I sighed as I unlocked the door to my apartment. Another long day in practice was behind me, and even though I felt as if I easily surpassed the rest of the class, they keep showing less and less enthusiasm for their instruments. I couldn't help but feel as if maybe it was my fault. Was I setting the bar too high? Why would anyone even try to compete with me; aren't we all on the same team? As long as they were happy with themselves there shouldn't be any problems with the group as a whole, but here we were. The professor kept criticizing the class on their fingering and how everyone had problems keeping time. I couldn't believe it, this was simple stuff! It was something that should be a problem in Piano 101, not in a high level Arts University class. I pushed the door open and escaped from the setting sun and into the dim living space. Zoey should be here by now, why was it so dark?
“Zoey?” I called out as I walked into the small living room and flicked on the lights. The TV was off, but her bag was thrown carelessly against the side of the couch. Even her violin case looked as if it had just been dropped without a care, which was something she would never do. I felt a small amount of panic well up inside of me as my mind raced through different scenarios. Did someone break in as she had just gotten home? Was she kidnapped? Could she be hurt? Was the kidnapper still in here?! I walked towards the front of the couch and relief flushed through me as I made out her figure laying down on it. She was asleep, curled in a light purple blanket. Her freckled face was slightly wet and I made out tear stains on the pillow she rested her head on. Aw, Zoey...
---
“I don't really want to do this.” I told Crystal as I crossed my arms and looked away from her. “It's like, I don't think this is my...scene, you know?”
“Zoey, we're at a cafe during open mic nite.” She told me as she sipped from her chilled drink. We were sitting in a crowded cafe as a man in a suit played the saxophone on the circular stage. “This is what we do for work on the other side of town, I'd say this is definitely your scene.” I stared at the stage for a few seconds before bringing my attention back to her.
“And if I'm not good enough?”
“Why are you still thinking like that?” She told me. “You already know you're amazing at the violin. That's obvious no matter who you ask. Now get ready, we're almost up.” Sure enough, once the suited man stepped down, the main announcer dude called our number and we made our way up to the stage. Jeez. The lights felt way hotter here then they were in the cafe we usually perform. Maybe it was just my imagination. Crystal took her seat at the electric keyboard provided near the back end of the stage as I stood near the center holding my violin by the neck awkwardly.
“Uh, hi.” I said into the standing microphone.
“Oh, hi.” Crystal replied playfully into her own mic. “Who's this?”
“Well,” I joked back at her, feeling my tension begin to loosen up, “my name is Zoey Brunt. Who might you be?”
“Nice to meet you Zoey,” she said as she tapped a few keys that gave the whole conversation a whimsical feeling to it. “My name is Crystal Donn. Are you my violinist?”
“Only if you're my pianist.”
“I would be, but I'm a female.” There were a few chuckles from the audience. Heh. Words that kinda sound like other words. Wait, what was the rating on this place? Was that an okay joke to make? Oh well, we already opened the gates, might as well let the water flow.
“That's alright,” I said, “we can pretend you've got the goods.” More laughter from the crowd. If the whole musician thing didn't work out we might have a stand up gig going for us, I guess. “Anyway. What are we playing tonight, mister Crystal?”
“Well,” she answered, lowering her voice in an attempt to sound more masculine, “tonight we're going to do an arrangement on an existing piece of music.”
“A duet.”
“That's when two people play together.”
“If nothing else you can at least say you learned something new tonight.”
“Yeah. Anyway, we should get started. Our clock is probably clicking.”
“Right. If anyone after the show can tell us where this piece is from, we'll give you a high five.”
“One. Two. Three.
Four.”
Crystal started with four quick notes that she repeated through two different octaves as I brought the violin up to my neck, waiting for my cue. She throw a few more slow notes out there, giving the entire piece a feeling of simplicity. A few octave skips starting from the lowest to the highest came and I strung my bow across my violin quickly, almost giving off a majestic feeling to the crowd. As we played, I let my mind wander a bit. These duets were usually the same. Crystal's piano was masterful, but she understood that in most situations her piano was the background for other instruments. It wasn't something that should steal the spotlight, but instead it would amplify others around it. It could be very powerful by itself if used correctly, but it could also be ignored by the audience. Her classmates couldn't see that; they were too focused on trying to get themselves noticed to realize it. It was something that could be ignored when present, but would be sorely missed when absent. We kept playing and though I kept my eyes closed for most of my performance, I did peak every so often and was happy to see that we had captivated our audience. Even the guys behind the registers were fixated on us. We knocked this out of the park.
Crystal played us out as I returned to my previous pose of holding my violin down my front. When her last note rang out, we were overwhelmed by the sound of clapping.
“Holy crap.” I told her over the wave of noise. “I think we were kind of amazing.”
