High Note (Pitch Perfect Book 2)

by H. L. Logan

  It would be up to her. I continued to eat my food, even though my nerves were getting the better of me. I’d feel even worse if I didn’t eat.

  Bringing Brianne to this potluck hadn’t been as good of an idea as I’d hoped. Of course, I loved the idea of bringing her to things, but bringing her hadn’t made me feel more confident, even though she seemed to be able to talk to the other EAC members just fine. I wondered where people learned conversational skills like that, since I never had.

  “I should probably just say hi,” said Brianne quietly next to me, adding a sigh. She stood up. “Want to come with?”

  “I guess,” I said, standing up with her and heading to the kitchen, where another group of people was standing and eating.

  And Nicole was there, surrounded by a bevy of people, looking carefree and popular. How in the world did people end up in situations like that, like they were the quintessential college student enjoying life? I felt like I always looked downtrodden, quashed by the weight of my backpack.

  “Hey,” said Brianne, approaching Nicole with a confidence I couldn’t even fathom.

  Nicole’s attention turned to Brianne, and some of the bevy floated away. “Hey,” said Nicole, looking Brianne up and down. “Haven’t seen you in… years.”

  “Yeah. Weird, huh? This is my girlfriend, Margie, by the way. Margie, Nicole,” said Brianne casually.

  It was like there were fireworks inside my chest. She’d referred to me as her girlfriend! It was an amazing occurrence, and one I hadn’t anticipated. Maybe she was doing it just to make Nicole jealous or something, but I didn’t care. Now it was official.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, unsure of how to behave.

  “Yeah, you too,” said Nicole. “So, Brianne, you in EAC? I haven’t seen you at parties or meetings.”

  “No, Margie is,” said Brianne.

  “Yeah, I don’t go to the parties that often,” I said. “I’m hoping to change that.”

  “Nice, nice,” said Nicole, but I got the sense she was seeing right through me and didn’t care what I was even saying. Which was fine, because surely she was as surprised to see Brianne as Brianne was to see her, but… The way she was directing the conversation made it seem like she was excluding me.

  When you were socially anxious like me, you noticed these things. I’d become pretty good at it, in fact. And I worried that Nicole was going to steal Brianne’s attention away. I worried about this specifically because Brianne seemed nervous—her normal unflappable demeanor had changed into something unfamiliar, and it was putting me on edge.

  “So… graduation, huh?” said Nicole, chuckling easily even though she’d made a completely mundane comment.

  “Yeah, dude. Can’t believe it’s happening. Time flies, right? What are you going to be doing?” said Brianne.

  “I got accepted to a managerial position at Robinson,” said Nicole.

  “Uh, what?” Brianne looked almost scared now, which I couldn’t fathom at all.

  “Yeah. Remember that internship we both did after freshman year? I guess they really liked me. They called me before I even called them and offered me the position, since they liked my work with the soccer team,” said Nicole.

  “I see,” said Brianne. “Well, I’m still looking at all my options.”

  “You should probably get on that,” said Nicole. “Rosebridge is a small town.”

  “Uh huh. Well, we’ll probs get another round of food, right, Margie?” Brianne turned to me.

  “Sounds good,” I said, even though I’d barely touched my food.

  I eagerly followed her out of the kitchen and to the table where all the dishes were set up. I was glad to see that people had taken generous helpings of my roast vegetables, and most of the dish was gone already.

  “You okay?” I asked Brianne.

  “I’ll be okay,” she said. “I just… Ugh, I’ll explain it later.”

  Brianne was in a snit for the rest of the potluck, but she put up her cool façade—that I could now recognize as a façade—and was able to interact with everyone else just fine. I managed to have a couple of good conversations with some of the quieter EAC members, and started to see how I could start to fit into this organization. Coming to the potluck had been a good idea—though I wasn’t sure it had been a good idea for Brianne.

  When the party started winding down, we were quick to leave, and I walked with Brianne back to her apartment so we could talk.

