"Tissues?"
"Please," I hiccup, and Jaime reaches forwards and passes me the box of tissues from the coffee table. I rapdily take a handful and so does he, and then I readjust the headphone slightly, as it's popped slightly out of my ear. I sniffle, rub my eyes and nose harshly with the tissues, and then reimmerse myself in the soundtrack, taking Jaime's left hand in my right for comfort.
We're sitting on the floor of my living room on a Saturday morning at the end of November, the week before Mike finishes school for Christmas, and Jaime is having me listen to the Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack for the first time - although I read the synopsis first to understand the plot, I didn't expect the music to floor me like it did.
But I started crying at the second song, a song called Waving Through a Window, and Jaime told me it was the one he related to most. I listened and started to weep a little, moved rather than emotionally broken; but by the time we got to the midway finale (You Will Be Found) we were both a mess. And now we're listening to a song coming to the end of the second act called Words Fail, and something about the combination of Ben Platt's voice and the lyrics and the chord sequencing of the song is blowing my heart to oblivion.
"If you're crying at this, just wait for So Big/So Small," Jaime manages through his own tears, and I close my eyes and scoff.
"Oh, God."
"Oh God," Mike says as he wanders through from down the hallway, dirty laundry in his arms, taking it all to the washing machine. "You guys look like you're listening to all of the last puppies get murdered."
"Kind of feels like it, not gonna lie," I croak, and he laughs to himself before leaving us to it. Since the day of the mystery incident with Phil Green the Drama Queen, he hasn't mentioned it again once. He talked to Alex, and Alex told me they worked some things out, and they didn't work out other things but talked about them anyway, and that eased my nerves a little but not completely. Now every chance I get, I drive him to school, no longer caring so much about saving on fuel money. My brother is a lot of things but one of the things he is not is alone, and whatever is happening, whatever he's sweeping under the carpet, I'm going to make sure he knows that.
Jaime pulls a cushion down from the sofa behind us and hugs it to his chest as the track changes - this is So Big/So Small.
Sure enough, it has us both bawling like babies, and I'm sure I didn't know what I was talking about when I thought the other songs were emotional. This is the worst one and halfway through I whine and roll over, hugging Jaime like a teddy bear, getting his top wet with my tears. He laughs, crying himself, and wraps an arm around me.
"Why are you making me listen to this?!" I sob. "This is the best thing I've ever heard ever. Ever."
"Good grief," a voice rumbles in the background, and we both look up to see Dad standing with his newspaper in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Baffled, one eyebrow quirks. "What's going on here?"
"We're listening to Dear Evan Hansen," I explain, snuffling as I do so, and he blinks.
"What is a Dear Evan Hansen?"
"It's a musical. Which I now desperately have to see live on Broadway or my life is never going to be complete, so..."
"Well, son," he chuckles, sitting down with his cup of tea, "I will let you know when we win the lottery, and I'll take you to New York on the first plane we can get."
"Or," I counter, still huddled into Jaime like a penguin, "you could just buy a private jet and fly us out."
"Ah. Yes, very good point. Although I doubt we'd get very far, I'd likely crash before long."
YOU ARE READING
Birds || Fuenciado
Fanfiction~"My whole life, you were a question mark."~ Every rose has its thorn; and Vic feels like he's full of thorns. With high school graduation behind him and an impressive set of grades under his belt, Vic sets about pursuing his dream of attending a to...
