up late all the time.
And just as I pass the music room, a sweet and almost hypnotic voice pierces through the silence in the halls practically beckoning on me to go in there. To skip class or not to skip class?
My feet and my ears easily answer that question and soon I find myself being pulled into a dimly lit room where a boy sits in a corner, playing on the piano and pouring his heart out in words so deep and profound I almost cry on the spot.
"I am a sucker for love. I gave you my time and you scoffed at me. I gave you my mind and you drove me crazy. I gave you my heart and you threw dirt on it. I gave you my soul and you corrupted it but still I could never have enough of you..."
I'm not very familiar with the lyrics so I can't sing along and I guess that's a blessing. I'd just ruin the moment and besides, nobody wants to hear me sing I'm horrible at it but this one guy, his voice is perfect.
His words come from a deep place, a place of hurt and longing. A part of me connects to his words.
"What are you doing here?" he asks and only now do I realize that he's stopped playing and singing all together and looking at me like he wants to punch me in the neck.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't mean. I mean I was going to class and then I heard and then it was just I'm so sorry," I start shaking my head, backtracking from the piano which I had drifted to but my feet become entangled in a mesh of cables from all the other instruments that I had failed to notice and I topple over, the contents of my bag spilling out in the process.
April gets up from his seat and comes over to help me up and starts picking up the spilled goods.
"Thank you. I'm so sorry I really didn't mean to intrude," I give him my apology once he hands my bag over to me with my things safely inside.
"It's cool," April says and I quickly nod my head, trying to get out of the music room as fast as I can. Maybe if I run straight to class I can still make it slightly in time, it really won't be the first time I'm five minutes late.
"Hey, you forgot your phone!" April yells from behind me and I cringe. I turn around and run walk back to him.
"Thanks," I say as I take the phone from his grasp. One of us presses a button and my screen comes to life, my wallpaper of sunflowers next to a handwritten quote You Are Sunshine looking back at me.
