Same Old Song

by Brenda Dorantes

  She looks at me shocked and yells back, "I can walk home, Aidan! GO!"

  Fuck, this woman is stubborn. "If you don't get in I'm afraid I'm going to have to drag you here! So, you either can walk here yourself or I'll have to carry you."

  "No, Aidan!" she snaps, walking faster.

  I sigh, stopping the car in the middle of the road, ignoring all the other drivers who honk at me and insult me.

  "You asked for it," I said, getting out of the car. I run to Kathy, spin her around and pull her over my shoulder.

  "What are you doing, Aidan? Let me down!" She yells, hitting me on the back with her fists. "I can walk home!"

  "Not on my watch, young lady," I said, opening the passenger seat.

  I carefully drop her inside and buckle her up. I run to the driver's seat and take off before she has a chance to run off again. Now we're both soaking wet and freezing in the car when we didn’t have to be. The rain doesn't seem to slow down, it's impossible to drive in this weather.

  "I think we're going to park in a gas station and wait until it settles down."

  I pull over at the nearest gas station and turn on the heater on full power, along with the heat in the seats.

  "Luckily the seats are leather or else I would've made you pay for new ones," I said, ignoring her glare. I lock the door just in case she decides to get smart again. "I think I have a blanket in the back." I reach in the back seat and give it to her.

  "This is totally unnecessary, Aidan," she mutters under her breath and yanked the blanket from me.

  "Trust me, Kathy, it's totally necessary. After the rain settles down I'm giving you a ride home, so you might as well get comfortable," I reply, lying back on my seat and closing my eyes.

  "And what if I don't want you to give me a ride?" She said, sarcastically.

  I grinned to myself. "Then I just kidnapped you."

  Chapter Five

  Aidan

  We've been sitting in my car for about twenty minutes in silence. I zone out for about five minutes, only to be brought back by the loud thunder that rattles the car. Kathy doesn’t say much after a while, maybe she fell asleep or she's still upset I dragged her here, but I wouldn't want her to get sick because of her stubbornness. I would rather have her be mad at me in the car where I know she will not catch hyperthermia than outside in the rain at some bus stops.

  I turn on the volume on the radio higher when the silence becomes painfully boring, letting the piano notes fill in the space of the car. I look over at Kathy, who looks out through the windshield with a thoughtful look on her face.

  "You're okay?" I ask.

  "Yeah, I'm great." All signs of anger or sarcasm are gone and now she looks distracted. She takes in a deep breath and gets comfortable on her seat, propping her feet on the dashboard. "Can I ask you something?"

  "Yeah," I said, sitting up.

  "What was the moment you knew you wanted to play for a living?" She asked with all seriousness in the world.

  I haven't thought about it for a long time. How could I ever forget that moment? That was the best night of my entire life.

  "The moment," I said thoughtfully, going back to that childhood memory. "I was ten at the time and I've been playing for four years and it was my first performance. It was around the holiday season. Picture this: kids singing Christmas carols, making snowman's, watching the Nightmare Before Christmas and decorating a Christmas tree while in the living room of his house a kid played piano for hours without a rest, trying to nail the songs for a recital that would only last an hour. I remember that while my brother made his Christmas list, I was playing and playing and playing until my fingers felt sore."

  I look over at Kathy who looks back with a smile across her face. She’s laid back and even with her soaked hair all over the place, she still managed to look beautiful.

  I continue with my story.

  "I remember feeling sick to my stomach before the performance. My head was spinning, my body was shaking, my hands were sweating and I felt like at any moment I would puke on the crowd."

  "Stage fright?" She asked with amusement.

  "No, it was more nervousness than a fright, but to a whole new level. Anyway, I felt nervous until the moment I started playing, I was gone. I played the piano like never before. I was lost in the music, in my own little world, this safe haven I created until it was over. The crowd stood up, clapped, cheered, my ears were buzzing with the noise. I remember the feeling I had in my chest, it filled with pride and excitement. I looked through the crowd for my family and when I saw my mother, she was crying, my father was calling out my name and for the first time ever Alex was proud of calling me his brother. That day I vowed to never stop playing until the day I die and if I died playing, I would die a happy man. That day I knew what I wanted to do."

