On The Floor (Second Story) (16 page)

“I wasn’t leaving to avoid a conversation about my mom. It’s just that I have an early class and I need to shower. Somebody gave me quite the workout,” I smile and wink at him, trying to bring the levity back into the moment. Everything he just said has me wanting to lay everything out there right now and at the same time, run far, far away. But we’ve only been together a day. I need to figure out what this is first.

“Okay,” he says sitting up with me and smiling. “I guess I’ll let you leave.”

“Let me leave?” I ask giving him a wry look.

“Oh, stop! You know what I mean,” he says getting out of bed and handing me my clothes. We both start getting dressed, me in the same clothes I came over in, him in a pair of basketball shorts.

He gives me a kiss before he opens the door and smiles at me. “Enjoy your shower. And see you around three tomorrow?”

“I’ll come over after my last class gets out,” I say smiling back.

He opens the door and I walk across the hall to my room. I turn back around and he is leaning against his doorframe with his arms crossed, and I want to run right back into his room and tackle him onto his bed. “Just making sure you get back to your room okay,” he says with a sexy smile on his face. I think he is thinking the same thing as me.

“I only live across the hall, Jake.”

“Okay, fine. I just wanted to watch your ass while you walked away.”

“Oh my god! Jake! Someone could hear you!” I say looking back and forth down the hall.

“You weren’t worried about that when I was fucking you earlier,” he says smirking and raising an eyebrow.

“Oh my god! Goodnight, Jake,” I say, my cheeks turning red.

“Goodnight…” he looks both ways before whispering, “girlfriend.” Then he smiles as we both close our doors.

I sit on my bed and smile, thinking about the time I just spent with Jake. I get up and start to get my stuff together for my shower, when my phone alerts me to a text message. The message that was just sent is from Jake.

Miss you already. See you tomorrow…

I am falling so hard for this guy.

And then I have one from Jenna from an hour ago that I haven’t checked yet.

So?!?! Did you go down?!?! I am dying over here!!!

I respond:
Yes.

I smile. That simple response is going to kill her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she came here demanding a word for word recount of how I sucked his dick. Not that she would get one…

***

It’s Wednesday afternoon. We got the results from the student health center this morning we are both clean and healthy. Even though it’s what we expected, it’s good to know for sure.

Today is the first time we will be going to the center where Jake works and I am really excited to see him interact with the kids there. Even though I was running a little late coming from class, I rush and end up arriving to the common room right on time. Jake is sitting on one of the couches and all the freshmen that are going to volunteer are already here.

Jake sees me and stands up to address the group.

“Okay, everyone. Let me tell you a little bit about what we are going to do today. There is a group of three to five year olds coming in first. The class is about an hour. We’re going to do an activity on dynamics. Should be pretty fun. And then there is also a group of junior high kids coming in after that. It’s more like individual practice for them, but we can help with technique and answer any questions they have.” He stops and looks over at me.

“Any questions so far?” I ask the group. Jake told me what to expect earlier in the week.

“Um, yeah,” Joel, one of the music majors says. “Are there going to be other people in the groups with the kids? Like parents or something?”

“Yes, the younger kids will have parents with them, but most of the kids love interacting with new people. If they come up to you, then talk to them. Don’t be shy, they certainly aren’t,” he says laughing. “Both groups have children with different types of disabilities, but don’t pay attention to their disability. Pay attention to the abilities they have. A lot of the older kids are really talented musicians. And little ones always have fun with the activities.”

“Any other questions?” I ask. No one speaks up, so I say, “Okay, then. Let’s head out!”

The group walks out the common room ahead of Jake and me. As soon as the last one walks out of the room, Jake wraps his arms around my waist, lifting me off the ground and giving me a quick, but hungry, kiss. He leans into my ear and says, “I’ve missed you today.” Then he puts me down and heads out of the common room ahead of me.

