She Will Be Loved
"Look for the girl with the broken smile; ask her if she wants to stay a while":
It was nearly dusk, you know, that special hour of the day when there was no light but the world was not surrounded by darkness yet. It was nearly dusk. The blowing wind was cold, but somehow gentle, the stars did not twinkle and Trent was sitting by the front porch of his house, alone.
He was playing the guitar.
But the music that was coming from it was not what the young musician expected. The notes he kept playing just kept changing and changing, apparently not being able to remain in the one same song for the enough time for someone to notice what it was that Trent was actually playing.
Soon enough, the music just got him frustrated. And that was something that had never happened before. But, then again, who was he kidding? Lately, all he seemed to be able to feel was frustration, and betrayal, and worst of all, heartbreak.
And it was proving to be very difficult for him to get over his broken heart quickly.
Trent had always been a sentimental guy; he was an artist after all. And he was a hopeless romantic too. When he had met Gwen, just a couple of years ago, he had thought about her as a muse, as a soul mate, as the missing piece he hadn´t even realize had gone missing. And he had instantly been in love with her from day one, hoping for her to notice him, for both of them to be together.
And then, after so very little time of happiness, she was gone. She was gone and never planning to come back.
Hell, she was even with another guy now! A guy that, according to logic, was more suitable for her. A guy that had even been Trent´s friend!
Yes, Trent couldn´t get over the fact that Gwen had chosen Duncan over himself. And yes, Trent was in a bad shape then, for thinking he had an opportunity to win Gwen back.
Courtney was walking around the neighborhood, hoping to get home before dusk ended and night settled finally over the outskirts of the cities.
She had been at Bridgette´s all afternoon.
It was Friday; and Bridgette had insisted on having some "girl time" and watching movies, painting their fingernails and eating ice-cream like there´s no tomorrow. The usual stuff, she had told Courtney.
Courtney knew better, though.
She was aware of Bridgette´s concern for her well-being. And even though Courtney didn´t like to have other people´s sympathy and compassion, she couldn´t blame Bridgette for being a friend. A much needed friend in a very desperate time. Yes, two months had already gone by, but Courtney was still hurting.
Two months ago she had found out Duncan, her current boyfriend, was cheating on her. And to make the whole thing just a little bit more dramatic, he was cheating on her with a girl that Courtney believed was her best friend.
Fresh tears bloomed in Courtney´s eyes. She didn´t like to think about the whole cheating incident, but somehow everything around her seemed to be able to remind the brokenhearted girl about the drama. Angrily, the brunette wiped the hot tears away. She was so not going to cry over that jackass again. Or at least, she was so not going to cry in a public place because of him, again.
Just then she heard the soft notes of a guitar; the notes were played with so much passion that they stopped Courtney in her tracks.
She took a few moments to take in her surroundings. She was just a block away from her house, and the house she had come to stop at was nice, and likeable. She noticed someone sitting on a bench in the front porch of the house.
It was a guy; nut not just any guy… It was no other than Trent, the only other human being who could possibly know how bad Courtney was hurting. Gwen had been his girlfriend before the incident.
At least in his case, Gwen had been decent enough to break up with Trent first. Duncan hadn´t had such gentleness.
Slowly, Courtney made her way up to the porch, as if scared of scaring away Trent and the magic he was working out of his guitar. She had already recognized the song he was playing. It was She will be Loved, an old ballad performed by Maroon 5.
The brunette got so caught up in the melody that she didn´t even realized she had started singing to it until Trent stopped playing and looked up at her, expectantly.
Trent looked up at Courtney, too surprised to be anything else.
He had heard someone walking up to the porch, and he had heard someone singing to the song he was playing; the voice was too soft and lyrical. Perhaps that was the reason why he was so perplexed when he discover his audience was no other than Courtney. Because there was no way in hell the same Courtney that spend half of her time shouting was the same girl he had heard singing just a couple of minutes ago.
–Courtney? –Trent finally asked, no longer being able to tolerate the awkward silence.
