𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 (𝙵𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙱𝚡𝙱)

Track 51 | 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵

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Ever since Ari got that hearing aid last week, he's been quiet. Too quiet. Distant, unresponsive, tired—to name a few other adjectives.

I don't like it. I never like seeing him unhappy. I can't blame him, though, he's been dealt a rough hand recently (which is an incredible understatement). The worst part is that I don't exactly know how to be there for him. I try to comfort him whenever I get the chance but he doesn't acknowledge it.

It feels wrong to say it... but I miss him. I miss his playful attitude, his quips and jokes, his laugh... his smile especially.

...But then I realize that I'm really only missing a certain way he used to act, and not Ari himself. Sometimes I forget that I'd only met him two months ago. There's so many sides to him that I have yet to see, this being one of them.

"Okay, I think that's everything," Levi announced, hunched over in his chair, his face an inch away from the computer screen.

"Are you sure? You've double-checked?" Rian questioned as Levi's eyes rolled over the screen for the fiftieth time, scanning the page like a machine.

"Let's see," Levi hummed, dragging his finger against the mousepad, the cursor hovering over each audio file downloaded onto the email attachments. "'Your Side', check, 'Naive', check, 'She's A Gun', check, 'Someone Else', check, and '17', check. Yeah, all the final demos are there."

"Alright, send it," Rian gave the confirmation, sitting back in his chair contently.

Sitting across from them at Rian's dining room table, I observed the way Levi froze up like a disc hitting a scratch in a DVD player. 

Hovering over them was Eden, who paced back and forth behind the two with a ham sandwich in her hand, stolen from Rian's fridge. She stared at the computer screen, waiting for the moment Levi would click the blue 'send' button—which never came. The awkward pause dragged on for so long that even Torrence, sat comfortably in the far corner of the kitchen, looked up from his phone.

"...I'm nervous," said Levi finally.

"Just press send, Lev," Eden comforted the frenetic fox. She then pointed to herself, Torrence, and Rian in referral to: "We'll be late to Lizzy's thing."

"Do you think the little message I wrote is fine?" Levi turned to Eden for counseling. "Is it too formal?"

"It's fine, Lev," Rian answered for her.

"Maybe we should listen to the demos one more time. Just in case."

"We've listened to them a thousand times, we know they're ready," I assured Levi in response to his worrying. "You know they're ready."

"I'm sorry, I'm—I'm nervous."

"Why? You think the demos are shit?" Torrence teased backhandedly, not bothering to look up from his phone as he texted away—likely Fiona.

"I'm not saying that!"

Eden placed a hand on Levi's shoulder. "He's teasing, Lev."

"I still think we should add me playing the saxophone somewhere in there," Torrence shook his head with dissatisfaction.

"We'll find a place for it in the future, Torrence," I spoke right after Torrence's disgruntled complaint, overlapping Rian's voice: "Why are you eating my sandwich? That's mine."