“But I missed you,” he says with a smile.
“Uh huh,” I say smiling back.
“I couldn’t help myself.”
“Uh huh.”
He laughs. “Hey, so I wanted to ask you something.”
“Okay. Ask away.” The freshmen are all within ear shot so I hope it’s nothing about us.
“I was wondering if you would play something for the older kids today. I’m not really the best piano player and some of the kids were hoping to hear someone else play. I do okay, but I think you would show them more of what the instrument has to offer,” he says smiling down at me.
“I would love to. Is there anything that you want me to play?” I ask him. I love playing the piano and I don’t get to do it often enough.
“There is a bunch of sheet music at the center, or you can play something you already know.”
“Cool,” I say smiling to myself as I run through all the songs that I might play for the kids.
“We’ll do it towards the end of the instructional time. You can play and then field any questions the kids have.” He looks really excited to have me play.
“Sounds good!”
We walk the rest of the way in silence, listening to all the chatter going on around us. The group seems really excited about volunteering. When we get to the center, Jake shows us to an office where we can leave our jackets and bags. Then he leads us down the hallways to a large room. The space is open with colors splashed everywhere. The walls, the chairs, the large round carpet in the middle of the room.
“This is the Preschool Room. This is where we’ll do the activities with the little ones. Then we’ll spend time with the older kids in the practice space, which is across the hall.”
When the kids come in, some of them go up and hug Jake, others go and sit down on the carpet. A few stay with their parent. We go through all of the activities with the kids, and everyone is having fun interacting with each other, after the little kids finally warm up to their new volunteers.
Jake is perfect. He is sweet and patient with the kids as they learn everything he teaches. He makes them laugh, and gives them the confidence to try playing the different instruments he is teaching them about. I can feel myself falling for him. With every minute, with every breath I take, I keep falling.
After the little ones leave, we head over to the practice room. There are about twenty minutes before the older kids get here. Everyone takes the time to look around the practice room and Jake shows me to the file cabinets where they store all of their sheet music.
I look through the files and find the song I want to play, La Campanella, by Franz Liszt. It was one of the pieces I played for my Juilliard audition. And it is one of my favorite songs to play. It is also one of the most challenging. I play it every chance I get to play the piano, which is usually once a week. I always play it once through, just to make sure I still can.
I sit down at the piano and put the music up. I won’t need it, but I always like to keep it there. I close my eyes and play the song once through before the kids for the class arrive at the center. Perfect. Flawless. I am not always the most confident person in the world, but I know there is at least one thing that I am amazing at and that is playing the piano. I smile, and open my eyes.
I am met with the faces of all the freshmen from my floor. And Jake. They are all crowded around the piano and they all have different expressions. Some are smiling. Some are confused. Some are gaping. Jake is gaping. Finally, it’s not me doing the gaping. But I can tell that all of them are impressed. They start to clap softly for me and I look over at Jake. He shakes his head like he is clearing his thoughts. I get up from the piano and take a little bow and everyone laughs a little.
“Damn, Rachel! That was awesome!” one of them says.
“Thanks,” I say. I start to explore the room to get away from the group of music majors that are now staring at me like I have golden hands.
Jake walks up behind me while I am by some of the drums. “Wow, that was amazing,” he says smiling at me.
“Thanks!” I smile. “I’m glad you liked it.”
“No wonder you had a scholarship to Juilliard. You are extremely talented, Rachel.”
“I know,” I smirk at him, trying to hide the sadness that comment brought up. I try not to think about what my life would have been like if I had gone to Juilliard and instead think about all the reasons why giving up that dream led me to something better. “That was actually one of my audition pieces.”
“No, but seriously, why don’t you go for a performance major here?” he asks.
“Like I told you before. I love to play, but I would rather teach a bunch of kids to play like that in front of an audience than do it myself. I love to play the piano, but performing isn’t always my favorite thing to do. I’d rather play for my family and friends than a hall full of strangers. Plus, I can always perform if I want to on occasion, but I would love to teach piano every day,” I smile at him. Thinking about all the reasons why I want to be a teacher has wiped away the sadness that washed over me while I thought about the life I should have had in New York.
“Well, you sound happy about your decision and I guess that’s all that matters.”
“I am happy.” I love the fact that I’m not only talking about my career decisions, but that I’m also talking about the man that is standing right in front of me. I look away from him to stop myself before I lean up and kiss him in front of everyone.
As I look back at the drums, he leans down and I can feel his breath on my ear. He picks up one of the drums right before he whispers, “You looked so sexy while you were playing. Just know that now I can’t stop thinking about fucking you on that piano.”
When he pulls away, I turn around and look at him. And now I can’t stop thinking about it either.
We spend around an hour helping the kids play songs on different instruments. Most kids favor playing the guitar, but I’m hoping to sway some of them into learning the piano.
“Okay everyone,” Jake says gathering the entire group around the piano. “This is Rachel. She is going to play a piece for you on the piano. She is a very accomplished pianist and if you have any questions about the instrument, she would be a great resource.”
