Piano Girl ❊ {Paul Lahote}

Chapter Five - Prelude in E Minor (Op.28 No.4) - Chopin

The next few days passed with little incident. Tuesday's English class went smoothly, with Ora and Jared appearing to discuss their book with relative focus. Paul on the other hand had a much harder time discussing the project with me, as he kept on getting caught up in conversation with another of the boys, Daniel. We did get a bit of work done, though.

Tuesday night I went to work at the piano bar, so we didn't meet to study. That night I played Prelude in E Minor, by Chopin. I wasn't sure why I did, as it was a melancholic song, a mood that I generally avoided when I played at the bar. People tended to like hearing happy music there. For some reason, however, it just fit my mood that day. Something had changed. I didn't find out what until the next day.

Wednesday's English class rolled around, and as I walked into class, I noticed that something was indeed different. Jared Cameron was not sitting in his seat. I sat down slowly next to Ora, who was chewing her bottom lip worriedly. "Did he say anything to you about not showing up today?" I shook my head. "No, why would he?" She shifted in her seat. "I dunno, I just figured since you spoke to him yesterday..." I gave a short laugh. "What, am your ambassador now or something?" I teased. At that, she finally gave me a smile. "Sure, I'll pay you in sandwiches." We laughed together, but that only lasted a few seconds before we fell into silence again.

I turned around in my seat to look again at where Jared usually sat. Luckily Paul was sitting there, and he made brief eye contact with me before going back to his conversation. He wasn't smirking or laughing like he usually did. Maybe something actually was going on with Jared today, perhaps even something serious. Paul looked over at me again, and raised his eyebrows. My eyes widened as I realized that I had been staring, and whipped back around to face the front of the room.

The class began, and it didn't take long for the teacher to allow us to split off into our pairs. Ora remained sitting sullenly at her desk while I got up to move to Paul's spot at the back of the room. Lord knows that the boy would not risk losing his precious seat in order to work on the project at my desk at the front of the room.

I sat down and leaned towards him to speak in a low voice, glancing every so often at Ora as I asked him the questions swirling through my mind. "Where's Jared today? Did he say anything about being absent?" Paul shrugged and shook his head. "Nope. He didn't say he wasn't gonna be here." He glanced over at Ora before looking back at me. "Is she okay? Did she say anything?" I raised an eyebrow. "She knows even less than you do. I'm surprised that you even care enough to ask."

He scoffed at that. Even I felt that the remark was a bit rude, and was all ready to take it back and apologize (while Paul could be a jerk, even he wasn't that bad) until he spoke again. "Yeah, 'cause you know exactly what I care about, little 'Miss Righteous.'"

My mouth dropped open. "You're one to talk." I hissed back, trying to keep the noise down so that the teacher wouldn't take notice. He smirked. "Oh really." "Really. Strutting about the halls like you own the place-" He leaned back in his chair and let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Strutting? Since when do I 'strut'?" I flushed. "Well, maybe you don't strut, exactly, but you usually have some sort of swagger...." I trailed off as he began laughing even harder. "Swagger?" I began turning even more red and grabbed my copy of 1984, burying my face in it. "Look," I said from behind the pages. "Let's just get started." I could still hear him giggling as he agreed.

It was at that point that I realized this was the first time I had heard Paul Lahote laugh all day.

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It took Paul a bit longer to knock on my door for our project session Wednesday evening. When he finally arrived I was already set up in the kitchen. As it was my turn to cook dinner tonight, I figured it would be better for us to discuss at the kitchen so that I could keep an eye on the food.

Thankfully it wasn't pouring rain this time, but the clouds still hung low in the sky when I opened the door for him. I made my way back to the kitchen, explaining the situation as I went. "I'm making dinner tonight, so I thought we could work in the kitchen." I heard him hum in acknowledgement as he took his boots off at the door.

We began working through the material, and I was surprised to find that he had actually done some reading. However, as we discussed the Big Brother issue, I noticed that he seemed to become ever more distracted.

"So, what took you so long getting here? Did you fall off your bike on the way or something?" He snorted. "As if." Then his face turned more serious. "I went by Jared's house to see if he was there." My eyes widened, and I quickly moved to sit down across from him, leaning across the table. "And? Is he okay?"

Paul looked down and traced his finger along the wooden lines of the table. "I didn't get to see him. His dad said he was sick, and wasn't able to have any visitors." I leaned back, shocked. "Weird. He was fine yesterday." Paul looked up at me, nodded and looked back down. There was a pause as we both pondered the news.

"Well," I spoke finally, picking up the pen. "I'm sure it's nothing too serious. It's probably one of those freaky 24 hour bugs or something. I bet he'll be fine." He had raised his head at my first words, watching me as I spoke, but said nothing after I had finished speaking, prompting another period of silence.

I did my best not to squirm under his gaze, and to look straight back at him. The last thing I wanted to do in front of Paul Lahote was look weak.

At last he looked away, reached out and took his own pen, shuffling the papers. "Right." He breathed out slowly, then looked at me again. "Let's keep going." I raised my eyebrow. "That's my line." He cracked a smile at that, breaking the heavy mood that had hung over us for the past few minutes. With that, we got back to work.

I ended up asking him if he wanted to stay for dinner again, and again he refused, albeit politely. It was clear that we were both making an attempt to at least begin tolerating each other. After all, I thought, the project will go a lot more smoothly if we're not fighting all the time.

Before he left, standing at the door with his jacket and boots on, he turned to me one more time. "If you hear anything from anyone about how Jared's doing...just let me know, would you?" I knew what he meant. Since Billy Black was both my uncle and one of the community's most respected elders, I would often have access to information concerning the residents of La Push before anyone else.

I nodded. "Of course." I said quietly. He looked at me again for a moment, and I thought that he might say something else. Then, he opened the door, and made his way out towards where he had parked his motorcycle.

I closed the door as he started up the engine. I thought back to what I had said earlier that day, something that I still hadn't apologized for. 'I'm surprised that you even care enough to ask.'

I was starting to think that maybe the reason why Paul Lahote had such an infamously bad temper was because he cared all too much.

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Hello! I just wanted to let everyone who reads this story know that although I have been updating once daily these past few days, this may change. I am moving into my college residence today, so and classes start soon, so there will most likely have to be a schedule change. I will continue to update this story, however it might not be daily as it has been!

Thank you for reading and I hope you are enjoying the story!