The Duet

Chapter Eighteen

“Kat, what happened to your cheek?”

I let out a sigh before I started to explain to Mr. Elliot how I supposedly ran into a door because I forgot it was not open. I know it sounded extremely made up but you wouldn’t believe how many people believed it.

“You should be more careful.” He chuckled.

“Yeah yeah.” I muttered as I made my way to my usual seat.

Class was now in session and Mr. Elliot was explaining the requirements of our duets. At one point during his explanation I tuned him out as I started doodling on my notebook. Multiple sketches of roses and pandas filled my page.

“Cute panda.” A raspy voice whispered.

I jumped a bit in surprised because I was too lost in my doodles. I looked over at Austin who had an amused look on his face as he scanned my drawings.

“Didn’t know you were obsessed with pandas.”

“I’m not.” I whispered back. “They’re just so cute.”

“No they’re not. They’re fat and ugly.” Austin insulted.

I was going to argue back but there was no point. I turned away from him and continued shading in the rose I was sketching earlier before Austin scared me. Even though I my eyes were on my paper, I could feel Austin’s stare at my hand as I shaded in my rose. For some reason, I grew self-conscious and my heart picked up its pace once again.

“You’re a great drawer you know?” Austin commented.

“Not really.” I said honestly as I closed my notebook. “My dad was an amazing drawer though. I always loved watching him bring his art to life on a paper.”

“Okay class,” Mr. Elliot spoke loudly so everyone’s attention was on him. “I can tell that’ I’ve been talking too much so I’m going to shut up now.”

A group in the back began cheering and applauding which caused everyone in the room to break into laughter, including Mr. Elliot.

“You and your partner can spend the rest of the period planning your duets.” Mr. Elliot instructed. “But let me remind you that starting next week, we will be going back to theory and starting to learn more about music history. That means this is your only week for you and your partner to plan out everything. After this week, you will have to work outside of class. Understood?”

The class grunted in agreement and went off with their duet partners. Austin and I stayed at our seat, still trying to choose a song to sing. But let me tell you, it’s harder than it seemed. We’ve been going back and forth, spitting out song titles we could choose from for the past 2 days. And we continued to do this until the lunch bell rang.

“You know we need to agree on a song ASAP” Austin said as we walked down the hallway.

“I know. I just…” I paused. “I just want to choose the right song.”

He nodded in agreement. We parted ways to go to our lockers to retrieve our stuff for the afternoon. I squeezed my way through the groups of people who were crowding the locker hallway. As I came closer to my locker, I saw a figure leaning against it. It looked like he was waiting for someone; waiting for me. From where I was I couldn’t make out the person, so I slowly went closer, hoping the figure could not see me. When I was close enough to see who the person was, I froze in my place.

It was Miguel.

 Anxiety and Anger swirled in the pit of my stomach but that didn’t stop me from approaching my locker and asking him why he was here.