today i met caleb mclaughlin.
at lunch today, finn was the only person i could find.
'hey, uh, where is everyone else?' i ask him.
he beckons for me to follow him and narrows his eyes a bit. 'why are you and gaten suddenly best friends with noah and sadie?'
'we've become close after this whole romeo thing. is it a problem? we can stop if its bothering you guys.'
'no, no, it's fine. i'm just curious.'
finn opens the door to the music room and i see someone in one of the storage rooms, earphones plugged in, dancing to his music. i grin, and he stops, pulling them out.
'please don't tell romeo,' he pleads.
i sigh. 'me and romeo are through. i like your dancing.'
he smiles shyly and puts his headphones back in.
-
gaten pulls us into the soundproof room, and sadie sits behind a drum set and noah's sitting at a keyboard.
'hey. do you play anything?' noah asks.
'uh, i can kinda s-sing, i guess,' i say, stuttering.
'i'll fix up the mic.'
despite my protest, he still plugs everything in and hands me a microphone.
finn plugs in his guitar to the amp and gaten picks up another microphone.
'what are we playing?' sadie asks.
'depends what you guys know,' finn says. he hands me and gaten a folder of music and we flick through to find one we know.
in the end we choose chamber of reflection by mac demarco, and noah walks into the other room and comes back with a synth.
gaten and i stand behind our microphones, and the music begins. i lose myself in the music and find myself with the words "alone again" seeping into my thoughts.
well, that is, until someone opens the door. gaten stops singing, but i keep going. it's only the dancing kid. noah turns up the synth and we all stand in there, swaying and absorbing the beautiful melody of it into our souls.
the song finishes, and the boy says, 'i'm caleb.'