“I, uh, yeah.” She said, her face slightly red. “I told you we would be.”
“Are they giving us a standing ovation?”
“Nah, they're just really tall.”
“Crystal, I'm serious.” I felt a sudden emotion rise from the pit of my stomach. “They are! They totally are!” I giggled at her as I jumped from foot to foot. This was amazing!
“Oh. God, they are, aren't they?” She said, completely stricken to the point of being dumbfounded. “What...what do we do?”
“We bow. I think. That's what we always do, isn't it?”
---
I picked up Zoey's bag and case as quietly as I cold before making my way into her room. I put the bag on her desk and made sure the violin case was securely closed before placing it by the foot of her bed. Damn it. Why did this keep happening to her? I tiptoed across the hall and into the bathroom, doing my best to not wake my sleeping friend. Once I closed the door I turned on the shower and undressed. There was a good chance the sound of running water would wake her, but this was the best way for me to think. I stepped into the warm spray of water and closed the curtain behind me. Then I placed my head against the wall as water poured over me. Damn it all, this wasn't fair. Why did this always happen to her? All through her life she's been met with stupid obstacles and she's always done such a great job of overcoming them, but something else always seemed to pop up right after.
Even way back in high school she was always fighting with everything she had in order to be the best violinist in our music club. No matter how much effort she put into it though, she was always just runner up—second fiddle, as it was. She's always seriously hated that term, for obvious reasons. I stayed against the cool wall for a few minutes, letting the sound of water hitting the tub below me fill the silent void. She would need me, and of course I'm going to be there for her. She would do the same for me, after all. I turned the the knob, causing the water to stop. I stood still and tried my best to listen for any moving fabric from the living room, but couldn't make anything out. She was probably awake by now, though. I opened the shower curtain and dried myself off with a white towel before redressing myself. Taking a deep breath, I opened the bathroom door and entered the living room.
---
I opened the classroom door and entered homeroom. Good lord I was nervous. Still, I knew better than to doubt myself and I calmly took my seat while waiting for Crystal to join me. This was it. This was the day I finally break myself away from the rest of the pack and prove I'm the best damn violinist this school has ever seen. I stared up at the old intercom box in the corner of the room, ignoring the chatter that surrounded me. Once the morning announcements started, everyone will be silent and the winners will be announced. There was no doubt in my mind that I had performed the best, and I was finally going to get the recognition I deserved. Hell yes. I felt the chair next to me slide as Crystal sat down next to me.
“Hey, you.” She told me. “How do you feel?”
“Like a winner.” I said quietly.
“Good, because that's what you are. Seriously, you knocked them dead last night. The rest of the competition had no idea what hit them.” I only nodded as I watched the clock tick down. Eight O’clock. Here we go.
“Gooooooood morning everybody!” The intercom said happily, “And welcome to another fantastic Thursday morning! We've got a lot to cover today, but before all that I'm happy to announce that the judges have just handed me the results for last night's Multi Musical Tournament! Why don't I just go ahead and start us off with that? Oh I'm so excited to see the results I can hardly keep the paper steady!” Just get on with it. Please, let's go let's go let's go. “First we have the Piano Parade! In third place was Chase Conner! Second was Eric Manfred! And in first place we have Crystal Donn!” The room exploded with cheer over my best friend's victory, though no on should be surprised at it. I gave my bestie a high five as the rest of the room smiled at us. The lady over the intercom was saying something, but it was hard to make out over the students. I finally started hearing her properly. “...up, we have the Double Dancing Dojo! Which team showed the best fancy footwork? Well, in third place we have none other than our own Stacy Drowl and Veronica Adams! Second place was given to the twins Josh and Carl Sanders! And in first place was, in a landslide victory, Ashley Oath and Anna Wood! Good job all around!” Having no one in the classroom who had won, our classmates remained mostly silent.
“Now we have the Violin Victory! What a fierce competition this one was! Let's dive right in.” My heart started racing. This was it. This was it! I glared at the back of Mark's head. Every time we've met in battle he's toppled me. But not today; this was my win.“In third place was Andrew Fletch!” He got third? Seriously?! That dude was screeching that poor instrument the entire time! If he had gotten third then there was no doubt in my mind that I had won. “Next, in second place,” Please. Please please please please. “we have one of our favorites,” god please, I need this. Let Mark take second for a change. Let me taste the sweet victory that has eluded me in the past. “it's none other than,” I felt as if I was about to throw up. My entire skin was crawling with goosebumps. This was it.” Zoey Brunt!”
