Swell (Complete)

Chapter Eighteen (Part Two)

"I don't know love,
I don't know hate.
I am numb;
Wish I could find the words to say.
Asking please,
As colours fade,
I need to breathe,
Before I turn the world to grey, ohhh,
I turn the world to grey, ohhh,
But I will be better."

"I like how there's such a variety of music in the band's playlist." Will said after a few moments silence.
Adora let go of a deep breath before she let herself disconnect from her memories and opened her eyes. "Yea, we all put songs in, and we choose them for different reasons; sometimes because of a great solo, or the matchability with Rae's violin, or a crazy drumbeat."
"I know this band, Tonight Alive, I've seen them live once or twice, and they're great. Was this chosen because it could be amazing with a violin? Or for another reason?" Will was looking directly at her and she felt he already knew the answer.
A small smile crossed her lips and she looked to the music on the stand between them.
"No, this one is one of the songs that helped me survive my grief when Dad died." She answered; she felt a little tremble run through her limbs as she confessed.
"The song is pretty connective." Will nodded.
She looked into his eyes and let go of a small laughing breath. "Yea, I got pretty... depressed."
"Understandable." He simply nodded, his expression soft and supportive though she had barely said much.
"I guess some songs just always stay with you."
"They do. Liss always adored playing a song by a band called Yellowcard, because they have a violinist in the line-up. It's from one of the old Spider-Man soundtracks, it's called Gifts & Curses. There's a mad violin section in there just before a huge guitar solo. We would play it for ages at her house."
His expression became wistful and Adora bit her bottom lip. "I'll have to look for it."
Will nodded and looked back to her and gave her a grin that was almost as playful as Tom's. Adora's heart jerked and a strange fear seemed to swirl in her stomach.
"If you don't judge my voice, I can play it for you?" His cheeks were already flushed with embarrassment and the fear that had tangled in her turned to a strange thrill of excitement.
Brett always hated singing new songs to her too, Brett was actually a pretty awful singer though, so they both always laughed it off when he tried.
Was Will as bad as Brett?
"If you like. I promise I won't laugh... Can't be any worse than Brett..." She could almost feel Will's nervousness as she tried to give him the joke.
"Alright, I'll hold you to that promise." He gave her a meaningful glance and then looked to the neck of his guitar.
Adora leaned back in the school chair and let her guitar rest against her body as she raised an eyebrow and Will cleared his throat nervously.
She watched his hair fall over his forehead as he strummed the introduction and moved his body to an invisible beat in his head.
He dropped the strums and began plucking as he quietly started singing.
Adora put a hand to her mouth as she smiled.
He wasn't as bad as Brett, he wasn't anywhere near as bad as Brett.
The strumming came back for the chorus and his voice grew louder to be heard over the stronger sound.
The lyrics were definitely for the movie; the female's name was mentioned as the first word.
The rest of the words though, had no less meaning than other songs.
When the second verse started, Adora dropped her hand from her mouth and started to lean closer as his voice dropped again. There was more strength in his chorus, but much more tone in his voice when he sang the verses.
She didn't know if it was part of the original song, but there was a crack in his voice, a low kind of husk, and after the second chorus, he started picking the strings slower.
"Ok, so this is the violin solo... Ready?" He looked up at her slightly and grinned.
She smiled back and lifted her hands towards him in a gesture that showed she was paying apt attention.
He looked back down and cleared his throat again before he started to hum the notes over his picking.
Her lips parted in surprise and she watched his body sway and rock to the silent beat.
She hadn't expected him to hum the solo, she had been expecting him to play a solo transposed for the guitar.
The notes were sad and captivating, even hummed by someone who was losing their volume whenever higher notes came.
The notes got faster after a few bars and struggling to keep his breathing quiet, Will opened his mouth and stopped humming, replacing is with syllables of 'da's.
It was almost a minute later before he broke into a guitar solo and his body really came alive.
She let out a short and soft laugh as he took a deep breath with the first slides in the solo and leaned back into her chair.
"I think I need to Youtube that and ask why Rae hasn't given it to us yet." She said when he finished and tried to push his hair back off his face.
He grinned sheepishly at her. "I'm surprised her and Kurt haven't made you guys put half of Yellowcard's discography on your playing."
"Actually, so am I, I don't know if I've ever even heard of them before now." Adora frowned and tried to remember if she had.
"Anyway, let's get back to our solos, wouldn't want to let Brett down." Will licked his lips and stared back at the music on the stand before him.
"No, couldn't do that to him. Though, we'd definitely be able to outrun him at the moment." Adora wasn't sure where the joke had come from, but she heard herself laughing at it anyway.
It wasn't really funny at all what had happened to Brett, but the image of him trying to chase after them in plaster cast legs flooded her mind and for the first time since her date with Tom she felt no underlying awkwardness or fear.

_________
You all expected him to sound like a rock god didn't you!?
I was tempted...