Heart Beat Song (A Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-Six: Singin' In The Rain

At the end of the day, I bounded out the door excitedly, umbrella in hand as it had just begun to rain.

"You really like rain, don't you?" Leif asked, stepping up beside me with his own umbrella. I nodded.

"I do. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Singin' In the Rain."

"The action or the musical?" He asked.

"The musical." I clarified.  "I don't know, there's just something about it. The smell, being dark in the middle of the day. Tell me, if there wasn't anything emotionally significant about rain, why are there so many couples in movies kissing and dancing in it?"

"I'm not arguing with you." He said, holding his hand that wasn't holding his umbrella up in a surrender position. "Lets get going, we probably want to head out before the rain gets too heavy."

I nodded, helping him load his bike into the back seat of my car before taking off. We grabbed Fast Food on the way, and once we got there, we were lucky enough to find a spot right by the water so that we had an amazingly clear view of the bridge. I smiled, clapping my hands together.

"Ugh! Its beautiful!" Leif just looked at me with a strange half-smile on his face. "What?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, shifting uncomfortably before looking out the window again.

"Nothing, nothing, its just...you're one of the most unique and...delightfully weird people I have ever met." I looked at him with raised eyebrows. He shrugged. "Its cute." I smiled, leaning my head back against my seat.

"I'm starting to think this isn't a platonic, friendly outing."

"Ok, since when has our relationship ever been platonic, even five years ago." I sighed.

"You've got me there." We dug into the food, and just ate in silence, watching the rain roll down the window, but my thoughts traveled to Mo. What is he hiding? The Great Pretender is a seriously sad song, and Mo is always energetic and upbeat so...just how long has he been pretending that he's ok when he's really not? How long has something been wrong and neither Zoey or I have noticed.

"What's going on?" I glanced at Leif, who had just finished putting his trash back in the bag. "You're eyebrows are all drawn together and you're biting your lip. That usually means your worried about something." I raised my eyebrows. "I'm very observant...especially when it comes to you." I offered him a small smile.

"Its my friend Mo," I said, "Something is clearly going on with him, but he keeps saying that he's fine and that nothing is wrong, but...I can tell that something is wrong, and now that the thought has crossed my mind...I can't stop thinking about it." He nodded.

"Is that you saying you need to cut our outing short?" He asked. I winced.

"I'm sorry, its just...if something truly is wrong, I want to make sure he knows that he can tell me about it." He nodded.

"Its ok. You're a good person, whose loyal to her friends, of course you're going to pick helping him through his problems over sitting in a car in the rain with me." He said understandingly. I sighed.

"Rain check?" He shot me an annoyed look and I laughed, throwing my head back and clapping my hands together. "Don't look at me like that. I'm funny."

"In your mind maybe." I rolled my eyes at him, beginning to put the trash back into the bag. Leif started helping me get the trash cleaned up and when I looked up at him, he was directly in front of my face. We both froze in place as the tips of our noses brushed together, and I felt a jolt of nervousness in my stomach. Leif reached up, pushing some loose strands of hair out of my face before trailing his fingers down the side of it to rest his hand there, his fingers curling around my neck while his thumb resided by my ear, stroking the hair that resided there.

"Leif..."I whispered as his face edged closer to mine so that his forehead was leaned against mine, and his warm breath was fanning my lips.

"Yeah?" He asked, bringing his other hand up to my face, allowing his fingertips to brush down the side of my neck, down my shoulder to my hand, which was clenched in a fist in my lap. He then lightly ran his fingers up the inside of my wrist, slowly and gently moving my fingers so that my hand wasn't clenched anymore, presumably because he knew I was nervous and was trying to calm me down.

"Um...If I'm being honest...I don't know, I forgot what I was going to say." He laughed, leaning forward to meet me the rest of the way when my phone rang, causing both of us to jump and pull away from each other. I put a hand over my mouth, attempting to calm my heart rate from the jump scare as I fished my phone out of my purse and saw Zoey's name pop up. "Sorry um...I need to take this." Leif nodded, turning again so that he was facing forward in the passenger seat. I answered it, pressing the phone to my ear. "Hey, what's going on?"

"So, Mo was singing The Great Pretender again, and I followed him and he led me to a church where he was singing in the choir...dressed as a man."

"What?" I asked.

"Yeah. Then, when I tried to leave, he came outside talking about how he doesn't feel comfortable being his true self there and how I don't know anything about religion and how the next time he sings a heart song I shouldn't listen because he doesn't want me in his audience and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, ok, slow down." I said, looking at Leif, who furrowed his eyebrows in concern, "I'll talk to him."

"He's still at church right now, so you'll have to catch him when he gets back." I nodded.

"Yeah, I will. Its gonna be ok."

"Thanks Mary."

"Yeah...no problem." I hung up, giving Leif an apologetic look.

"I take it that was about your friend?" He asked. I nodded.

"I'm really, really sorry-"

"Don't be. I totally get it, its ok. Friends are important." I smiled.

"Thank you, for understanding. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"Don't even worry about it. Its really ok." He said. I sighed, facing forward and starting the car.