Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (29 page)

Chapter 27

Life is music. And like a song, each individual
is comprised of a complex pattern, an array of moments and thoughts. Music is
more than sound. It’s a melody that encompasses our dreams, our hopes, our
fears. It can shed light on dreary days, lift our spirits, and ease our minds.
Music is passion. It’s emotion. And like life, it’s only beautiful when you let
it in – when you let it break down everything you are, and everything you want
to be. Only when you let it change you, only when you let it become you, do you
understand that everything in this world has a purpose.

The entirety of the student body filed into the
auditorium, taking up
seats and filling the
room with spirited chatter. The morning felt alive
, full of vibrant
promise and fortuity. Maybe because the first concert of the year was today, or
perhaps because Ariahna was looking at the world with
entirely new
eyes. She couldn’t
wait to see the music group’s performance, to hear everyone
singing and to witness their talent. She wanted
to be swept away by the music. Normally she hated that she’d never had the
courage
to step onto that
stage, to be
a performer instead of just another face in the crowd.

Today, none of that felt like it mattered.

She drifted down the center aisle with the flow
of students, looking for Christian in the massive array of faces. She spotted
him a few rows down, leaning on the armrest of some brunette’s chair with his
smile at full force. Aria’s heart dropped. He was flirting with her. He was
flirting with another girl, and suddenly her world felt like it was spinning in
an entirely different direction. His eyes swept over to her and she flicked her
gaze down to her shoes. She’d been staring. Now she was simply trying to hide
the shock and hurt as they danced openly across her face.

It meant nothing to him.

Ariahna felt like her legs were going to give out
just as her fingers found the soft fabric of the empty seat at her side. She
sat down slowly, her mind slipping into a horrible, numb sort of fog. That’s
when she remembered the note in her pocket. It crinkled as she fished it out,
staring at the words again in bewilderment. It wasn’t Christian’s handwriting,
she realized, and she couldn’t help but wonder how she hadn’t noticed that
before.

Do you know what makes you beautiful?

In this moment, those words felt like nothing
more than a cruel joke. The seat beside her squeaked and Aria’s head snapped up
to see Scarlet’s smiling face. She was leaning over her shoulder, reading the
note.

“Ooh, who’s that from?” she asked silkily.

“I don’t know,” Aria replied, crumpling up the
note. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not from the person I wanted it to be from.” She
paused, willing herself not to look at Christian again. “I think I’m just going
to go.”

“What?” Scarlet said, reaching over and grabbing
her hand. “You can’t—the concert’s about to start.”

As if on cue, the curtains
began to part. Rome was sitting center
stage, completely alone with nothing but a
microphone and an old acoustic in his lap to keep him company. Ariahna couldn’t
help but notice how jittery he looked, and as his eyes scanned the crowd, she
could hear murmuring and quiet laughter flitting up from the seats. But when
she looked back at him, he was smiling. His eyes locked on her for no more than
a second before he started playing, his fingers working a melody from the
strings. The soft soulfulness of Rome’s voice filtered through the speakers,
captivating her and
the audience. He was
singing a John Mayer song,
The Age of Worry
.

She could hear his message behind the words. He
was singing it for himself, and he was singing it to every single person who
had been whispering behind his back. His song filled her like a glowing warmth,
a little
ball of happiness and hope;
and she couldn’t help but beam up at his silhouette on stage. Tears hung low in
her eyes, wetting her eyelashes as she squeezed Scarlet’s hand. In this moment,
it almost felt like he
was speaking
to her. It felt like he knew her pain, just as she
knew his, and that together they were taking away all the power it had over
them. Every time Rome opened his
eyes, he was looking at her. And in
those brief, fleeting seconds when everyone
else was just enjoying a lovely song, they were sharing a profound
understanding – a sense of love.

“Wow,” Scarlet whispered. “Did you know that boy
could sing?”

“Sort of,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes and
letting go of her hand.
Rome started another
song, and she squinted back up at him, listening intently. “…Do you know what
this is?”

“Just listen to the chorus,” Scarlet laughed. “
Every
Teardrop is a Waterfall.
It’s by Coldplay.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard it,” Aria
admitted, watching Rome attentively. He was singing with so much emotion, such
conviction, it was giving her goosebumps. His voice was just so smooth and
sweet. It felt soothing, like cool water on a fresh burn.

“Do you think he’s talking about his dad?”

“He’s talking about all of us,” Aria whispered.

Before she knew it, his song was over and the
other members of the group were joining him on stage. Some took up positions in
the back with instruments while three girls and a boy filled the empty stools
at his sides. Ariahna balked when she recognized the girl sitting next to him.
It was the waitress from La Lune… Autumn. The blonde girl reached out and
touched him on the arm, whispering something quickly in his ear.
Whatever it was had
made Rome smirk. Aria
felt that returning sense of unhappiness.

Scarlet smiled at her knowingly.

“Someone’s got their sights set on your man,” she
commented.

“He’s not… my
man
. We’re just friends.”

“Mhmm. Well, if you want to be more than friends,
you
better jump
on that train before
it leaves the station, because half the girls in this room are drooling over
him right now.”

