Getting to Know Each Other
Lilly sat on her stool, next to Joe who was on his stool with his back slouched against the wall.
It had been silent for a few minutes, and Lilly was wanting to yell at her mom for making her come. This was so awkward, and neither of them seemed to want to be there! Joe appeared to be thinking.
"So… where to start…" Joe wondered out loud. "Have you…no…do you…? Um…. Have you ever played guitar before?" Joe asked, finally thinking of something that could help get them started.
"Nope." Lilly answered shortly.
"Can you read music?" He asked her, hoping.
"Yeah, my mom's been making me play different instruments since I was six." She answered.
Joe blew out his minty breath and nodded. "Well then… I guess we could, um…Oh god this is embarrassing," Joe finally admitted, blushing. He finally turned to look at her, facing Lilly on his stool. "Honestly, I've never done this before and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."
Lilly set the guitar on the ground, bored of holding it, and leaned her back against the wall. "Just a thought… but I think you're supposed to be teaching me how to play guitar. That's usually how it goes…" She smirked.
Joe smiled at her sarcastically. "Yes, I'm aware. I just don't know where to start. And you don't even have your guitar anymore…" He said, confused, looking at it on the ground.
"Yeah, well since you were honest with me… I don't really want to learn guitar. I'm being forced. Just like I was forced to play the cello and violin." Lilly laughed with no humor in her voice.
"Ah, I see." Joe said, and then started strumming on his own guitar for a couple minutes. Lilly just sat and listened. It almost made her want to learn to play. After a few minutes, Joe hit a bad note. He sent the guitar down on the ground. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is we leave the guitar playing to Nick and Kevin." He joked, smiling genuinely. Lilly laughed along with him.
"So, if you're mom asks what you learned on your first day with me… what are you going to tell her?" Joe asks.
"She won't ask." Lilly answered, sure of herself.
"Yeah, but what if something rare happens and she does ask? What are you going to say? I don't want to get in trouble with the first job I've had. My mom would be pissed." Joe smiled.
"Okay… I understand that. I'll tell her that my new guitar teacher taught me nothing at all, and that she should call and complain about him." Lilly said, smiling innocently.
Joe glared at her, "Lilly…" He warned. It sounded nice when he said her name.
"Kidding! I'll say 'Oh mom I learned SO much with Joe, but I want to show it to you well I'm all done and I want it to be a surprise!'" Lilly acted. Joe laughed whole-heartedly with her
"Good, that's good." Joe took out his cell phone and checked the time. "Well, since we have about thirty minutes left, I guess we could get to know each other a little better. We will be seeing each other twice a week now." Joe said, poking her side.
Lilly smiled. "That sounds terrible." She joked. Joe glared again. "Kidding! Again." Lilly giggled.
"Well I already know one thing about you…" Joe smirked.
"And what's that?" Lilly asked curiously.
"You have terrible jokes." Joe smiled. Lilly smacked his arm playfully.
"Hey! I didn't think they were that bad!" Lilly smiled.
"Did I say bad? I meant hilarious! Knee slappers." Joe said sarcastically. "Okay, so back to this getting to know each other thing, what is your favorite color?"
Lilly laughed and rolled her eyes. "My favorite color? Seriously? Joe, are we five?" Lilly laughed uncontrollably.
Joe gave her a death glare. "Fine… we can sit here in silence. Fine with me."
Lilly tried not to smile. "Okay… I'm sorry, that was a great question. My favorite color is pink. How old are you?"
"Eighteen, and you?" He replied.
"Seventeen, I'll be eighteen in a month." Lilly answered.
"What's your favorite animal?" Joe asked her.
"Frog. Favorite food?" After they had asked all the easy questions they could think of, they still had fifteen minutes left, so the harder ones started coming out.
"Why don't you want to play guitar?" Joe asked her.
Lilly shrugged, thinking for a second. "I guess I've just wasted so much time learning to play instruments, hoping that I'll love playing at least one of them, but it's never happened. My mom thinks 'well balanced' kids know how to read music and all that jazz, so she makes me do this. I just feel like I'm wasting my time, like I could be out skate boarding or something, ya know?" Lilly tried to explain. Joe was looking at her, deeply interested.
"Yeah, I get that. Sometimes I feel like there's so many more things I could do if I wasn't in the band. Like when I was younger, I wanted to be a comedian. I don't know if that's what I'd do now, but I would like to have a normal life. Hang out with friends, like you probably get too. That's what I want." Joe told her, looking into her eyes.
Lilly nodded, thinking of another question. "So, why are you working here? I mean, it's not like you need the money or anything, and you just said you wanted more free time. This doesn't really seem like the way to get that." Lilly laughed dryly.
Joe looked thoughtful for a second. "Basically the same reason you're here. My moms making me. Which I know sounds ridiculous, because I'm eighteen and all, but there's nothing I can do about it. She thinks I've been making bad choices lately, and she wants me to learn some responsibility." Joe said looking down.
"Bad choices?" Lilly asked curiously, wondering what kind of trouble a Gray Brother could get himself into.
Joe just nodded his head. "Yup… bad choices." He knew what Lilly wanted to know what these bad choices were, but he didn't want her to think less of him.
Lilly tried to get him to look at her. "Come on Joe… you've been honest this far. Why stop now?" Lilly chuckled.
Joe finally turned to her, a lopsided grin on his face. "Who says I've been honest this far?" He saw a flash of anger in Lilly's eyes. "Kidding, kidding."
Joe sighed, about to answer. "My mom caught me drinking a few times, and smoking pot."
Lilly nodded her head understandingly. "But that's like everyday teenage things…" Lilly said curiously.
"Yeah, I know. My parents though… they expect so much more from us. They expect us to be as mature as forty year olds, I swear. I mean, I don't want to act like I'm forty! For god's sake, I'm feeling old at eighteen." Joe exclaimed.
Lilly laughed and patted his shoulder. "It's okay, I don't expect you to act like your forty." Lilly joked.
Joe looked at her with mock thankfulness. "Oh Lilly! Thank you! I appreciate that so much!"
After they were done laughing, Lilly asked Joe what time it was. "2:07." He answered.
"Oh shit, I should go," She said, jumping down from her stool and walking towards the door. "Thanks for the lesson!" She laughed and walked out of the room.
About a second after she got in her car, there was a tapping on her window. Lilly jumped, startled. She saw it was Joe and opened her door.
"Jesus, you scared me!" Lilly said, her hand over her heart.
Joe laughed, "Sorry about that, but you forgot your guitar." Lilly took it from him and put it in the back seat.
"Thank you," She said, smiling at him.
"No problem," He replied, shutting her door gently. "See you Tuesday, Lilly." He said through the open window, leaning down.
Lilly nodded. "See you Tuesday, Joe" She smiled, and drove away. Being excited for her next lesson was new for her, but she started thinking guitar lessons may not be so bad…
Thank you guys for reading and reviewing and alerting and all the jazz. Please leave a review for this chapter!
SHERRIE
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