A View of Silence

"Yo!" Suki shouted in the hypersensitive ears of a former musician, who nowadays lazed around school, and has fallen asleep on his desk. Class was long over, and a small puddle of drool accumulated beneath his lips. Shinji jumped up in surprise, his head colliding with Suki's jaw.

The two took a moment process their pain, trembling in an awkward silence.

"Why? Why would you do something so idiotic?" Shinji asked while facing a wall, disoriented from the collision. Suki spun him around to face her.

"Well why'd ya have to go and stand up so fast? Who has the energy to do that after waking up from a nap?" Suki retorted, poking below Shinji's ribcage.

Shinji jumped again, grabbing Suki's wrist. "Have you no regard for personal space?"

"Shiiiinji," she grinned, ignoring him.

"Wipe that grin off your face, I know you so well I can hear it," he let her go, trying to plan for an escape route. Suki was going to make him try and do something, he heard it in the way the pitch of her voice fluctuated.

"Aw, that's no fair, you're not supposed to be able to see me."

"I don't need to see you physically to see you. Whatever you have in mind, the answer is no," he sighed and turned back to his desk, searching for his cane.

"You haven't got the slightest clue as to what I'm about to say!" she shifted her weight onto one leg, putting her hand on her right hip.

"Don't need to know what it is to know it's bad," Shinji mumbled, starting to walk away, a series of rhythmic taps guiding him to the door.

"Hold it, are you telling me you could pass up an opportunity to hear your lord and savior, your hero of heroes, the God of classical music, Camille Saint-Saëns?" she melodramatically fainted.

Shinji put a hand to his face and inhaled deeply, "One: Hardly a God. Two: How does a dimwit like you even know who Saint-Saëns is? Three: Romantic era, not classical. Four: A strings specialist, he hardly ever wrote for piano. Five: Stop trying to involve me in musical things. You're being a pain. Six: Goodbye."

"Wait wait wait wait wait!" Suki ran after Shinji and pulled his arm, nearly causing him to fall.

"Christ, Suki, do you really wanna kill me?"

"Oh just shut up and listen to me!" she panted, and waited a moment to catch her breath. "There's a new transfer student in one of my classes. Her name is Amane. Look!" Suki pulled out a flyer from her back pocket and held it up to Shinji's face.

Shinji, trying to keep his composure, furrowed his brows. "Are you trying to show me something?" the tension in his voice rising.

"Ack! Sorry!" Suki cleared her throat. "Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor. The Ongaku Symphony conducted by some Rostra...Rostropo—"

"Rostropovich?" Shinji inquired, exasperated.

"Yeah! Him! And featuring a cellist named Amane. I think it's the same girl! Isn't this a big deal? We should go support her! It's at Symphony Hall on Friday."

Shinji paused.

"Three. Two. One. I didn't hear a no! It's settled then." Suki bounced up and down in joy.

Shinji always walked around with headphones in. Especially in noisy places filled with lots of people. It hurt his head to focus on every person's voice, every sound, every color. Thus, he avoided going out in public unnecessarily.