Melody's Whispers (discontinued for a rewrite)

Ominous Thoughts and New Boots

"Okay, so if your mother turned around and decided to pay you the time of day out of the blue, you'd trust it?" Em shrugged her shoulders at me. "You can't tell me someone can change in an afternoon."
"Fair, I guess." We sat together in the square just watching the world pass us by. I picked the skin around my nails. "You okay?" I turned my eyes down away from Em. "You've been picking at your nails all afternoon." She paused a moment. "You mentioned once... the curse can act up when you're stressed out... is it a curse thing?" I shook my head.
"More an anxiety thing..." I mumbled. "It becomes a curse thing when they hurt." Em leant her head on my shoulder, taking my right hand in hers.
"Can I try something? I've learned something new." I smiled lightly watching the picked off skin heal in her hands. "I'm going to join the Healing Track at school." She told me. "I wanna do what I can to support you... and if I can take some of the hurt away..." I kissed the top of her head lightly before resting my cheek on her. Her face went bright red, I'm sure my face was a similar colour.
"thank you... that feels nice..."
"excuse me..." we both looked down to the kid in front of us. "You're the music girl. Can you play?" Em nudged my shoulder with a smile. I smiled down to the child.
"Sure thing, kiddo."

I kicked my boots off, feeling the pavement under my feet. The kids in the square danced and played together, adults gathered around to listen. Some began to clap along, others tapped a foot in time. Em sat on the bench watching with a smile. I found myself skipping around the square with the children, before long I'd found myself enjoying their presence and laughter. I skipped around to the other side of the square and held my hand out to Em, briefly pausing my play.
"My lady." It was like everyone vanished, I couldn't care less about their presence. Starting to play again, she danced around me, I kept one eye fixed to Em as she began to smile then laugh. She lit up the whole square. "Watch this," I whispered as I skipped to the middle of the square, clearing a large enough space for myself. Tracing a circle on the pavement with my foot. light bubbles lifted from the spell circle. The children stopped to marvel. One finally stopped to touch a bubble, which floated in her face. The squeal of delight filled the square as the bubble popped sending flower petals flying. Another bopped bubble, confetti and glitter. A true showman at heart. I played for probably an hour, barefoot in the street. I had to stop, putting away my mandolin I took a quick bow for the crowd I'd gathered. The children begged me to continue. "Sorry, kiddo. My fingers hurt a little from pressing the strings. Maybe another time, okay?" That was good enough. My fingertips had gone red on my left hand from playing.

"When are you gonna get new boots?" Em said with a sigh as I tightened the laces. I shrugged my shoulders at her. "There's only so may times you can glue them back together. Surely by now, there's more glue than shoe there."
"I could probably fix them a couple more times," I told her.
"I'm taking you shoe shopping, while we still have daylight left." Em dragged me through the market. I'd grown accustomed to buying whatever boots I could, they had to lace up. Preferably brown, brown boots go with almost anything. I'd never thought too much about them before. Em picked a bunch of different styles. I tried all off them. They just felt a bit much for me. I preferred the simple brown boots with laces. Em made me take a high end boot, claiming they'd last longer than the cheap ones. I felt bad, she refused to let me pay. "Burn those old boots." Em told me.
"honestly, the glue would probably release some kind of toxic gas," I laughed to myself. "These do feel alright though... they need breaking in." I raised to my toes a couple times in the new boots. "I really needed this today... thank you."
"You're a big hit with the town when you're not a wanted criminal," Em laughed. I flicked my braided hair over my shoulder with a sassy smirk.
"I'm just that good," I joked. "No, but seriously, I was always popular... but I can have a bit of fun with it now. That's the difference." Em smiled and took my hand, weaving her fingers with mine.
"I'm glad you can have fun." She tucked a loose hair behind my ear with a shy smile. We continued to do a little window shopping spending as much time as we could together. We knew we were running out of time.
"I'm meant to be home by dinner," I sighed, "and I don't think I'll get away with staying at your place on a school night. I'll walk you home."