A Melody from the Heart

Even though she didn’t want to be like a tourist in New York City, she did it anyway because I asked her to. I gave her a lot of credit for that day, and I think she enjoyed herself, even though she would never admit that she did. Audrey always could tell you so much more with her silences than her actual words, and with every day I spent with her, it was getting easier and easier to figure out what was going on in her complicated mind…

When they had first set out for the day, the five boys had no idea what they wanted to do because there were just so many options to pick from. Of course Audrey wasn’t going to give her suggestions because she was completely against anything that involved tourists. Even though this day wasn’t something she would plan to do on her own, she didn’t complain or make any faces. Matt gave her a lot of credit for that, especially since a certain guitarist he knew had a sour look on his face the whole time they went places.

First they walked around Times Square. The boys, of course, had been there before, but it was so much different to be able to walk around the streets on their own and with their own time. They had passed the sketchy looking Sesame Street characters, and of course Zacky and Jimmy wanted to take pictures with them. You had to pay money just to take a picture with them and their grungy looking backpacks, but they coughed up the money anyway. Audrey even got in the picture with them.

After that they decided to make their way over to the Statue of Liberty. They had to take a ferry to get there, which took time, but Audrey didn’t mind going on the ferry. She liked the feeling of being out on the water, and she stood looking out at the scenery even though it was cold out.

She was looking over the railing at the wake that the ferry was leaving behind as they moved further and further from the city.

“Did you lose something?” Matt asked with a smile as he leaned over the railing beside her. He was standing so close to her that their arms were touching.

“No,” she replied, looking at him. “I was just figuring out the quickest way to escape from becoming a tourist.”

“Really? I thought I might have seen you smile just a few times today, but that just must have been my imagination,” Matt said. “I think you might be having a good time with us, but you just don’t want to admit it.”

“That is something you will never know,” Audrey replied, giving him a sly smile. The sun was shining bright today, and it made Matt’s hazel eyes look even prettier. Audrey found herself getting lost in them for a moment. Her smiled faded a little bit as Matt’s face became serious with purpose. She knew he was going to lean in at any second, and what she had been waiting for was finally going to happen.

Audrey was positive he was going to kiss her, but a loud commotion behind them quickly ruined the moment. They both cleared their throats awkwardly as they looked behind them to see what was going on. She didn’t know why he hadn’t kissed her yet, because she knew he wasn’t one who wanted to wait for those kinds of things, but the fact that he was taking so long was starting to frustrate her.

Her mind was quickly taken off of the ruined moment when she saw what had happened behind her. Jimmy was buried beneath a pile of ten year olds, looking at Matt and silently pleading for help. She wondered what he could have done to get himself into that ridiculous situation, but then she remembered Matt told her Jimmy always found a way to get into trouble.

Audrey walked over with Matt to help everyone get untangled from each other, and when she looked up the stairs to the top level of the ferry, she could see Zacky and Johnny doubled over in laughter at the scene.

Matt picked a bunch of kids up and set them back onto their feet with ease. Once he removed enough of them, he reached out a hand to help Jimmy get up.

“It’s a weekday, what are so many kids doing out of school?” Jimmy complained loudly as he rubbed the back of his head. He gave one of the kids a dirty look and they ran away to the other side of the ferry.

“What happened?” Matt asked. Audrey noticed he was trying his hardest not to laugh at Jimmy’s frustration at the whole situation.

“I wanted to do a hand stand,” Jimmy said, as if that was totally normal and acceptable to do in a public place. “So, Zacky dared me to do one on the steps. He thought I wouldn’t be able to do it, but I did. I was just about to get down and tell him to eat shit when all those kids came out of nowhere. It was like they were in their own little mob, and they tore down the stairs like a bunch of jungle creatures. They knocked me down, which is how I ended up on the bottom of the pile of little shits.”

“Are you okay?” Audrey asked. She figured it probably hurt to be pushed down stairs by a bunch of kids. She actually did sympathize with him, even though she couldn’t understand why he wanted to do a handstand in the first place. She was never the biggest fan of kids.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” Jimmy said giving her a reassuring smile. He sent another dirty look in the direction of the ten year olds who were trying awfully hard not to look back at Jimmy. “You don’t know how many times I’ve fallen over things, down things, or under things. Trust me, I’m tough.”

With those words, he ran back up the stairs, taking them three at a time, and he smacked Zacky on the back of the head when he reached the top.

Matt just shook his head and laughed. “Jimmy has an obsession with doing handstands wherever he can,” he explained. “I don’t think he gets that it is a really hazardous hobby. The other day it tried doing one in the subway.”

“Oh no,” Audrey said with a laugh. Yes, Jimmy was definitely a character alright.

“Yeah, it didn’t end well,” Matt said. They both stumbled a little bit as the ferry stopped moving, telling them that they had arrived. “Are you ready to become a tourist again?”

“You’re really corrupting me, did you know that?” Audrey asked as she followed him off and on to shore. They met up with the rest of the guys, who were waiting for them. She could tell Matt was trying his hardest to make sure she didn’t feel like she was left out. She knew they were all so close with each other, and that it was hard to feel like a part of the group when all five of them were together. She appreciated his effort to include her to the best of his ability, though.

“Come on, let’s go!” Zacky yelled at them in impatience as they approached them. Zacky’s eyes widened as a girl decked out in souvenirs walked past him. “I want one of those foam crowns!”

Zacky and Jimmy ran off together to find one of the many carts that sold souvenirs. Johnny walked behind them with Brian, who had his arms crossed over his chest while he was skulking, and Audrey and Matt walked behind everyone. She smiled a little bit when she noticed he was walking considerably slower than everyone else so they could keep their distance.

