PART 1 — WHISTLE REGISTER
THE ONE THING THAT CHRIS couldn't figure out was why Levi was so nervous. He'd already told her that he didn't mind meeting Mackenzie and Matt, but he knew she didn't really believe him. Levi was too sweet to allow someone's feelings to be hurt, so she always tried to prevent it if she could.
When Chris picked her up she had a Harry Potter book in her hands, which made him smile. She gave him a small grin before she quickly booted up the GPS system on her phone.
"So, is everything okay?" he asked after a while.
"Yea," Levi replied, pretending to be deeply into her book, but she had actually been reading the same paragraph for ten minutes.
"Hey," Chris said. "I told you not to worry about introducing me to Mackenzie."
"Oh no, it's not that." Levi closed the book with a sigh. "I've just been thinking about something."
"What is it?"
"I'm worried about how long it's gonna take for the media to find us outside together and spew out a shitload of exaggerated garbage."
"Levi, that's not something you should worry about tonight," Chris said. "We're going to your best friend's house to have dinner and relax. That's what you should be focused on."
"Mmm-hmm," she said, leaning her head on the car window. "Okay."
There was another period of silence until Chris suddenly smiled, an idea in his head. "You mind if I play some music?"
"Knock yourself out. It's your car."
He scrolled through a few playlists on his phone until he found the song he wanted, and he plugged it in and hit the play button.
Almost immediately "The Way", one of Levi's earlier songs that featured Mac Miller, started playing, and Levi raised her head and stared at Chris in surprise.
"This is one my favorite songs," he said. "I remember the day I heard it for the first time. I was at home and I'd just turned the radio on. I hadn't heard the DJ introduce the song, but I knew right away that it was you. It was such a fun song, and I've been hooked on your music since."
Levi blushed at the last statement.
"You had confidence then, and you have confidence now. I mean, this song was about how you didn't care about what people said when you were with the person you loved, and now your newest album's original version is explicit, Levi. You've come so far since then and grown up so much, but you still have that same confidence."
Levi covered her mouth with her hands to hide her embarrassed smile. Chris smiled when he noticed, and after a moment he said, "You think you can still hit those high notes?"
"Bitch, I might."
Chris had always been impressed by her whistle register, but he hadn't heard it in a long time. So he was very excited when she hit all the notes perfectly, but at the end she broke off and started laughing.
"That was amazing, Levi!" Chris said over her laughter.
"Thanks," she replied after she'd calmed down, then added in a softer voice, "God, I haven't done that in years."
"Well, you definitely need to do it more often," Chris said.
"You think so?"
"Yea."
Levi smiled and went back to her book, this time actually reading it. But Chris played the entire Yours Truly album for the rest of the drive—even the Spanglish version of "The Way".