I'd Rather Be in Love than Dead

Chapter Eleven

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered and he smiled, handing me the piano music once more.

“Then help me out. Give it a go and tell me what you think.” I gaped at him.

“You aren’t serious.”

“I am.” I gasped again as I sat on the bench and he stood aside to watch as I set the music up in front of me and began to play.

I felt my entire body loosen up as my fingers danced across the keyboard, making me realize for the first time that I was tense at all. I smiled to myself as I felt the familiar sensation of my foot hitting the damper petal on time and the tips of my fingers hitting the black at white keys. When I’d finished, John clapped excitedly and shook his head. “Is there anything else you’re hiding from me?” He asked playfully as he sat beside me to idly play the gorgeous instrument. I laughed and hugged to him.

“Not that I can think of,” I said, feeling at peace despite everything I was going through.

That’s the affect John has on me.

***

Garrett's Perspective:

“X’s or O’s?” Kennedy asked, earning a quiet groan from me.

“Do we have to play this game?” I asked, rubbing my eyes tiredly. I looked down at the nine sections of the Tic Tac Toe board that separated me from a very serious looking Kenny.

“Yes. Now pick one,” He said and I groaned again. “Pick,” He repeated. I coughed slightly and shrugged.

“All right, O’s.”

“DAMMIT!”

“Okay, okay! X’s…” I said, triggering a cheer from Kennedy. He drew a circle in the middle section and gestured for me to go. I yawned and ‘X-ed’ a random part of the board, causing him to grin as he blocked me from my move. I sniffed and drew another X somewhere (I had no idea where. I was too freaking dizzy to see anything straight) and then nodded to Kenny who blocked me once again as I lay my head back on the couch that we sat in front of. I massaged my neck around where my throat would be and shut my eyes, wishing I would just pass out to avoid having to continue playing this game.

“Dude,” I heard Kenny say and I sat up straight, my eyes shooting open. I’d almost fallen asleep right then and there. I raised my eyebrows. “If you’re that tired, go to bed.” I looked toward the hall that lead to the stairs and sighed, deciding it was too long of a walk, even if I felt extremely lightheaded anytime I would sit or stand up for any amount of time longer than about 0.1 seconds. I drew an X in one of the sections, allowing Kenny to get three O’s in a row. He, of course, gloated (who the f**k gloats about Tic Tac Toe?) and I frowned.

“Okay, you win, can we be done now?” I asked, crawling onto the couch and lying down. He shrugged and got up, leaving all of the Tic Tac Toe stuff in the middle of the floor.  Who gives a damn? I thought as I lay there after Kenny went upstairs. Alone at last.

“She needs her family at a time like this, not some boy who just holds her and tells her everything is okay when it’s not!”

“He’s trying to help! If she needed her family, don’t you think she’d go to her family?”

“No, Chasity never asks for help if she isn’t positive she needs it! She’s a strong girl and needs to be around people equally strong who know why such things bother her!”

“So John is weak and doesn’t understand her?”

I opened my eyes, finding that I’d actually been asleep. That was, until someone decided it’d be funny to bother the person that owned this house they’d been staying in, who just so happened to be feeling f**king terrible. I massaged my sore throat again and watched as Jacki and Pat stomped in, yelling back and forth at the top of their lungs.