the art of falling for you (bxb)

twenty - grieving

the art of grieving

- - -

Sacha looked from Kareem to me and back, before he gave a quick nod of approval. "Let's get started. Has anyone got any lyric ideas?"

I stole a quick glance at my journal that I'd left on the table. Just the thought of Kareem having a single glimpse at some of the lyrics I'd written felt anxiety-inducing. All the notebooks I'd shown him before the band arrived were from months, even years, ago - way back behind we ever even crossed paths. Everything I'd written down in the past two months was connected to Kareem in some way, and a lot of lyrics were too personal for my brother or his friends to share with the world.

If no inspiration hit us, Sacha would ask to refer to the latest entry and that was not happening.

"I've got a few ideas," Kareem spoke up, making my heartbeat flicker. He pulled up the notes app on his phone, laying it in front of him on the floor. "I've got a soft guitar melody in my head, and think it'd work best as an acoustic. I've never done this before, in all fairness, so it's up to all of you."

"Let's hear it then," Bodhi grinned, gesturing his head towards Kareem's phone.

Sacha handed Kareem his acoustic guitar. He began strumming a soft melody as he began lightly singing the words he'd written down. "Your eyes, so sweet, so green. Sour apple, honey, but I think you'd taste so sweet. You've got hips like Jagger and two left feet and I wonder if you'd like to meet."

Isaiah picked up on the rhythm, tapping his two fingers against the hard wooden floor. Bodhi nodded along, taking his guitar and following the chords along, finding the melody quickly. Once the lyrics ended, Kareem and Bodhi continued playing, keeping up the melody as Sacha began recording it on his phone, scribbling down the tempo and the chord sequence.

"I like that," Sacha hummed when they'd finished. He continued scribbling something down before lifting his head up. "Maybe we should shorten the lines down slightly, and use a different word for sweet, but I think it's a solid starting point. I love the sour apple imagery, and maybe we can continue the dance theme into another verse?"

The last part was directed towards me. I quickly snapped myself out of my daydream and nodded, biting back a smile. I always loved when the melody was easy to work with, such as on acoustics. The lyrics always seemed to fall into place.

"Get a recording of just the melody and then we'll fill in the lyrics." I suggested. Sacha took out his phone and Isaiah took over the tempo of the melody. The guitar's were in sync, and Isaiah's soft finger drumming gave the sound a solid base without the interruption. Once we'd recorded all the way through, I instructed Sacha to begin playing the recording.

"We're dancing in my living room..." Kareem started, before humming softly until the guitar deepened. "I've never seen a mouth that I would kill to kiss, I'm terrified but I can't resist."

Sacha continued writing down the lyrics, leaving spaces for extra words that strengthen the song.

"And I said, beautiful stranger, here you are." I added, nodding along.

Kareem's eyes shot up to mine, lighting up. He let the melody continue on, "Beautiful stranger, here you are in my arms and I think that it's finally, finally, finally safe for me to fall."

"Add two more finally's,"

Kareem tested my suggestion, and Bodhi nodded from beside him. Sacha played back the specific instrumentals that we'd been working over while Bodhi sang the lyrics softly.

The doorbell rang as we just finished recording the snippet of lyrics over the playback. Isaiah jumped up, rushing towards the door and returning with our pizza.