Give Me Your Hand

"This year, the Ludwig Van Beethoven Award for Excellence in Music Theory goes to Cecilia Elizabeth Rheed." Our principal announced and I blushed, standing up and quickly stepping toward the podium to shake his hand, take my certificate, and hurry back to my seat. The eyes watching me and the applause…it was just too much.

I sat back down next to Kelly.

"Look at Sea-sick getting her award." Frasier taunted quietly behind me. I bit my lip, his teasing was slowly, day by day, beginning to truly upset me.

"Also, this year, the Ludwig Van Beethoven Award for Excellence in Music Theory goes to Frasier," I saw the boy in question wince at the name out of the corner of my eye and the corner of my lip twitched into a smile. "Henry Jacobsen."

Frasier stood up and made his way over his friends and to the podium. His walk was so much calmer than mine, so much smoother.

"Little Sea-sick isn't the only one to get a fancy award." He leaned to whisper in my ear before sitting back down.

Why was he so intent on making my life impossible to deal with?

As soon as the ceremony was over, I left. I said a quick "hello" to my parents, and booked it out of there.

I headed for the music room. It was my sanctuary and my kryptonite. It depended who was there with me.

I sat down at the piano, brushing my fingers lightly over the keys until they were in position. From there, I just played what I felt. I felt lonely. I felt unwanted. I felt second best to Frasier in everything I did. He was amazing at everything.

My Mozart proficiency test was tomorrow and I was going to fail.

My original piece was due the day after, that wasn't going to be finished anytime soon.

"Is that your composition for Friday?"

I looked to the doorway.

"Saw you leave." Frasier shrugged, "I wasn't hungry. Was that your original composition for Friday?" He repeated.

I shook my head 'no.'

"It should be, it's pretty, unique, delicate. It's loud but in a shy way. It's you in seven letters plus the half-steps between them." He joked.

I shrugged.

"It really is good. What inspired it?" I didn't answer.

He gave a small smile before walking over to the other end of the classroom and picking up his guitar case.

"You want to try? I brought a guitar I fixed and I'm trying to sell, but it's got a female-width neck and it'd be nice to have a girl try it to see if I did it right." He offered one of the black cases.

"I don't play much on guitar." I said quietly. "I only know the basics."

"I'll teach you." He set the cases down and unzipped them. He took out his own, black electric and dragged over two amps to plug into. He set it down on a chair gently before opening the second bag and motioning me to the floor next to him. He took out a dark blue guitar with lighter, electric blue lightning-like patterns streaking across from side-to-side. The fretboard was black and the neck was considerably thinner than that of any guitar I've seen.

"That's what makes it a girl's guitar." He told me, seeing my glance from the guitar he'd handed me to his. "Do you think a girl would play something colored like that? I did the paint myself. I basically stripped the entire thing and replaced everything then painted it. It was chipped and broken when I bought it." He plugged it in and looked at me expectantly.

I strummed an open E chord and made a face at the sound.

"Yeah, I--uh--didn't tune it." He blushed, scratching the back of his head. "We should probably do that now. But, what do you think about the color?"

"I like it, personally. How much did it cost you?"

"I had the paint and the guitar itself cost me five, the people didn't know what it was worth, really nice guitar, shame it was such a mess. Of course, it's not worth half as much as if would have had it been in mint condition when I bought it, but that's okay. I'd estimate it's worth around two-hundred. Repairs didn't cost much. The price goes up as I learn what it can do."

"So why not just post a video of you playing it?" I asked.

"It's a girl's guitar." He looked at me like I was crazy, "It'd never sell if a guy plays it."

"Oh." I bit my lip and fidgeted with the strings some more, trying to tune them.

"Try an E chord again." He asked softly after a few minutes.

"It sounds right…" I said, strumming again.

"Yeah, cool, okay." He shifted so I could see his hand better. "Have you ever played something without chords before?"

I frowned.

"Like single strings." He prodded.

"I mean…I know a bit of Taylor Swift--"

"That'll do." He nodded. "Go ahead."

I fiddled with what I knew.

"Do you know anything else?" He asked after I was done. I shook my head.

He frowned and looked like he was thinking for a moment.

"Your Mozart piece." He said. "Try that."

"I-I-I--"

He placed his guitar on the chair again and scooted over to me. Arms were suddenly on either side of me, moving my hands.

"The distortion isn't on so it'll sound pretty normal, you should be able to tell." He said, mostly to himself I think. He shifted my left hand on the frets and gave me the strings to play. It didn't take too long before he'd stopped moving my fingers for me and he let me figure it out by ear. It was repetitive enough that everything was pretty close to each other.

His hands slipped from mine, up my arms, and to my waist as he looked over my shoulder at what I was doing with my hands, correcting me softly if I made a mistake.

"That was good." He told me, though it had been slow and filled with errors. I turned to look at him, and hadn't realized his face was so close. It was just centimeters that were between our lips. He noticed too, and he didn't hesitate to rid us of the distance all together, brushing his lips lightly against mine before pulling back.

There was an awkward silence and we just stared at each other, moving away ever so slightly.

"Same time next week, then?" He asked quickly.

"For what?" I frowned.

"I'll give you guitar lessons if you'll help me sell any girl's guitars I redo."

I shrugged.

"Cool, so same time, next week. We'll film some stuff, maybe."

I only nodded.

"Awesome, see you, CC!"

What the hell just happened?

That was the day I decided Frasier Jacobsen was bipolar.