Piano Girl ❊ {Paul Lahote}

Chapter Six PART TWO - Etude Op.10 No.4 - Chopin

❊Violet❊

PART TWO

I flew down the 1st floor hall to the music room. The day had gone from good to worse. First I had been reminded of Jared's situation, and along with Jacob being a sentient raincloud and a less than stellar result on a math assignment, I had ended up with a range of emotions that I just needed to get out of my system.

I burst into the music room to find that it was thankfully empty. I made my way to the old piano that was always a bit out of tune but would do for my purposes. I tossed my bag beside it, sat down on the creaky bench, and spread my fingers out on the keys.

I jumped into the first piece I could think of. Etude Op.10 No.4 sprang from the instrument. It was a difficult, fast, aggressive piece, full of dissonance and atonal sounds. It was exactly what I needed to get out of my system.

The piece was over quickly, and I had to go drive the others home anyways. As I finished, a voice piped up from behind me, causing me to almost jump off of the bench. "That didn't sound that great."

I whipped around, only to see Paul Lahote walking towards me from the entrance to the room. Once again a smirk was on his face, but it had been so long since I had seen it that it was almost a relief. "I thought you were a good piano player." He said, coming to stand beside the bench.

I smiled up at him, although it was a bit forced. While the piece had helped, I still wasn't feeling great. "First of all, it's pianist." He rolled his eyes and mouthed "oh" before looking back at me. "Secondly, this piece isn't really written to be appealing to the ears. Plus this piano is out of tune." His smirk shifted to a grin. "Excuses, excuses." It was my turn to roll my eyes. I got up off the bench, picking up my bag as I went, and made my way towards the door, Paul trailing behind.

"So what are you even doing here?" I asked him as I opened the door and walked into the hallway, Lahote falling into step beside me. "Well," He began to reply, a snarky tone already in his voice. "I was walking out to the parking lot when I heard possibly the most horrendous piano playing I had ever heard. So, I go to see what on Earth could be making that noise, low and behold I see my project partner whacking away..." He trailed off as I started laughing, chuckling himself. I bumped into his shoulder in a friendly fashion, and he returned the gesture.

As we exited the building into the parking lot I spotted my group waiting by my car, so I began to make my way over. As we walked, I decided to ask about earlier. "So, are you feeling better? I mean in English..." He glanced at me, then looked away. "Yeah, I thought about-"

Suddenly he stopped speaking and walking. I walked a few steps in front of him before realizing what had happened. I walked back to him, a bit concerned. "What's going on?" He was frozen, staring into the distance. He was also insanely hot. I mean, I could feel the heat radiating off of him. What was going on?

I followed his gaze, and immediately understood. Across the small parking lot stood Jared Cameron, with Sam Uley.

Sam Uley was a few years older than us, and was known as kind of a "self-identified protector" in the community. Now, though, with Jared by his side, both of them shirtless, with their hair cut short and with identical tattoos, it almost looked like he was trying to start some sort of gang. And they were staring down Paul.

"Hey..maybe we should get out of here..." I turned to Paul, only to find he wasn't there. In fact, he was storming across the parking lot to confront the pair. I groaned, rolling my eyes and jogging after him.

Obviously Paul got there first, and he was already up in Sam Uley's face when I got there. He had clearly said something already, as Jared reached out to put a hand on Paul's shoulder. "Listen, it's not what you think." Jared spoke as Paul continued staring Sam down. "Sam is helping me. You'll understand soon enough." Jared's words caused me to frown with concern.

Paul grabbed Jared's arm and threw it off of him, before going to shove Sam backwards. I gave a shout and moved forwards, but Sam merely deflected the force and pushed Paul back from him. I ran to Paul, worried that this would turn into a fight.

"Hey, why don't we leave this alone alright?" I suggested, my voice betraying my nerves by shaking slightly. "Come on Paul, let's go, we've got to study.."

I turned to the Lahote boy, only to find that he was literally shaking. The heat radiating off of him was almost unbearable from where I was standing. His eyes were full of a type of fury I hadn't seen in him before, and they were directed at the two in front of him.

"Paul..?" I spoke softly, and despite my instincts I placed a hand on his shoulder. This seemed to snap him out of whatever kind of state he was in. He stood up straight, shaking his head but not looking at me. "Sorry," He said, (this shocked me as I had not heard him apologize before, to anyone) "I don't think I can make it to the session, I'm really not feeling well."

My mouth fell open as he stumbled away, not even towards his bike but towards the woods. I made to go after him but was stopped by Sam Uley, who held out an arm. "You get back home. We'll deal with this." That got me angry. "And what exactly do you mean by that? What are you planning on doing with him? Why can't I help my friend?"

Sam glanced to Jared, then nodded to me before taking off into the woods. "What the hell, Sam Uley!?" I shouted after him. Jared spoke to me quickly. "It's all going to be ok. Just trust me, Sam's a good guy. He'll make sure nothing happens to Paul." I looked into Jared's eyes as he spoke, and it looked like he was being honest...or at least he believed he was. Unfortunately, it looked like I didn't have a choice. Jared obviously wasn't going to let me go after the two guys.

I nodded solemnly and turned, making my way back to the car, where the others had walked a bit closer from. As I reached the group and they started asking questions about what had occurred, I looked over my shoulder again.

Jared Cameron was gone again. The parking lot was empty.

A good day had turned into a worse day indeed.

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I wrote this originally as one big chapter, but it became too long, so I decided to split it into two parts. I was planning on uploading yesterday, but unfortunately we had a huge power outage at our residence. 

Hope you all enjoyed the two part chapter!