Walls // Jalex

Seven: A Daydream Away

Alex is lazily strumming his guitar, humming along to the melody in his head, when Jack walks through the door. He stops for a second, bracing himself to be screamed at, but Jack just sits on his bed.

He's about to start playing again when he hears "let's start the project." He tries not to let the surprise show on his face. He was expecting to be yelled at again, to have to put up more of a fight to get Jack to work with him. He didn't expect him to just... give in.

His first instinct is to ask Jack if he's okay. He ignores that instinct, knowing it would lead to getting screamed at. His second instinct is to play the guitar medley he'd thought of, to see what Jack thought about it.

"What do you think of this?" he asks quietly before strumming through the chord progression, the sound echoing around the room.

"I-if you don't like it, that's okay. I know you're better with the guitar and lyrics are usually my forte, but I was strumming random chords, fiddling with my guitar, and I came up with it. It's how I help myself calm down when I'm angry or upset." He says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"But, anyway, we can use it or we don't have to, it's up to you. I'll also let you take over on the guitar side from here on out. We also don't even necessarily have to use guitar, I just know you're good at it and figured it could be nice? Oh, I guess I should've said this first; I figured our composition can be a song. Since I write songs and you play guitar, I thought it was the easiest route to go."

Jack nods, listening to Alex nervously rambling. He actually really likes Alex's guitar playing but he can't admit to that. "It's okay but pretty damn basic. Every song uses the C, G, Am, F progression and adding different strumming patterns doesn't make it unique." he mutters and grabs his own guitar.

He sits down on the floor, keeping a distance from Alex. "work on the lyrics." he says, rather demandingly and starts fiddling with different notes and styles. "I only have my acoustic so something lowkey is going to be easier. Write lyrics that'll work with a slow tempo okay?"

He continues messing around with his guitar, occasionally getting frustrated and stopping. This goes on for a solid hour until he comes up with something he likes. - D, Bm, G, A, D, A played with a down down down down up up down down up down up strumming pattern.
He plays it a few times over before looking at Alex.

"I think that could be the chorus. I'm waiting to figure out the verses and bridge. What do you got?" he asks, setting his guitar down and looking at Alex with his arms crossed.

Alex nods, doing his best not to take Jack's words to heart, knowing how many incredible songs there are that use those chords.

"Okay" he says quietly, not wanting to do anything to upset Jack. They're just starting to work together without fighting, and he doesn't need to do anything to get in the way of that.

He starts to write and the words come pouring out. They're based on a fantasy, sure, but they flow steadily onto the paper. He glances at Jack every so often, looking at the way his facial expressions soften when he's playing guitar. He really enjoys listening to Jack play. Ugh, why does he have to be talented? I should've known he was a musician, I can never resist musicians. he thinks as he writes.

"That's really nice" he murmurs, sending Jack a soft, non-committal smile. "I think that would sound good for the chorus. I have lyrics for the first verse and the chorus. I'm going to sing through them based on the chords you played for the chorus and what I came up with for us to maybe use for the intro."

He takes a deep breath, steeling himself for judgment before he starts to sing. He closes his eyes so he doesn't have to look at Jack's face as he sings; he's not sure he could bare whatever facial expressions he's positive Jack will give him.

I wish you could see your face right now
'cause you're grinning like a fool,
and we're sitting on your kitchen floor
on a Tuesday afternoon.

He smiles a little as he sings, picturing the scene.

It doesn't matter when we get back
to doing what we do,
'cause right now could last forever
just as long as I'm with you.

He gets into the song, putting his heart and soul into his singing, letting his voice ring out.

But you're just a daydream away,
I wouldn't know what to say if I had you.
And I'll keep you a daydream away,
just watch from a safe place so I never have to lose.

He opens his eyes, looking at Jack again. "I was thinking something like that. What do you think?"

Jack listens to Alex sing, at first transfixed by how into the music he gets. It reminds him of himself. The way that he feels when he plays guitar and the whole world just disappears around him.

He looks at Alex and shrugs when he's done, not looking overjoyed but not upset either.

"Yeah, that's good." He says. If it were anyone else he would've been over the moon with the beauty of the lyrics but this was Alex. He was so used to hating Alex that everything he did Jack instantly didn't care for. He was practically blinded.

"Okay, so we can put my progression with the.." He takes the sheet, already forgetting the words. "day dream away part. I'll do something different for the first section. Maybe like.." he starts making a pretty mixture of C, Am, B, F, and G in a way that fits in well with the feel of the song and what he's picked up about Alex's vocal range.

"Let me know when you got more." He says with a cheeky grin, not caring for criticism on his part.

Jack watches Alex leave the room and shakes his head, wondering what's got him so upset. He takes the sheet of lyrics and looks it over again. It hits a different way when he's able to just be with it. Sit with the words rather than hear them through Alex. It's then that it hits him how much he likes it. He rereads it over again, really digesting the lyrics. He finds himself tearing up.

"Ew." He mutters to himself as he wipes away a stray tear. He puts his guitar on his bed and sits beside it, staring at the wall and thinking. It's then that his eye catches Alex's notebook. Out of sheer nosiness he goes and looks inside, watching the door to make sure he doesn't come back. He finds more lyrics with the title Just The Way I'm Not scribbled at the top. He reads them over and gets some ideas immediately.

Jack takes a photo of it with his phone and tucks the book back where he found it. He sits back on his bed and looks at the photo, messing with notes on his guitar.

He gets frustrated a bit that he doesn't have his electric but he makes it work. As he's reading over the words and singing them in his head he wonders what it's about. Who hurt this boy enough to write like this? but his shakes the thought. He doesn't care.. just having fun with making music.. thats it.

Alex eventually makes his way back to their dorm, tired and frustrated. He sat in that chair for hours, staring into space, trying to make sense of the things he feels for Jack on top of the feelings he has because of the fact that Jack hates him.

He walks into the room and collapses on the bed, not bothering to address Jack at all or mention anything about where he's been over the last few hours. Why would he? Jack doesn't care.