Bea & the Broken Record

Chapter 26: Easier With You

Playing for my peers was something I liked and hated at the same time.

It was different because the people that knew me best were in the crowd and I could feel their eyes judging everything I did. I guess you could say it was a good thing I didn't care.

But the Senior Party was a place where I wasn't going ask myself what other people thought of me. I was going to play and have fun as my last days in Griffin, Pennsylvania.

"Asher." I heard Bea's voice call throughout the crowd. Not many other people looked at her except for me, but when I did, I noticed how different she looked. Bea was looking extremely cute wearing a red skirt and white shirt tucked into the top of it with her converse - I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. Her cheeks were pink and she had her beautiful hair pulled into a ponytail. She was stressed. She always did that when she was stressed.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked her once she was close enough. Her eyes looked left and right before she squared them on my own.

"I spent an evening with both of my parents, that's what's wrong," she said sourly. I crinkled my eyebrows and held the side of her face with my hand.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked as quiet as I could although the bowling alley was loud already, packed full with our graduating class.

"No, you need to go." She took my hand off of her face and leaned up to kiss me. I searched her face for some answers but as always, she had them hidden behind her smile.

I kissed her one more time to make sure she knew I was actually there - and she could actually talk to me. She pursed her lips and waved me off, giving me a small smile of reassurance.

I made my way up on stage with my band and looked around me. My band mates looked at me with smile wider than their faces as they readied their instruments. I looked down at mine and placed my fingers on the starting note, listening to the crowd again. Bea was giving me a forced smile, I could tell, but instead of focusing on the problem at hand, I strummed the guitar in my hands and began to play.

Everyone was dancing and having a good time from what I observed. I searched the crowd countless of times in search for Bea, wondering where she was and what she was doing. I eventually found her in the middle of the crowd that stood in front of the stage. She glanced around her while she dug around in the pockets of her skirt.

I could read her lips say "hello" and the space between her eyebrows crinkled together. I had to force myself to look away so I didn't forget my lyrics as I watched Bea walk away from the stage.

No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't hip off the stage and chase after her. My band depended on me a great amount. I couldn't lose my brothers - but I also couldn't lose Bea.

The show took a semi-agonizing half hour to end after Bea left. I had looked for her to come back into the room after she'd left, but she never showed up. I didn't waste time getting off the stage after thanking everyone for listening. No one seemed to notice me disappearing until I was no longer in sight. As I squeezed through the bodies of my classmates, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Thinking it may have been Bea trying to get a hold of me, I pulled it out and saw it was a text from Grayson asking me where I went.

I told him I was looking for Bea and that I would talk to them later in the night.

Once I finally reached the back of the room where the bar was, I glanced to my left to find Bea sitting at an empty table. She was turning her phone around in her hands while resting her cheek on her hand.

I took a seat across from her and gave her a smile when she looked up at me. "I've never seen someone look so sad after they graduated high school," I told her. She shook her head and looked back down at her phone to avoid my eyes. "What's wrong, Bea?"