Peter then jumped up onto a log and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Time for the real festivities to begin!" he shouted. All of the boys raised their arms in the air to cheer their response. I looked on, feeling like I'd rather go to bed than start a party.
He proceeded to draw out a pan flute from his belt. Well, I guess I know now where the whole "Pan" part comes from. As Peter started playing, the rest of them practically ran to the circle around the fire and started dancing around like this was their theme song. I truly felt like I had stepped into some crazy life.
I didn't get why they liked the music so much. It sounded like the awful recorders you were forced to play in school. All of my strength was being placed in not covering my ears to get the horrible sound out. Jack tried to come over and signal to me to get up and dance, but I shook my head and held my hands up to my head showing that I was tired. He just shrugged it off and went back to dancing.
When I thought I was about to lose control over doing nothing about the music, it stopped. The boys kept dancing anyway. I looked back down at my bandage to make sure the blood wasn't seeping through when I noticed the firelight blocked by someone. When I looked up, it was the one and only Peter Pan standing in front of me.
"Don't you want to get up? The special occasion is for you after all. The boys are enjoying the music," he asked curiously. As always, there was something underlying his question that I couldn't figure out yet.
"I'm a little tired to be honest. Bit of a long day you know?" I responded. "Besides, the sound of screeching pipes isn't exactly what I would call dance music." As soon as I finished talking he looked at me like I was the most intriguing puzzle he'd seen in a long time.
"You didn't enjoy the music?" he pressed.
"Nope," I said popping the end of it for emphasis. "Speaking of music, would you mind giving me back that device I had on me when you hit me with that powder?" Seriously, my iPod meant more to me than most of my other possessions.
"What makes you think I didn't leave it back in your realm?" he smirked. Too bad for him, I could see the truth in his eyes.
"Oh you know," I started, "I figured it would be intriguing to you. Obviously you don't have any type of technology on this island as you still use torches and live in a jungle. It's a shiny new toy for you to play with. Now be a peach and give it back. You owe me that at least."
He gazed at me considering for a couple minutes. I thought he was going to flat out tell me no because of the peach comment until he reached into a pocket in his shirt I couldn't see. Then he pulled out my baby, headphones included. I stuck my hand out to grab it when he pulled it back.
"You get it back with one condition. Explain to me how this…thing has anything to do with music." Clearly he didn't know a thing about technology. He thought must have thought it was an instrument to play.
This will be fun, I thought. "I'm not sure how to explain it myself, so I'll just give you an example instead," I said trying to grab it again, but he still pulled it back. "Dude, I'm not 5. I'm not playing the grab it game with you. I can't give you my example until you give it to me," I explained while trying to resist the urge to punch him.
He looked like he doubted me for a minute before handing it over to me. As he laid it in my hand, he drew his fingers back slowly over mine, smirking at me once again. I could tell he did it to get a rise out of me. Luckily college has given me enough encounters with overconfident guys at parties to not even be phased by this. I was surprised by how cold his skin seemed even though he was standing closer to the fire than me. Maybe here body temperature matches your personality, I thought darkly.
The familiarity I felt from having my iPod back in my hand felt good though. The next process was deciding which song should be the example. I had plenty of nice songs I could choose from, but picking out a song that was heavy on drums, electric guitar, and screaming seemed like a better option to throw him off. It would be funny for me at least. I was scrolling through all my playlists trying to find the one I thought would be best.
He cleared his throat catching my attention. His eyes clearly said, "Hurry up." Rather than test my luck, I quickly found a song that fit the bill. "Hell Above" by Pierce the Veil. As I picked the song, I quickly paused it, subtly making sure the music was turned up a little over halfway. I would consider it a normal volume, but it would hopefully surprise Peter who isn't used to it.
I handed him the headphones. "Here," I said. "You just put them in your ears."
He looked at them for a second before placing them in his ears. As soon as he pulled his hands down from them he looked at me with narrowed eyes again. "Is this some type of a trick?" he accused. "I can't hear anything."
"Well, that's because I haven't started it yet. I wanted to make sure the headphones were in first. The music sounds best when they're actually all the way in," I explained calmly. He nodded his head in acceptance, although he still looked like he didn't fully trust me. Good choice, I thought as I hit the play button. Not even ten seconds into the song he ripped out the headphones with a grunt, breathing heavily.
"You did that on purpose," he said. If looks could kill, I'd probably be dead at this point. Our conversation finally captured everyone else's and they were all standing still not making a sound. Jack had the decency to look somewhat concerned while Felix looked like he was just waiting for Peter to kill me, which in his defense, still felt like a possibility.
"I'm sorry about the volume, I forgot," I said sincerely, hoping my eyes got across the "I really didn't try to do that" look. "I always listen to it that loud; sometimes I actually forget about it."
He still looked angry, but he had calmed down a little at least. He closed his eyes taking another deep breath. When he opened them, he asked, "What exactly were those noises coming from those little things on the end?"
I couldn't help but laugh a little at his lack of technical terms. "These," I said holding the headphones in my hand, "are called headphones. There are little wires that run through the cord that pass along the sounds. That's about as much as I know for how they work, so I won't be helpful with any other questions on that. If you're talking about the 'noise' coming out of them, that was most likely electric guitars, an electric bass, and a drum set. You didn't get to the part where he started to sing."
He moved his nasty look from me to glare hard down at my iPod like it was a demon. "And that," he spat, "sounded better to listen to than what I was playing?" He seemed really fixated on that fact that I didn't like his music, and I couldn't figure out why it mattered so much in the first place.
"I think so," I repeated. "I'm sure you play it wonderfully. I guess maybe I don't see the appeal of the instrument?" I tried to make it sound like more of a question and less of a fact.
While looking at me, Peter finally realized that the others were still staring at us. "What are you looking at?" he asked turning around to face them. "If you don't feel like playing anymore, then we're going to call it a night." His tone left no room open for discussion on the matter. The boys all seemed to scoot back and away from anywhere near Peter as they left the clearing. Now even Felix's face took on a concerned look, which I knew meant I had royally pissed off Mr. High and Mighty.
He turned back to look at me, smirk out in full force. "I guess it's time for you to find out where you'll be sleeping tonight," he told me in low voice as he leaned down to grab my hand right where I cut it to lift me up. I couldn't help the small hiss that escaped my lips which gave him satisfaction. Once I was up he quickly threw his arm around my waist as he bolted off the ground and up into the air.