  “Um, what exactly happened with Nicole?” I asked. I didn’t like prodding her, but it was clearly bothering her deeply.

  Brianne sighed. “So… we both did a marketing internship at Robinson Communications during the summer of our freshman year. After that, I ended up majoring in marketing and she went into something completely different, kinesiology. But now I just learned that she somehow snagged a senior-level position at Robinson, and I’m hoping I can get any job there. My mom was pressuring me to get something above entry level, which I thought was impossible, since I was just an undergrad, but then they go and give a good job to a kinesiology major? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Brianne turned the key in her lock and we entered the apartment. It might have sounded a little weird, but I liked the smell. It smelled fresh, with a hint of her perfume. She plopped down on the couch and I followed suit.

  “That blows,” I said, now able to understand why she’d been so rattled. “That’s really fucked up.”

  “It totally is. I guess being the captain of the soccer team for two years impressed them that much? I had no idea they even paid any attention to Beasley soccer. And now I don’t even want a job at Robinson, because what if fucking Nicole is my boss?” She put her head in her hands.

  I hated to see Brianne so upset, but I was also admittedly relieved that I wouldn’t have to worry about anything happening with her and Nicole. Even though she’d said she and Nicole had ended things on good terms, Nicole had seemed a little condescending. I wasn’t sure I liked her.

  “So now I’m going to have to look for other options… and I feel so lost,” said Brianne, now leaning back on the couch.

  I took her hand, unsure of how to comfort her. I was a junior, one year away from being in the same predicament as Brianne. I wasn’t sure what I wanted as a career, and it was a little frightening to see Brianne so worked up about it. That could easily be me in a year, I thought.

  “Things will work out,” I said, rubbing my thumb on her palm in what I hoped was a comforting manner. “But I completely understand your frustration. The whole situation is messed up.”

  “Yeah,” said Brianne absently, like she was lost in her own thoughts. “Oh shit, I forgot I had to ask you something.”

  “Yeah?”

  “So… My cousin Marcy is getting married. The wedding is the weekend before graduation. Do you want to be my date?” She looked right at me, her expression a bit more cheerful.

  “Uh, yeah, that’d be great!” I said. “And that reminds me… you called me your girlfriend.” I grinned.

  “I mean… do you want to be my girlfriend?” Brianne asked with a small smile.

  “Hell yeah,” I said.

  “Good, then we’re girlfriends,” she said, and I couldn’t hide the blush from creeping up my cheeks. She blinked at me. “God, you’re cute, you know that?”

  I blushed even more, the words lost in my mouth. “Th-thanks,” I managed. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  She laughed. “This is gonna be great, isn’t it?”

  There was a pause where we both just smiled at each other, looking into each other’s eyes. Girlfriend. I had a girlfriend now. My heart felt like it never had before.

  “Um, so there was something about a wedding?” I asked.

  “Right, right,” she said. “I was just worried because you’ll be meeting my parents and like, all the rest of my family. And I don’t know how you feel about being an out gay couple?”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I’m sure I can handle it.
”

  I wasn’t at all sure I could handle it, but I wanted Brianne to be able to have faith in me. She needed to know she could depend on me, and I had to suck it up and deal with this wedding myself.

  “Cool,” said Brianne. “I’ll forward you the details in an email later.”

  “Cool,” I said, snuggling up closer to Brianne. I wanted to make her feel better about everything, but I didn’t know how.

  “I’d love for you to stay over, but I’m sure you have work to do,” she said. “I know I do.”

  “I do have work. But hey, maybe sometime I can bring my work and we can be together,” I suggested.

  She smiled. “Brilliant idea.”

  Reluctantly, we got up from the couch and kissed a goodbye, lingering at the doorway.

  “When will I see you again?” I asked.

  “I’ll let you know,” said Brianne. “Once I figure out how miserable this week is going to be.”

  “Okay,” I said, smiling softly. “See ya, Brianne.”

  She waved and watched me as I walked down the street.

