Falling for Ocean Blue [BxB] ✔️

Chapter Eleven*

Hans and I practice Mozart's 'Requiem' for the 12th time in a row since I got back home. He scolds me whenever my hand falls a little too heavy on the notes, or when I finish a little too early. He is quite the perfectionist. The older man, with his tweed jacket and laptop bag swung across his thin frame. His deep smile warms me, the familiar feeling dispelling any anxiety. He tells me about his vacation in Prague and wonders out loud when he'll be able to travel there again. I wave him goodbye from my stool, my fingers dancing on the keys one final time. I haven't played in quiet peace for what feels like years. There are usually three instructors breathing down my neck, focusing for a whist of error.

Tonight, is the infamous party at the lake house where Woodstone's finest 1% will be raging till dawn. I sigh into the nook of my elbow. Mum is still in Malibu discussing business with her reporter friend. Her text message lit my phone a couple hours ago, but that's not how I know. Soren's meeting with the Principal went unnoticed as we travelled home together, Kitty and I silent in the back seat. Soren's face looks like the bruises on a wilting rose petal as he toes the gas pedal a little too hard and slams the brakes too rough.

I lift myself from the sanctuary of the music room and decide to open its doors. The outside world already seeping its misery into my room as I push the door shut after me. I check my phone for the time, surprised to see it's already 8. Soren barely moved from the coach in the living room. I walk into the dimly lit room. Soren is dressed in a black button down and khaki pants, his leg neatly folded against his left knee. The television is buzzing with some detective show, but I know he's not really watching.

"Soren?"

He looks up at me in a tired daze. I notice the rings around his eyes deepening.

"Are you okay?"

Soren smiles warmly, "I'm fine."

I want to say that I'm sorry. I want to tell him that it was stupid to take a blow for me, that I can defend myself. I want to tell him thank you.

"We still going to that party?"

"Of course, party of the year." His voice sounds deflated, like he doesn't believe his words.

I nod.

My brother squirms in his seat, his dark eyes flittering between the screen and me. His entire body is tense, defensive.

"Do you have something to say?" I echo the words as if they are my own.

Soren stills under my observant gaze, his eyes narrowing, finally seeing me with clarity and poise. He collects himself, straightening on the coach before deciding to get up entirely. His attention settles on the crevices of my grimace.

"Brandon Blake is easy kill," He starts off slow, "I can deal with protecting you from that Neanderthal."

"Violence is pointless."

Soren snorts uncharacteristically, "That's not what I'm hung up about. I'm your big brother. I will always protect you. It's not pointless."

I'm not sure, but I think I'm smiling. A warmth spreads in my chest and I am reminded of his fealty to this family. A family, at best, I've never positively contributed to and at worst, destroyed. Soren runs a tired hand through his curls, pushing them back out of his face. Suddenly, his expression shifts to an angsty smile which unnerves me.

"Never mind, let's head out."

He almost makes it the door, something draws him to a halt a couple metres from me. His face cocks to the side slightly so that he's watching me with those calculating eyes.

"Everyone knows who number 12 is." He says, before his footsteps fade up the stairs.

The party is in full swing by the time Soren pulls up to the lake house. People talk loudly in the front porch, red solo cups in hand as they badger on about nothing. The far-gone teenagers streak the lawn, genitalia flailing in the salty air as they laugh at their own spectacle. The lake behind the house is swimming with horny kids as they grind under the water surface. I cringe. Soren laughs at my discomfort.