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The day's last one-way ticket train pulls in
We smile for the casual closure capturing
There goes the downpour
There goes my fare thee well
There's really no way to reach me
There's really no way to reach me
There's really no way to reach me
'Cause I'm already gone
There's so many words that we can say
Spoken upon long-distance melody
This is my hello
This is my goodness
There's really no way to reach me
There's really no way to reach me
There's really no way to reach me
'Cause I'm already gone
Maybe in five or ten yours and mine will meet again
Straighten this whole thing out
Maybe then honesty need not be feared as a friend or an enemy
But this is the distance
And this is my game face
There's really no way to reach me
There's really no way to reach me
Is there really no way to reach me?
Am I already gone?
So this is your maverick
And this is Vienna
Vienna
the Fray
Learning to Breathe
Part I
things start getting interesting
He was so absorbed in Beethoven’s Concerto number 4 in G Major that he didn’t notice the door to the auditorium opening and closing softly. Rounding out the Allegro with dynamics was more important than listening to the small footsteps walk silently down the isle or the squeak of the chair as the informant got comfortable. He didn’t realize any of this as he finished the end of the movement as if he had just won the U.S Open Men’s title that his brother Teddy was constantly whining about. It’s not like he’ll one day win it, but Christopher still had high hopes for him.
But he did hear the squeak of the tennis shoe against the floor as silence overcame the room. Christopher’s eyes never left the piano as he tilted his head toward the rows of seats. His hands hovered over the piano keys itching to touch them again but he wouldn’t let them. He had to have some restraint. It was a hassle to leave the instrument and go to his classes, but he had to every day and he was slowly becoming better at de-attaching himself from it. But this person was invading his space, and he hated that.
His head moved farther to the side as he made out a figure from the corner of his eye. It was a student. Young, female, brown curls surrounding her soft facial features. Bright green eyes that were wide with surprise at being caught. The girl stood up and smoothed down her shirt from nerves. Christopher could sense it from his position on the stage.
“Oh—um—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” She said hesitantly which made Christopher’s left eye twitch.
He didn’t like people apologizing.
He didn’t like people apologizing.
He didn’t like people apologizing.
He didn’t like people apologizing.
He didn’t like people apologizing.
Apologizing reminded him too much of his home life. Not that it was bad, people just made a lot of empty apologies.
Christopher shook his head to stop his emphasizing of different words. He had to figure out a way to stop doing that. It was something he’d been doing since he was a kid, but nobody knew because he didn’t voice them. He didn’t voice a lot of things.
He continued to stare at the girl while waiting for her to do something. She started to back up down the aisle towards the door she’d entered from.
“I was just—I mean I was looking for Jen—and I guess I thought she might be in here—for some reason or another—I mean I didn’t—but your playing was great—and I’ll just go now.” She turned around with a small squeak and left the auditorium.
Christopher could still hear her muttering profanities under her breath as she left. His mouth twitched as if it wanted to smile but he hadn’t smiled in a very long time. He stopped the twitching by focusing on the sheet music in front of him. It wasn’t like he needed it; he had memorized it the first day his piano instructor had given it to him. Having a photogenic memory did that for a person.
He noticed a corner of the third sheet was sticking out at an odd angle. He pushed it back into place but it made the sheet on top shift. His eye twitched again as he moved the top sheet back into place. It angled slightly so the sheet behind it was exposed. His eye twitched again. He sighed and stared at the sheet music, willing himself to not be affected by its presence. He placed his hands over the keys again to start the second movement but faltered.
They wouldn’t play with the music messed up like that. He grabbed the sheet music quickly and tore it in half. He placed the halves together and set them on the ground beside the piano bench where he sat. There, now they were misshaped and he wouldn’t have to bother with them. Now they couldn’t be equal.
He took a deep breath and placed his hands over the keys again. He stared at them but didn’t move. His head tilted toward the door where she had left and his lip twitched again.
She was cute.
That had been his first incident with Shannon McCoy.
He was stopped halfway there by her. The same girl that had interrupted him during his stolen practice time. He did that every once in a while, left classes to go play the piano or skip lunch in order to get in forty-more minutes of bliss. It seriously was for him, playing the piano was like going home.
But she. Man she was something else. She didn’t seem to realize that he wanted to be left alone and he didn’t want her interrupting him perfectly planned life. And that’s what she was doing, interrupting it.
