You took my heart, could I please have it back?

[6] You took my heart, could I please have it back?

As I drank all this in (in like two seconds), my attention was drawn to James. He was currently talking.

"Yes, mum, I know, drinks and stuff are in the kitchen if we need anything - oh, it's you." He cut off mid sentence as he looked at me. I stood awkwardly in the doorway, nervous to come in. "Come in then, we were just about to start," he said, waving a hand at the room. Kyle came out of the cupboard holding a guitar, and sat down on a lime green armchair, resting it on his knee.

"Guitars are in those cupboards," said James, pointing at two cupboards. I walked across the room, admiring the walls, and crouched as I reached the cupboards. I located a guitar and pulled it out, standing up and looking for somewhere to sit.

James gestured at another bean bag and I nervously sat on it, strumming my guitar, making sure it was in tune. It was a lovely blue colour, and nicely polished too.

"Right!" said Landon, picking up a sheet of paper. "Let's get started!"

The way our music worked was that we had three separate tunes for the guitars, which, when merged together, formed one tune. The three tunes had to sound right together otherwise it wouldn't work.

So, while Landon practised his drum beat and modified it, James, Kyle and I sat in a small circle right next to each other, with a cool glass table in the middle, and worked on our music.

"Mm...maybe a little G there, it would fit with your chord, then I could play A minor..."

"Yeah, but then my chord would sound weird, we have to change it to something else, how about this..." Kyle strummed a little chord, while James played A minor and I played G natural. It sounded a bit off, so I said,

"The G sounds a bit weird; I think we need to change it..."

This went on for another 2 hours, before the door opened and Mrs. Black popped her head through.

"Kids! Dinner time," she said.

"Alright!" shouted Landon and sprinted out of the door. I took it he came here often, else he would have been more polite - I think. James and Kyle laughed while Mrs Black shook her head and followed. We put down our guitars and led on.

"Shot gun not next to James!" I heard voice shout. As we arrived in the kitchen, I saw four boys and a girl all sitting at the table. Three of the boys and the girl were both younger than me, the other boy was older. I noticed the boys all looked like James.

"Ah, yes, Liz - meet Jack and Luke, the twins, they're nine, Sarah, she's eleven, Charlie, he's thirteen, and Josh, he's eighteen.

"Hi," I said a little nervously. There was a chorus of greetings in return, and Mrs. Black brought out a few chairs from the next room - there were ten of us and only seven chairs, and there was no way I was seat-sharing with anyone. I sat down between James and Sarah. Opposite there was an empty chair - I wondered who it was for.

We had lasagne. It was delicious - it reminded me of the last lasagne I had eaten, before The Accident. I was silent throughout half of the meal, not saying anything, my expression blank but my eyes giving everything away - guilt, loss, pain. Luckily no one seemed to be looking at me.

I say half of the meal because halfway through, there was another greeting from the hallway and the kitchen door opened to reveal a man, about Neil's age, who looked exactly the same as James. His father, evidently.

"Michael! You're home. Come sit down," said Mrs. Black, or Sandra as she'd introduced herself. Michael sat opposite me and Sandra placed a plate of steaming lasagne in front of him.

"Hello, Landon, Kyle, and - I haven't seen you before," said Michael, raising his eyebrows at me.

"Hi, I'm Liz. I'm working with Kyle, Landon and James for the music project at school..."