Fran loved walking in to the sound of music; it made the place homely, filled it with warmth, atmosphere, character. She was so focused on the melody she hardly noticed where her feet were taking her until a second before she nearly collided with a tall figure rearranging the shelves.
"Darius...!" Fran floundered. "How nice to see you! I um, thought it was Thursday today?" She distinctly remembered Darren offering her a granola bar that morning for breakfast, and without the structure that term-time provided she'd found herself increasingly reliant on Darren's oddly specific breakfast schedule to give her days order. It was quite a good system, actually. She was considering adopting it for when she left for uni.
"I'm covering for Darren," Darius replied, dumping the box on the table. Fran stood on her tiptoes so she could peek inside: "He said he had to go somewhere."
"Oh, right. Did he say when he'd be back?"
Darius shrugged. Fran thought this over: Darren didn't like to leave the house during work hours, so this was an unusual turn of events. Something must have happened. But he hadn't messaged her or anything, so after a moment's deliberation she decided it wasn't serious.
"Well, I'll be upstairs if you need me," she said. "You're always welcome to join us, if you want!" she added brightly.
Darius nodded but didn't answer, and Fran jumped up the stairs two at a time without expecting one.
It was the usual crowd upstairs: Joel, Ash, Paige and Elliot. Elliot and Ash were playing, and Paige was leaning against the railings, watching with her arms folded and that same passive interest in her expression. Fran had taken to hiding her satchel and valuables in her suitcase when she left the house, because Joel had no sense of personal boundaries. Sure enough, he was lying on her bed flicking though her kindle when she reached the top.
"Frannie," he announced, catching sight of her.
Fran crawled onto her mattress and retrieved her guitar, kicking Joel's leg lightly. "I told you to stop calling me Frannie," she said, as sternly as she could manage.
"Did you?" Joel said, innocently. "I can't remember."
Fran rolled her eyes. "Ass."
Joel just smiled. Fran focused her attention back on the melody, taking a few seconds to catch the chord sequence Elliot was playing before joining in, slipping in seamlessly into the song. The melody swept over her, easing away the restless thoughts that had been on her mind since yesterday. She didn't recognise the song Elliot was playing, she realised, as she followed them through the music. Was he improvising?
And then deciding to switch it up a bit, she shifted the key upwards. The piano faltered for a second; Fran remembered abruptly that she couldn't just change keys whilst Elliot was playing.
"We're in D," she whispered.
"Oh – okay," Elliot said, and to his credit, after a couple more bars he picked the chord sequence back up and started to settle more confidently into the new key.
Finally he brought the song to a close. "Sorry for the mistakes in the middle," Elliot said.
"You're a mistake, Riley," Joel grinned.
Elliot looked at his knees, flushing slightly.
Fran frowned. "Lay off him, Joel," she said. "You're not helping."
"Calm down, Frannie, it was a joke," Joel said, raising his hands.
"If your idea of a joke is teasing him like that–"
"What? I would never," Joel said. "We all love Elliot very much here."
Fran, caught up in the squabble, didn't notice Paige ease her back off the railings and walk over to Elliot until she heard a small cough and glanced up. To her it simply seemed like she had appeared, like a ghost, beside the piano.
"I don't suppose I could have a turn?" she asked quietly.
Everyone gaped at her. Fran had got so used to Paige just sitting and watching, and politely declining every time she was offered a place at the piano, that she had stopped expecting to hear her play before she left at all. Fran was first to get over the shock, her open mouth stretching into a grin.
"Absolutely!" she said, a little too enthusiastically. "I'm sure Elliot won't mind taking a break."
"Oh – no," Elliot said, hastily getting to his feet. "It's all yours, Paige. Go nuts."
Fran watched her take his spot at the piano, her heartbeat quickening with anticipation. She'd never been so excited to see someone play before. She'd never forgotten what Elliot had told her about listening to Paige play: about time slowing down, everything else paling into insignificance.
"You'll have to forgive me," Paige said, running her fingers elegantly across the keys. "I haven't done this in a while..."
She played a few notes in a pattern, first descending, then ascending. Fran was a little disappointed; this was simpler than the stuff Elliot had played. Perhaps he had just been overreacting, she thought to herself. When she repeated the pattern for a second time, it occurred to Fran she was expecting her to join in with the guitar.
Fair enough. It was a simple, two-chord sequence, and she picked it up easily, matching her sparse notes with a couple of strummed chords. She wanted to see what Paige could do, so she kept it simple, giving her space to move the song onwards.
Then they got to the end of the phrase, and everything changed.
There was only a second's warning. First Paige was playing individual notes at a time, and then suddenly the piano erupted into melody. Deep, thundering chords rolled off the keys, offset by a wistful, soaring tune that made Fran feel like she was moving, flying, clear and bright and free. Fran's fingers faltered for a second, taken aback by the sudden change in pace. The strong piano music filled the air, and Fran caught the energy, speeding up her strumming to match the relentless pace of the song, and feeling a thrill of excitement flushing through her body.
Surprisingly, Ash and Joel didn't join in this time. When she glanced up she could only see Elliot's face; fixed on Paige with a starry wonder in his eyes. Perhaps they, too, were so caught up in the stirring, rolling melody, stunned into inactivity. Paige kept getting better; as the song continued she worked in new variations, veering off into a breath-taking improvisation. Her fingers flew across the keys, so fast they almost seemed to blur into each other, chords swelling and crashing over each other like a storm. Fran felt a tingle of wonder, wistfulness rush across her skin and through her veins, raising goosebumps on her arms.
