Meteronome of Love

by JN

Verse Seven: Rest

Ugh. Regardless of the reason, blacking out twice in a day was definitely not a good look for me.

Wait, that second time definitely wasn't my fault, was it?

I woke up in a daze in my bed. Something inside me felt off— I realized seconds later that my internal clock was rocked by the fact that I regained consciousness in the darkness of night.

There was a dim source of light somewhere in the corner of my vision. I looked to the side to see my Uncle sitting at my desk with a newspaper in his hands. With his receptive hearing, he immediately noticed me.

"Awake now, are we?"

I feel like I'd already heard that line somewhere before.

"I..."

Before I could ask just what happened to me, my Uncle raised a finger to his lips in a "shush" gesture as he nodded to me. Confused, I looked to my side to find—

I nearly jumped. Alexis, right beside me. She had curled up beside me like a kitten and had the left side of my body in a surprisingly tight embrace. What a wild contrast to the rebellious girl I'm so used to.

"Poor girl felt bad about knocking you out right in front of the register, looks like."

Poor me, more like! Now I remember the reasons for both my falling unconscious twice on the same day and the right side of my face stinging like someone had driven their fist into it with the force of a monster truck.

"She carried you up to your room all by herself! Didn't want my help or nothing." He chuckled, "That's our girl, eh?"

I smiled hopelessly at that. Despite her outrageous display of violence, doing something immediately to rectify it sounded just like her. Like a puppy; rambunctious when no one's watching, meek when caught in the act.

Uncle sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Ah, but you lot aren't kids anymore. Of course dragging your body up a flight of stairs would tire the lass out. Think she dropped you onto the bed and knocked right out herself."

That also, surprisingly enough, sounded just like her. Alexis was strong, yes, but she wasn't superwoman. If anything, I've always had more stamina than her just by virtue of having been a classical musician— quite a workout in it's own right if you doubt the physical and mental strength required to perform, especially longer pieces and at length without stopping.

"Well, just wanted to check and make sure I didn't need to drive either of you to the clinic," Uncle yawned, folding his newspaper and shutting off my desk lamp with a satisfying click. "This old man's off to get his beauty sleep. See you in the morning, Jamie."

I nodded wordlessly, trying not to make any sudden movements at the risk of disturbing the beast's slumber.

Uncle slowly began closing the door, but poked his head in one last time.

"No funny business during the night, okay?" He squinted at me. "I told Andrew she'd be staying over, but I didn't promise him anything else. No hard feelings, loverboy."

Before I could even respond, the door to my room clicked shut.

Ridiculous pair of old geezers... usually you'd be telling the teenagers to get their minds out of the gutter, wouldn't you? Also, I was seriously getting tired of this whole "loverboy" shtick. Was that something both he and Alexis came up with to torture me with, or was the universe itself just not on my side lately?

I sighed, suddenly tired again despite having just woken up. My left fingers were still slightly numb from the intensity of my playing today, and all the muscles in my body were tensing and relaxing at irregular intervals, trying to shake stress that they weren't used to.

I turned my head to face Alexis, still sleeping despite the noise from earlier. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness of my room, but the moonlight shone helpfully on her in quite a picturesque manner. I compared her to a dog earlier, but she looked more like a cat while she slept. Demure, peaceful, and cute even. I suppose no matter what your personality is, all girls are considerably prettier while they're sleeping.

Though I'm usually good at resisting the impulse, I couldn't help but poke her cheek lightly. The way her face scrunched up slightly at the unfamiliar sensation was equal parts amusing and cute, and made me wonder what kind of dream she was having.

My smile dropped as I remembered our conversation from the other day. Well, argument more like, but even then, it was more of a one-sided fight than anything. I still couldn't understand what had gotten her so upset with me, but the point of contention was seeing Octavia Melody again, so if I told her about that, would we be able to make up?

I studied Alexis in deep thought. Maybe she had a deadline coming up, and she just needed to vent out some frustration. These things sometimes happened when you were an electronic music producer who took on some odd jobs for pocket money. Were that the case, I wouldn't particularly mind. I'd be helping her in some way, and I have no real objections to that.

But there was something much more deep seated in her eyes that day than simple weariness from sleepless work nights.

Her eyes, which were now shut peacefully.

I sighed again.

I don't suppose I could ever come up with a valid reason on my own without asking her. She could have been upset with me over anything. And if she were especially irritable for some reason...

Absentmindedly, I reached up and gingerly touched her exposed left ear.

She always wore those noise cancelling headphones in her room and around the house. Those things were bound to do something to you eventually, weren't they? Granted, they were important for her work, but there's no reason to wear them when you're not even listening to anything...

I traced the outline of her earlobe. I never really noticed or cared to comment on it before, but her ears had a pretty shape. I wonder if that's a valid thing to say about someone, given that most ears tend to look the same.

I sighed once more.

"...Ahem."

Uh oh.

"Where do you think you're touching?"

I paused, suddenly sweating bullets.

"There was... a mosquito. On your ear. Yeah."

I slowly retracted my hand as Alexis shifted slightly to better face me. Her eyes were still shut, but a rosy pink hue colored her cheeks in the moonlight.

"...Three times."

Her voice. Small, not at all like I was used to hearing.

"...Sorry," I whispered back. "Did I wake you?"

She half opened one of her eyes.

"You sighed three times."

...

Where was she going with this?

"When you sigh, a little bit of happiness escapes. You're the one who told me that."

