Until July *COMPLETED*

Chapter III

A few days passed by...

Some of the nights, sleep would have come with ease. While other nights, choked sobs would have sounded in a desperate call for sleep to come. In a desperate call to make her feel nothing for the few hours of sleep that she could get.

It was during nights like this that Briella would have cried herself to sleep very late in the night.

The ringing of her alarm would have woken her up. Like most mornings, Briella would have found her eyes all swollen form all the tears from the previous night or earlier that morning.

Following the same exact routine each and every day, she got herself ready before she headed off to school.

Within the next half an hour, just like every morning, she managed to get to school and had fifteen minutes to spare.

All classes began at 9 in the morning, sharp. A small break followed at 11:00 AM prior to lunch, which rolled out at 1:15 PM.

1:15 PM. The bells rang, dismissing all the students for their final break of the day. Briella rushed through the hallway and down to where Nadia, Liam and herself would have pretty much resided during breaks and lunches. But she furrowed her brows when neither Liam nor Nadia were to be seen...

She waited for a few more minutes and when she saw that they still haven't shown up, she began her search for them. She visited the classes in which some of the clubs would be held during lunch. Clubs in which she expected to find both Liam and Nadia. She hoped to find them, and if she was to be lucky enough, they might both be in the same room.

Visiting almost all the clubs, she couldn't find them. But before she ended her hunt, she dropped by the music room.

She didn't have high hopes, but for the sake of her search, she looked into the room. Just as she expected. Empty.

She was just about to turn around and leave when something within her strongly debated against it. She couldn't help but give the room another glance.

Something was calling out to her...

It took her a moment to see what it was. The piano.

Involuntarily, that one look at the piano ignited memories upon memories to come back to her. Memories of her childhood...

Before she knew it, she found herself sitting behind the piano.

She missed this beauty of an instrument way too much. Briella hitched a breath. "I cannot believe that Dylan hated you..." she spoke softly as if the piano could hear her. 'Piano?' his words bounced in and around her head, 'It's such a pessimistic instrument. That's why I hate it...'. It was when her hands land on the cold key-case that she shook herself back to reality.

Then, with a deep breath, she uncovered what made the piano such a beautiful instrument. Its keys.

Lifting up the key-case, it uncovered tiles upon tiles, both black and white, stretched across the piano.

Simply by placing her fingers on the cold keys, even more memories came back to her. She remembered how her mother used to teach the piano for a bit in the beginning before her family hired a piano teacher for her.

But as fast as all the joyous memories came, the fact that she didn't play the instrument for a good few months demolished the happiness like a wrecking ball.

'Don't think... just play to your heart's content...' she remembered her teacher's words. When she was younger, she has a fear that something like this would happen. She had the fear that one day she would forget how to play the piano.

'Unless you deliberately give up on the piano for a good few years, your passion to play the piano will never let you forget how to play it...'. Again, her mind recited what was said to her all those years ago.

She swallowed whatever was in her mouth.

All she did was pressed down one key and already she could have felt her heart flutter. The feeling took her back to when she felt that joy of finally being able to play on her own.

She closed her eyes before pressing down another key, it caused another sound to be emitted from the piano. But despite how the sound was different, it only intensified what Briella felt.

It was then, as if her hands had a mind of their own, that they began to move to their own accord. Her fingers pressed the keys, as the notes that were produced blended into that familiar, beautiful song that she used to play very often.

Her hands and fingers continued doing their thing all while Briella allowed the music that she was producing to calm all her senses.

In what seemed like only a second later, Briella pressed her final few keys before completing the song. It wasn't to the quality of how she used to play it, but regardless of that, it was still very enjoyable.

And it wasn't only her that enjoyed it... Someone else was by the door.

She turned towards the doorframe, but by the time she looked, they were gone.

With a sigh, she closed the case over the keys and for the minutes that followed, Briella gazed admiringly at the piano. "Looks like I didn't forget how to play you, after all, old friend...".

Suddenly, a frown formed on her lips. "I'm sorry, Piano..." Briella began softly. "I am sorry, for I have abandoned you for a boy...". This was one of the reasons - if not the only one - of why she felt glad that Dylan broke up with her...

Broke up with her...

'Broke up with me...' Briella repeated the phrase in her head. Her gaze rose from the ground and back to the piano.

Then, her eyes widened.

"M-maybe I can write a song!".