“Hey Chris!” she said cheerfully as she bounced towards him. She actually bounced.
He couldn’t look at her though. He looked over her head, because she was that much shorter than he was, and focused on his brothers waiting by the car. He could sense Jen giving him an odd look from where she was standing halfway into Andrew’s car but he chose to ignore her. It wasn’t like he could do anything about it now.
He didn’t reply either.
“Um—” she seemed like she was nervous about something or as if she’d lost the boost of bravery she’d just acquired and bounced on her toes while clutching her books to her chest. He knew all of this but didn’t look at her at all. He could see the blonde highlights in her brown hair as it curved around her fragile frame.
“Well I guess I’m out of excuses to talk to you since I obviously am not looking for Jen seeing as how she’s currently in the car pulling her self away from her hottie boyfriend so she can spy on this current conversation—” she said all of that in a very fast sentence before hesitating slowly and continuing to look nervous. Christopher heaved a sigh and waited for her to either continue or finish her rant.
“Well, anyway, I just wanted to say hi and maybe see if you were doing anything this weekend? I mean it doesn’t have to be anything big—like if you had a concert or something you had to be at I wouldn’t mind coming and listening, or if you were just going to hang out at home that would be cool too—” again she trailed off her sentence and waited for him to say something.
He blinked and looked at her quickly before his eyes shot upwards again. She looked really anxious for an answer. He wasn’t going to respond though. A part of him felt bad for leaving her embarrassed and hurt. He shrugged and walked past her towards the car with his head down again. He pulled his backpack higher onto his shoulders and disappeared into the car before anyone could stop him.
“What was that?” Jen hissed opening the door after him. He slowly rolled his head towards her but looked over her shoulder. He could still see the pissed off look she was giving him. What was her problem? He turned back to the front and buckled his seat belt while ignoring her. She could figure out what that was on her own because he couldn’t answer her even if he wanted to.
“Burger King.”
“Sonic.”
“Can’t we do something healthy for once?”
“NO.”
“What about Subway?”
“NO!”
“Oh come on!”
Christopher sat in the middle of the back seat listening to his brothers and sisters arguing around him. Quinn was driving with Jen in the front seat while Nolen and Kate sat on either side of him. In the very back seat sat Teddy with his girlfriend Pen and his best friend Andrew, all of whom had a different opinion about where to get dinner.
It was March and the weather had gotten hot and humid which made him uncomfortable sitting in such close proximity with the person next to him. It was making his left eye twitch again.
“Why don’t we do something other than fast food?” Kate was saying from beside him as she leaned toward the front seats. He took a deep breath and moved away from her which didn’t make a difference since he backed further into Nolen. His brother growled and shoved him off. Christopher glared but shifted so he was sitting upright again.
They finally decided on Red Robin since it was the first sit-down restaurant they’d seen when Quinn decided he was tired of driving around and wasting gas. They didn’t have to wait long since they were a large party and another one had just left. They were seated and started ordering food off the charts. With five teenage boys present they were able to shovel down quite a lot of food. They ordered four towers of onion rings which were devoured in about five minutes; the girls got their fair share as well and seemed to be getting along pretty well.
Penelope had only been brought into the gang a few months ago. She and Teddy had a weird relationship from the start, meeting after crashing their cars into each other, and after a while of complicated feelings and little spats they realized they meant a lot to each other and decided to take things slow. Then, on Valentines Day, Teddy finally asked her to officially be his girlfriend and they’ve been practically inseparable ever since. Christopher found it almost nauseating. But Pen got along great with his sisters which was all Teddy asked for.
They weren’t as bad as his sister Jen and her boyfriend Andrew, who at the moment were nuzzling into each others necks and speaking soft cooing noises to each other. Andrew had been Teddy’s best friend since they’d moved there in sixth grade. They were team mates on the tennis team though Christopher would never tell his brother that Andrew was a lot better. So even though they were best friends Andrew had always spent most of his time bugging Jen because he liked her, which everyone realized except for Jen. They fought a crap load before finally realizing they were perfect for each other. Christopher had to worry at the stupidity of his family.
“So Christopher,” Jen started turning towards him after taking a huge bite of her hamburger. Christopher watched the food moving around in her mouth and felt like puking. How was he related to these people? He didn’t respond to Jen. She was going to talk whether he said something or not. “What do you think of Shannon?”
What does he think of Shannon?