  Kathy sits back in silence for a couple of minutes until she finally said, "That's beautiful." She looks back at the windshield and after a short pause, she says, "My dad had this giant bookshelf when he was alive. It was so big it took over the space of an entire wall. I remember the smell, almost like caramel. I remember he used to say he would fill that bookshelf with amazing adventures and love stories for when technology took over, the future generations of our family would know how it feels to hold a book and not be stuck on a phone or a computer. After he died I took it upon myself to complete that task and take really good care of it."

  "Where is it now?" I ask.

  "Back in Oceanside where my mom lives. Once I'm done with college and I get my own place here, I'm bringing it. How? I have no idea, but I am." She pulls her hair in a messy bun and takes the blanket off. "I think it's getting better," she said, looking out the window.

  Unfortunately, she’s right. Outside looks clear enough for me to drive us back to the dorms, and as much as I hate it, we need to be back before nine when they close the doors.

  "Buckle up," I said, sitting up and turning on the engine. It's hot inside the car so I turn the heater off and roll the windows down.

  Kathy lets her hand out the window, feeling the humid air as we drove back to the dorm. The few loose hairs from her bun fly around, hitting her on her blushed cheeks. She turns the radio higher and the next songs take her off guard.

  "John Legend?" She asked.

  I shrug without taking my eyes off the road. "Someone can be romantic sometimes, you know?"

  She laughs.

  "Hm, do you have Mikky Ekko? I'm a huge Ekko fan," she points out.

  "Depends." I grin at her for a second before going back on the road. "What's your favorite song?"

  She snorts. "That's impossible."

  "Okay, then what song would the lovely lady like to listen to?" I hand her my phone unlocked.

  She scrolls down my playlist for a couple minutes reading each song title I have on my library. I hear her chuckle to herself as she scrolled further down.

  "Damn, a bit of a classic obsessed, are you?"

  "A little," I admit. "I like to consider myself a classic aficionado."

  She finally picks a song. Time by Mikky Ekko starts to play. I like the small part the guitar plays in this song. This is one of the first songs I learned how to play from him. I start humming the lyrics while tapping my fingers on the steering wheel with the rhythm of the guitar. I take a quick glance at Kathy who is lying back on her seat with her eyes closed and a small grin on her lips.

  "Do you know how to play guitar?" She asked without opening her eyes.

  "Yes, I do." It doesn’t surprise me anymore that I knew how to play more than one instrument, I’ve always wanted to learn more.

  Kathy chuckles and says, "Of course you do. Is there anything you're bad at?"

  "Not quite sure," I said, parking in front of her building. "Well, we're here. Now, get inside and take a hot shower before you catch a cold or something."

  Kathy sits up. "Okay. Well, thank you for the totally unnecessary ride."

  There she goes, again. I roll my eyes and say, "You're welcom
e for the totally necessary ride."

  Kathy waves goodbye before getting out of the car. I wait until I watch her disappear inside the building before heading back to my dorm. I'm almost an hour late and I fear what's expecting me back at the dorm. If Alex is still awake, he's going to ask and ask and ask if Kathy and I hooked up. Matthew is going to give me that weird look he gives Alex every time he comes in late after a date with Leila. I know those two like the back of my hand.

  I'm relieved to see the room dark and deserted when I walk in. After a long, warm shower I lay in bed, looking at the ceiling surrounded by silence. The only light in the room is coming from the window that illuminates the ceiling. Slowly as the darkness took over the dorm, my eyes began to close and my fingers slowly stopped tapping to the rhythm of Kathy’s lullaby.

  "Wake up!" Alex busts in the room and jumps on the bed on top of me, knocking all the air out of me.

