A Melody from the Heart

That night, we saw each other in a completely different light. Instead of thinking we were complete opposites, we were beginning to realize we complimented each other in a surprisingly wonderful way. Despite all of her efforts to push others, and me, away, I still wanted to get closer, and that night, I made progress. In dealing with Audrey, I found that I wanted to get to know her more and more with each layer I pulled back. She was so complex and so interesting that she never made me bored like others had…

Her doorbell rang and Audrey glanced at the clock on her wall. She smiled when she saw it was exactly one minute before eight, and she knew it was Matt’s way of making fun of her short tolerance of lateness. She took about forty seconds to make sure her hair and her clothes were neat, and to make him wait just a little bit of course, and then she made her way over to the front door. She took a deep breath before opening it, and noticed with a little bit of disappointment that she had a few butterflies flying around in her stomach. She was confused at the feeling because she had never really been nervous to go on a date with anyone before.

The looked at each other appreciatively for a few moments before saying anything. Audrey noted that Matt was more dressed up than usual, with a casual button down shirt. She assumed he knew they were going to go somewhere nice, and she was glad that he had taken care with his appearance. Even though he had been wearing t shirts or something casual every time she had seen him before, she had to admit he looked good in dressier clothes as well. In fact, if it wasn’t for the tattoos peeking out from below his rolled up sleeves, no one even would have guessed he was in a band at all.

Audrey looked different to Matt, too. She was noticeably wearing more makeup than she had been the times he had seen her before, which wasn’t a bad thing. Before, she was still pretty, but she was businesslike, which meant she always looked like she was stressed and severe. She looked a little more relaxed, and the clothes she was wearing definitely had more style. They looked expensive, and Matt wondered once again if she had bought them for herself or if her parents had bought them for her.

“Hi,” she greeted him, finally cutting into the silence. A small smile was tugging at her lips, conveying that she was glad to see him. Audrey figured she could cut him a little bit of slack on their date tonight. She didn’t want to scare him away too much, after all.

“I’m not late,” Matt said with a knowing grin. “I left early so I wouldn’t be late, but it took me longer than I thought it would to catch a cab. Do you know how difficult it is to get one of them to stop?”

“I know you’re not late. Actually, you were one minute early, which was impressive. So far, you’re starting off good, but you still have all night to slip up so I’ll be watching,” Audrey said jokingly. “And you’re just bad at getting a cab because you don’t live in New York. I’ll show you how it’s done when we leave. Plus, I’m sure it helps being a woman a little bit.”

“Well, I can’t really change that last part, so I guess I’ll just have to watch you and learn,” Matt replied with a laugh. “Since I’m staying here for awhile yet, I think it would be good to learn. I’m not a fan of maneuvering around all those people while walking on the sidewalks and crossing streets.”

“Do you want to come in for a minute or are you starving?” Audrey asked, stepping aside so he could walk in out of the hallway. She figured Matt was one of those people who liked to eat a lot.

“I’m ready to go whenever you are,” Matt said, walking past her. “You do have to lead the way, after all, since you insisted on picking where we’re going to eat.”

“You look hungry, so I’ll put my coat on and we can catch a cab,” Audrey said as she opened the door to her coat closet. “I hope you like Italian, because there’s a place across town that has some of the best food I’ve ever tasted.”

“Well, if it meets your standards, it must be good,” Matt said with a smile as she put one arm into her coat. He took a step towards her so he could help her put the other arm in. Even though he knew Audrey was joking earlier, he was going to make sure he made the date perfect. She smiled when he helped her because she really couldn’t remember anyone ever helping her with her coat before.

“It’s better than good,” Audrey said as they made their way out of her apartment. They went down the couple flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator, and made their way out into the cool night air. The city was alive with lights and noises as almost everyone had somewhere to go or something to do on a Friday night.

Audrey smiled as she took it all in as she was actually one of those people. She was usually putting in extra rehearsal hours on a Friday night if she didn’t have a performance, so she was never usually one of those people who were going to a show or on a date on a weekend night. But tonight, she belonged in that crowd.

She stepped up to the curb and gracefully held her hand in the air as a couple of cabs passed. Of course, one of them stopped for her. Audrey glanced over her shoulder and gave Matt a triumphant grin. He shook his head with a smile as he opened the door of the cab and waited for her to climb in.

“You made it look so easy,” Matt said as he sat down next to her and closed the door. He watched as she gave the cab driver the address of the restaurant, and then Audrey turned to face him. She smiled at him, a real smile, he noticed. It crept all the way up into her eyes and gave them a warmth he had never seen before. He had known all along that she wasn’t as cold as she liked people to think. There definitely was a girl underneath all of those layers who knew what it was like to feel.

“One of the tricks is to make it look like you really need that cab. If it’s cold outside, you have to make it look like you’re freezing,” she explained. “Also, you have to look like you know what you’re doing. You know, you have to be assertive. We both know I have no problem with that.”

