After they had done the dishes and had a quick shower each, the two friends sat on Jonny’s bed with their guitars playing classics but also creating their own material.
“Let’s do it again, but you join in where we said, alright?” Chris told his band mate. He was ecstatic, for Jonny had come up with a great riff for the song he had written a few days ago. “Ready Jay?”
The guitarist nodded.
“One, two, three,” Chris counted and they started. Their fingers moved in synch, eliciting mellow notes, creating a lovely melody together. Chris was still astounded at the process, he did not know how it happened, but he had not met another person who could connect at such a creative level with him, someone who could understand him and follow him in the way Jonny did.
By the end of their session, they had successfully composed a new song. They were absolutely keen about it and could not wait to show it to the other half of their band after the Christmas break.
“Brilliant!” Chris grinned, scribbling the last notes on the notebook where he kept records of their ideas, songs and everything related to their band.
With a big yawn, Jonny placed his guitar on its place, took off his trousers and shuffled to the bed, maneuvering himself around Chris, who still sat cross-legged on the mattress, and slipping under the duvet.
Comfortable and warm, he gazed at his friend as he performed an acoustic version of “Last Christmas” and finished his impromptu festive set with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.
“We’re having a great party here, aren’t we Jon?” he chuckled when he finished in an attempt to hide the gloom that had presently invaded him upon pondering the lyrics to those songs.
“Yeah, like the one you told that girl at the supermarket we were having,” Jonny retorted.
A small regretful smile tugged on his lips, “That was a pathetic attempt at getting myself a date,” he explained and placed his guitar on the floor by the bed.
“Well, it could have been worse,” Jon said.
“How?” he snorted.
His friend shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“Ah, I should focus on what I’m actually good at, like making music and being a twat cause flirting is definitely not my thing.”
“Ah come on, it’s not that bad,” Jonny told him in a light tone, trying to cheer him up.
Nobody likes me Jon! I’m just too much of a geek! He wanted to shout in frustration, but he knew Jonny wanted to make him feel better and he did not want to disappoint him.
Still, he couldn’t shake off those feelings of inadequacy that crept in whenever he thought of his dating history and recent love life. It was a string of awkward dates, crushes on people who did not even know he existed and lots of unrequited feelings. What a loser! He was not the sporty type like Will, or strikingly handsome like Guy or amazingly intelligent like Jon. He was a bit of a nerd, sometimes over confident and sometimes extremely self-effacing. Music was his main passion and language; he could not see himself doing anything else like working 9 to 5 at some boring office. To make matters worse, he had an idealised vision of love not many of his peers at college shared at this time of their lives. Most of them saw college as a way of unleashing themselves from their parents’ firm grip, of being carefree and wild, but for him freedom came in another form. Writing, playing his guitar or keyboard, making music with his friends. Unlike many of his classmates, he never really felt comfortable at parties; he didn’t drink or smoke or was great at pub games.