I take a moment to gather myself and then follow him out. Jake turns and smiles at me as I catch up to him. We head down the street to the center. It isn’t that far of a walk and it’s a beautiful day out. If only I could hold his hand…

“Um, hey... Didn’t we talk about keeping our relationship private?” I say still flushed from the kiss. Our relationship is fine by the rules. Trust me, I checked. But I don't want Jake and I to become part of all the gossip that goes around the floor.

“But I missed you,” he says with a smile.

“Uh huh,” I say smiling back.

“I couldn’t help myself.”

“Uh huh.”

He laughs. “Hey, so I wanted to ask you something.”

“Okay. Ask away.” The freshmen are all within ear shot so I hope it’s nothing about us.

“I was wondering if you would play something for the older kids today. I’m not really the best piano player and some of the kids were hoping to hear someone else play. I do okay, but I think you would show them more of what the instrument has to offer,” he says smiling down at me.

“I would love to. Is there anything that you want me to play?” I ask him. I love playing the piano and I don’t get to do it often enough.

“There is a bunch of sheet music at the center, or you can play something you already know.”

“Cool,” I say smiling to myself as I run through all the songs that I might play for the kids.

“We’ll do it towards the end of the instructional time. You can play and then field any questions the kids have.” He looks really excited to have me play.

“Sounds good!”

We walk the rest of the way in silence, listening to all the chatter going on around us. The group seems really excited about volunteering. When we get to the center, Jake shows us to an office where we can leave our jackets and bags. Then he leads us down the hallways to a large room. The space is open with colors splashed everywhere. The walls, the chairs, the large round carpet in the middle of the room.

“This is the Preschool Room. This is where we’ll do the activities with the little ones. Then we’ll spend time with the older kids in the practice space, which is across the hall.”

When the kids come in, some of them go up and hug Jake, others go and sit down on the carpet. A few stay with their parent. We go through all of the activities with the kids, and everyone is having fun interacting with each other, after the little kids finally warm up to their new volunteers.

Jake is perfect. He is sweet and patient with the kids as they learn everything he teaches. He makes them laugh, and gives them the confidence to try playing the different instruments he is teaching them about. I can feel myself falling for him. With every minute, with every breath I take, I keep falling.

After the little ones leave, we head over to the practice room. There are about twenty minutes before the older kids get here. Everyone takes the time to look around the practice room and Jake shows me to the file cabinets where they store all of their sheet music.

I look through the files and find the song I want to play,
La Campanella
, by Franz Liszt. It was one of the pieces I played for my Juilliard audition. And it is one of my favorite songs to play. It is also one of the most challenging. I play it every chance I get to play the piano, which is usually once a week. I always play it once through, just to make sure I still can.

I sit down at the piano and put the music up. I won’t need it, but I always like to keep it there. I close my eyes and play the song once through before the kids for the class arrive at the center. Perfect. Flawless. I am not always the most confident person in the world, but I know there is at least one thing that I am amazing at and that is playing the piano. I smile, and open my eyes.

I am met with the faces of all the freshmen from my floor. And Jake. They are all crowded around the piano and they all have different expressions. Some are smiling. Some are confused. Some are gaping. Jake is gaping. Finally, it’s not me doing the gaping. But I can tell that all of them are impressed. They start to clap softly for me and I look over at Jake. He shakes his head like he is clearing his thoughts. I get up from the piano and take a little bow and everyone laughs a little.

“Damn, Rachel! That was awesome!” one of them says.

“Thanks,” I say. I start to explore the room to get away from the group of music majors that are now staring at me like I have golden hands.

Jake walks up behind me while I am by some of the drums. “Wow, that was amazing,” he says smiling at me.

“Thanks!” I smile. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“No wonder you had a scholarship to Juilliard. You are extremely talented, Rachel.”

“I know,” I smirk at him, trying to hide the sadness that comment brought up. I try not to think about what my life would have been like if I had gone to Juilliard and instead think about all the reasons why giving up that dream led me to something better. “That was actually one of my audition pieces.”

