The Ice Cream Pact

Chapter Four

Thankfully, Jake already had some music playing when I got in the car. I didn't expect anything less- we both hated silence.

"Morning, sunshine," he mused when I shut my door, and I buckled my seatbelt as he drove us off.

"Hey," I greeted him back, and I could tell that he immediately picked up on my slightly shaken demeanor, which had me rolling my eyes. Was I really that bad at hiding it?? I mean, the nightmare I had last night had been worse than my usual ones, but I'd also definitely had even worse ones before.

"What's up?" He asked, and I sighed.

"Nothing, just the typical shit," I replied, staring out the window.

"Pro tip, if you keep your default expression at a scowl, then people don't really notice when you're having a bad day," he told me, and I leaned my head back against the headrest.

"There's no one who'd care to notice, Jake," I reminded him lightheartedly. "It'll be fine."

When we got to school and I made my way to the auditorium for music class, I continued to try and suppress my subtle shaking. I only had music first one day a cycle, and that just so happened to be today. Fantastic.

Lucas wasn't there yet, so I just sat down on the piano bench and casually plucked out a few tones, closing my eyes and focusing in on the sounds echoing around me. I found that the piano was the instrument that always could slow my mind and calm me down no matter what.

I found my fingers starting to shift from playing single notes to full chords, and then single melodies to harmonies. My mind sort of flowed through my fingers and onto the piano, the song slow and calm. I lost track of time a little bit as I continued creating the musical soundscape.

"Did you write that?" I heard a voice ask when the melody slowed back down to a stop again, and I pulled my hands quickly from the piano, snapping my attention behind me to where Lucas sat cross-legged only 10 yards away, looking up at me. I swallowed the lump in my throat that had immediately formed.

"How long have you been there?" I asked, still a bit startled.

"A little while, sorry if I scared you," he chuckled, and I turned around again before he could see my face reddening.

"You didn't, it's okay," I replied, standing up, "and yeah, I was just sort of playing around. I lost track of time, my bad," I awkwardly laughed it off and almost flinched when he appeared next to me, siting down on the bench where I had just been.

I took a few moments to take in his features as he was looking down at the keys. His dark hair curled slightly over his forehead, bringing out the deep brown color of his eyes. His outfit had a similar color scheme to the dark one he wore yesterday, which was a good choice considering he wore it so damn well.

"Can you teach me that song, cielo?" He looked back up at me, and I fought the blush trying to singe my cheeks. The last word, though I didn't know what it meant, rolled off his tongue a little too beautifully for him to be a normal human being.

"Cielo?" I asked and drew my brows together, not having ever taken Spanish.

"It means sky," he smiled at my cluelessness, "I like giving people nicknames and that's what your eyes look like, so, you're cielo," he explained, and if I had been repressing a blush before, there was no way I was doing so now. It practically felt as though I was boiling alive from the inside out. "Can you?" He asked again, and I snapped back to reality.