Music Girl

Aravic’s trust in Mr. Thyroid was shattered. He shook with anger every time he was the tall, lean man with feathery brown hair. And those eyes… cold, calculating eyes. Sam’s eyes. No, not Sam’s eyes. Sam was good at masking her emotions in her face. But whoever said, “The eyes are the gateway to the soul” must have been talking about Sam. Every time he got a really good long gaze into her eyes, he could see what her face masked so well; pain, anger, desperation.

He figured he must be changing. Before, he wouldn’t have given a crap about anyone but himself. Thinking back, he had been pretty much a selfish bastard. But now… is this what love did to you? Make you a completely different person? At least, he was pretty sure he loved Sam. He had never felt this way about anyone else in his life. He knew he definitely felt protective of her. His guts twisted with fiery anger every time he saw the healing wound on her forehead.

Every time he was Bree over the past week, she had given him a sexual suggestion of some sort, which he ignored and left her pouting. Stupid little slut. It was her fault Sam was in such bad shape. And Sam had been right, they were all pretty much the same: using whatever means to get what they wanted, climbing the social ladder, and gaining sleeping respect. Aravic didn’t know how he had never noticed that. God he had been blind.

That night was another quiet night at home. Mr. Thyroid was out at dinner with Rachel. Tomas was of partying at Antonio’s house. Antonio was displeased when Aravic told him he wasn’t coming, but he would have to deal. Aravic wanted to stay home with Sam.

“Yo Sam, can I come in?” Aravic asked, knocking on her door. He heard her shuffle across the floor and unlock the door.

“Unless what you want is life-changing, then no,” she replied through the crack in her door.

“Why, are you building a bomb or something?” he asked jokingly. Her eyebrows knit together as she formulated an answer.

“Sort of,” she finally replied. “A figurative one at least. Now, go do creepy boy things, I’m busy.”

“I am doing creepy boy things,” he pointed out with a smirk.

“Touché,” Sam growled, and let him in.

Her guitar and laptop were on her bed. Aravic threw himself down on the empty part of the bed, grinning stupidly with his eyes closed. “So this is your bomb? What are you doing, rigging your guitar to blow?”

“No,” Sam replied defensively, picking up her guitar and holding it to her protectively. “What’s with you and your stupid grin?”

“Nothing. I just get happy up here. Is that a problem?” Sam just shook her head, unwilling to fight this battle. She began instead to pack up her guitar. “What, you’re not going to play for me?” Sam froze, her face a mixture of shock, anger and fear. Aravic suppressed a smirk, thrilled that he could invoke such a reaction in her.

Sam remained frozen. “Don’t forget I can just call your Daddy and it’s all over for you,” Aravic reminded her, pulling out his phone. Her jaw dropped slightly.

“You wouldn’t,” she whispered. He started dialing a random number into his phone and got to the sixth number before she cracked. “Alright, fine! Just stop,” she growled, sitting back down and slinging the guitar strap over her should. “Who shoved a bitch pill down your throat this morning?” she asked herself as she checked the strings.

Aravic merely thought, ‘No one. Sorry Sam, but I always get my way.’

“Well, what song?” she asked haughtily.

“Play me whatever song you were working on.”

“It’s not finished yet.”

“I don’t care.” Sam sighed again and her fingers danced on the fret board for a few moments before she began.

“You can push me around
Throw me down
But that’s all you’ll ever be good for
I hit the ground
My face smacks down
And you know that’s the truth

I can’t believe
You never saw this coming
I can’t believe
You thought it would be this way
Forever
I can’t believe
You thought I’d never say goodbye

It’s like you need me here
To assure yourself
That you’re a part of this world
It’s like you want me near
And then want me to go
But you didn’t want me to say goodbye

I can’t believe
I didn’t do this before
I can’t believe
It took me this long to see
What you really are
And I can’t believe
It took me this long
To say goodbye.”

Aravic whistled. “Wow…that’s intense.” Sam gave him a half-smile.

“Thanks. It’s not done of course, but…I like it.”

“What’s it about?” he asked innocently.

“Um… stuff,” she said shiftily.

“Stuff like…?”

“Like it has to do with my past,” Sam snapped.

“And you can’t tell me about it… why?”

“Because you don’t need to know. It’s my own personal business.” With Sam glaring at him, he knew he wouldn’t get that information now. Not today, anyways.

“Fine. Do you have any new music I might like?” Aravic asked, accepting defeat of the battle but not the war.

“Yeah. This band I found a few days ago is pretty weird sounding. They’re called Queens of the Stone Age,” Sam said, setting down her guitar and beginning to go through her laptop. “Here,” she said, and started playing a song.

It was completely unlike anything Aravic had ever fathomed being created out of music notes. By the time it was over, Aravic was left nearly hypnotized, with the lyrics, “Run… pig… run...” stuck in his head.

“Send it to me,” Aravic said, dazed. “All you have of them.” Surprised, Sam said nothing. She merely opened a new email and began attaching mp3’s to it.

When he went back to his room a half-hour later, he immediately opened the email and began listening. He went to sleep at around one that night, but he had twelve of the thirty songs Sam had sent him memorized.

He really was changing.