"Do you remember me? And what we used to be?
It turns out your word is broken now
Cause you always seem to let me down."
....
Adora felt a strange peace when she woke up Wednesday morning. After school she and Gus had gone to the bakery; he had insisted and Adora had some sort of wave washing over her when she had seen it was Mr. Taylor working alone.
The last thing she was ready for was another fight.
She had received texts from Will about staying back in the music room during lunch to help him with Brett's solos. She happily accepted the request and now the two of them were sitting in one of the smaller music rooms after class.
She had been a little distracted during their class; Gus had mentioned rekindling their summer romance, but after Tom and the card from her violent admirer she didn't want to fall into another romance with anyone so confident and self assured.
She had laughed at their table the afternoon before and told him about Tom and his overconfident kissing and desperate want to convince her to date him.
Gus had seemed understanding enough. He had pointed out that he would have no intention of harming any of her friends as the card sender had, but she had managed to convince him to leave their fling in the summer.
That hadn't stopped him from trying to kiss her when he'd dropped her off at home though.
"Hey, are you alright?" Will broke into her thoughts and she heard the silence of the smaller room for the first time.
A small, awkward smile turned her lips and she let go of a half laugh. "Yea, sorry, just... So much going through my head right now."
Will returned her small smile and nodded. "I bet, did you want to talk about anything?"
Adora bit her bottom lip and met his eyes. The eyes that had been there for her that morning at the hospital when she had been worried about Brett.
The gentle version of Tom's, it was almost like there was an entirely different shade of emotion to Will's eyes compared to his twin. Though they were an exact colour match.
They felt safe compared to Tom's scary intensity.
"It's just... Suddenly... I feel overwhelmed." She felt a knot choking her throat when she realised she couldn't explain her feelings.
"Because so much has happened?" Will relaxed his arms over his guitar and gave her his full attention.
"Yea. I mean, Tom and his attempt to change my mind, and then Brett... Oh gosh, Brett and that card." Thinking of the hospital room, and the blame she had felt once she had read the card made her start to tremble.
How had she got here? Trembling over a card? Her best friend hurt because someone wanted to protect her?
"Its alright, breathe." Will's hand was on her shoulder and she scoffed at his words. She hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath.
She put a hand to her mouth when she felt her eyes were burning and blurring with hot tears.
"I'm sorry. I don't know..."
"Adora, it's alright. Just breathe."
It was a few deep and shaky breaths later before the trembling slow down and her shoulders slumped over her acoustic guitar.
When had she gotten back to this anxiety? How long had it been building?
Her heart was still racing in her ribs, but she could breathe, and she was wiping her face with the end of her sleeve.
"I'm sorry, Will. I don't know how..."
"Adora, it's alright. A lot has happened, I get it." His face was sympathetic and understanding as he looked at her, his hand still on her shoulder.
A lot had happened, like when the storm had washed over the family boat. When Dodge had been washed overboard. When her father had been lost.
She forced herself to take a deep, shuddering breath.
"How is it you're always around when I lose it?" She laughed through her teary breathing.
Will smiled and shrug. "Just lucky I guess."
She had barely said a word, but somehow she was feeling better. Had she just needed that moment of a break?
"Feel a bit better?"
"Yea, actually." She laughed and wiped the last of the breakdown from her face. "Let's get back to your solos!"
"When you're ready." Will smiled and leaned back on his chair, preparing his fingers on his guitar's neck. "Cause, I can't understand this progression that you've written here, so I can't carry on without you."
The weight dropped almost instantly from her shoulders when she saw his teasing smile. They had talked about her scribbly notes on the music sheets before and she could see Will was trying to lighten her mood.
He'd managed to do it without barely doing anything.
Iain used to be able to do that. Brett had always been able to do it. Now the thought of both her cousin and her best friend made her feel on edge.
Another deep breath and she shook the unease off her shoulders. She felt the tingle of relief fall over her and she dragged her chair closer to Will and his music stand.
"Oh wow, that one is a struggle. Sorry." She looked over her own handwriting and shook her head. "It's a G though, have you played this song at all yet?" She frowned and looked at him.
"Nope."
"Ok then. Let's try and clear this mess up." She leaned over to her bag; guitar still hugged against her as she opened the front pocket and pulled a pen out.
After fixing her messy G over all the right lyrics, Adora put the pen on the music stand and leaned back with her guitar.
"Right, fixed. Let's go." She put her fingers on the neck of her guitar and rested her arm over the body.
She tapped the body as a count in and then started the chord strumming and lyrics.
She hadn't played the song for a while, and almost immediately she felt the deep connection sink in her chest as she remembered how much it meant to her.
Will watched for a few bars before he started joining in, strumming certain string quietly to harmonise her chords.
Adora felt as though she had played the song every day of her life. When the chorus started she was able to play with her eyes closed and she could focus on the sound of their guitars mixing together and giving a full background for the words she sang.
She could feel Will's eyes moving from the chords on the stand to her for the cues, but she was also aware of something else radiating towards her, admiration maybe?
He had heard her sing enough times to know her range and tones, but it felt as though she was singing to him for the first time.
She remembered hearing the song not long after her father's funeral, how it had resonated with her then, she could still feel the echo of it years later.
"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...