You took my heart, could I please have it back?

[6] You took my heart, could I please have it back?

I announced to Neil that I had to go for music practise. He seemed as surprised as I was.

"Music practise? But I thought you said they didn't like you..." I shrugged.

"Practise is practise, we need all the guys to make it work," He shrugged too, but I guess he understood.

So, at 4:30, we left.

I gave Neil the address and he drove me to it, considering he knew the town better than I did. It was about 10 minutes drive, and way out of our area.

Neil parked outside the house and took me to the door, so he would know what time to pick me up. I raised my hand to knock, nervous about what his parents might think of me. I looked at Neil anxiously, but he just smiled, albeit a little tiredly, and nodded for me to go on. I tapped the door three times with my fist and bit my lip, terrified.

I heard shouting inside and then hurried footsteps, and then the door opened to reveal a woman, who I took to be James's mother. She smiled at us and beckoned.

"You must be Elizabeth! Come in, come in," she said cheerfully, and moved out of the way to let us in. I cast a fleeting glance at Neil. He nodded, and I took a deep breath and stepped inside.

It was completely different to our house, which needed a lick of paint and some decoration. It was clean, warm and I could smell something nice in the kitchen. If only our house was like that.

I was aware of Neil and Mrs. Black talking behind me. I tuned into their conversation.

"Oh, they should be finished at around 8:00, she can eat here if you like," she said, smiling.

"That would be helpful, yes - I have some business to attend to, I should be here around 8," he replied, again with a tired smile. It looked rather forced, like mine would be if I ever smiled.

"OK, well, I'll see you then!"

"Bye," he said, and she closed the door, looking at me, who was standing awkwardly in the hallway.

"Take your shoes off and put them in the cupboard, there, that'll be fine," she said warmly, smiling. I really liked this woman already; I could tell I could trust her.

I did as she instructed and she led me to a flight of stairs that went down.

"They're down in the basement, Liz - do you mind if I call you that?"

"No, not at all!" I replied, making an effort to look bright and cheery. I don't think I quite managed. I headed down the steps, nervous as hell.

The stairs stopped to reveal a heavy looking door. I couldn't hear anything from the outside - it must be soundproof. I took a deep breath, knocked, and entered.

The basement was a large room, with a tiled floor and cupboard lined walls. At the back of the room was the drum kit, where Landon was currently sitting, Kyle was fishing around in a cupboard, presumably for a guitar, and James was sitting on a battered but comfortable looking bean bag, with a guitar on his lap.

The room was pretty big, and the soft furniture (lime green sofas and assorted bean bags) looked very comfortable, but what was the best was the walls.

The room was roughly rectangular so the walls were different sizes. One of the longer ones was white with paint spatters on it, sprays in multicolour, huge blobs which spattered out with a really cool effect.

The next wall, a short one, was pink, black and orange stripy - pink, black, orange black, pink black, etc. The second long wall was also white with green, pink and yellow hoops which went wider in some places than in others, all the hoops interlinking making a cool effect. The final wall was navy blue with yellow and white spots.