Mosaic Broken Hearts-A Ross Lynch Story

Something New Every Day

Ross's POV:

Her laugh echoed through the speaker in the phone. I found myself smiling like crazy, almost unable to contain laughter myself.

I had just been telling her about my day, which included playing a game during a very interesting interview with the band. I was telling her about a joke that Rocky had made that had us all cracking up for two minutes straight.

It had been a few days since I had last talked to her on the phone about the press situation. The band and I had been so busy lately, I hadn't had a spare minute to pick up the phone to call her and see how she was doing until now. The whole situation seemed to be a little bit better, but I wasn't naive enough to think that it wasn't a problem anymore.

We tried not to dwell on it too much, though, and tried to make the conversation more lighthearted and more focused on us.

"Okay, okay," she eventually grew serious. "So..." it sounded like there was a question in her voice. "What is it about music? About performing?"

The question caught me off guard, and I found myself not even knowing where to begin to answer. When I didn't answer immediately, she elaborated. "I mean, I've seen you up on stage, Ross. I've seen what the music does to you...how it effects you...it's amazing."

"Yeah," I felt a smile spread across my face and my cheeks burned. "It's something intangible-the feeling that comes with being on stage every night, doing what you love with those you love. It's absolutely incredible and...almost impossible to put into words..." I found myself struggling to convey to her what I meant and what I was trying to say.

"It's okay," she replied, "I think I get it."

I shifted in my bunk and propped myself up on my elbow and looked out the window at the dark of night lit by just a few lampposts on the street we were parked on. My mind began to drift other places, wondering what city we're in, how far away from home we are, and knowing, with every passing day, I was getting further away from Nikki.

I snapped out of my thoughts, remembering I was on the phone. "So what about you?"

I could hear the smile in her voice. "What about me?" She repeated the question.

"You know...your passions. You know that I love music and performing. What do you love? What do you want to do after high school?"

She took a breath before beginning. "Well, I love kids. But I don't know what I want to do. I'm not sure that it really matters, though, as long as my job involves working with them."

I nodded, loving the fact that she loves kids. I do too.

"But first," she added, "I'm focused on going to college and graduating."

"Where do you want to go to school?" I inquired, realizing I had no idea.

"Well, I applied to UC Berkley, Harvey Mudd, Stanford, NYU, and Dartmouth."

My mind quickly processed the schools she just listed, thinking back to every conversation i've ever had with anybody about college. I'd never even thought about college since I was so focused on the band. I'd never even gone to a normal high school. But still, I was in the loop enough to know the rigor of those schools.

"What?" Was what I finally answered after a minute. I was so caught off guard.

"What?" she giggled.

"You didn't tell me you're a genius." I replied, still incredulous.

"I'm not a gen-," she tried, but I cut her off.