games ▹ muke

1.6 - lesson

The next day I stood in the bathroom, fully ready but nervous to no end. I had already spent forever trying to get myself look if not perfect, then at least decent. I shaved and took a shower, styled my hair and found clean clothes, but I was still restless. I don’t know what I’d been getting so worked up over – Luke had already seen me in the most unpleasant state, and it wasn’t like I could erase yesterday. I wouldn’t do that even if I could, though – talking to him, getting to know him and spending a day with him was priceless. Even if it cost me my mum yelling at me after breakfast about those goddamn lasagna plates and unfamiliar boys in our house.

I was already on my way to the park where I was supposed to meet Luke, but the nervousness never left my body. I was tense as the string of the guitar I was going to learn to play, and I found it hard to breathe even though I wasn’t even walking that fast.

Luke sat on one of the benches around the fountain, where most of the people were. Children's laughter and squealing was spreading from the water where they played, and their mums and grandmas stood around with their belongings. I shifted my gaze to Luke again to see that he kept biting his lip and looking around. I felt bad because I imagined him doing the same thing yesterday, when I never turned up, but Luke already noticed me and waved with a grin widening across his face.

“Hey. Feeling better?” he asked, taking his guitar out of its case. I smiled timidly, thinking that the nausea in my stomach had nothing to do with yesterday’s illness, so I just nodded, and we started the lesson.

Like I thought, I was terrible.

Even though Luke was an amazing teacher and he stayed patient and friendly, never raising his voice or telling me how much I actually sucked, I just couldn’t get it right. I felt the awkward blush heating up my cheeks and kept trying to turn my face away from Luke so he wouldn’t notice, but he did.

“Michael, it’s okay. Let’s just try one more time-”

“No,” I cried out in embarrasement, not being able to handle my own stupidity, and covered my burning face. This was not how I was hoping this would go, at all.

“Oh,” Luke said in a different tone, and I saw with the corner of my eye that he looked around, at other benches and people chattering around. “I get it. We should practice somewhere else.”

I didn’t even get to say a single word when he jumped up, guitar in one hand and my shirt’s sleeve in the other. We ended up in an alley in the far corner of the park, I didn’t remember ever being here. The trees were tall and dark, and there was only one bench which back support was broken.

Luke and I sat down, and he handed me the guitar again. I sighed and put my aching fingers on the strings, bending them in an awkward way, then looked over at Luke, silently asking if I had done it right. I tried not to get lost in the shades of blue in Luke’s eyes, and I took my eyes off him with relief when he nodded, telling me to strum.

I proceeded to strum three or four different chords without messing up, and then I forgot the next one.

“No, that’s C#m, and you need to give me the Bm chord,” Luke laughed lightly as I slumped on the bench. Did I have to be so humiliatingly bad?

“Okay,” Luke said and changed his position so he was sat behind the fret of the guitar. He raised his gracious hand to the fret and carefully shifted my short ugly fingers one string up to make the right chord. I froze at the feeling of his cold fingers on mine, but Luke’s low voice soon reminded me to play the damn chord.

We kept on going like this, I would put up a chord and if it was wrong (it mostly was), he would lift his hand and fix it. The brushing of his fingers over mine soon became natural, and I didn’t really mind. I just hoped he didn't either.

“See you in school tomorrow?” Luke asked with hope as he closed the guitar case; we were through with our lesson.

“What?” I furrowed my eyebrows, confused.

“I-I mean… if you don’t want to, it’s fine-”

“Luke, no. Are you telling me you go to the same school as me?”

“Mhm,” he nodded, smile reappearing on his face. God, he was good looking… right, where was I.

“That’s… wow,” I shook my head. All this time Luke had been literally under my nose and I didn’t even notice him. This was kind of a lot to take in for me.

“Yeah,” Luke trailed off. “So, about tomorrow…”

“Of course, I’ll see you at school!” I reassured, a happy bubble appeared in my chest when I realised I didn’t have to dread school now that Luke was there.

“Great,” he smiled one last time and we parted ways, going to the wo different exits of the park. I couldn’t help but look back, though. Luke was walking away quickly, his long legs covering a bigger distance in one step than me. He pulled the hood of his jacket over his head because it didn’t let him settle the guitar on his back properly, and he tripped like three times while doing all this, but still hadn’t stopped. He hadn’t looked back either, and even despite that and the fact that our lesson wasn’t exactly the best one, I was still in a good mood. I was trying, I was learning, and Luke was here helping me. and the best part was that I could do it over and over again, that I could see him again. Wasn’t that enough for being happy?

--

ok my dear readers you have to give me some feedback i double updated

*livestream luke voice* guys i'm really trying here

right sorry i rly hope you like this and i also hope you have a good day today! :)