Matt smiled at her, liking this different side of her that he was just beginning to discover. He looked out of the window to take in all of the sights the city had to offer, and before he knew it, the cab stopped at their destination.

They climbed out of the cab and Matt looked at the front of the restaurant. It was small and didn’t look fancy on the outside, but he could tell there was a good amount of people on the inside. He didn’t realize he had stopped walking, but he came back to his senses when Audrey grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward to make him move fast. He couldn’t help his reaction, but his skin immediately grew warm where she was touching him, even though the touch didn’t mean anything.

Upon walking inside, he saw that the restaurant was, in fact, packed without a seat to spare. Matt also noticed there were a lot of people standing, waiting for a seat. He was beginning to think they were never going to get to sit down and eat since it was so late and the waiting time was clearly unbearably long. But, thirty seconds later as they were being shown to a table in the far corner of the restaurant, Matt realized he forgot he was coming here with Audrey who was capable of just about anything, it seemed.

They sat down at the dimly lit table, and a waiter came over as they just barely even pulled their chairs in. Audrey ordered herself a glass of wine, and Matt did the same, which made her raise her eyebrows at him, like she seemed to do so often. “Wine?” she asked.

“What? I can be classy sometimes, too,” he replied indignantly. “How did you get us seated so fast, anyway?”

“The owner of the restaurant is a big fan of classical music,” Audrey explained as she glanced over the menu she was holding. “He’d do just about anything for tickets to a concert.”

Matt smiled at her, their roles seemingly reversed. He was supposed to be the rock star celebrity taking a girl on a date, but she was getting favors with the fame she had in her circle of music. All of it was a little weird, but he didn’t mind since he was starving.

They talked about everything they could think of while they waited for their food was coming, and they never even came up against an awkward silence. It was so easy for them to talk to each other, but it was odd since they virtually had nothing in common upon first glance. It was so easy to tell what Audrey liked to talk about just by her facial expressions. She grew lively and her face glowed when they discussed something she was passionate about while she frowned when talking about something she disliked.

As Matt studied her face in the dim candlelight when their food came, he noticed something he hadn’t before. He didn’t know if it was just tonight, or if it was always this way, but Audrey had very dark circles under her eyes. It shocked him a little bit at first because they looked so pronounced, but he convinced himself it was just because of the lighting.

“Are you tired?” he asked her ask he cut cautiously into his food. Matt knew she wouldn’t take someone prying into her life too much, so he had to be cautious in how he asked her certain questions. “You have dark circles under your eyes, and I don’t think you had them yesterday.”

He watched as she self-consciously touched a finger under her eye. She quickly brought her hand down when she realized he was studying her so intently.

“I didn’t fall asleep right away last night and I had to wake up early, that’s all,” she explained, but Matt could tell there was something wrong with her voice. “I’m sure they’ll be gone tomorrow when I get a good night’s sleep.”

“Oh,” Matt replied. He wasn’t going to look any further into it if Audrey didn’t want him to. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t coming down with a cold or anything.”

“Oh, I’m feeling fine, just a little tired, though, now that you mention it,” she told him with a reassuring smile. “Why don’t you tell me about everyone you have back home, though?”

With that question, Matt knew she was changing the subject and preventing any further discussion of the dark circles under her eyes. So, he told her about everything he had back in California, quickly forgetting the topic.

He told her about his family and his band members, who had been his best friends since before he could remember, and how they were the only people he really cared about. He told her he would do anything for them, which was the truth. Telling her his whole family history took him about a half an hour, but he wasn’t letting her off the hook unless he learned about her family, too.

“What about your family then?” Matt asked, and he knew as the frown settled on Audrey’s lips that she didn’t like talking about them.

“They live on the upper east side. I don’t talk to them very much, and I don’t like them very much,” she explained bluntly. Matt thought he had gone too far in asking her about her parents, but he realized Audrey didn’t mind talking about them. The only problem was she didn’t like them.

“Why not?” he asked curiously.

“If you can picture the most stereotypical rich, proper, old money family, then you have a perfect picture of my parents,” Audrey explained. Her face softened a little bit, trying to make it seem like she wasn’t angry at Matt when she was talking about her family. “I was raised by a nanny and a maid, and when I was old enough not to need one anymore, they only paid attention to me to make sure I wasn’t going to embarrass them in front of anyone who mattered. You see, with my parents and the people they’re friends with, appearances are everything. As long as I acted like I was perfect in public, they couldn’t care less what I did when no one was watching. It never mattered who you really were with them. My parents never had a perfect marriage, but as long as people thought they did, that was all that mattered.

“I was lucky I had music to save me from them. It gave me more time away from them, and it gave them something to brag about, so all of us were happy. They never loved me, and I never loved them, so I took the first chance I had to get out of there. I knew they were going to hang the fact that they always bought everything for me over my head, so I made sure I did everything for myself once I got away from them. It’s so hard to keep that false, perfect front up for that long. I don’t even know how they do it anymore. I go over to see them a little as possible because every time I do, I know I’m that much further away from figuring out how to act like whoever I’m supposed to be instead of the model child they molded me into.”