  "What the...?" I gasp, Alex jumps off me and I roll off the bed. "What the hell, Alex?" I sit up, rubbing my stomach.

  Matthew walks in with that stupid look he gives Alex and I immediately know what's going on.

  "Nothing happened," I said, trying to stand up.

  "Don't give me that 'nothing happened' shit," Alex said and sits down on my bed. "You were gone for two hours."

  I roll my eyes. "Alex, it wasn't even an hour. Nothing happened. Kathy wanted to walk home, but it was pouring so I made her wait in the car until the rain stopped."

  "And? Something happened because Kathy wasn't smiling like an idiot for nothing," Alex points out.

  "She's not an idiot," I snap.

  Matthew speaks, "He said she was smiling like an idiot, you idiot. We were with the girls when she walked in with her cheeks blushed, her hair a mess, her clothes loose and a smile across her small face."

  Smiling like an idiot? She doesn't smile like an idiot.

  "Look, we just sat in the car talking and listening to music." I lay back on the bed. "That's all. Now, I'm going to sleep because I have class tomorrow." I kick Alex off my bed and pull the covers over my head.

  * * *

  After class is over I head to the rehearsal room for practice. Mr. Garner isn’t here today, but he usually leaves his classroom open for me to practice. I practiced for about an hour when the door suddenly opened. I turn quickly to the clock, making sure time hasn’t run by me again, but it’s only three in the afternoon. I look over the door and the sight of Kathy standing there takes me aback. I have the itching feeling in my hands to take off my glasses, clean them and make sure it is actually her standing at the door and not a hallucination.

  "Hey," I said, pushing away from the piano.

  "Hey. I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said, looking around the classroom. "Alex said I’d probably find you here."

  "Not at all. What's up?" I ask. It’s not common for someone to come looking for me in the rehearsal room.

  She points to the piano. "Did you write that?”

  "You were listening?" I ask, surprised. How long has she been here then? Her cheeks turn a deeper shade of red when she nods. "Come here." I scoot down the bench and offer her the open spot next to me. She drops her backpack next to mine and takes a seat, her eyes marvel at the sight of the piano keys.

  I started playing the lullaby all over again, this time with her as my audience. As I play, I feel the notes crawling over my skin like ants to my chest. It’s a powerful feeling that takes over my body, almost like the music itself wraps around me like a rush of wind. I'm soon lost in the music and it's just me stuck in my little world. When I'm finished Kathy claps with a huge smile across her face.

  "That's beautiful," she said. "You're really good."

  "Thanks."

  She looks at the clock and back at me.

  "We want to go to the beach, do you want to come?" She asked. "It's only the girls, your brother and Matthew," she adds when my face contorts at the thought. I'm not much of a beach fan, I've been there so often it really doesn't surprise me anymore. "Come on, it'll be fun."

  I bite my lower lip, debating whether or not it’s a good idea to leave. I really need to practice for the audition, it's something I have to nail in order to get it. Time at the beach is time I could be practicing going to waste. But Kathy has these cute puppy eyes that make it impossible for me to say no to her.

  I sigh. "Only a couple of hours, I need to practice."

  Kathy cheers, throwing her arms in the air and jumps to her feet.

  "As long as you're coming, I don’t care." She offered me her hand and waited for me to take it with a smile. This is the most exciting I've ever seen her.

  "What are you so excited about?" I ask, taking her hand. Her contact is soft and comforting. I take my backpack with the free one and close the classroom behind us. "You've been to the beach before, right?"

  Kathy shakes her head.

  "Nope, I always wanted to go, but I've never had the chance. It's really weird since I lived near it, but I never visited it." She takes her hand away from mine, only to wrap it around herself again. A gesture she does really often. "Why are you always practicing? I mean, Alex and Matthew say you spend hours in there, then hours practicing in your dorm."

