The Perfect Beat

TOGETHER AGAIN

I woke up to my phone ringing. My eyes were partially closed and I was still sleepy. I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. I could hear my name over and over again till I heard someone say. ‘You’re still in bed? We’re going to be late’
    I couldn’t recognize his voice and it’s weird that the voice was coming from the other side of my bed. I opened my eyes and turned around and saw Damien standing, starring at me.
   I panicked! I was in my pajamas, my hair is… is a mess and I haven’t brushed my teeth yet!. I asked Damien why he was here and said that he had been talking on the phone for at least 1 minute, to let me know that he was outside waiting for me. He could hear me snoring so he rang the door bell, he said that my dad let him in and told him to go to my room and wake me up.
   ‘Well, you need to go down stairs first. I’ll be ready in just 5 minutes’ I said while getting out of my bed. Damien about to walk out of my room when he said ‘Oh before I could forget’ He went back to me and said to close my eyes. I hope this isn’t a prank.
   ‘Open your eyes’
   I opened my eyes and saw him holding a daisy with a note attached to it. I accepted the flower and read the note
   ‘Thank you for everything Emma’ As I read the note I found the flower very familiar ‘Yeah, I never got the time to buy you a tulip so I just picked a flower in your front yard.’ He was scratching his head while saying those words. I said to him that it was okay so he went down stairs and waited for me in the living room.
   I got ready and went down stairs. We rode on his bike on the way to school. As we arrived in school I could see that everyone was looking at us and a girl approached Damien and said glad you’re okay. Damien gave her a smile and grabbed my shoulder ‘yeah all because I had the best nurse in town’ I blushed for an instant, I could tell that the girl was looking at me and was annoyed with what she saw, but I don’t mind at all. She walked away and headed to her friends.
   ‘So danceless song bird shall we go?’
   Okay, that’s kind of insulting but he’s just so cute when he looks at me like that. I turned my eyes away from him and said ‘yeah we should go, bad vocal choreographer’ He grabbed me close and said ‘hey, I can sing wonderfully. Just listen to this!’ He sang a sound I haven’t heard yet I was covering my ears he was shouting insanely while the both of us we’re walking to class. When were close to our room It finally stopped and I looked at him. While he said ‘nailed it’ I looked at him unimpressed and said ‘Ahm it’s like you used a saw rather than a hammer to nail it’ I laughed so hard and Damien got silent. ‘Oh come on I was only joking’ I exclaimed ‘I know you were. I have the most angelic voice in the whole world’ He said while making random posses as if he was singing. ‘Yeah good luck with that’ I said. We went to class and spent the rest of the school day together.
Had lunch at the cafeteria at our table; went to the roof top getting the view of the field on our vacant time. Our class ended earlier than expected because all of the teachers had an emergency meeting. It was exactly 3 o’clock when I looked at my wrist watch then Damien uttered ‘You never got to see the whole city right? I turned to him and nodded ‘I want to show you something but we need to grab something first at my house. He held my hand and rode me on his bike on the way to his house, when we arrived he opened the garage door and there I saw multiple bikes. I stood in awe, not having to find the words to say the moment when he turned the lights on and I turned to the other side which was a shelf filled with medals, trophies and pictures of him in competitions. ‘Yeah, something you don’t know about me. Tada!’ he uttered. I got closer to the pictures and saw that he once had won the championship four times ‘You’re sick! I didn’t knew you competed in these events! I mean four time champion? I can ride a bike but this is legit insane!’ I turned to him and he gave an embarrassed giggle ‘I thought you wouldn’t be amazed with it’ I grabbed his shoulder and shook him ‘are you crazy who wouldn’t?’ he paused and exclaimed ‘Brianna -- she said that it was lame and I don’t know why she hated it’ I let go of him and turned to his trophies ‘Just look at these! who cares what she thinks, what’s important is that you’re happy doing it. And she’s just blind because she lost someone as amazing as you’ I said loudly, as I looked back at him he was holding a bell and clinking it ‘Thank you for thinking that way of me you are absolutely the bestest friend I ever had and for that you deserve this’ he handed me the bell that he was holding ‘a purple bike bell’ I said with a confused tone of voice ‘match column A to column B’ he pointed at the spot where his bikes where placed then I saw one that was painted with the same color as the bell that I was holding. My eyes widened and was looking back and forth at him and the bike then finally said ‘No,way. You’re joking!’ he shrugged and I immediately gave him a hug and went to the most beautiful bike that I could have ever laid eyes on. He slowly went up to me and put on a sliver helmet with purple streaks on my head and said ‘What do you say we give it a test drive and I’ll show you around the city’ my face lit up and I excitedly said ‘would I!’.
We rode out into the city still wearing our school uniforms, maybe that was the reason people keep staring at us thinking we cut class. Damien showed me the museum, the natural park and there was also this shop that sells home made ice cream; of course I’m not letting that chance slip so we bought two. After we ate he said to follow him because we were going somewhere that he knows I would love to see. After a few minutes my legs were giving up because the way was up the hill. I needed to catch my breath and I sat on the side walk. Damien noticed because he immediately stopped and went back for me. He got off his bike and asked if I was okay and told him that I could barely feel my legs, he then helped me back up and told me to just get on the bike. As he told, I got on and I was surprised as he placed his hand on my back and told me to just keep my balance. He pushed me up the hill and to be honest I was getting a little giddy with all of the butterflies that I was feeling inside my stomach. Screw it maybe even making me feel the whole damn zoo because of his concern and sweet gesture to me. I couldn’t take this intense feeling that I was getting out of focus and that I couldn’t balance myself anymore so after a few minutes I told him that I’ll just walk up the hill from here. He didn’t rode up ahead, he kept with my pace and I really did appreciate his gesture. When we got to the top I was mesmerized with what I saw, seeing the whole city skyline was so beautiful. ‘This isn’t even the best part, let’s wait a little more and sit down’ I heard Damien approaching from behind me. We sat down and after 10 minutes we were listening to music using my earphones as we watched a golden sky appear.
‘Oh Ian, It’s beautiful. Thanks for taking me here’ I said while I shed a tear. ‘You know it would be more beautiful when it’s at night with all the lights in the city it’s just captivating’ Damien said. I looked over at him and let out a sigh before saying ‘I would love to see that but we have to get going, my dad doesn’t know that we had an early dismissal and his phone is probably dead because I can’t contact him. Maybe some other time?’ he nodded and got up while saying ‘take a photo at least, so you could remember this day’ I looked at my phone and opened my camera, I smiled as I caught a glimpse of him while ringing my bike’s bell ‘You know, I have a better idea why don’t you come here and we’ll take a picture together’ He instantly straightened his posture and agreed to my idea. ‘okay, say cheese ...’

‘Shutter’

    Damien pushed me all the way home as I rode on my bike because I stupidly sprained my ankle when I tripped on a rock while heading to my bike. Damian stayed at home for a while because my dad said he wanted to have another dance off with him while I was sitting on the couch with an ice pack on my foot, I was the judge and obviously I let my dad win, again. It’s nice to see him so happy whenever he wins. It was already 6:30 o’clock and me and my dad saw him out. ‘You sure you can’t stay for dinner?’ my dad asked Damien ‘No really, I need to go home because my uncle made his special boeuf bourgignon he’d be pissed if I didn’t make it in time for dinner but thanks though.' My dad said that he should come by for dinner sometime and Damien said that he would love to. Damien waved goodbye to the both of us then rode home.
Everything went so fast. With Damien around it feels like time is ticking so fast we would message each other every night before going to bed, he even gave me a curfew just for me not to be late for school and by the time I opened my eyes it was morning again. Another day with him, with his smile, with his gentle-manliness and with his company.