The Way We Learned to Love ✓

19 - liam

march 2018 : 2 years and 6 months ago

Liam really tried to avoid the practice rooms in the music department if he could help it.

The one he was currently in, not much larger than his closet, was stuffy and bland and had a weird sticky spot on the floor where it appeared that someone had spilled coffee and put in very minimal effort to clean it up. Through the brick walls, he could hear other students practicing in the adjacent rooms, some of them sounding great and some of them...less so. There was no real reason for him to practice here in this uninspiring jail cell of a room on this upright piano that was starting to see the wear and tear of dozens of students using it daily when he had his beautiful baby grand all to himself at home.

Other than that he was lonely.

Hiding out in this tiny room on his own wasn't going to help him much, but he tried to convince himself that having other people in the vicinity was a step in the right direction. Natasha was the only friend he made after his fall from grace in Caroline's circle, so once everything ended with her six months ago he was once again left with just himself.

He went back to therapy and stopped himself from sinking as low as he was in March and April, but his winter wasn't nearly as productive as he intended for it to be. Liam had never experienced seasonal depression before, but his year had been such an emotionally-taxing journey of highs and lows that by the end of it his brain apparently decided that it was tired of doing anything.

Southern winters were bleak. The weather loved to be torturous and stay cold but just too warm for snow for months. More days than not, that left everyone trudging around through bitterly cold rain and puddles while the temperature hovered somewhere around forty degrees. All he ever felt like doing was hole up at home with a mug of Jo's coffee and move as little as possible.

Now that March had finally come and there was a hint of spring in the air, he was determined to spend less time locked up alone. But he still didn't have any friends. He was still figuring out that part.

There was a sudden knock on the door. An unfamiliar boy, lanky with lots of freckles and a head of dark blonde curls, hesitantly peered inside.

"Oh, uh, did you book this room or something?" Liam asked awkwardly, glancing down at his watch. He hadn't thought he was running late but didn't have any other explanation for the stranger's arrival.

"No, sorry," the boy said, sounding genuinely apologetic for his intrusion. He opened the door fully and leaned his back against the frame. "I actually had a question for you."

"Um-" Oh no. This better not have been someone he met while drunk at some party with Caroline and was supposed to remember.

"We haven't met," the boy quickly clarified. Phew. "I'm Bennett."

That was great and all, but Liam still had no clue where this was going. "Nice to meet you..."

Bennett quickly explained himself. "I'm in one of the ensembles-" All of the commercial music majors were required to join an ensemble of other musicians and prepare a concert for the end of the semester. It was basically the school version of starting a garage band, but everyone pretended it was a lot cooler than it actually was. "-And we need someone on keys. Our last guy dropped out."

"So..." Liam was so used to not having anything to do with the other music students that it took him a second to put two and two together. "You want me to join?"

"Yeah," Bennett shrugged. "You're the best, so we figured we'd ask you first."

The best? Liam doubted that was true, but he didn't realize that anyone had noticed him at all. He wasn't taking any classes this semester for his piano minor besides his weekly lessons, so he was only ever around to practice on his own and even that was just for a couple of hours a week.

"I'm pretty sure that's Oliver."

Bennett made a face. "Sure, if you want to be told what you're doing wrong every five seconds."

Liam couldn't say he was wrong. Oliver was a senior piano major who acted like he was the best thing to ever happen to music and everyone else was beneath him. Liam stayed as far away from him as possible.

"Okay, fair. But isn't that, like, against the rules?" he questioned. You couldn't just add a class in the middle of the semester.

Bennett didn't appear to be very fazed. "Technically? Maybe," he admitted. "But since the class isn't for credit and none of us are paying for it, no one's gonna stop you from just...showing up. You don't have to decide right now or anything. But it's pretty fun and, uh, we're kind of screwed if we don't find someone."

There was an itch at the back of Liam's mind nudging him to go for it, so he made a decision before he had time to overthink it. "Sure, I'm in."

A flurry of stress tightened his insides as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He was way in over his head, right? It would be a big time commitment, he hadn't touched a keyboard in ages, and he would have to rush to learn songs that everyone else had been working on for two months.

But it was also an opportunity for social interaction while doing something he happened to enjoy and it was practically being handed to him on a silver platter. Despite how much it intimidated him, it would be stupid to say no.

Bennett raised his eyebrows, evidently surprised that he got a yes out of Liam so quickly. "In that case, there's this party tomorrow if you wanna come meet some people before class-"

He started listing off people in the ensemble that would be there - Ezra, Adam, Izzy, Robin - but Liam's mind was hung up on the word party.

"I don't really do parties," he said lightly but internally had to push against the sudden urge to back out altogether. He disliked immensely that his brain immediately began nagging him to tack anymore onto the end of that sentence and elaborate, as if he owed an explanation.

"That's cool." Bennett paused. "But, uh, just to be clear, it's not like a party party. It's like a watch-nerdy-movies-and-eat-a-bunch-of-junk-food kind of party."

Liam's anxiety fizzled out, but for some reason he felt the need to apologize. Of course he had to go and make a big deal out of it when there was nothing to worry about. He hoped he didn't look embarrassed. "Oh...sure. Yeah, I can be there."

The two of them talked for a few more minutes so that Liam could get Bennett's number and a vague idea of what they were going to need him to do. Although everything was straightforward enough, he was already nervous to show up on Monday as the new kid. He could only hope that going to this party tomorrow and meeting everyone before he had to play in front of them would help with that somewhat.

Once Bennett had to leave for his next class, Liam turned back to the piano and resumed his practice, his racing thoughts mellowing out more and more with each note he played.

He didn't have the slightest clue how much his life was going to change tomorrow. 

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*side eye emoji*

I can't remember the last time I wrote a chapter this short, but I honestly just didn't feel a need to add extra filler stuff that wasn't necessary. 

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