Lost In Stereo -Jack Barakat

Chapter 3- In Venere Veritas

Imogen’s Point Of View

I put my earphones in my ears so I can listen to the great voice that is Ville Valo. Whenever I’m paying attention to the lyrics in HIM’s songs I completely forget about what’s going on around me and drown in their lyrics. But before there’s even a chance of that happening, a shadow of a familiar lanky body is standing in front of me. Jack.

“Hey, do you want to come and sit with us?” Jack points to a table with two girls and three guys sitting there. A guy with caramel hair is waving wildly from where he’s sitting and the blonde girl next to him seems to be shushing him.

“No it’s okay; I don’t want to be a bother.” I say quietly.

“You wouldn’t be a bother, please?” He asks, great now he’s pouting and I can’t say no.

“Okay.”

I pick my bag up and throw my chips in a bin on our way there.

“Are you sure about this?” I ask him.

“Yeah of course.” Jack smiles.

We walk there and Jack sits down next to the boy with the caramel hair.

“Just sit here.” He moves over and makes space for me. I put my bag down on the ground and sit in the space next to Jack.

Jack tells me who everyone is and it turns out that the boy with the caramel hair’s name is Alex and the blonde next to him is named Lisa.

Everyone sits there and converses for a little while so I kind of just stare at the floor.

“She’s just like you Jack.” Alex says kind of loudly.

“Alex.” Jack mutters and gives Alex a look.

“What? I’m just stating an obvious fact.” Alex smirks and then talks to Lisa.

“Sorry about him.” Jack says to me.

“It’s okay.” I reply.

“You’re really quiet.” Jack laughs softly.

“Yeah I get that a lot.” I smile half-heartedly.

“So um what do you have next?” Jack asks me.

“I have a double of music. You?”

“I’ve got the same thing, what do you play?”

“Guitar and I used to do drums but I stopped because it was too much to do with all the homework that I used to get at my old school.” I explain.

“That’s cool, I play guitar, Alex sings and plays guitar, Rian plays drums and Zack plays bass.” Jack says with a smile.

I nod my head and place my earphones into my ears, letting Stay Together For The Kids by blink fill my ears. I feel a light poke on my shoulder and look away from the screen of my iPod to see who it was.

“What song are you listening to?” Jack asks me. I look around at everyone else; they’re pretty much having their own conversations. I show Jack the screen of my iPod. “Can I listen?” He asks.

I hand him the right earphone since he’s sitting on my right and I restart the song. I stare blankly at the table, wishing that I could be at home sleeping right now. The song playing slowly fades out and Basket Case by Green Day starts playing.

“You’re music taste is fabulous okay.” Jack says to me with a giant smile. The bell rings so we get up and Jack, Alex and I walk to the music room. Well I’m really just following Jack who’s kind of following Alex because we’re still listening to the song.

Once the song finishes Jack hands me the other earphone and smiles and we walk up some stairs. One thing’s for sure, I’m shit scared of heights. I start stressing out and thinking that the floor is going to fall out from under my feet. I stop in the middle of the stair case and wait for my mind to sort itself out.

It takes a couple of seconds and Jack walks up next to me while I try and catch up to them.

“Are you okay? You look kind of pale.” Jack asks me with a worried look on his face.

“Y-yeah I’m fine; I’m just scared of h-heights.” I explain.

“We’re here.” Alex says from the top of the stairs.

Jack holds my hand and we quickly walk up the rest of the stairs and catch up with Alex. We drop our hands and walk into the class room.

“Thank you.” I give Jack a small smile and we enter the class room to see half of the students sitting in their chairs.

“We usually sit at the back of the classroom and there’s always a spare seat so you can sit there.” Jack walks over to his seat with Alex and pulls out a chair next to him.

I nod my head and take out my book since the whiteboard says that we have theory music, which from what I know is pretty much writing out sheet music, writing in the lyrics to songs or some other form of boring work.