March 6th – Friday – No one's POV
Today was bound to be a good day for most, because it's Friday. The best part of the weekdays is, of course, the end of it. How can you not at least be a little bit excited to leave somewhere you slave away at, five days a week, to come back to your place of residence and enjoy some peacefulness for the next few days?
A man cleared his throat as he closed his newspaper, taking a sip of his cup of tea.
"I think we both know that you aren't the narrator of this story," the man stated, setting down his mug, refusing to make eye contact with the boy sharing his opinion of the time of week.
"You never let me do these things," the boy said, agitated that his father never allowed for him to read the story, only ever letting him listen. The boy got up from the table on which the script lay, and continuing to play with an assortment of toy cars strewn across the ground.
"Now," the man said, getting up off his arm chair to grab the sheets of paper sitting on the table, "Where were we... ah yes," He said, after searching the page with his index finger. He returned to his original position on his seat, taking another sip from his tea, swirling the tea around like a vortex inside the mug, using subtle movements of the cup to create the effect. He stared intently into it, watching the liquid spin around. He cleared his throat once again, beginning to address the audience.
Friday had arrived, and an eventful day today planned to be. As more and more people awoke from their nightly slumber, more and more thoughts of a relaxing Friday presented themselves in people's minds. However for a certain few, anxiety crept upon them. Although an enjoyable task at hand, a nerve-racking one at the same time.
Liam's POV
The concert I will be performing at is today. I love performing music, but it always makes me incredibly anxious beforehand. So naturally, I was shitting bricks. Butterflies were doing backflips in my stomach, and although I knew the song I was going to perform very well, I was still extremely nervous. Along with the fact that I will be performing in front of an unknown crowd, I was shaking like a meth addict. Alas, the only way to relieve the anxiety completely is just to get up there and do it, and enjoy it.
After getting myself ready for school, I made my way out to the kitchen, deciding that I was going to have some pancakes for breakfast. I had plenty of time to make something for breakfast, considering it was just past six in the morning, and school starts at nine. Plus, creating something and using up time could definitely help distract me from my anxiety. It's no cure, but it should at least keep my mind off of things.
As time advanced throughout the morning, instead of finding distractions for the anxiety, it just grew larger and larger and larger. After I ate my breakfast, making sure to leave enough for my brother, I went and practised the song. Replaying it over and over again until it was time to leave. Even after playing over and over again like that, I still felt it wasn't enough, but I had to leave otherwise I'd be late to get to school. I didn't get any texts from Charlotte or Humphrey asking for a ride to school, which was odd, but I left it, and just went to school. It wasn't worth trying to make last minute adjustments.
I made it to school and surely enough, Humphrey and Charlotte were out the front. "Oh that's right. Humphrey got a car the other day," I thought to myself as the music played in my car. I pulled into the school parking lot, stopping the car in a vacant parking spot. I grabbed my possessions out of the car and locked it on the way out, slipping the keys into my pocket as I made my way to the front of the school.
Charlotte spotted me walking towards them, showing her smile in my direction. I arrived with a warm, welcome hug from Charlotte and a kiss on the cheek.
"Hi Liam," She said with her head on my shoulder, "You ready for your performance today?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," I said, nervously laughing as she released the hug from me.
"Wait, you're performing today?" Humphrey asked, "What, at the lunch time concert?"
"Yep. Mr Nickson asked me to earlier this week, so I took up the opportunity," I said.
"Well, good on ya. I guess we'll see at lunch," He replied, giving the signature Humphrey smile.
"Humphrey!" I heard from a familiar feminine voice, turning around to see Kate jogging over to us, wrapping Humphrey in a bear hug upon her arrival. Lilly arrived shortly afterwards, smiling and waving to me, which I returned to her.
"How are you, Kate?" Humphrey asked as Kate still held onto him.
"I'm goooood, now that I'm hanging out with my best friend," She said, finally releasing the hug.
"Cute," I heard Abby say from behind me.
"Hi Abby," Charlotte said, bringing her into a hug. "What's with all the hugging lately?" I thought to myself, "I haven't seen you in a few days, where have you been?"
"Well, hanging out with Autumn and Jess," She said, as I saw Salty and Shakey arrive.
By this point, everyone was talking over each other and I couldn't comprehend a word anyone was saying, so I decided to just back out of it and sit on a secluded bench about ten metres away from them and just go on my phone. I heard someone sit next to me soon after I sat down, seeing a snow white figure sit down next to me, knowing it was Lilly.
