The MagCon Ships II: In Time (Shaylor)(BoyxBoy)

Chapter 40 - Beautiful Things

[Picture: Lizzy Monroe. Video: Beautiful Things - Tori Kelly]

I wake up to the sound of my alarm, I open my eyes, the orange light from the rising sun seeps through the blinds. I reach over to grab my phone, 5:10 AM, enough time. I pull the covers away, slipping on jogging pants, careful not to wake my roommate up. I walk over to the fridge and grab the shaker filled with a good chocolate protein shake. I chug it down, grab my keys, then head out of the school building for my daily jog around the city.

So far, college has been fun. It's not too stressful and definitely not too easy. My adjustment period was hell, I was homesick and I missed everyone I left back home. I'd stay awake talking to my friends or quietly Skype calling Taylor in the bathroom. But eventually, it went away.

My roommate was Theo Parks, who'm I have established a good relationship with the first day we met. He was a blonde, muscular lover of Electronic music and he's actually a DJ. I've never heard of him but as I heard from Ethan, he's an uprising musician. The two of us clicked as we talked about the artists we loved in common and as we critiqued their musical style, I realized that Theo had a hundred percent of his heart set on being a musician. He's studying beat snychronization right now, coinciding with the fact that he's a drummer. Yeah, Theo is a funny guy. You can fit him in as a drummer in a band, a percussionist at an orchestra and he can still fit in on the stage, in front of an audience, with some flashing laser lights and his DJ equipment. This shocked me because I've never met anyone who was so devoted to music, understandable that I graduated from a high school known for it's athletics. It was something I had gotten used to, meeting people who had keen ears, people who could spot a flat note or a wrong chord from a mile away. These people were downright musicians, and it intimidated me.

Theo and I work out together on a weekly basis. Juilliard offers a gym which is really, really convenient, but I would still rather jog outside than on a treadmill. Outside, you see the city at its somber peacefulness, not a lot of people rush to get to work at five-thirty in the morning, hell people are just waking up as I jog. New York city is packed with high-rise buildings and urbanized streets. Juilliard was a notable part of this, as you cannot possible miss the tall glass windows and the huge triangular entrance of the school. Mornings are cold, which is the reason why I don't go out to jog with a tank top. In this time of the morning, some shops are opening up, pulling back the metal gates of convenient stores, clothing apparels, restaurants, and even though saying Hi to a person you're walking by isn't common here, the mornings are when you can greet people.

I pass a corner along a recording studio, greeting Mr. Newport a good morning with one earphone in. Mr. Newport ran the studio, even though he was not a musician himself. He told me he likes to hear the different genres of music people like to play these days. The recording studio is decent, deemed as one of the best in New York, thus explaining the price of one session. But I won't get into that. I've never used the studio, mainly because Juilliard already offers one and because Newport Recording Studio costs a hefty price.

The school gym is just like each other gym in New York, treadmills, weights, and some machines I don't recognize can be found there. Theo and I usually start with thirty minutes on the treadmill for cardio, then sets of lifting weights were we spot for each other, we then do our own workouts after that and to finish the day, we go to a yoga class. Theo is straight, by the way, that's something I'd like to mention. He's dating a girl on the same year who plays the piano, and she's amazing. She plays as if it was nothing to her, as if the pressure on the keys were little taps here and there. I can't play like that, my hands on the piano are usually just chord progressions, I've never really worked with melodies. Theo knows I'm gay, everyone I've met in the school knows I'm gay. It's just easier to tell them now than to have to reveal it to them later. And so far, surprisingly, none of them cared. The usual response I've gotten is: You're a musician, what does sexual orientation have to do with that?, which is amazing. And no, Theo and I have never fooled around, thankfully he's gone and done that in his junior year of high school. Because in all honesty, I don't think I'll be able to say no to Theo.