  It wasn’t a long walk back to my place. When I got there, I saw that Marnie’s car was parked outside. She’d been helping Cass out since she came back from the ER. Apparently Cass would recover just fine soon enough—it had been an autoimmune disease, a rare case of rheumatoid arthritis striking someone young.

  “Hey,” I said when I walked in, spotting the two of them cuddled up on the couch. I wasn’t jealous anymore because I’d been cuddled up with my own someone special just a few minutes ago. Now seeing happy couples made me feel happy.

  “Hey,” said Cass, smiling. I was glad to see her cheerful. Even though I knew she’d be okay now, the whole incident with her knee had been terrifying, and I knew it was still painful.

  “Where’d you come from?” asked Marnie, seeing my foil-covered and now empty dish of roast vegetables.

  “EAC potluck,” I said. “I went with Brianne. We’re official girlfriends right now.”

  Both girls let out a cheer of excitement. I sat down across from them, feeling lighter myself. It was nice when other people were happy on your behalf.

  “Fuck yeah,” said Marnie. “Dude, that’s awesome.”

  “It’s about time,” said Cass, smiling kindly.

  “Yeah. I’m going to be her date to her cousin’s wedding, so I guess I’ll meet her parents,” I said, glad I finally had someone else to share my news with. After the knee incident, I’d become a lot closer to Cass and Marnie.

  “That’s so exciting, oh my gosh,” said Cass.

  “Yeah, I’m uh, I’m really excited. It’s my first real relationship.”

  “Ah, young love,” said Marnie. We all burst into giggles.

  “I have some work to do, so I guess I’ll head up. But let me know if you need me for anything,” I said, standing up again and putting the dish in the sink.

  “Of course,” said Cass, giving me a small wave as I went up the stairs.

  I felt at peace for the first time in a long time as I settled into bed to do my readings for class.

  It was a good feeling.

  13

  BRIANNE

  Seeing Nicole had put me in a bad mood that lasted a while and was compounded by the fact that Robinson had emailed me back to say they didn’t have any open positions. I was furious, but there was no one I could really direct my anger toward. The situation wasn’t anyone’s fault.

  The one good thing was that my workload was easing up significantly. It was weird how work tended to come in waves. I found myself with a lot more free time, and since I only had a couple of final projects to complete, I was good to go.

  I had no idea what to do with all this newfound free time except tell Kaitlyn that I wanted to get some practice in. I was serious about playing with her. Participating in the school orchestra, and then doing individual study had been fun, but it hadn’t freed my musical expression like jamming with Kaitlyn had.

  I knew that hanging out with her would make me feel a lot better. And maybe I could invite Margie to a practice session.

  I texted Kaitlyn and told her to let me know when she wanted to practice. I didn’t know whether she’d recruited other band members or not, since I’d pretty much fallen off the map as far as the group was concerned. I didn’t even know how the performance at Shadetree had gone—if it had happened at all.

  Maybe I could still get in on the performance, if there was still enough time to practice. It would be a little tricky with graduation happening, but… it wasn’t like my parents were flying in from California like some peoples’ parents were. They lived an hour away and the whole affair would just be a quiet dinner with them after the ceremony.

  Still amazed that my planner showed that I didn’t have much to do now, I decided to take a nap. And before I fell asleep, I was inundated with thoughts of Margie and what I wanted us to do the next time we were together…

  I woke up in a haze, realizing when I grabbed my phone that I hadn’t set an alarm. Kaitlyn had texted me back and called me, and when I noticed that, I immediately woke up, remembering everything.

  I’d slept for nearly three hours, catching up on all the missed sleep from the past few months. Apparently, Kaitlyn was practicing in half an hour.

  I quickly got up, washed my face and brushed my teeth, grabbed my violin case, got ready, and left.

  As soon as I reached the end of the street, I stopped to text Margie, giving her Kaitlyn’s address and telling her that she could swing by to hang out if she wanted.

  When I got to Kaitlyn’s, she was already set up, strumming on her guitar and taking notes. Emily was on her computer, probably doing work. They looked up and waved, and I put my violin case down to get started.