  I hide my hands in my pockets and say, "I'm practicing for the Annual Orchestra Foundation. It's an audition, those who get in will go to Chicago to perform in front of five hundred people, maybe more and the money gathered will be to give those schools who can't afford instruments for their students. The exciting part is that some great musicians and talent seekers go to this performance, and if they see what they see, they give us an opportunity to travel around the world, being known, earning millions. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime."

  Kathy stops walking and checks her watch. "When is the audition?" She asked without taking her eyes off her watch.

  "In a week," I answered. "Why?"

  "What time does the building close?" She asked, ignoring my question.

  I look at my watch. It's only three, the building doesn't close in another few hours. I tell her what time it closes and she gets her phone out.

  "What are you doing?" I ask.

  "Texting Jessie," she said, typing at full speed. "There." She puts her phone back in her pocket and starts walking in the opposite direction we're heading. "Come on," she said, walking back to the rehearsal room.

  "What are you doing?" I asked, following her.

  "I told Jessie we're not going." She walks us back to the rehearsal room and nods at the door. "Now, Mr. Beethoven, let's practice for your audition."

  Chapter Six

  Aidan

  The following days after classes were over, Kathy and I spent hours at the rehearsal room practicing. She would sit next to me and listen to me as I played, sometimes do her classwork or just read. I’m used to being on my own, especially when it dealt with music, and somehow her presence made me feel more at ease. I had to cancel two Wednesdays at Poppy's Café for practice. Mr. Manuel didn't mind, he knew why I had to do it.

  The days went by and Kathy and I became closer. We had lunch together and after rehearsal we would sit on the bench next to the entrance of the building, talking for hours until it was time to go back to our dorms. Kathy looked more comfortable and less shy around me, the more time we spent together. More bossy, too. She would tell me when it was time for a short break, when it was time to start all over and when we had to leave. Sometimes as I practiced, she would sit back with a book in her hands and read. I asked her if it was boring to be here and she said that the reason why she read while I played was that it was the best background music to read to. I can't understand how she can read and listen to me at the same time.

  The more time we spent together, the more comfortable we were with each other. We would just sit and listen to the music fills in the room. I felt like it wasn't my little world anymore, it was our little world together. A world of music and literature. It was the perfect love story.

  Alex and Matthew would start te
asing once I got home after making sure Kathy made it to her dorm safely. Alex would pretend to be sad, saying I preferred Kathy than him, which is true. Kathy and I have agreed that we are never going to one of their little parties again. We would go out to dinner with them, hang out anywhere they wanted, but never to those parties.

  Today we are two days away from the audition. God, I am so nervous. It'll be held here in school, where there will be six judges - Mr. and Mrs. Garner included -, and it would last approximately two hours or more. It depends on how many show up to audition. I’ve worked myself to exhaustion for this audition and I can’t tell what will be of my sanity if I don’t get it. But I have to, there is no way I won’t.

  After rehearsal, Kathy and I walk around the park before heading home.

  "Are you nervous about the audition?" She asked as we walked down the little path.

  "Yeah," I admit. "This is a big deal. I could get my whole career started if this works out."

  "If? You mean, when it works out," she replied.

  I smile and look down at my feet. I’m not sure if the faith she has in me inspires or scares me, but it’s a mixture of both. We continued to walk in silence down the path until she asked, "What do you think is going to happen after this? School is almost over, I guess everyone is going to part their own ways."

  That was the thing I was most afraid of. We're all seniors and graduation is almost around the corner. Alex and Matthew are in the talks for contracts to work for the state's football team and I have no idea what the girls are going to do, but I'm sure they have plans of their own. I already have a backup plan that isn’t very appealing in case the audition doesn’t work out. Kathy is the only one that hasn't talked about what she's planning to do after this.

  "I don't know," I answered.

  After a short moment of silence I turn to see her. Her hair is a thick curtain covering her face. I don't like that. I stop walking and take her by the elbow. She looked at me confused, her lips are pressed in a fine line and her eyebrows raise, almost touching her hairline. I raise my hand and carefully pull her hair away from her face.