Checkmate

I leave my house and start my journey to Alex’s place. This time, it doesn’t take as long as it did, but that is just because I know where I am going. He buzzes me in when I press the button on the box. I enter and go up the stairs to his apartment. When I am almost there, I hear two girls talking. I try not to listen in, but it’s kind of hard. Once I am on his floor, I see Alex talking with two girls. One is short brunette, and the other one is a tall blonde. They are chuckling, and Alex has a smile on his face. I don’t know how he noticed me, but he did. He turns his head in my direction and motions for me to come over. When I am over to him, he tells them bye as we walk inside, and I swear that I hear one of them meow. Alex leads me over to the living room area, and he still has a smile on his face. I feel a bit jealous that two girls were able to make him so happy.
“Who were they?” I find myself asking as I sit down on the couch.
Alex goes over and grabs the two guitars that are leaning up against the wall by the TV. “That was just Demetria Click and her younger sister, Caelan Clark. The short one was the older one by the way. They are two of my neighbors, and I enjoy talking to them. They are rather odd. Well, Demetria is the really odd one.” He sits down next to me and hands me one of the instruments.
“Did one of them meow, or was it just me?”
“No, Demetria has a thing for meowing. That’s just her.”
“Oh. Um, why were you talking to them?”
“Well, it started out with Demetria, who was telling me about her class. She also teaches English, but she teaches in the district that is close to us. She’s also currently getting her masters. Then Caelan came out. Demetria started to go off topic like she always does. I think she mentioned one of her sister’s classes. Her sister is in college right now. It ended up turning into a story about her cats.”
“Oh.”
“They’re good people, and it’s hard for me to make friends. Now, I believe that you said that you would play for me.”
“Of course. Is this tuned to standard?”
“Yep.”
“Alright.”
I start to play my song, and eventually I sing the lyrics as well. I wasn’t planning on singing when I came over because I know how good of a singer that Alex is, but I know that he would want me to, so that’s what I’m doing. I close my eyes, and it’s a lot more comfortable knowing that I’m not singing in front of a class of jerks that are laughing at me. It may also be more comfortable because I’m doing this for something that I know will not laugh at me. However, that can be argued against because it’s Alex, and I think that he’s really attractive. When I finish, I open my eyes and look at him. I wait for his response.
“I liked it,” he smiles. “That was really good especially for you not having a guitar when you wrote the chords. The lyrics were also meaningful, and you have a nice voice. I really liked it.”
“Thank you.” I can’t help but blush a bit.
“Considering you just performed a song just for me, I assume that I’m require to perform one for you as well.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I won’t if you don’t want me to. Actually, I’ve been writing one. It’s not done yet, but I plan on finishing it soon. Would you mind listening to that one and telling me what you think?”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
Alex gets ready to play, but then he stops himself. “Oh. It doesn’t have any lyrics yet. It’s only guitar. I can’t seem to come up with any words that fit.”
“That’s fine.”
“Alright. Well, here it goes.”
Alex starts to play the song, and I instantly find myself being drawn in. I don’t know what it is that is doing it, but the music seems to be pulling me into a story. Every note seems to tell a tale of some kind of tragic event. It’s like every pluck of the strings, since Alex is not using a pick, is like a tear that was shed. I find that my eyes are getting watery and a single tear makes it’s way down my face. It’s been awhile since a song has been able to do that to me, but Alex’s song has done it. His fancy finger work that is at expert level has brought me to tears. I feel more slide down my cheeks. He doesn’t seem to notice because his eyes are closed and he’s just as much into it as me if not more. The second to the last note is a high note that he lets ring for a bit before he stops it and plays a low one.
“And that’s all I have.”
The whole thing is like a replay of Raven after she read. He seemed so happy, but now the song has taken a toll on him just like it did with me. He looks up at me and notices my tears. His hand starts to go towards my face as if he was going to wipe them off, but it goes back before it even started. He was probably not going to. My mind is probably just playing tricks on me. Alex, knowing how upset we both are, tries to get me to talk.
“So... what did you think of it?”
“It was beautiful. It was also sad, miserable, and lonely.”
Alex turns his head away. “Well, I’ve had a lot of tragic things happen to me over the years.”
I don’t know how much he has gone through considering he’s only twenty-five, but I don’t question him about it. Instead, I say something else. “I hope that it all ends. You’re too nice to have anything bad happen to you.”
“You think that because you know nothing about my past.”
“I don’t need to. Your past is your past. The Alex that I see before me is a tragic but kind soul that deserves a great life.”
Alex finally looks at me and smiles. I don’t know why, but it feels a lot more genuine. I don’t think that he has ever lied to me before, but this smile and the look in his eyes just seem so much real. It’s weird, and I don’t quite understand it. Perhaps I’ll understand it in the future.
“Thank you.”
“Your welcome.”
“Do you want to play anymore songs?”
“Yes, please.”
“Alright.”
We play for a couple of hours. Although, I can’t even tell. The music pulls us in too much, and we lose track of time. We don’t notice how late that it has gotten until I hear the alarm go off that I set this morning. I set it so that I would know when I would have to head home. I put my guitar down and look at my phone. Sure enough, it was time that I get going.
“I have to go,” I tell him. “Oh, we didn’t get to chess today.”
“That’s fine,” he reassures me. “We can just do double the time next week.”
“I’m fine with that.”
“Well, we don’t have to. I was just joking.”
“I know.”
Alex and I get up and head towards the door once we put the guitars down. He opens it for me, and I tell him bye. He doesn’t say it back though. I don’t know why he doesn’t say it. I’m about to question why he didn’t say bye back, but he starts talking before I do.
“Thank you?”
“For what?”
“For accepting me.”
I smile at him. “Well, I can say the same thing to you as well.”
“I guess you can. Bye Jack. I’ll see you Monday.”
“Bye Alex.” And with that, I left.

Notes

Note Later.
Putting up two more chapters.