The Pianist

O n e

"Seal Lullaby, one of my favorites," I broke our silence. "You know this piece?" I nodded.

Careful to keep my new floral dress I had chosen for the first day smoothed down, I joined him on the bench.

I could hear him playing, and my fingers found each of the keys, and after I had finished my gaze melded into his.

Alec's mouth hung slightly open, clearly in shock. I looked down and began to move away but he place a hand on my shoulder, "You're very good, how long have you been playing?"

"I started teaching myself this summer, I'm not very good at reading music yet but, if I can hear it, I can play it."

He nodded, and I pushed off the bench, the small space suddenly too claustrophobic. I latched onto a folder that had my name printed on it, and the bell rang.

"See you later, Alec," I excused myself from the room.

I walked down the hallway, music and water bottle in hand. My face still held a tinge of red from our encounter, and I walked into Chemistry just before the bell dinged, signaling that students coming in late were marked tarde.

"Ms. Johnson, can you please explain where convection cells occur?" My Alec-induced fog cleared and I answered quickly, "In the mantle," he nodded his approval and continued on with the lesson.

Instead of paying attention to the review, my mind wandered to playing. I could nearly feel the smooth, white and black keys beneath my finger tips, and I couldn't help but hum the melody from earlier.

***

At the end of 6th period I was relieved to go back to the band room. I pulled two small oranges and a yogurt from my lunch bag and sat down on a chair.

It was only the first day of school and I felt safer in the music suite. Though I was 5'7" the towering senior guys made me feel like an ant running underneath a giant, trying to avoid get smashed.

I finished my lunch and filled my water bottle, drinking about half and then setting it back down. I had barely even noticed the couple at the back of the room. Completely obvious to me, they had their arms and legs tangled around eachother.

My eyes widened and I hurried off to the practice room, shut the door and flicked the light on. I inwardly groaned as I saw who my company was.

You guessed it. Alec. He was sitting in the back of the confined space, a small book lamp clamped to a novel he had delved into. I squeaked out a "sorry" and twisted the handle.

The lock didn't turn. I tried twisting it the other way, but it was clearly stuck in place. I had almost forgotten that most of the doors locked from the outside, and Alec suddenly gazed up to glance at my problem.

His eyes went wide and then flickered to my own. Alec Miklos was locked in a small, confined space. With me.

I pulled out my phone to text Mia or Tara, but I had no signal. "I need to get higher to see if I can text someone," he nodded and bent down near a chair so I could climb up on his shoulders.

As I neared the top of the small room, he had been trying to reach for his water and suddenly we crashed into each other. I landed on his chest, clearly knocking all of the breath out of him.

His green eyes glimmering and melting into my dark brown ones.

"Ehm," the door clicked open a Michelle stood there, hand on hip, looking expectantly at Alec. I moved off of him, but my eyes never left hers as I walked out the door.

Her smirk signified her triumph, and I inwardly rolled my eyes. My feet barely made a sound as I crept back into the music room, and I let out a sigh of relief as I noticed the couple had finished their scene and left.

On the board near the door there was a small sign up sheet for the musical orchestra. There were two spots for French Horn and I signed my name under the first slot. Michelle and Alec came out from the practice room, her thousand-watt smile adding to my annoyance.

"Alec, can you drive me home please?" His eyes met my hopeful ones. "Don't you have your own car, Michelle?" "Yeah, but it's in the shop, please Alec?"

"Okay, sure," a frown forming on his face. I was sure he was just as confused as I was about our encounter in the practice room.

I sat down at the piano, running my fingers over the keys. I opened my binder and started "Seal Lullaby." I could still hear Alec's playing in my mind. How clearly he accented each note with quiet confidence.

Alec played with emotion, he felt the notes, rather than just going through the process. He flowed through the notes and rhythms like he wrote them himself.

Alec Miklos was the most confusing thing that had ever happened to me.

I think I'd rather be confused with him than sane with any other person.

First Chapter, hope you liked it :)