"Why did you leave them?" She asked, signalling to the group of people congregating together, with a few more additions to the group, which happened to be mostly Charlotte and Kate's friends.
"Just getting a little too loud. I kinda start to go into a bit of a panic mode when that happens, so I just left," I said, still looking down at my phone, scrolling through Reddit.
"That's fair," She said, a long silence between us, until Lilly spoke up, "I just wanted to say, thank you again for yesterday, Liam. It really helped me to have some company."
"It's really no problem, Lilly. I'd happily do it again," I said, looking at her smiling, receiving the same treatment back. I pulled my watch up to see that the first bell of the day was about to ring any second now, "I think I might start heading to my class. The bell is gonna ring soon and I want to dodge the crowd if I can," I said. Unfortunately, as I stood up, the bells around the school started blaring, signifying first period is starting. Lilly giggled and said, "So much for beating the crowd."
Time Skip – 15 minutes before Lunch
I was shitting bricks. I was incredibly nervous to go on stage. I've done it so many times, but every time feels like it's the first. I decided to run through the song one last time before it was time to go. For y'all who don't know, Mr Nickson, the music teacher, pulled students who were performing out of their classes for a period to get a time to practise before going on stage. I found it very useful to be able to have the time prior to the performance to gain my composure.
After finishing the song for a final time, I believed I was ready to go. I inhaled heavily, followed by an equally heavy exhale. As if it was staged, Mr Nickson came into the room I was in and said, "Meet us in the main room," to which I nodded. I swung the guitar off my lap and took it by my side as I headed into the main room for music. I made my way in and saw a few groups of people, a couple duos and one other solo player. After everyone was gathered, he grabbed his list that he had sitting on his desk. He proceeded to run through the order of the performances so everyone knew when they were going to go. Of course, they would be announced in advance before the performances, but he decided to give us a heads up so we didn't get caught off guard.
The concert was to start with the other soloist, Gemma, who would be playing "Take Five," by Dave Brubeck on Saxophone. Following her would be one of the groups. As he continued through the list, I was becoming more and more anxious that my name wasn't being mentioned, until I was the last one left.I was the closing performance.
"...and last but not least, Liam, you will be the closing performance," He said, looking up from his list and smiling at me, "We all good with that?" He asked, everyone responded with a nod or a simple "Yeah." "Are we ready to blow this place into space?!" He asked, hyping everyone up, to which everyone gave an enthusiastic yes, however his sentence made little to no sense. Everyone made their way into the assembly hall where this event would be held.
"Now, does anyone need to be in alternate tunings?" He asked while everyone was standing on the stage.
"I do," I said, stepping forward.
He nodded and picked out an acoustic guitar off the rack for me to use, and handing me the Epiphone acoustic guitar. It was a very nice guitar. Looked great, sounded great, "You tune up, and in the meantime we'll get the sound testing underway." I nodded and put the strap over my shoulder and around my neck, making sure it was sitting comfortable before tuning. Soon after we finished sound testing, we all got in order back stage as to when we were going. Once everyone was ordered in place, we heard the bell ring, signifying it was time for lunch. Students started barrelling through the doors within a few minutes. Once they decided that there were enough people, Mr Nickson came up on stage, taking the microphone that was up.
"How is everyone doing today?!" He exclaimed into the microphone, to which massive amounts of cheers were heard throughout the assembly hall, "I would like to thank all of you for taking the time out of your break to come see our concert today, and I hope y'all enjoy the show. I will now hand over to our hosts, Annabelle and Harry!" He said as he put the microphone back on it's stand and headed to the back of the hall where the sound equipment was.
"Hey guys and gals, I thought we'd just quickly introduce ourselves before we get started," Harry said, "I'm quite obviously Annabelle as you all can tell. This is an imposter," he continued pointing to her. The crowd erupted with short laughter at his joke.
"Very funny, Harry," Annabelle chuckled, "All jokes aside, I think it's time we introduce our opening act for today's concert."
"Yes we definitely should," Harry said, "I would like to welcome to the stage a very talented saxophonist to the stage that some of you may know very well from her numerous performances at this school. Let's give a massive round of applause for Gemma Highwayman!" Harry exclaimed, making room on the stage for Gemma to move out, large amounts of clapping and cheering escaping from the crowd.
