Beyond The Music

Chapter Seven - Mika

I called Keira once I was in my bedroom but she didn't answer so I threw my phone on my bed and went downstairs into the kitchen. I grabbed a bottle of orange juice out of the fridge and walked into the living room, turned on the TV and sat down on the couch with my legs tucked underneath me as I watched The Other Women. I've watched this movie so many times with Keira, I'm pretty sure she knows every line. I wonder why she didn't answer my phone call. I'll ask her tomorrow during school. Just as I was about to change the movie, someone knocked on the front door. I slowly got up off the couch and slowly walked to the front door and opened it. "Oh, hey Max, what are you doing here?"

"Keira's busy and so here I am," he stood there for a minute and smiled when I laughed softly.

"Of course. I'm just watching a movie so if you want to join me, that'll be fine," I opened the door further and let him pass. I closed the door behind me and walked back into the living room, Max was already on the couch. I picked up the remote, sat down and played the movie. We watched the movie in silence but every once in a while Max would look at me, smile and then return to face the TV. Once the movie was finished I turned to face Max. "Okay, why do you keep looking at me, smiling and then turning back to the TV?"

"No reason. There's something different about you but I just can't figure out what," he raised an eyebrow at me and smiled.

"There's nothing different about me so you can stop that," I got up and changed the movie to Transformers: Age of Extinction. We watched the movie in silence again but Max still wouldn't stop looking at me and then smiling so after the movie finished, I turned the TV off and faced him. He smiled again so I punched him in the arm, which made him laugh.

"Ow. Why'd you hit me?" he rubbed his arm and laughed again.

"Stop looking at me and smiling. It's getting annoying."

"How is it annoying? I'm just sitting here."

"You know how," I punched him on the arm again when he laughed. "Can I ask you a question?" he stopped laughing and looked at me with a dead serious expression.

"You want to know why I stopped talking to Lincoln, don't you?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"I overheard someone talking about how you were in the janitors' closet with Lincoln today and considering he's crazy loyal to Lily, I figured it was to get your help on something and because Keira told me at lunch today while you were in the music room," I couldn't help but smile while he stared at me for a few seconds before turning towards the T.V.

"Are you like that to Keira? Crazy loyal, I mean?" he blinked a few times in surprise while I watched him quietly.

"You knew the answer to that question before you even said it, didn't you?"

"Kinda. I mean, you've waited this long to go out with Keira, so why would you completely ruin that chance by doing something utterly stupid and unreasonable towards her."

"In some ways, I'm exactly like Lincoln," I smiled slightly when he looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds before turning to me again.

"What happened between you guys anyway?" he turned away from me and stared down at his hands.

"If I tell you this, you can't tell anyone else okay. This is just between you and me."

"I promise I won't tell anyone," he looked at me and smiled slightly but then looked away and stared at his hands again. I took his hand in mine and gave it a light squeeze with a smile.

"When Lincoln and I were younger, we were inseparable. But as we got older, Lincoln started making lots of friends and became popular while I only had you and Keira. Anyway, once we reached Elementary school, Lincoln would only talk to me once we got home, he would ignore me the entire day at school and when I asked him why, he always told me that just because I look like him doesn't mean I can socialize with him during school hours. I was so mad that I completely shut him out and it didn't even bother him because all he saw was his brother obeying his stupid rules. Lincoln eventually moved out of my room and into the spare room down the hall, he begged our mum to let him move into there because he said that when his friends come over, he doesn't want them to see his nerdy brother. He tried talking to me every once in a while but I refused to talk to him. Some days I refused to look at him, I was always in my room playing the guitar, trying to get him out of my head but instead, whenever I saw him, I got angry at him for all of the things that he's said or done because he didn't want to be embarrassed by me in front of his friends. Even on our birthday he didn't talk to me except to tell me to not talk to his friends. Once we turned 16 and had our birthday party that Lincoln organised because he said I would just mess it up, I stayed in my room the entire night playing the guitar and when he came to my room later that night, I locked the door and stayed in my room for the entire summer except when I came over here but even then he didn't care. He always treated me like I wasn't there and so eventually, I wasn't. Whenever I saw him at home or at school, I would just ignore him until he gave up, he did for a while but now he won't leave me alone at home or at school," I pulled Max into a hug and refused to let go when he tried to push me away, he gave up trying and wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me back.