More Than a Coincidence (An Ereri/Riren fanfiction)

Chp 16

(Don't press play yet!)

"Can you play it for me?" 

He wants to listen to my song? Oh god no! That's way too embarrassing! Talk about a self-concious musician's worst nightmare!

"I-I don't know... it's nothing really," I stutter. 

"Oh come on, pleeaase?" Levi insists. It's not like he's really gonna give me a choice. I swallow all my nerves and try and build up as much courage as possible.

"Okay I... I guess so." I say, rubbing the back of my neck.

"So what's it about?" He asks looking over to me, I can feel his warm breath on my neck as he speaks. Am I really that pathetic that he has this much of an effect on me?

"Umm my life, ya know cliche crap like that, it's not that important," I say nonchalantly as I tidy up the papers in front of me.

Levi watches my hands as he dwells, "Oh come on explain each part to me I'm curious." 

I sigh and begin, "It's just really stages of my life up until now. This first part is about me hiding my secret and dealing with it. I didn't know how to cope so I....... well you already know." There was a long silence as an awkward moment came and stayed. "A-anyways umm... here." 

I take a deep breath calming myself down. I clear my throat and raise my hands from my lap to the keys. Our elbows graze against each other, waking the butterflies in my stomach to wreak havoc inside me. I lay my fingers on the keys and start the melody. 

(Press Play)

The sorrowful entrance of the song began that represented me hiding myself from my dad, from the world. It was like I never woke up from my nightmare. Walking around with such a huge secret was a pain I'd never want to experience again. Plus it felt as if nobody around me even noticed. I've always felt a sort of loneliness in life. Growing up without a mom was difficult and even though my dad was there, he wasn't really there. Of course we were close, really close, but even so... he didn't truly know me. And based on the past events... I didn't truly know him either. I was trapped under the constant fear of letting everyone around me down if they found out who I was and what I was hiding. 

Of course Armin was the exception and though I love him dearly, he still couldn't fully understand what I was going through. The song became lower, "This is me coming out to my father."

My mom told me long ago, "You can't fly if you never try" and I thought the only way I could feel free was to get that secret off my chest but... we all know how that turned out. Levi watched my hands quietly as I played. He placed a gentle hand on my upper back trying to comfort me, sending a chill down my spine he was touching. It takes maximum effort to refrain from either stopping or messing up. My palms get sweaty and my fingers jitter but somehow I haven't missed a single note so far.

Levi always knew how to read the atmosphere. He knew when to comfort, when to not say a thing, and especially when to put me in my place and tell me the cold, hard, truth. This isn't one of those times, he stays quiet as he listens to my playing. I look over for a split second and I see his face in a peaceful expression. His eyes were closed and his muscles relaxed as he listened. A warm feeling pools in my gut... it felt nice. In the same second I realized that it was Levi who was the inspiration to finish my song. Not only was it just the situation but the person sitting next to me.

Before the main part of the song comes my stomach jumps. With a spike of courage, or maybe recklessness, I mumble. "This next part.......is where....y-you... come in." I feel his stare on me immediately and I take a deep breath.