I smile at the group letting them know the name and composer of the piece that I will be performing. Then I fix my posture, ready my hands, and put on my “performance” face.
Then I play. When I play the piano, it’s the most incredible feeling. I let the music pour out of me and through my fingers. I am immersed in the music, the way my fingers glide along the keys. I’ve always been told I have the most perfect hands for playing the piano. Beautiful long fingers, according to all of my teachers.
When I finish, I look up and the group has the same reaction that they had when I practiced earlier. “So, that was a very challenging piece,” I explain. “You wouldn’t be able to play that right away. It took me months to get it right. But when you play a piece of music that you love, all the time and practice you put into it is worth it.” I smile and turn to straddle the bench so I can talk to the group.
“Did you have any questions for her?” Jake asks the group.
One of the girls raises her hand. She looks about thirteen and I can tell by the sunglasses she is wearing that she is one of the children here that is blind. I saw her working on the piano earlier. She has real potential. “Yes, Jackie,” Jake says.
“I liked that song a lot, but I was wondering if there are some more popular songs that you can play on the piano. Like, all the kids who pick guitar are always playing good stuff, and most of the stuff I play nobody knows. Nobody can sing along to the songs I play, unless they’re like nursery rhymes.”
“Well, you can take almost any song and play it on the piano. There are even a lot of songs that already have piano music in them,” I say trying to think of something that I can play for her.
“Like that Rihanna song, Stay?” Jackie asks me.
> “Exactly!” I say. “Here, let me play it for you.”
“Um, Rachel, we don’t have the music to that song on file,” Jake says to me. I can tell he doesn’t want to let Jackie down. “Maybe we can find something else? Or we can play it next time?”
“I don’t need the music, Jake. I can play it by ear, just give me second. I’ve heard it enough to figure it out,” I say smiling at Jake.
“You can play by ear?” Jake asks me, smiling back.
“How do you think I got that full ride to Juilliard?” I say as I throw an exaggerated wink his way.
“You got into Juilliard!?!?” three of my students blurt out.
“Why aren’t you there?” one of them continues, shock written all over his face. “If I got into Juilliard there is nothing that would stop me from going!”
“Long story, Kyle,” I say back trying to ignore the disappointment and sadness that is coming over me. Some things keep you from going to Juilliard, Kyle. “Anyways…” I say starting to play the notes to the song. I start slow as I make the few corrections needed as I play it. Once I have the sequence down, I start to play faster.
“Okay, who is going to sing with me?” I ask. Everyone looks at each other. This is a room full of musicians, but nobody wants to sing?
“I’ll do it,” Jake says smiling at me. We pull the lyrics up on his phone and sit next to each other on the bench. I know most of the lyrics, but, you know, just in case.
I start playing the song and then begin to sing. This is my first time singing in front of a group in a while. I’ve always been told I have a beautiful voice. When I sing, I try to live the lyrics, put myself in the song. I think one of the most important things when you sing a song is the emotion you put behind it. You can have a beautiful voice, but the performance is nothing if you don’t feel the music.
I glance over at Jake during the first chorus and I can’t look away. He is staring at me. The emotion in his eyes is all encompassing. I am sucked into him. I’m no longer singing for the group. I’m singing for him. And when he starts his part, I am singing with him.
It’s obvious that he already knows the words to the song because he doesn’t glance at his phone once. I am so glad this song is easy for me to play, because I would be seriously messing it up if it was any harder.
I hope the emotion I see in his eyes isn’t part of the performance, because the emotion in my eyes is real. I feel like I can’t live without him. I want him to stay. For a long time.
When we start to sing together, we move towards each other. Still facing him, I look down and close my eyes. He touches his forehead to mine and continues to sing. As the song comes to an end, we pull back from each other and look into each other’s eyes again, finishing the song.
He takes a big breath and shakes his head, closing his eyes and cutting off the connection. I hope our freshmen didn’t pick up on that.
Who am I kidding? They totally saw something. Hopefully they just think we are really good performers, otherwise we’ve blown our secret.
Everyone starts clapping and I look at the group and smile. “Thank you everyone. Jackie, if you want me to get piano music to any of your favorite songs, let me know and I’ll bring it next week when I come.”
“Okay. Thanks, Rachel!” she says smiling.
“Any other questions?”
Chapter 12
“I knew they were fucking…”
"No way! They’re together together…”
“Unlikely! I’ve heard enough about Jake to know he fucks around. He doesn’t do together…”
“He’s just using her. She deserves better than that…”
“Maybe she’s using him. You know, a no strings type thing. He’s hot. I’d take what I could get…”
“My older sister is friends with one of the guys in his band. They are definitely exclusive. I’ve heard that he hasn’t been hooking up after his shows lately…”
“I hope I don’t ever have to hear them fucking. It’s like hearing your mom and dad. Yuck!”
“Do you think they’ll sing again at open mic on Friday? I think it would be hot! They were so into each other on Wednesday, I bet they can’t keep their hands off each other…”
“I think they’re in love…”
I swear that’s all I hear the freshmen on my floor talking about. My relationship. Word has spread about our intense performance at the center and that’s all they’ve been talking about the past two days. Every one of them has their own theory about what is going on between me and Jake. It would be annoying, if I wasn’t so wrapped up in him.
