Scar. (A One Direction Fanfic)

Chapter Six- The Song and the Scent.

"Oh, come on. It's E sharp major, not minor! The flats and sharps look nothing alike! No- yes! Like that! Wait, no stop. You have to do it like this," Sandy moves his fingers along the neck of his bass and poises his fingers along the F sharp major note. He strums the instrument, making a low hum rumble throughout the room. I focus on the small details of his fingers and copy them with mine, on my bass. I strum it and a similar rumble fills the room. Sandy smiles and nods approvingly. "Okay, now let's hear you play What Makes You Beautiful." Sandy points at me and I take a deep breath. I'd been practicing this song for the entire day. 10 hours of straight lessons.

I hear the cues in the song start and my foot starts tapping to the tempo. G- strum, D-strum, A-strum strum strum, E- strum. I think out the notes as I play. It's probably 16 lines of the same notes, but it proved to be a difficulty. Especially with the changes in sharps and flats of the pre-chorus, post- chorus, bridge, and final-chorus. Sorry if it sounds confusing, the only reason I know this shit is because I've been playing the guitar since I was 6.

Somewhere between the bridge and final-chorus, Paul had come in carrying two plates. One holding two glasses of, what I think is, lemonade and the other holding two ham and cheese sandwiches. I feel the room get hotter, or maybe it's the pressure of Paul watching me, but I let loose a bit when I see Paul smile and give Sandy a thumbs up after setting the plates down. I strum the last E and wait for the echoes to clear out. I sigh proudly when I hear the two of them clapping.

"Sounded great! Sandy has taught you well. Have you learned just the one?" Paul holds out the glasses of lemonade to Sandy and I. We gladly take the glasses and Sandy chugs down half the glass in less than ten seconds.

"Yeah. I think the hardest part was the fact that I'd never heard that song. I wasn't sure how the rhythm went so that was the major problem. Sandy said they'd be singing most of the same songs so I wouldn't have to learn too many melodies, but tonight I'll listen to the album and tomorrow I might be able to take two songs." I smile at Paul and I see Sandy nod. I smile and take a nice, long sip of my lemonade. I smile and take the sandwich from Paul, who then starts chatting with Sandy.

I finish the snack and go back to my bass, running back a few lines of the song just to make sure I wouldn't stumble. I feel a hand on my shoulder and twirl around, expecting to see Sandy scolding my for playing without him. But instead there's a timid, brown eyed boy holding up a few papers, smiling down at me. "Hello Liam." I smile.

"Hey. Paul told me to ask you the questions now. I tried telling him to wait until tomorrow but he said that he didn't want it to interfere with your practice. So I guess now is as good a time as ever. According to Paul, anyway." He sighs and grabs the two chairs Sandy and Paul were previously sitting in. Woah. The hell did they go?

We both take a chair and Liam rumbles through the papers."Oh! Here's page one."

Liam: Full name?

Me: Ariel De Varona.

Liam: When and where were you born?

Me: San Diego, California. August 16, 1994.

Liam: What College did you go to?

Me: I'm currently in the University of Southern California.

Liam: Home phone? Cell phone?

Me: Just cell... (323) 589- 6789

Liam: Preference name?

Me: Ariel.

Liam: Emergency contact?

Me: Paola Barnes. (311) 365-4246