Unceasing brightness (Part 3)

August 5th

“What would she even say to get you so flustered?” Lily Hoover said softly with her head on my right shoulder. I shiver.

“Oh you know. Bad jokes.” Haha. Yeah.

“Right… Bad enough to make your ears all red?” She tried to maintain a poker face while asking me. A grin escaped her nonetheless. “You are usually pretty good at keeping up that smug face of yours.”

“Okay, it was less a joke and more just sexual harassment… Wait what are you-” She hugged me. It wasn’t fair that she could just do that. I could die!

“You did good.” I tried to protest but she put a finger on my lips. “Now shut up and listen to me-”

“Hoover! Get here quickly!” Luke’s roar of a voice came from across the street. “You can talk to your boyfriend all you want later.”

“What does he want?” I asked her, curious.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I am sure it’s just to make me run yet another errand.” She said as she started walking away. Then she stopped and walked back to where I was. Girl, decide what you wanna do first. “Uhm, I will talk to you later…?”

“Why the questioning tone?”

“I don’t know. I thought that’s what couples do when they finish talking.”

I guffawed. Oh Lily. I suppose you wouldn’t kill me just yet.

“Hey don’t laugh at me!” She protested.

“Sorry.” I took a deep breath as I stopped laughing. “Never change Lily. That’s all.”

She smiled at that. It was an awkward smile. Then she slowly jogged away. Her figure stood out even in the hundreds of people walking around. No. That wasn’t it. It only was that way for me. Ah, I get it. That’s what they called being infatuated.

A shout pulled me out of those rosy thoughts.

“Neil Grayson! Grab your goddamn pastry from my hands before I chuck it into the river.” I heard Alex shout out. I guess he was part of Deed’s ‘boys’ tonight.

“Good day to you too, Alex.” I said, grabbing the plastic container with my iced coffee in it and the paper plate with the famous “Cooper’s special”. The pastry had a bit of a history to it, namely the fact that it was straight up plagiarised from another rather unusual pastry.

It was more or less a sandwich. Two choux pastry buns on top of each other and pumped full of crème pâtissier. The original joke of the pastry was that it was supposed to resemble a nun of some description. There was however a certain Mr. Cooper who had been charged with sexually assaulting a nun here in Willowby and the nun had a cruel sense of humour. After being found guilty, Mr. Cooper was put in prison for several years but the nun had specifically wanted the ‘religieuse’ pastry to be renamed to the “Cooper’s special”. Originally the plan was to keep the name for a few years but it had stuck and so it had stayed for the last decade or so.

“Good day my ass. What were you thinking, fat fingering your piano like that? Can’t be getting up on a stage in front of thousands of people and making mistakes.” Alex Miller sighed and folded his hands as if he was already ready to hear my excuses. “Come on Neil, I thought you of all people were better than that. I expected better.”

“You thought better of me? You are a funny man.” I replied not willing to give him the pleasure of seeing me uncomfortable. I took a bite of the pastry buns and god they tasted just as good as I remembered.

“Think so? You know what’s not funny? Being so incompetent that you press the wrong note in the middle of the biggest performance of your goddamn life.”

“Give him a break Alex. Stop being such an asshole all the time and maybe people will actually start liking you for once.” Hazel interjected. She had disappeared when Lucia had attempted to knock me out but now she was back with a bag of butter popcorn.

“Want some?” She asked, holding out the bag to me. I shook my head and pointed at the pastry I still hadn’t finished.

“A break? I thought he was on break whenever he skipped classes to practise. I am sorry Neil, did you need more time?” Alex had his share of reasons to be upset. “Who knew the piano prodigy would need more than two whole months of practice. Definitely not a dumbass like me! Someone who doesn’t spend his day mastering the mystical arts of playing piano.”

Being the son of one of the most talented pianists of all time wasn’t easy to live up to.

“Alex you have every right to be upset with me-”

Even less so when you weren’t really interested in the craft your father was so good at.

Even even less so when your father spent more time with his students than with his own son.

“Oh cut the crap, you don’t believe that and neither do I.” He was right. I didn’t.

“You know what? Maybe if you had spent less time flirting with that whore, maybe you would have-” Hazel slapped him. Her eyes burnt with rage. My fists tightened, my fingernails digging into my palm. Hard enough to draw blood.

“Alex. Drag me in mud and shit all you want. But don’t bring her into this.”

Alex scoffed as he touched his red cheeks.

“Trying to act tough, Grayson?” He walked up to me. Close enough that I could smell the smoke of cigarettes on him, towering more in stature than in height. “Those rumours about her are right, you know? She’s playing with you.”

I stayed silent. It wasn’t worth it, I thought to myself. Maybe I was just a coward though.

“Regardless, if you want me to leave you alone, don’t give me a reason to get on your case. It’s just that easy. You fucked up and we both know it.” He took a deep breath and continued, his voice now slightly more calm but still burning with vitriol. “I just wanna drill that not-so-insignificant fact into your head so that the next time my precious father gives you the chance to get up there in front of the big guys with your expensive piano, you don’t blow it so spectacularly.”

I nodded slowly. On that at least, he wasn’t wrong.

“Believe me, I would love to see you become a laughing stock. The way everyone cringed when you pressed the wrong note was a sight to behold, truly.” He looked me in the eye and his rugged visage stared back at me. His hands, calloused and rough from his jobs as a mechanic in the industrial parts of Willowby, dug into my shoulders. “But it won’t be at the cost of my father’s reputation.”

There was a wordless understanding between the two of us.

“You have my word. I will be better. I would never wanna disappoint him.” Alex nodded.

“Was nice catching up with you, Grayson. I will see around town.” And with that he walked away into the crowd. His red and white sweatshirt masqueraded in the colourful crowd of Fair street. I looked at my pastry but I really didn’t feel hungry anymore. I turned around to find Hazel looking at me inquisitively, her bag of popcorn still mostly full.

“You are making that face again.” She said.

“What?” I don’t think I was someone to have many distinct faces.

“You are making the ‘my-life-is-falling-apart’ face.”

“Huh?”

“It’s when your eyes have this look to them like you just won an extremely pyrrhic fight and your face scrunches up like an old man calculating his pension money.”

I stared at her for a bit.

“Firstly, I am surprised you know a word like ‘pyrrhic’. Secondly, I definitely don’t do that.”

“Faces don’t lie Grayson. Also blame Luke, reading his extremely eloquent drafts is affecting my vocabulary.” I laughed at that. Luke definitely was the needlessly wordy type.

“You gonna have that or what?” Hazel was staring at the pastry I was still holding on to.

“No.” Her eyes lit up.

“Mind if I do?”

“No.” Her eyes lit up with something else entirely.

“Asshole.”

I devoured the religieuse in two big bites.

“Wow, you are actually the biggest loser.” Somehow Hazel staring daggers at me had managed to make my appetite come back. I didn’t bother thinking about what that said about me.

“You can have my iced coffee?” I compromised. Her eyes softened and for a moment I thought I was in the clear.

She grabbed my coffee. Removed the straw. And only when she reached out to open the lid did I realise what she was planning.

I ran for my life as Hazel chased after me, coffee in hand. Alex’s words but a far echo in my head amidst the blur of lights and people around me.