“Weren’t you the one who called him gross?”

“Hey,
I didn’t say I was interested, I said some people might be.”

Rome’s
voice moved through the room, harmonizing with the others in the group as they
began singing
Mirrors
by Justin Timberlake. The song choice had several,
obviously immature, male students
laughing
and mocking
Rome and the other boy. A few feminine whistles and catcalls
were offsetting the heckling, and the disapproving scowls from the teachers were
doing little to stop any of it. They were singing quite well, Aria thought,
even if it was mostly Rome and Autumn harmonizing together.

“I
should have joined the music group,” she mumbled.

The
group played a few more songs together before the concert started winding down.
Everyone except Rome and Autumn shuffled off the stage.
Fast Car
by
Tracy Chapman seemed to be their ending song. It was beyond fitting, she
thought, given everything she knew about him now.
Autumn was staring at him affectionately as she sang, and Aria was
trying not
to think about how good they
sounded together. The story they were weaving had her thinking of that first
day they’d met, driving down the highway into town. This song felt like that
memory. It was haunting and bittersweet. She’d
been so scared then. Right now, she’d do anything just to get back to
that place.

“You’re
supposed to maintain eye contact with the audience,” she said quietly, glaring
at Autumn and her enamored smile.

Scarlet
smiled at her, nearly laughing.

“She
may be looking at him, but that boy is looking at you. I don’t think he’s taken
his eyes off of you once.”

Aria’s
face was turning an attractive shade of pink.

“Stop
teasing me,” she said.

The
rest of the group flooded back out to take a bow, and Aria applauded loudly,
glancing at Rome as everyone else hurried off stage. He hadn’t moved. The music
teacher peeked out from behind the curtain, waving her arms at him and gesturing
for him to get off stage.

He
was too busy staring at her to notice.

“Rome…”
she muttered, watching him scoop up one of the electric guitars. It was clear
to her and everyone else in the room that this hadn’t been planned. “What is he
doing?”

Scarlet
shrugged. “What makes you think I know?”

Ariahna
took a deep breath, trying to ignore the way his eyes were locked on her. When
she glanced away she realized she wasn’t the only one who had noticed. He
hadn’t even started singing yet and her heart felt like it was in her stomach.
It was like she knew something bad was about to happen. And when he stepped up
to the mic, his fingers plucking gently over the strings, she about died.

It
took her a moment, but she finally recognized the song.
What Makes You
Beautiful
by One Direction. The melody was so different than the original,
slow and sincere – a seductive array of notes. Rome was singing to her, she
realized. He was reading a love note in front of the entire school. Her breath
quickened as he sang, feeling her face flush with embarrassment. She was completely
flattered and abashed, terrified that everyone was going to know he was singing
to her. She felt overwhelmed, like she might start laughing or crying at any
moment. Aria raised a hand to her mouth, biting her lip gently and trying to
hide her smile.

Don’t
draw attention to yourself
,
she thought.

“Oh
my god,” Scarlet whispered. “Is he singing to you?”

Ariahna
felt suddenly queasy. Rome was up on stage baring his heart to her, and last
night she’d given herself away to another boy – a boy who didn’t even care
about her. She was both elated and sick, and yet she couldn’t stop staring at
him starry-eyed.

“I
guess we found out who your secret admirer is!” Scarlet breathed, wrapping an
arm around her and shaking her gleefully.

Aria
was trying to hide from any and all attention, including the jealous eyes and
knowing smiles being thrown her way. Part of her was hoping she’d look down to
find herself naked. That way at least she’d know that all of this was nothing
more than a dream, an insane figment of her imagination. The last note faded
into silence and she paled at the sight of her own clothes. This was real. And
so was the fact that Rome was now hopping off the front of the stage and
walking towards her. Hundreds of eyes followed curiously at his back, and the
closer he got the more mortified she became.

“Please
don’t,” she murmured, sinking down in her seat.

“Hey,”
he breathed, stopping at her side. He hadn’t exactly thought this through, he
realized. “So, did you have plans for today, or…?”

Oh
my god
, she
thought.

Ariahna knew there was only one way to escape
this hell. She rose to her feet and grabbed Rome’s hand, rushing up the aisle
and out of sight as quick as her feet could carry her. She burst through the
metal doors to the auditorium and didn’t stop until they were outside.

“Are you serious?” she said, rounding on him. She
was very close to hysterical laughter. “Why did you do that?”

“Uh… which part?”

“The part where you sang a beautiful, romantic
song and then walked straight up to me in front of the entire school and basically
asked me out,” she said, smiling despite how anxious she felt.

“Right, that part,” he mumbled. “You aren’t mad,
are you? Because I kind of thought that…”

“
No
,” she grinned, looking away from him.
“I’m embarrassed.”

“Was it too much?”

“No… Maybe? I don’t know,” she said, pressing a
palm to her forehead. “It was… sweet, I just—Rome, why did you do that?”

“I think that part’s kind of obvious by now,” he
smirked. “Look, maybe we could just go for a walk together? I found this trail
through the woods the other day. I just thought… maybe it would be a good way
for us to have some time alone to talk.”