I want to clear up each of the rumors. I imagine myself calling a floor meeting and just answering each one.
Yes, we are sleeping together.
Yes, we are together together.
We are exclusive and he did stop sleeping with random girls after his shows. A while ago.
We will not be singing together at open mic tonight.
We definitely can’t keep our hands off each other.
And finally…
I think I’m in love. Though it would be nice to know if I am alone in love, or if he is there with me, but I’m too chicken to bring it up.
We laugh together about everything they're are saying. He’s been telling me, “We know what we are to each other…” But the thing is I’m not really sure. I know we are together. But I don’t know if he is falling as hard as I am. I’d like to think so, but I don’t want to get my hopes up. All of this is new and I don’t want to push him.
It’s Friday and the first open mic night of the semester. There is a good group performing. The idea was so popular, that we opened it up to everyone on campus and we are expecting quite the turnout. Jake went to the venue ahead of time to make sure everything was set-up and to help with the sign-in of the performers. Last semester, I had to handle all of that. This semester, Jake offered to take over running the open mic nights as long as I hosted.
With an hour left until I have to be there, Jenna is coming down to my room to get ready with me. I haven’t seen much of her this week. Most of my free time has been spent with Jake. I’m sure both of us are in serious need of some girl time and talk.
I hear a knock at the door and before I can respond, Jenna is walking into my room with an armful of outfits, hair tools, and makeup. And she’s a raven-haired beauty. Her freshly dyed hair is cut shorter than it was the last time I saw her.
She broke up with Will. How did I miss this? I have been seriously slacking as a best friend. “Nice hair, Jen! What happened?” I ask her as she throws everything down on my bed.
“Oh, you know, caught him making out with his ex-girlfriend this morning. He told me that he knew I couldn’t commit like he eventually wanted and he didn’t want to waste his time anymore,” she says, her eyes darting down for a moment before she continues. “He’s an asshat! Whatever! If he can’t appreciate what he’s got, I’ll let someone else worship my body. And I’ll be worshipping someone else’s as well!” she finishes.
“Are you okay?” I ask her. She always acts so tough, but this had to have upset her.
“I’ll miss his tongue, but I can do better. Tonight I will fly solo and then tomorrow I am on the prowl. We’re going out with Jake’s bandmates right?”
“Yep!” I am really excited to hang out with him and his friends, even though it might be a little awkward with Nate.
“Nate going?” she asks me raising an eyebrow. It’s like she can read my mind.
“Yeah, but we ended on good terms, so I think it will be okay,” I say mostly sure that this will be the case.
“It’ll be fine. Jake is his best friend and Nate knows how happy you make him,” she smiles at me reassuringly. “Plus, Nate’s not a dick. Will on the other hand, he’s a dick.”
“He sure is. And an idiot. A foolish, idiot, dick,” I say. I can tell she really liked him.
“Damn right he was!” she says giving me a too confident smile.
“Plus, you lo
ok hot with the new ‘do. So, good riddance, Will!” I say making a rude gesture. This is the way Jenna deals with heartache. She wants to say fuck the world, even though she feels like the world is always fucking with her.
“Damn right I look hot! Now let’s get ready for tonight!” she says holding up her curling iron and makeup bag.
The hour flies by while Jenna and I curl and catch up. She is begging for the naughty details from my time with Jake, but I hold out. She’ll get one story a week, as promised. And she has to wait until Sunday lunch. I swear she wants to kill me.
Jimmy, the AM that works with Jenna, and his boyfriend, Dan meet us in the lobby of the dorm and we all head over the Rec Center together. We get to the venue and spot Jake sitting up at a table near the stage. He looks delicious in a blue t-shirt and jeans. Who would have thought a guy could look so good in a t-shirt?
He looks up and smiles as he sees me walking towards the table. Butterflies take flight inside my tummy as I return his smile. When we reach the table, I lean in for a hug, as does Jenna. Even though everyone knows something is going on, we don’t want to advertise it.
“You look beautiful,” Jake says quietly near my ear as he pulls out my chair. I’m dressed in skinny jeans and a light pink sheer top with a white tank top underneath. I had to veto the dress Jenna wanted me to wear, since I didn’t want everyone to be able to see my panties. It was short and tight, and definitely wasn’t the type of dress that you wear on stage. I did however wear the light pink heels she wanted me to wear. I think that sometimes Jenna thinks I am her personal dress-up doll.
“Thank you. You look okay,” I whisper back, smirking and shrugging my shoulder. The smile he gives me leaves me breathless. He obviously knows I think he looks more than okay. The things this man can tell me with a look.
“We’re going to get started in a minute. Here’s the list of the performers,” he says handing me a clipboard. “You can just go up and introduce them,” he says gesturing to the front. “Then, you can come sit back with us and watch the performance.”
On The Floor (Second Story) Page 13