5SOS BSM

You Ask Him To Teach You How To Play His Instrument (Michael)

Michael (15)

     It was the middle of the summer, and you and your brother were sitting in the living room, brains slowly cooking together. The apartment's AC was working it's hardest, but it wasn't enough to combat the insane heat at the summer's peak. You'd given up on sitting in your room by yourself because your bedroom was on the second floor, and, if there's one thing you'll always have drilled in your head from school, it's that warm air rises. Michael had offered for the two of you to watch a movie together instead of suffering alone, but your attention was quickly elsewhere. 

     You'd tweeted about how unbearable it was inside at least three times already, and you were currently just scrolling through your replies and mentions. You'd honestly never expected your Twitter account to blow up. You'd always been content with your few hundred followers, but, after Micheal had name dropped your username, a lot of his fans had decided to follow you. Of course you had to deal with the occasional hateful comment, but you'd long learned to simply ignore them. It's not like any of the people who said rude things towards you actually knew you in person. That being said, this one particular comment was bothering you.

     I bet you Y/N is as talentless as her stupid brother. See, it was one thing to insult you, but insulting your brother? No. You could deal with people spewing pointless hate towards you, but why would they go after your brother? Sure, he was the one in the public eye, but that didn't matter to you. For some weird reason, you really wanted to prove them wrong. Good thing there was a relatively easy way to do that.

     "Hey, Michael?" You ask, setting your phone down on the couch beside you.

     "Yeah?"

     "Can you do something for me?"

     "Depends on what that something is. I love you, Y/N, but I don't feel like going to jail for you."

     You roll your eyes. "It's not illegal."

     "I'm listening."

      "Can you teach me a song on guitar?"

     Michael looks away from the TV screen in front of you both with a questioning look on his face. "You want me to teach you a song?"

     "Yeah."

     "Why?"

     You shrug, "There's not much else to do today, and it's too hot for much else."

     "I literally offered to drive us to get ice cream, but you're the one who said it was too hot to even function. Now you want me to teach you music?"

     "Uh, no? I already know how to read music. I play keyboard, remember?"

     "Can you read chords?"

     "What kind of question is that? Chords are part of the basics of keyboard. Do you think I'm stupid?"

     "I'm just trying to make sure you don't have any ulterior motives."

     "Okay, maybe I am trying to prove this one hate comment I saw. So what?"

     "What hate comment?"

     "Someone said I was just as talentless as you are."

     Michael raises an eyebrow. "So your way of proving them wrong is by playing my instrument?" 

     "Yes?"

     He sighs but lifts himself up from the couch. "Okay sure, but only because this movie is boring as s*it."

     You pout, "You're not doing it because you want to help your little sister prove the haters wrong?"

     Michael smirks, "Who said that wasn't part of it?"

     The room that Micheal uses as his makeshift studio happens to have the best ventilation in the entire apartment, so it just so happens to be a win in more ways than one. "Were you wanting to do something acoustic or electric?" He asks as you close the door to the room behind you.

     "Acoustic is fine."

     "Okay then." He grabs his favorite acoustic guitar off its place on the wall. "I should probably tune this first. It's been a little while since I've played this one." He grabs a small box machine that you assume is a tuner and turns it on, strumming each string and adjusting it accordingly before putting the tuner back on his desk. "I'll start you off with something easy, just let me think of a song for a second." He strums a few random chords as he thinks. "Beside You would probably be good to start with. If I can remember how to play it that is." He focuses on his playing more as he starts trying to work his way through the song.

     "How could you forget how to play your own song?" 

     "It's been a while, okay?" He manages to make it through the song after repeated trial and error. "Okay, I think I got it."

     "You think?"

     "Shut up," He grumbles, waving a hand to get you to step closer. He has you sit down on the stool in front of his computer desk and places the guitar in your lap. "Okay, so, the first chord is a G." He maneuvers your fingers around to the correct placement on the strings. "Just a heads up, this is going to hurt for a while until your fingers develop calluses." He coaxes a pick into your other hand. "Try strumming."

     You do as he says on for the guitar to let out a muted sound of the pick brushing across the strings instead of the actual chord. "I don't think I did that right."

     Michael smiles, "Yeah, no. You have to press your fingers down harder on the strings, and don't be so forceful with the pick." You press down as hard as you can, ignoring how painful it is for your fingers, and try strumming again. The guitar responds accordingly and a full G chord rings out. "That was good!" He says. "Do it a couple more times to get used to it." You follow his instructions again, playing the chord three more times with similar results. "The next chord is a C." He shows you where to put your fingers. "Try this one." 

     You spend the next three hours slowly making your way through the song with Michael's help. It will probably still take a few days before you're ready to give it a spin on your own, even longer before you're ready to video and post it, but you were confident you would get there eventually. Your haters were in for a massive surprise. 

AN: Wow, I really can't believe this book has over ten thousand reads. That's crazy! Thank you guys so much for reading and supporting this book. Much love!