The Voice (Luke Hemmings)

18. Basement

"So, here is where the magic happens huh?" Matt asked and I chuckled. "I guess. But I do a lot in my room too." I said while walking into the music room. It was saturday, and Matt and I are going to practise for our performance. The last few days were just school, work, homework, chilling with Anna and the rest of our clan, and some other unimportant things. My phone buzzed and I looked who it was.

Unknown Number: Go back to your country slut

I rolled my eyes and deleted the text. The last few days I have been receiving these kind of texts. I told Anna about it and she said it was probably Lux and her friends. And that they always do this to new people. Ugh, they're so childish. "So, which song are we going to sing?" Matt asked while sitting down. "Eager, are we?" I asked while smiling. He rolled his eyes. I grabbed a chair and sat it in front of his. I sat down and thought for a while. "Let's make a list." I said while grabbing a notebook and a pen.

After 10 minutes we had a whole list of songs we could sing. And 5 minutes later we had scrapped all of them, except for one. It was Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat. "This is gonna be so awesome." I said while smiling brightly. He smiled his really cute smile and I opened my laptop that I brought with me. I printed the lyrics 2 times and grabbed 2 markers. "So. Who's gonna start singing?" I asked. "You." Matt answered immediately with an innocent smile. I shook my head and market the first few sentences.

After 10 minutes we had figured the whole song out and we could start. I started strumming my guitar, and Matt did the same, but with other chords, so it sounded really cool. He started singing.

Do you hear me,
I'm talking to you

Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying

And then I started singing. It never really occurred to me that this was one big fat love song. And he chose it. And this is the most cheesy song I know. My cheeks heated up while he sung. And then I had to sing.

Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard
And that was when we both had to sing.
I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again

Fuck. My. Life. This was the most cringeworthy lyrics, but at the same time 100% not. You know? While we were playing the chorus I looked up from my guitar and saw Matt already looking at me. He smiled that cute smile and I smiled back, not breaking eye contact. Fuck, I was turning into one of those chick flicks chicks. I broke eye contact and concentrated on the guitar again.

"This is awesome." I said when we ended the song. "Why aren't you a singer there?" I asked and he shrugged. "I'm gonna get some water. You want something?" I asked while laying my guitar down. "Um... Lemonade?" He asked and I nodded. "Be right back." I said. I walked out of the music room and heard Matt playing guitar faintly. I smiled and walked upstairs, to the kitchen. There I grabbed 2 bottles of water and 2 glasses of lemonade and a cookie jar. I put the things on a tray and walked to the basement again. I kicked against the door with my foot because I couldn't open it. A second later Matt opened it. "Thank you." I said while walking to the desk in the music room and laying the tray down. I opened the jar of cookies and turned around. "Want one?" I asked and saw Matt looking at me concerned. "What's wrong?" I asked. He grabbed my phone from the desk and showed me it.

Unknown Number: Nobody likes you. Go kill yourself and your emo friends already.

This was the worst one yet. I looked at it in disgust and snatched the phone from Matt's hands. I deleted it and laid my phone on the desk again. Matt was looking at me for answers. "They're just people from school. They're popular, so no one really likes them. It doesn't bother me or anything. It's just annoying." I said while sitting down on the couch. Matt sat down next to me. "Why didn't you tell me anything?" He asked. "It's not that big of a deal. Seriously. It's only really annoying." I said and he looked at me, not convinced. "I'm fine, really." I said. "And no, that's not girl code for I'm definitely not okay, I'm okay. Okay?" I said. He looked at me with a frown. "Okay." He said and relaxed a bit. "Good, now we can eat these cookies." I said and grabbed 2 cookies from the jar and handed Matt one. He chucked and shook his head. "You know, if you want me to threaten them, all you gotta do is ask. Because I'm older, and all that..." He said jokingly. But when I looked at him I saw he was not joking at all. "You couldn't. You're way too cute for that." I said and took a bite from my cookie. My eyes widened. Did I just say that out loud?! I looked at Matt and saw that he was looking at me the same way I was looking at him. So yes, I definitely said that out loud. Before I knew it his lips were on mine. My eyes fluttered close and I kissed him back. After a while he broke the kiss and looked at me wide eyed. "I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. I mean, that was totally meant 'cute' in a friendly manner right? Ah, fuck I just messed up our friendship, gosh I'm so sorry. I just-" I shut him up by pressing my lips against his and my arms found it's way around his neck. After a couple seconds he kissed back. I moved myself, so I was sitting on his lap now. I felt him smiling through the kiss and I smiled too. The kiss was amazing. It was not like those romantic books you read about sparkles and electricity, but it just felt really good. Maybe that was because this was my first kiss. Hm. I broke the kiss and smiled brightly. He did the same. I pecked him on the lips one last time before sitting next to him again. "Soo..." I said. Gosh, this is so awkward. Matt chuckled. "What?" I asked. "You're so awkward." He said. My cheeks heated up and I shook my head. "Me? No way!" I said sarcastic. I quickly downed my lemonade and stood up. "Let's sing again, shall we?" I said while avoiding his gaze. WHYYYY WHY IS THIS SO.... I hate myself. Ugh. I simply cannot handle this situation, gosh. I sat down on the chair again and looked at Matt, who was sitting next to me. He was trying really hard not to smile. I could see it. "What are you smiling for?" I asked. He smiled brightly and looked at me for a while. "Staph it. It's making me uncomfortable." I said. He stood up and walked towards me, pecking me on my lips again. After that he sat down again and started playing, not waiting for me. I blushed furiously. I put my fingers on the strings, and played along.

In the middle of the song Matt stopped playing. I looked up at him with confusion and he was just staring into space. "You know I have to go to Adelaide when It's Christmas right?" He said while looking at me with a frown. My eyes widened. "I thought you were gonna spend a whole year here?" I asked. "No, I mean yes. But my mom has... She has problems. And the people at home can't look after her properly." He said. I frowned. "Oh." I said in a small voice. He nodded. "I... I guess this won't be a good plan then." I said. I didn't want my heart broken when it's Christmas and he's gone. Better have a little bit pain right now, than a lot during Christmas. He nodded slowly. "We're still friends right?" He asked. "Yea, ofcourse. We're still gonna perform together!" I said cheerful. But we both knew it was fake. He smiled sadly and nodded. "Well, let's practise then." I smiled a hurt smile and began playing. After a couple chords I stopped again. "I think we'll have to pick another song." I said. He chuckled. "Definitely." He said. I thought for a moment. I gasped loudly. "How about I Won't Dance by Frank Sinatra!" I said sarcastic. He shook his head and chuckled. "Ahh, good memories to that song..." He said. I frowned. "Why?" He looked into space and smiled. "It's the song for one of my dance routines. I won my first prize with that one." He said. "That's so cool! I bet you're really good in dancing. I mean, you got a scholarship and all... Right?" I asked. "Yea, to a dancing school in Adelaide. It's pretty cool." I nodded. "Yea, sounds great. But isn't it tiring to dance the whole day?" I asked and he shrugged. "Nah. If you have fun you don't see it as exercise or something like that. And I won't have to go to the gym, because I dance the whole day without realizing it's actually like exercising." He said. "Wow. The only exercise I've done in years is when I tripped and fell down the stairs." I said and he chuckled. It was silent for a while. "Ohh, wait. I made a Justin Timberlake mashup a few weeks ago.... It's somewhere in this stack of papers." I said while going through it. After a while I found it and held it up. I already put all the chords and everything on the paper, so we could begin immediately. "Yea, seems cool." Matt said with a smile.