I closed my eyes as I felt Crystal look in my direction. Damn it. Why. “And in first is Mark--” I slammed my fist against my desk as the classroom exploded again. I didn't need to see what was happening. Everyone was crowding around him; I knew it. I stood from my chair and walked out the door, unnoticed by everyone. Almost everyone. My eyes stung as I walked in a random direction, and I angrily rubbed them with my arm. I should have known better. Of course he won. He's the best damn violinist this school has ever seen and he's proven it again and again, all without trying. Who the hell was I to even try to take that away? I stopped suddenly as my body softly collided with a chain link fence, and I held on to it with my hands, looking at the small number of trees that bordered this section of the school with the greenery of the old closed off portion.
“I'm an idiot.” I said to myself as I bumped my head against the fence.
“Don't say that.” Crystal's voice came from behind me. “Zoey, you played the best you could. I don't care if some panel of old judges can't see your talent, you performed way better than Mark.”
“It doesn't matter.” I sniffed as I turned to face her. “All that matters is what they say. And they say I suck.”
“No they don't.” She embraced me tightly, though I just sort of just limped into the hug. “You don't suck. You're amazing. They just--”
“They just think he's better than me.” Crystal hugged me tighter. I shouldn't put her through this. She had won her own competition; we should be celebrating. “I'm sorry.” I said as I wrapped my arms around her and sobbed into her chest. “I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I'm terrible. I'm sorry I can never be on top of the mountain with you. I'm sorry I keep clinging to you like this. I'm just... I'm sorry.”
---
I walked through the carpet as quietly as I could, doing my best to not wake Zoey up if she was still asleep.
“Crystaaaaal.” She called sadly from the couch. I walked towards her and kneed down to see her face-to-face.
“Hi, Zoey.” I said. “How you feeling?”
“Like a girl who just got dumped.” I could see her bloodshot eyes start to water again and she quickly turned her face, rubbing it against the pillow.
“Ice cream?” I asked as I lightly touched her arm.
“Mmm-hmm.” She hummed, keeping her head low. I walked into the small kitchen and opened the freezer, reaching for a large tub of our emergency ice cream rations. 'Chocolate Therapy.' Oh, Ben and Jerry. You two are the only guys who are always there for us. Grabbing two spoons, I walked back to the couch and found Zoey sitting upright, hugging her knees. “Chocolate Therapy.” She read aloud, “I knew buying this was a good idea.” I took the top off of the ice cream container and tossed it on the coffee table in front of us before handing her a spoon. Turning on the TV, I left the channel alone to play whatever was on It was some cartoon about masked heroes or something but it didn't matter, it was just background noise.
“You wanna talk about it?” I asked her as I pulled her blanket over the two of us.
“Mmmm. I dunno. He just...He said was tired of me. Tired of us. I kinda saw this coming though, we've been pretty distant lately, but I had at least hoped we could work something out.” I looked to the left of the television set and saw a plush giraffe laying on its side.
“Is Mr Bonbon getting the boot, then?” I asked, hoping to lighten the mood a little bit.
“Of course he is.” She answered seriously, placing her head on my shoulder. “Stupid giraffe was probably spying on me. He's getting on the next bus to the city dump.” Zoey brought a spoon full of ice cream to her lips, but some of it spilled on to me. “Oops,” She said,“you're part chocolate now.”
“I had a dream like that once.”
“Yeah, you told me about it.”
We watched the show in silence for a while, eating our ice cream. A few minutes after it was over, I heard my phone's ring tone go off in my room. Aw damn, not now.
“Is that him?” She asked me, referring to my own boyfriend.
“Probably,” I answered. “He can wait though. You're more important.”
“Noooo. What if he thinks you hate him? You gotta answer.”
“I'll talk to him later.”
“But what if this is important?” My phone stopped ringing shortly after she spoke, only to be replaced by a stupidly loud “I'VE GOT BALLS OF STEEL” text alert.
“Seriously?” She asked with a smile. “You fell for that again? Don't you ever check your phone before you leave?”
“I live with a master prankster.” I told her with as I laughed quietly. She started laughing along with me, and it took us a few minutes to calm back down. We watched TV quietly and ate ice cream, talking every so often about little things.
“I think I'm alright.” Zoey said, putting her spoon on the table. “I just need time to get over this, but I'm okay.”
“Alright.”
“I think I'm going to bed though. This really takes a lot out of you.”
“Right. Want me to put the Garden State soundtrack on loop for you?” She smiled at me.
“That'd be great, actually.” She told me as we stood. I placed the tub of ice cream on the table and Zoey immediately took the opportunity to hug me.
“Thank you, Crystal.” She said. “Thank you thank you. I don't think I'll ever manage without you.” I hugged her back.
“I'm here for you.” I said, “Just like I know you're here for me.”
“Always.” The freckled girl let go and waved me goodnight before going into her room and softly closing her door. She'll be okay. Everything'll be okay.