“I’ve actually never been here,” Audrey said as she looked up at the Statue of Liberty. She was against being a tourist, but she had to admit it was pretty amazing being this close to something so important.

“Why not?” Matt asked in disbelief. Even though Audrey didn’t want to come, he had figured she had been here at least once in her life. “You live so close to it.”

“I know,” Audrey replied as she dropped her gaze from the statue to his face. It was considerably windier here than it was in the city, and her hair was blowing all around her face. “I guess I was always so busy with school, and when I wasn’t in school I was practicing.”

Matt noticed she looked a little bit sad, like at one time she had actually wanted to do things like this, but couldn’t. He was beginning to think that her dislike for tourist-like things was actually because she associated them with some bad memories. Audrey knew she had shown momentary weakness, so she quickly turned her head to look at the statue again.

They walked slowly in silence for a few minutes, all of the others completely out of view. Audrey focused all of her attention on pretending Matt wasn’t walking next to her, thinking about how they both knew her guard had dropped again, if only for a few seconds.

Matt then surprised her as he reached through Audrey’s sudden wall of silence, ignoring her attempts to block him out. She felt his fingers lace through her own, an incredible warmth coursing up through her arm and through her body.

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze, forcing Audrey to acknowledge him. The warmth she felt was something that was foreign to her. It was the feeling of someone telling you that they cared how you felt. She tried to think of the last time someone had let her know they empathized with her or cared how she felt, but she realized she couldn’t remember when that was. Actually, she couldn’t remember if she had ever felt that way before.

It made her feel so uneasy that Matt was able to read her so well and see past all the bullshit, but then again she thought that it might be time to let someone care about her.

She smiled, still looking away from him as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze in return. He made her feel unlike anyone else ever had. She always thought people were so stupid when they became infatuated with each other after just barely meeting, but maybe you only got that feeling when you met that special person.

People always said when that one special person comes along, they come out of nowhere and when you least expect it. Matt was someone she would never expect to fall for. She couldn’t really say if he could be the one at the moment, but she did know there was something different and special about him.

Zacky and Jimmy rounded the corner they were just approaching, looking utterly ridiculous with their green foam crowns. Audrey couldn’t believe they were actually wearing them, but she knew they weren’t the type to care what others were thinking of them. Trying to think in the same mind set as them, Audrey didn’t even try to take her hand from Matt’s. She wasn’t sure what his band mates might have thought, but she found they really didn’t find it out of the ordinary, if they even noticed it at all.

“Come on, we’re ready to go now!” Jimmy said excitedly, leading the way. Tickets to climb up to the crown were hard to get and had to be reserved in advance, but they were able to get some due to their fame.

“What’s the matter, Zacky?” Matt asked with a smile on his face as Zacky slowly dragged his feet behind him. “You look a little green.”

“Dude, don’t joke with me,” Zacky said as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “You know how much I hate heights.”

“Come on, it won’t be bad,” Matt said as they all stopped at the entrance of the statue. “How many more opportunities will you have to do this?”

So, maybe keeping Matt’s words in mind, Zacky reluctantly climbed up the statue with everyone else. It was a lot of work and it took a lot of time to climb all of those stairs, but when they reached the top, the view that greeted them was well worth all of their work.

Audrey found the view of the city breathtaking. She had lived there all of her life, but this was a completely different view of it. She went right up to the railing and looked out, not fazed by the height whatsoever. Zacky, unfortunately, was hanging back as far as possible.

Matt came up and stood next to her, looking out at the city as well. “I’m glad you decided to come with us,” he said. Audrey turned to look at him, but he kept looking out at the city skyline. “You know, even though you didn’t want to do any of this stuff, and I’m sure you didn’t want to put up with the guys, I’m happy that you came.”

“I’m starting to think the guys aren’t so bad,” Audrey said, smiling. “And I guess I’m glad I came, too. But definitely not because of the Statue of Liberty.”

“Oh?” Matt asked, raising an eyebrow as he turned to look at her. “Then why are you happy you came?”

“I can’t tell you,” Audrey said smugly. Neither of them noticed it, but in the time that they were talking, they had slowly inched closer and closer to each other. They knew it was clear what was going to happen in the next few seconds, and distractions of any kind weren’t going to stop them this time. In the time it took for Matt to close in on the rest of the distance separating their lips, Audrey couldn’t keep a goofy smile off of her face. She had never felt this way before, and although it was wonderful, these different feelings made her uneasy.

Matt kissed her softly and sweetly, placing one hand gently on the side of her face. The moment couldn’t get any more perfect, with the picturesque view in the background of their kiss.

Audrey saw fireworks behind her closed eyelids, something she also thought was a myth at one time. She couldn’t deny that this was the best kiss she ever had by far, but it did surprise her that Matt could be so heartbreakingly gentle with her. The kiss was short and sweet, and as they pulled away, it was quickly made known that they had an audience.

“Get a room!” Zacky yelled from behind them. He had taken the risk of looking away from the floor to say that. Audrey also heard a distinctive whistle from the direction Jimmy had been in last.

She was embarrassed, and her cheeks burned as they turned a little bit red. Even though she felt self-conscious that all of Matt’s best friends had just witnessed their first kiss, she still couldn’t stop smiling, which was so uncharacteristic of her. His kiss had made her feel so wonderful that her embarrassment quickly faded.

Matt leaned over to whisper in her ear so no one else could hear what he was saying to her. His voice sent chills up and down her spine.

“I promise that the next time this happens, they won’t be around to watch,” he said. He stood up straight again and smiled at her.

“I would hope so,” Audrey replied, teasing him. “I don’t think I could classify you as a good kisser if you brought an audience on all of our dates.”

Matt just laughed and pulled Audrey into his side as they looked back out at the view. If anything, they had just confirmed to each other that they would definitely be kissing again sometime in the near future.