“You’re quite the charmer, Charlie Wahkin.”
“That’s what they tell me.” Charlie took his hands off the keys. “You want to play?”
I hadn’t touched a piano in years. But involuntarily, my hands began to move. I began playing a song Monica and I had written years ago as if it were yesterday. I had all the chords memorized. I figured I’d be rusty, but the song came flowing out of my fingers like it had been dying to get out.
I didn’t sing anymore. Not even in the shower, or when I was getting ready in the morning. When Monica had died, my voice had dried up. I don’t think I’d sung a note since that day, not even when my favorite song came on the radio. To sing without her felt like a sin.
It was different with Charlie around. When I played with him beside me, it wasn’t like I was betraying Monica, buthonoringher. I think she’d be proud if she knew I’d found someone to make music with again— someone who loved it as much as I did.
I didn’t realize I was singing until I’d gotten through the first stanza of the song. Oberi stopped messing with the instruments and looked up to watch me. Charlie stiffened beside me, and my voice grew soft to match the notes I played.
“I’m slowly wasting away
Watching myself getting worse by the day
I’m always doing the wrong thing
No one ever hears all the songs that I sing.
I’m just my worst enemy
The girl in the mirror is still out to get me
I just can’t stop lying
For them, I’ll keep trying
Because I can’t say goodbye
Where is my someone?
I feel like I’m no one.
Alone in an empty world, vacant world,
I just want to feel like I’m someone.
I don’t just need anyone
I need someone, because I’m done
Feeling so empty.”
I stopped playing and turned toward Charlie. I wasn’t expecting him to grab me, but he did. He wrapped one hand around my hip and nestled the other in my hair as he brought me forward to kiss him, like he could not bear being apart from my lips for a moment longer. I kissed him back and found my hands wandering at the edge of his sweater and up his torso. His muscles welled up against my hands, and I was keenly aware that we were very much alone in here— and that anyone could walk in at any time.
As if that thought didn’t make the ocean come spilling out of me.
Charlie clearly shared my sentiment, because I let my hand drop down, and he was hard. I went to unbuckle his pants, but he bit my lip, distracting me. I let out a moan as his tongue entered my mouth, making me effectively brainless. His hand slipped up beneath my uniform and under my bra to pinch and massage my nipple. His fingertips made rushing sensations pulse from my breasts all over my body. I swear Charlie stole my breath by the way he kissed me, taking it for his own. I almost thought he was using his Air magic to make us levitate off the bench. I felt so ungrounded and light. I always carried the weight of the world on my shoulders, but Charlie made me feel completely weightless. He could take my burdens from me and flick them away like a feather, and I was that feather, and I was floating away against him.
In lesser words, I wanted him. Now.
Charlie put the lid down on the piano, and it landed with abang. He stood up, grabbed my ass and tossed me up on the piano lid, so I was sitting on top of it.
“Lay back,” Charlie ordered.
“Or what?” My tongue popped out mischievously, though he couldn’t see it.
“Be my good girl and do as you’re told.”
