Watching for Comets

Thursday

Jason told me to meet him at the music building after class. I felt awkward and out of place sitting by myself on the sculptural benches, but at least no one recognized me in this part of campus. My eyes were immediately drawn to him as he emerged from the crowd. When I spotted the violin case on his back, my heart jumped with excitement. I had to resist the urge to reach for him as soon as he approached. Then I caught myself and wondered why I felt the need to do that.

He eagerly accepted my outstretched hand.

"I missed you," I said.

"I missed you, too." He jerked a nod at the building beside us. "Follow me."

I did, without question. Once inside the building, he seemed not entirely sure where he was going. When we ended up at the dance studio, I wondered whether or not that was on purpose.

He kicked off his shoes and left them by the door with his jacket. Recalling the first year orientation session I had in this room in which we had been instructed to do the same, I followed suit, though I wasn't sure I needed to remove my socks as well. Jason went up to the sound system and started fiddling around with the buttons, but it soon became obvious he was struggling to find what he wanted.

"Let me take a look," I offered, coming up behind him. It couldn't be too different than the equipment we had at the bar. Within a few minutes, I managed to find the right cord to hook up to his phone.

"Perfect, thanks," he said, sounding impressed.

I shrugged. "It's not rocket science." I wasn't sure my joke would go over well, but thankfully, he smirked and I could relax. He cycled through the music program on his phone before landing on a song. Then he set down the violin case and took out his instrument.

"Do you know Lindsey Stirling?" he asked as he stepped back towards the center of the room.

"I've seen her videos, yeah," I replied. Was he about to grant me a performance with that sort of beauty? I had no doubts he was capable of such a thing.

"I'm not trained in ballet, but..." He trailed off as he lifted the bow to the violin strings. A soft, alluring smile decorated his face. I sat in the corner to watch. As the song broke into the first stanza over the sound system, I called out, "Disney again?"

He laughed. "Don't pretend you don't like it!"

I wouldn't. Resting my chin against my knees, I watched the music glide over him. As he joined in with his own violin accompaniment, the notes smoothly melded into those coming from the speakers. As the bow danced across the strings, his whole body followed the motions. Soon he was pouring across the floor. Mulan's lyrics about finding her true self weighed more heavily in my ears than they had in the past.

I'd never been that interested in dance – either the party or performance version – but I'd never seen it done the way he was engaged in it. The movements of his body became fluid, seemingly melting in with the music. He turned about the room in ways that were more like gymnastics, or swimming – or even flying. It was like watching a song come alive before my very eyes – but not necessarily the song we were listening to. A song from inside him, that was written in movements and expressions instead of chords and words.

As the piece Disney had composed came to an end, Jason skipped over to me and dropped to the floor, sliding over. He kept his eyes locked on mine as he pulled the bow across the violin strings one last time. His smile had never faded.

"That was beautiful," I told him, my voice coming out a whisper. "Why don't you perform like that in any of your music videos?"

He cocked his head to the side, like he had never thought of that before. Resting the violin in his lap, he gripped his knees. "That feels too personal."