Abruptly, Paige brought the song down into a gentle, complex breakdown. Almost dissonant chords jumped across the piano, Fran struggling to keep up with the chords. Paige's expression was blank focus, her concentration so intense Fran suspected the house could fall down around her and she wouldn't notice. She'd never seen someone so completely consumed by what they were playing.
Paige brought the song to a close with a set of rapid, abrupt chords, going from full throttle to nothing in seconds. The air seemed to visibly recoil in its wake. Fran let her fingers drop from the strings, breathing fast.
"That was...incredible," Fran breathed.
Paige pushed her hair back from her face with a breathless laugh. "Thank you," she said. There was a light in her eyes that Fran had never seen before. She wanted to ask, maybe even beg her to play in the concert, but she was afraid that if she mentioned it she'd remember why she stopped playing piano and not play anything else. "Don't stop there," she said. "Want to do another?"
Ash quirked an eyebrow at her. "It's a little late for you, isn't it, Paige?" she said, slyly. "Aren't you past your bedtime?"
Fran would have taken offense, but Paige didn't seem to mind. "My dad's left last night. He's away for a couple of days."
"And Darren's out too. So we've got the whole night!" Fran crowed.
Paige smiled. "Well, in that case, we can keep going."
"Finally," Ash said, preparing her violin. "I was getting bored of the old stuff. This should be good."
Fran frowned at her, but to be honest, playing with Paige was such a contrast to playing with Elliot. Paige liked dark, wintry kind of music, with loud dramatic chords in the left hand, sprinkled with light, airy melodies which she developed as the songs went on. It felt like rain, dark forests, the way scenery blurred around you when you were travelling. Her music was complex, lyrical, imaginative. It pushed Fran to the limits of her creativity. She loved the technical challenge it offered; you had to be on your toes, you had to really think about what you were doing. With Elliot she often found herself slipping into autopilot, her fingers moving of their own accord. They kept playing, the piano, guitar and violin intertwining, weaving in and out of each other. Occasionally, Joel would join in with a patter of rhythm, always soft and ethereal, like rain, rounding out the song. Fran lost track of time, swept away in a tide of sound until Joel abruptly excused himself.
"Actually, I should probably be going too," Ash said, checking her watch. "I didn't realise it was so late."
"Going so soon?" Fran asked, feeling slightly disorientated in the silence. She checked the clock on her phone and started when she realised it was past eight. How had they been playing for so long...?
"Oh, well..." she said. "See you guys tomorrow, I guess."
"See you." Joel and Ash filtered out, their steps echoing as they descended the stairs. Elliot followed, but hovered by the stairs instead of heading down, as if he was plucking up the courage to say something.
"You alright?" Fran asked, noticing him linger.
"I, um...I've been thinking," Elliot said, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't think I'm gonna play in the concert."
"Ugh, Elliot, you need to stop doing this," Fran said. "Don't let a little bout of self-doubt get you down. Ride it out."
"Like I said I've been thinking about it for a while. This is my decision."
"Right," Fran said. She raised her voice. "Seeing as Darren's not back yet, why don't we do a quick after hours practise session before the concert? Paige, you'll stay, right?"
She shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
"Sweet!" Fran said. "Plus Elliot, and I guess Darius will be around too, so that makes four of us. We can critique each other, give pointers so we know where to improve before the big day...Elliot, why don't you go first?"
She felt a little tug on her sleeve and looked over her shoulder to see Elliot's expression: his eyebrows knotted together in a nervous frown.
"Fran, can I talk to you for a second?"
Fran followed him downstairs, and once she'd reached the bottom he pulled her into the space under the staircase and faced her off, eyes blazing. Fran was startled: she didn't expect this level of anger from him.
"What the hell are you thinking?" he hissed. "I can't play in front of them!"
"Exactly," Fran said, folding her arms. "You have to get over this fear, even if it means throwing you in the deep end. If you can play in front of them, you can pay in front of a crowd of people, right?"
"Fran – I...I don't want to play in front of anyone. That wasn't the point of learning to play piano."
"You can't just learn how to play an instrument and never perform. Music is something to be shared, not kept to yourself."
"Is that what you think? How come you've got all those songs you've written, but you never show anyone or play them?"
"That's completely different!" Fran retorted, wondering how exactly he knew about those. "The stuff I write is personal."
"That's exactly what it is for me," Elliot said quietly. "It was never meant to be a public thing."
Fran didn't know what to say. "Elliot, I totally understand how you feel," she said, finally. "I know it's daunting. But how are you going to teach your sister to play with confidence if you don't play with confidence yourself? How are you going to learn if you don't stretch your abilities?"
"Fran..."
"Come on, what's the worst that will happen? Paige isn't like Ash or Joel – she's not gonna tear into you if you mess up. She's here to help you. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And if Darius doesn't like it, he'll just go make some tea or something." She took a deep breath in, and plunged on: "Listen, Elliot. I'm so tired of hearing you say you can't, because I've seen you do it. I've seen you enjoy the music and forget about everyone else and play from your heart. I've seen you come back to practise day after day, no matter what Ash or Joel say, because you're committed to a goal, and dammit, you're going to achieve it. You need to be that Elliot right now. Don't listen to your fear."
Which sounded incredibly trite when she said it out loud, but she hoped the message at least got through to him. Elliot just looked at her, his fingers clenching and unclenching. Fran held her breath: she couldn't tell anything from the look on his face.
Finally, he took a deep long breath out and nodded slowly.
"Okay," he said. "Let's go."
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