What does he think of Shannon?
What does he think of Shannon?
What does he think of Shannon?
What does he think of Shannon?
He doesn’t think anything of Shannon. He doesn’t have an opinion at all about Shannon. He could barely remember who Shannon was. The only thing that registered in his mind was the fact that she was one of his sister’s best friends. That was about it.
He gave Jen a blank stare which she reciprocated as they ate. She wasn’t one to back down from a staring contest and he could really care less. He turned away from her and took another bite of his grilled chicken sandwich before she continued to harass him on the subject of her friend.
“Well Shannon was talking to me this afternoon about how she accidentally interrupted your playing in the auditorium—” Jen continued as he took another bite of his sandwich and counted how many times he chewed it. He could only chew it twelve times before he swallowed. It couldn’t be more and it couldn’t be less so he had to make sure that his bite wasn’t too big or too small. If it was too big he would usually choke while trying to get it down and if it was too small then his mouth got bored of trying to chew it into liquid form.
“—and she said you sounded absolutely brilliant and that you’re definitely ready for your concerto competition this weekend—” funny that she hadn’t heard him playing a concerto but rather a—oh wait—she did hear his concerto. He thought he was playing a different song when she entered.
“Leave him alone, Jen.” Andrew muttered nudging his girlfriend with his elbow.
“I’m not bothering him, Christopher am I bothering you?” she said turning towards him with wide anticipation.
Christopher shrugged and took another bite. He would like it if she didn’t talk to him but he knew he couldn’t stop Jen when she was on a roll with things. Especially things that concerned her friends and family; especially the two combined.
“Just let the guy eat his meal without having you nagging him.” Andrew continued taking another gross bite of his enormous hamburger that he and Teddy had dared each other to order and was now racing to finish.
“I’m not nagging I’m just making observations and commenting on events as of recent.” She explained with an innocent face even though everybody there knew that she was nagging.
“Well stop,” Kate said rolling her eyes from where she sat beside Christopher. He was glad for her input but just wanted everyone to shut up and stop talking to and about him.
He stared over her head again and watched the students milling in the halls between their classes. Some of them were going to first period lunch and others were simply avoiding their classes. He had AP Calculus next and though it wasn’t his favorite subject he didn’t want to be late for it. But he couldn’t just walk away from Shannon when she was going to have a conversation with him.
“So, how was your weekend?” she asked staring at him as if she were going to get a reply. He shrugged though. He knew she was surprised to get that out of him and that was about all he was going to give her. He didn’t have much more than that to offer.
“Awesome,” she said with a nod as if he’d explained some amazing thing he’d done that weekend. “I worked with my dad on the Habitat for Humanity house that our church is building for the victim’s whose houses got destroyed by the tornado a few weeks ago. And I helped my mom with her Sunday school class yesterday which was fun because I love kids and their great to work with.”
She was rambling but he let her. Somehow he liked the sound of her voice. He liked that she spoke to him even though he didn’t look at her or respond to anything she had to say. He liked that she wasn’t bothered by the way he was. Or if she was then she didn’t voice it.
“So anyway, I didn’t know if you’d like to come with me to our families barbeque cook out Wednesday night. I mean you don’t have to if you don’t want to, and it’s a very casual thing mostly just close relatives and my grandparents because they flew in for my brother’s confirmation, so I dunno. I thought it would be fun.”
She’d invited him to her family barbeque? How weird was that. A little less weird than he thought it was going to be, he had to admit. He was tempted to agree as well. He supposed he would have to actually answer her in order for her to understand that he was going to accept, but small steps could be made in a short amount of time. He supposed.
And then it all came crashing down.
“ Shannon, there you are I’ve been looking for you all morning. Why weren’t you in the parking lot?” a deep voice said from behind her. Shannon spun around with a look of either annoyance or shock as she was faced with a tall dark haired guy. He swept Shannon up in one move and planted a giant kiss on her lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck in surprise and kissed him back as Christopher stood there watching.
He wasn’t going to watch for long though. He turned and walked away from their scene to find a piano. No, he had AP Calculus to get to. Screw Calc, he really needed a piano.
A/N: I'm not sure if this will be a two part or a three part story. I'm keeping it short and simple because Christopher is a complicated character and I would bore myself to death if I wrote a full version story for him. Sorry for all those who wanted a long one. Thanks for all the reveiws and enjoy!