Matt watched as she let her guard down for him, and what he saw broke his heart a little bit. Sitting across from him was a girl who barely had any parents or anyone to care about her when she was younger. Underneath her solid wall of cold indifference was a very vulnerable girl. He knew Audrey thought the only way to protect herself was to pretend like she didn’t care what anyone else thought, but deep down, she did.

“It’s kind of hard to act like yourself when you were always told not to,” she said with a small, sad smile. Matt knew he had just peeled one of the thickest layers of her wall away, and he had made so much progress into finding out who she was in just this short time. He felt bad for Audrey, and he wanted her to know that not everyone was like her parents. Some people accepted others for who they were, not who they seemed to be.

Audrey didn’t know what it was about Matt that made her tell him all of those things, but it scared her that she had allowed herself to be so open with him. And, just like that, she placed her guard back up as quickly as it had come down. She didn’t want him feeling sorry for her because she could deal with all of her problems on her own.

In an effort to change the subject once again, Audrey let a slow smile cross her lips. “So, what’s your stage name?” she asked.

“Oh no,” Matt replied, laughing. He knew she was avoiding talking about something she didn’t like once again, but he didn’t want to bring down the feeling of the date anymore than he already had. “You’re going to give me so much shit if I tell you. I can’t believe they told you we all had stage names.”

“Yes, they did,” she said with a laugh. “And I have to admit that I’ve been dying to know what yours was ever since Zacky told me everyone called him Zacky Vengeance.”

“I don’t know if I want to tell you,” Matt said, teasing her.

“You know I can just go and look it up on the internet if you don’t tell me,” she said. “I just thought it might sound a little less ridiculous if you told me yourself.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you, as long as you promise not to make fun of me too much,” he said seriously. She gave him an eager nod, and it left Matt with no other choice but to tell her. “Alright, my stage name is M. Shadows.”

He could tell Audrey wanted to laugh, but she was trying so hard to keep it in that he knew she was trying to keep to her word.

“Okay, tell me what you think,” he said with a sigh. “I can tell you’re dying to make fun of it in some way.”

“No no, I promised you I wouldn’t say anything,” she replied with a smile. Her eyes were shining with the same laughter she had earlier in the night, and he was glad the sad, lost look she had on her face just moments ago was gone. “I was just thinking I’m glad it’s not as silly as Synyster Gates.”

Matt laughed loud at what she said, which earned him a few glances from people who were eating around them. After this attempted switch at lightening up the conversation, they only talked about pleasant things, which carried them right through dinner and back to the front step of Audrey’s apartment.

They stood there looking at each other as the first awkward moment of the night passed by between them. It was that moment of the first date where the girl was deciding whether she should invite the boy up for coffee, and the boy was deciding whether to kiss the girl goodnight or not. For some reason, Audrey thought the date had gone so well it was scary, and she didn’t want to risk messing it up anymore.

“Tomorrow me and the guys are going to spend the day in the city, doing the things tourists usually do when they come to New York,” Matt said. He was only going to be in New York for a few more weeks and he had to make the most of his time. “You could come with us, if you’re not busy.”

“I’m not busy, but I do hate everything in New York that draws a crowd,” she replied with a teasing smile. “I’ll think about it, though.”

“So does that mean yes?” he asked, knowing he had to be assertive for her to say yes. He was beginning to realize that you didn’t get anywhere with Audrey unless you didn’t give up.

“Maybe.”

“So we’ll come by here tomorrow morning then?” Matt answered for her with a smile. He wanted to see her again, and he was going to drag her with them if that’s what it took. He knew it had been a good date, so they didn’t have to go through saying ‘I had a nice time’. He liked that she wasn’t pressing him for his thoughts.

Audrey just smiled again, and he knew it was a yes. He knew he wasn’t going to attempt to kiss her tonight because with Audrey, you had to fight for every inch she gave you. But that just made every victory that much sweeter.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Matt said as he took a few steps backwards to the curb so he could catch a cab back to his hotel room. She watched him as he successfully hailed a cab on his own, and then she entered her building with a long sigh.

The date she went on tonight was probably the best one she had ever been on. Every other time it had been someone her parents had picked out for her, and they were always dull. Luckily for Audrey, they scared easily, too.

With Matt, it was different. He was different. He was the complete opposite of what she would have picked in a guy, but she was beginning to think that was a good thing. They had nothing in common, yet they were able to talk easily for hours. And, he didn’t run away when she was too forward. She needed someone who didn’t scare easy.

Audrey was starting to wonder if the saying opposites attract actually was true. Maybe you only got along best with the people who could balance out your personality.

As she walked back into her empty apartment, she thought of how she didn’t exactly know what it was about him, but she didn’t really care. All that mattered was that no matter how different he was from her, she liked spending time with him.

The one thing Audrey did know was that she had hoped he was going to kiss her goodnight.