The Arsonist (Warren Peace)

Chapter Thirteen

I rounded the side of the house and lifted myself to the second story window tapping on it to get Will’s attention. I giggled as I saw him jump from the abrupt noise in the silence he unlocked the window sliding it open and moved to the side allowing me to slip into his room dragging in my guitar case after me. I sat on the edge of his bed grabbing the guitar, “first things first.” I closed his laptop, “don’t listen to that tutorial it was probably wrong.” he chuckled and  I strummed a couple chords absentmindedly, “okay we’re staying up all night that way you can learn a basic song to impress Layla and you can ask her to homecoming.” I made eye contact with him for the first time and he brushed a hand across my cheek, “have you been crying?” there was an undertone of worry and it made me smile, “it’s nothing I promise I’ll be okay I swear.” he looked at me, “fine I found out Warren has a girlfriend and I know we’re not together and he had no clue he’s my mate but it hurt to hear him say I love you to someone else.” I teared up again groaning.

I leaned into his embrace, “you should tell him soon.” I shook my head, “he seems pretty happy in his relationship. I don’t want to destroy that I'm not a homewrecker.” I sniffled and pushed Will away, “okay I’m gonna try to teach you to play ‘Perfect by Ed Sheeran’ it’s an easier song for beginners.” I handed him the guitar and grabbed mine. His eyes widened at the design, “woah.” I smiled at him, “yeah it took a little while to do but it looks good doesn’t it?” he nodded. I placed my fingers into place, “first chord is a G chord.” I strummed the chord and he watched my fingers placing them properly and repeating it, “perfect.” I strummed the beat and he followed, “then it changes to an Em.” I shifted my fingers playing it he again repeated what I did, “now the hard part is keeping the rhythm hand playing while switching chords but with how fast you’re catching on that shouldn’t be too much of a problem for you though.” I played the intro slowly and he studied my hands movements every second of it, “okay now you try.” he messed up a couple of times but for a beginner it was definitely better than what I had sounded like when I first started playing.

I yawned rubbing my eyes, “wow we’ve been at this for a couple hours.” he hummed, “okay play what you’ve learned so far.” it was painful to keep my eyes open at this point but I wanted to finish teaching him the song so he could impress Layla. He played ¾ of the song and I clapped “okay now we just need to finish the outro and we’ll be finished.” I yawned halfway through the sentence, “are you sure we ca-” I shook my head cutting him off, “no I want you to learn this I’ll be fine.” I played the outro slowly and he watched my movements repeating them. We played the song together slowly and he only messed up once or twice and I clapped once we finished, “that was amazing Will you’ll be a pro in no time.” I yawned and set down my guitar, “now we can rest.” he crawled under the sheets next to me, “I’m so glad I met you.” I cracked my eyes open, “don’t get sappy on me now Stronghold.” he chuckled, “I’m serious I have no idea what I’d do without you.” I smirked and placed my head onto his chest, “probably crash and burn but for now sleep sounds good.” he turned off the lamp and my eyes slid shut reliving a bit of the pain from keeping them opening for so long.

I jolted awake covered in a cold sweat. I wiped my face and looked over at Will who was still sleeping. I sat up quietly and glanced at the clock quietly groaning when I realized I had barely slept over an hour. I looked over at his guitar and stared at the plain wooden looking design and smiled to myself as I thought of something that might make Layla smile more than Will whooing her. I grabbed a sharpie off of Will’s desk and started to decorate. I knew I should have waited and gotten his approval first but I wanted to surprise him too, especially how he reacted to my design earlier. I chose flowers since Layla had powers over plants and nature was just beautiful in general I noticed a pack of unopened colored sharpies and I grabbed them starting to color in the outline I created. I heard Will groan as his alarm clock to let out shrill shrieks alerting him to wake up.

I grinned, “good morning sleeping beauty.” he frowned at me, “how long have you been up?” I shrugged, “not long.” that was a lie and he obviously caught onto it but didn’t say anything, “you ready to whoo Layla?” his smile grinned and I closed the cap of the sharpie, “I added a little pizazz to it.” I lifted the guitar and his eyes widened, “holy crap this is amazing.” his eyes narrowed, “you obviously didn’t sleep very long this must have taken hours.” I yawned, “ehh only about four or five hours it’s nothing compared to how long it took for my guitar.” he zipped it in the case, “are you gonna be at school today?” I sighed, “Principal Powers told me to take the week off but I need to keep my mind preoccupied especially now that I know about Warren’s relationship or I am gonna break and I can’t go down that road again.” he nodded, “I think my mom had something that might fit you hold on.” he left the room returning a moment later holding a shirt and a pair of pants, “these should fit pretty well.” I headed into the bathroom quickly changing and I ran a hand through my hair taming it a little bit.