  “How have you been?” asked Kaitlyn. “You haven’t even been coming to lunch consistently.”

  “I know,” I said, sighing. “I was ridiculously busy, but now that finals are pretty much coming to a close, I don’t know what to do with myself. I have too much free time.”

  “And then graduation,” said Emily, who was in my class. “It’s going to be crazy. Is Margie graduating too?”

  “No, she’s a junior,” I said, glad that I’d been planning to stay in Rosebridge already. I wasn’t sure I could do a long distance relationship.

  “Word,” said Kaitlyn. “Anyway… Remember those songs you worked on? I feel like if we practice hard this week, we could be ready for the next Shadetree show. Professor Barley said we could do it.”

  “Awesome,” I said, thrilled to know that I would get to perform after all. I would certainly still be around in June, and I probably wouldn’t have a job yet. This thought cheered me up a little bit. After being buried with work over the past… year, I would have a stretch of blissful free time.

  I tuned my violin and applied rosin to my bow, and moved a chair into a comfortable position next to Kaitlyn, so we could both see the sheets with our notes. It felt good to go through the whole set up ritual. It helped me get in the zone.

  “Okay so, obviously, we’re going to improvise a bit,” said Kaitlyn.

  “Right.” I suddenly felt a little nervous, rusty, even. Improvisation was different from being one of many voices in an orchestra. The violin was such a vocal instrument, and if I made a mistake, it would be much more obvious.

  Kaitlyn tapped out a beat with her foot and started strumming and humming. It was a pleasant tune—most of ours were, since it was nearing summer and we were playing outside, where people just wanted pleasant music while they were passing by or focusing on something else.

  I played some experimental notes, my fingers pressing the strings down and my other arm sliding the bow across the strings. The reverberation from my violin was subtle, but I loved hearing it. I loved everything about this instrument and what I could do with it. Truth be told, I thought of it a little like a pet.

  As I kept playing, I was able to relax, and Kaitlyn and I fell into a good groove together. I’d lost t
rack of time, my soul in tune with only the music. Emily had closed her computer and was leaning back on the couch with her eyes closed. She was smiling, though, listening to us without distraction.

  Kaitlyn’s humming turned into singing; I hadn’t realized she’d written lyrics for this song. It was beautiful. It was so thrilling to be a part of something greater, even with just one other person.

  A knock on the door interrupted us, and Emily jumped up to get it.

  It was Margie.

  “Hey,” she said, waving. “I texted you, Brianne.”

  “Oh jeez, sorry,” I said. “I guess I got lost in the music.”

  Margie smiled and she and Emily sat down on the couch. “Please, keep playing,” said Margie. “Don’t let me interrupt you.”

  I still had some of the energy going, so I jumped back into what I was doing. Margie seemed at ease, and I felt comfortable with Kaitlyn and Emily’s company. It seemed cozy, somehow, just the four of us in this apartment.

  We quickly got our groove back. Now that Margie was here, I couldn’t help but glance over at her, pleased to see how rapt she was. I didn’t think I was that good, but then, what did I know? Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open slightly. She was really into it.

  Kaitlyn and I came to a natural stopping point and decided to take a break. I stretched my arms and hands and went to sit next to Margie, putting an arm around her while Kaitlyn walked around to stretch her legs.

  “You two are seriously great,” said Margie. “I mean, I knew Kaitlyn was already great, but when you play together, it’s awesome.”

  “Thanks,” I said, truly glad for the compliment. “We’re going to be playing at Shadetree next month. Are you going to be here?”

  Margie’s face fell. “I’ll probably have to go home for the summer. Find an internship or job or something.”

  “Why not find one here in Rosebridge?” asked Kaitlyn, who was now standing in front of us. “You like animals, right? There’s a number of animal rescues and even a zoo.”

  “Hmmm.” Margie pondered. “I don’t know how I’ll be able to afford to live here over the summer, though, especially if it’s unpaid.”