Lilly's POV
I sat with the likes of Kate and Humphrey inside the assembly hall, watching Gemma perform on saxophone as she usually does. Her performances were always very impressive and enjoyable to watch. As the concert went on, the groups all came out, did there song and left after a short interview with the hosts. There were a couple good performances, like on band, I think their name was Venomous Toxicity? I don't remember that well, but they were a rock/metal band that performed an original song, and even though I wasn't a massive fan of that genre, I found it to be a very good song.
As we neared closer and closer to the end of the concert, there was no sign of Liam anywhere. I could've sworn I heard Charlotte say that he was performing. Was she lying? But that doesn't explain that he isn't sitting with us.
"Alright guys, we have one last performance for you guys, and I personally think we are going to enjoy this one," Annabelle said.
"I couldn't agree with you more," Harry said, "We would like to welcome to the stage a student we haven't seen perform here, ever."
"Let's all give a massive round of applause to the newcomer... Liam Jackson!" Annabelle exclaimed into the microphone, followed by Liam walking on stage with a massive amount of clapping and cheering going for him. He picked up a loose cable off the ground and plugged it in.
"I'm gonna play you a very heavy song for me," He said, strumming a chord to make sure his sound was working, to which it was, "It's just uh... it's hard to get through. So if you know it, sing along. I could use the help," He said, smiling into the microphone as he received more applause. I saw him inhale and exhale deeply before starting to play. I knew exactly what song he was playing. He was playing Snuff by Corey Taylor. I've always loved this song from the day I heard it.
"Bury all your secrets in my skin... Come away with innocence, and leave me with my sins," Liam sang softly, playing the chords along with it in perfect timing.
"The air around me still feels like a cage... And love is just a camouflage for what resembles rage, again..." He continued to sing with lots of emotion in his voice, slamming into a heavy strumming chord progression.
"So if you love me, let me go... And run away before I know," He started singing slightly louder, softening his strumming, however moving to new chords.
"My heart is just too dark to care... I can't destroy what isn't there..." He went on softly singing along to the beautiful chord progression.
"Deliver me into my fate; If I'm alone I cannot hate," He shouted out, with a lot of grit in his voice.
"I don't deserve to have you..." He said, hearing his voice come down again. After listening a bit more, I heard a couple people in the crowd singing along to the song, so I joined in.
"My smile was taken long ago, if I can change I hope I never know!" He shouted out, jumping back into the previous chord progression as I sang along.
"I still press your letters to my lips... And cherish them in parts of me that savour every kiss," He softly sang out, with soft strumming to go along with it.
"I couldn't face a life without your lights, but all of that was ripped apart when you refused to fight..."
So save your breath, I will not hear! I think I made it very clear!" Liam started shouting again, the hearing his voice come to the brink of cracking, but just barely missing it.
"You couldn't hate enough to love. Is that supposed to be enough?" He sang softly again. The emotion in his face showed how much the song meant to him. He looked as if he was about to break down crying on stage.
"I only wish you weren't my friend! Then I could hurt you in the end..." His voice cracking as if he was holding back tears in the second sentence.
"I never claimed to be a saint... Ooh, my own was banished long ago, it took the death of hope to let you go!" He shouted out the last few words, going into a small strumming solo, with a perfectly timed and executed "OOHHH!" in the middle of it.
So break yourself against my stones!" He shouted out with his emotions echoing through the building.
"...And spit your pity in my soul," He softly said, him going slightly too high, however, clearly holding back tears from his eyes. I saw him breathe a little bit before moving onto the next line, trying to hold onto his composure.
"You never needed any help... You sold me out to save yourself..." He said softly, almost not being heard by the microphone.
"And I won't listen to your shame!" He exclaimed with intent, nailing the power needed to hit the right tone perfectly.
"You ran away; you're all the same!" He sang, starting off loud, however dropping off towards the end of it.
"Angels lie to keep control..." He sang, almost voice cracking again as he held back the tears welling in his eyes.
Ooh, my love was punished long ago, If you still care, don't ever let me know!" He sang out once again, beginning the line soft, and pushing himself to his limit as he got to the end of it. He played another round of the chord progression, then seeing him inhale to complete the final line of the song.
"If you still care, don't ever let me know!..." He shouted out, holding the final note perfectly as he let his strum ring out for a few seconds, then dropping back into the chord progression, slowing down and completing the song with a slow strum of the last chord...