—Trent –The brunette asked, feeling a blush crept all the way up to her cheeks. –I didn´t mean to interrupt you… I was just… I was just on my way home but I liked the song. I mean you´re very talented and all…and I just…
–Wannna join me? –Courtney looked at him doubtfully. He was being too nice to her when it was obvious that she had interrupted him. –I don´t mind –Trent added, patting a spot in the bench next to where he was sitting.
The brunette nodded, and sat down, the blush in her cheeks slowly disappearing.
Without saying anything else, Trent allowed his fingers to roam through the strings, a little bit carelessly, letting his fingers to subconsciously choose a melody.
As time started passing by, Courtney found herself feeling more at ease with the musician, and started humming to herself in perfect sync to the music. Then she started singing the songs she knew, thinking Trent wouldn´t notice if she did so.
When Trent paused to give his hand a break, Courtney got up.
–Well, I guess I should really get going. –She said.
–Yeah, it´s getting dark. –Trent felt a blush coming as he said the following –It was nice spending time with you, though.
Courtney looked taken aback at first, but then let a genuine, little smile slip form her chocolate lips; a smile that Trent noticed, was broken.
–Yeah. You know there is this place downtown where I sometimes go to listen to some good music, as well as to learn something. You should come with me someday and maybe other people will get to hear just how good you are with that guitar.
Trent was so stunned by her words that he remained speechless.
–I guess I´ll see you on Monday –the girl said, turning around and walking into the night, without offering the musician another word.
When Courtney lay down on bed that night, she couldn´t quite explain to herself why had she invited Trent to go with her to her favorite café. She didn´t want to admit to herself that she hoped Trent would be kind to her, that he would understand because he was hurting as badly as her.
Meanwhile, Trent was having his own epiphany. He couldn´t explain to himself why had he asked Courtney to stay with him after discovering her watching him in the porch. But there was something in the defeated, yet still alive, look her dark brown eyes have given to him. And her lyrical voice made him felt less lonely just for a while.
As usual, Courtney arrived early for her classes on Monday. She believed that starting things early was the right thing to do, and gave you some advantages over the other competitors as well. Though, arriving early to school didn´t seem to have any advantages anymore.
She remembered those long-gone days when Duncan would arrive early too, just to bother her and fight her or just to be with her and love her.
The knots in the pit of her stomach started building themselves up again. She was so not allowing it. She was so not going to feel sorry for herself in such a public place.
She took a deep breath and started making her way to her first class of the week: History
When Trent arrived to History Class on Monday, Courtney was already there, as well as some other of their classmates. The seat beside the brunette was empty however.
Without a second thought, Trent sat down next to Courtney and let his belongings slipped to the floor.
At first, Courtney ignored him pointedly, as if the guitar episode had never happened. The teacher arrived, and so did the rest of the students. Courtney didn´t spoke to Trent during the whole hour.
When the bell finally rang, Trent stood up and started packing up his things, feeling a bit disappointed that Courtney hadn´t acknowledged him at all. When he was already out the door, he heard Courtney whisper "See you later".
The next day, Trent sat down next to Courtney again. And so he did the day after that day, and the day after that one too.
Courtney grew more comfortable with him as time started passing by, still not talking to him much during the class but at least greeting him when he sat down next to her and trying to be nice to him too.
–Why do you sit down beside me every day? –the brunette asked a couple of weeks after Trent had first sat down with her.
That one question had been bugging her recently. She wasn´t nice and had never been friends with Trent. They´d barely talked to each other and she didn´t feel all that comfortable around someone who was still hurting because of Gwen. And she was pretty sure Trent knew she still had feelings for Duncan. The situation didn´t make sense at all.
Trent seemed to struggle to find the right words to voice his answer. He was trying to be a friend to her, he was trying to fix the broken smile that rested on her lips
–I guess I´ve realized you need a friend who helps you through shitty situations without asking too many questions. I think I´m that friend, because I really understand what you´re going through.
Instead of answering, Courtney gave him the same bittersweet and broken smile she had given him the night he had been playing that old Maroon 5 song.
"I know where you hide, alone in the car. Know all of the things that make you who you are"