Silent Treatment (boyxboy)

twenty two : songs, sweaters, stars, snuggles, and smooches

[head's up, the link provided is my cover of paramore's "the only exception". please play when said so for ambiance & effect. i hope i don't suck at singing & that you like it. if you don't like it, don't worry. i don't like myself either. ok you can read now. go.]

Biddy's PoV:

I sat on the love seat in the living room, with a cup of hot chocolate in my hands. I looked around at the guests, strewn about around the house. The sun was setting in Lemon town. Ricky and Ami left a little earlier so they can celebrate at Ricky's house. Ricky forgot he still had his cousins to accompany and apparently Ami wanted to know her new boyfriend's family. I looked out the living room's window to the backyard. Salem was chaperoning for the children and he was actually really good with kids. And he was really good looking. He looked magical under the fairy lights my dad put out to decorate for the Christmas season. They were hanging all above the backyard, making them look like stars in the night sky. I smiled as Salem started chasing the children. He eventually had to take a break, so he switched his shift with an adult. My eyes followed him until he disappeared behind the wall which was the kitchen.

Despite all the synchronized Christmas songs playing softly at almost every corner of the house, my father had still set up the karaoke. A lot of the adults were singing songs from the past. I knew a few songs but I all did was sit there, silently humming along. Salem came from the kitchen and silently sat on the floor right next to me. He was softly singing along to a lot of the lyrics on the screen. My father seemed to notice him singing and asked him if he'd like to give it a try. He was hesitant at first but he gave in. But instead of using the karaoke system, he asked my father if we had a guitar. Carr had a guitar and fortunately, he was heading to his room to grab something so my father asked if he could grab his guitar too.

Carr agreed and after a minute, after a song had finished, Salem took the guitar and a mic and prepared himself to perform. He adjusted the mic on the mic stand shyly coughed and check-1-2'd it. I smiled at how adorable he was. Everyone quiet down and had their eyes on him.

"Hi..." he said while looking around the room, "Merry Christmas!" He looked at me in particular, as if he was actually greeting me.

"My name is Salem and I'm gonna, um, perform a couple of songs for you guys..." He hesitantly looked down at the guitar and his fingers aligned theirselves accordingly.

"My first song is a song from Paramore," he explained. I perked up because I loved Paramore. Salem started strumming the guitar and, oh boy, it was already sweet. I lowered my head and listened to his sweet strumming. Before he sang, he announced the song, "This is The Only Exception..." and then he sung. I looked up in amazement.

[ok you can play the video now]

Let me tell you, he had an angelic voice. His harmonics had me hypnotized. His sound was so silky & smooth. He eventually ended the song and I didn't even wanted him to. There were cheers and claps at every corner of the house. I joined in and Salem smiled at me.

"One more! One more!" I heard a lady call from the crowd. His eyes widened in realization and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. The was the same piece of paper that I found in his binder when it was accidentally swapped with mine. It had an amazing sketch of me and a couple stanzas of sentences I hadn't bothered reading since they were a bit faded... I returned it to him without saying anything because... I didn't know what to say. He had skill, which surprised
me! I thought he was a visual artist but knowing what he just did, singing a song and playing guitar, he must be Mr. Know-It-All.

He unfolded the piece of paper and put it on the pedestal that came with the karaoke. He replaced the karaoke book with the piece of paper. I wanted to see if the sketch was still there, hoping he hadn't erased it but it wasn't visible behind the back of the stand. He coughed into the mic.