I looked at her, bemused. "So I did."

This girl actually listened to me from time to time, huh? Though I wouldn't consider an old family saying important information to retain.

"So why are you letting something so rare get away from you, dummy?"

She lightly punched me in the shoulder.

I smiled. This was just like her too.

"Sorry. It's all still floating around in my room, though, so I can get it back later."

She giggled. "Sure you will."

Our faces were incredibly close to each other, as we practically shared the same pillow now, but my heart was at ease. Maybe because we used to have sleepovers just like this as children. I remember she'd beat me half to death when it came to pillow fights, and I'd have to be careful not to beat her too many times at chess less she started crying.

I always wondered why she preferred doing that kind of thing with me rather than with other girls her age— though, I'm sure if I asked, she'd just respond by saying that she wasn't into girly slumber parties.

Which was true. I couldn't picture her getting all giddy with her girl friends underneath a pink tent over who the cutest boy in school is or what color to paint her nails.

"...Sorry." She whispered.

"For what?"

She gave me a slightly sour look.

"Oh, don't make me say it."

I blinked once. "Oh, right. Well..."

I cleared my throat. "Let's call it even. You carried me back to my room after all."

Alexis smiled again, which was all I wanted to see. "That's not fair. It was just the right thing to do. Anyone would have done the same."

I don't think "anyone" would knock my lights out with a single punch though!

I sighed again, nonplussed by this inexplicable childhood friend of mine.

"That's not all."

She averted her eyes from me. "I'm also sorry for... you know. For yesterday."

...

I wasn't sure how to respond to that. I wanted to know, of course, what made her burst out like that— but at the same time, I didn't want to risk making that negativity resurface when the both of us were so comfortable in this moment.

"If something like that was all it took for me to hate you, don't you think we'd be sworn enemies by now?" I poked her cheek playfully. She swatted my hand away, but thank god, I got her to smile again.

"Maybe you could stand to take some more punishment then," she said, amused.

"Please, no."

She's not superwoman, but I'm no superman either. My body definitely has limits, and I was painfully reminded of that from today's recital.

Right. The performance. I have to tell her about it. About how I played the cello again. About Octavia.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Alexis chose an unfortunate moment to yawn. Her mouth opened so wide I could see her tonsils. How thoroughly unladylike.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "Still wanna sleep some more..."

"Well then," I said conclusively, "let's do that."

She freed my left side from the death grip she had me in before, and I turned my back to Alexis to sleep on my side.

"Good night, Alex." I murmured, letting my eyes fall shut.

...

"Hey, dumbass."

Huh?

I opened my eyes again and turned back to find her looking annoyed.

"You're gonna make me be the big spoon?"

I resisted the urge to sigh a fifth time.

"Do we have to spoon at all?" I asked tiredly, "The blanket's warm enough if you need it."

Alexis stayed silent at my valid statement, still looking quite unsatisfied. I shook my head, knowing I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't comply with her wishes.

"Alright, come on. Turn yourself around."

She looked more than happy to do so— a little overenthusiastic, I would say— as she promptly rolled over and into my chest. Her rear pushed up uncomfortably against me in an awkward place, and it took a lot of will power not to react to that. Her whole body shook once violently, and I could tell she was suppressing a laugh.

I let another sigh loose, but this time with a different feeling. Maybe it was hopelessness, maybe it was something else. Maybe it had something to do with the smile I just couldn't shake from my face.

I put one arm around Alexis, and she grabbed hold of it like the handlebars for the seat of a rollercoaster. Her hands were warm.

"...I'll kick you if you touch me someplace weird," she said, fully knowing I would never do such a thing on purpose. I decided to ignore her little quip.

"We still haven't set up our kitchen for the reopening," I said to the back of her head, attempting for the first time that night to push my luck, "and I'm tired of cereal. Can I have breakfast at your place tomorrow?"

...

A moment of silence.

"You know Dad would let you in even if I didn't, dummy."

I felt her squirm slightly under the covers, adjusting herself to sleep closer to me.

"But since you're asking, I guess I'd be okay with it."

I smiled at the comforting sensation of our bodies relaxing into each other as we drifted off into that special silence of a spring evening. All that happiness I sighed out was slowly ebbing back into me.

"Hey.."

Her voice was slightly muffled as she spoke into the blanket.

"Can you... do that thing again?"

I blinked once, thoroughly puzzled. "Remind me."

"You know... the ear thing."

I paused, not understanding completely until she tucked some hair behind her ear, exposing it to me.

"Oh."

I'm not sure why she wanted this, but per her request, I gently began tracing the curvature of her ear with the fingers of my left hand. Her ear twitched once, twice, then relaxed at my touch. My fingers were supposed to be hurting from the performance today, but strangely enough, I couldn't feel any pain as I pet Alexis to sleep.

The air around us was filled with sweet sensations— the aftertaste of candy, the smell of roses, the stench of cigarette smoke (I assumed that was something that stuck to Alexis as a result of her father), and the pink of her rosy cheeks. My final conscious moments drifted away like the last few notes of Claire de Lune.

"...Good night, Jamie."

More than any of those things, the sweetest thing in the room was right in front of me, curled up like a bright, neon blue kitten.

Author's Note:

Rest: intervals of silence in pieces of music, marked by symbols indicating the length of the pause.

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Hnnng!

[Raikiry]

My boi this story is great, Keep up the great work!