“No, but seriously, why don’t you go for a performance major here?” he asks.

“Like I told you before. I love to play, but I would rather teach a bunch of kids to play like that in front of an audience than do it myself. I love to play the piano, but performing isn’t always my favorite thing to do. I’d rather play for my family and friends than a hall full of strangers. Plus, I can always perform if I want to on occasion, but I would love to
teach
piano every day,” I smile at him. Thinking about all the reasons why I want to be a teacher has wiped away the sadness that washed over me while I thought about the life I should have had in New York.

“Well, you sound happy about your decision and I guess that’s all that matters.”

“I
am
happy.” I love the fact that I’m not only talking about my career decisions, but that I’m also talking about the man that is standing right in front of me. I look away from him to stop myself before I lean up and kiss him in front of everyone.

As I look back at the drums, he leans down and I can feel his breath on my ear. He picks up one of the drums right before he whispers, “You looked so sexy while you were playing. Just know that now I can’t stop thinking about fucking you on that piano.”

When he pulls away, I turn around and look at him. And now I can’t stop thinking about it either.

We spend around an hour helping the kids play songs on different instruments. Most kids favor playing the guitar, but I’m hoping to sway some of them into learning the piano.

“Okay everyone,” Jake says gathering the entire group around the piano. “This is Rachel. She is going to play a piece for you on the piano. She is a very accomplished pianist and if you have any questions about the instrument, she would be a great resource.”

I smile at the group letting them know the name and composer of the piece that I will be performing. Then I fix my posture, ready my hands, and put on my “performance” face.

Then I play. When I play the piano, it’s the most incredible feeling. I let the music pour out of me and through my fingers. I am immersed in the music, the way my fingers glide along the keys. I’ve always been told I have the most perfect hands for playing the piano. Beautiful long fingers, according to all of my teachers.

When I finish, I look up and the group has the same reaction that they had when I practiced earlier. “So, that was a very challenging piece,” I explain. “You wouldn’t be able to play that right away. It took me months to get it right. But when you play a piece of music that you love, all the time and practice you put into it is worth it.” I smile and turn to straddle the bench so I can talk to the group.

“Did you have any questions for her?” Jake asks the group.

One of the girls raises her hand. She looks about thirteen and I can tell by the sunglasses she is wearing that she is one of the children here that is blind. I saw her working on the piano earlier. She has real potential. “Yes, Jackie,” Jake says.

“I liked that song a lot, but I was wondering if there are some more popular songs that you can play on the piano. Like, all the kids who pick guitar are always playing good stuff, and most of the stuff I play nobody knows. Nobody can sing along to the songs I play, unless they’re like nursery rhymes.”

“Well, you can take almost any song and play it on the piano. There are even a lot of songs that already have piano music in them,” I say trying to think of something that I can play for her.

“Like that Rihanna song,
Stay
?” Jackie asks me.

“Exactly!” I say. “Here, let me play it for you.”

“Um, Rachel, we don’t have the music to that song on file,” Jake says to me. I can tell he doesn’t want to let Jackie down. “Maybe we can find something else? Or we can play it next time?”

“I don’t need the music, Jake. I can play it by ear, just give me second. I’ve heard it enough to figure it out,” I say smiling at Jake.

“You can play by ear?” Jake asks me, smiling back.

“How do you think I got that full ride to Juilliard?” I say as I throw an exaggerated wink his way.

“You got into Juilliard!?!?” three of my students blurt out.

“Why aren’t you there?” one of them continues, shock written all over his face. “If I got into Juilliard there is nothing that would stop me from going!”

“Long story, Kyle,” I say back trying to ignore the disappointment and sadness that is coming over me. Some things keep you from going to Juilliard, Kyle. “Anyways…” I say starting to play the notes to the song. I start slow as I make the few corrections needed as I play it. Once I have the sequence down, I start to play faster.