Sing to Me (4 page)

“Come on
,
Abby. We can’t play in Colby’s room.”

She looked over my shoulder and said, “Co-
yee
!”

I figured that was how she pronounced her brother’s name. “That’s right. This is Co-
yee’s
room. Let’s go p
l
ay in
your
room.”

“I don’t care if you play in here,” said a deep, mocking voice behind me.

I don’t know who jumped more when I screamed, me or Colby.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry. I never would have come in here if
I hadn’t been chasing Abby
.” My words came out like rapid gun fire,
as if
I was defending myself from certain doom.

Colby was actually laughing though.
“
Don’t worry about it. A
bby comes in here al
l the time so I’m not surprised, and I could hear you from the hall. I didn’t expect to find
you on my bed though.”

I glared at him as my cheeks flamed. “
Well I didn’t
exactly expect it myself.
What on earth are you doing here?”

“It is my house you know.”

“Yeah, but I thought you were on a date or something.”

“No. My band is r
ehearsing tonight. I came to grab something to eat and pick up
some sheet music I forgot.”

“
Oh. I didn’t know you were in a band.”
             

He just looked at me, one eyebrow up and a corner of his mouth twitching like he was trying not to laugh again.

“Ok, fine,” I said. “I get it. I don’t know much about you. But whos
e
fault is that? You ignored me all week in choir.”

“
I didn’t ignore you,” he said, though his voice was muffled as he turned to sort
through the sheet music on his dresser.
Looking briefly over his shoulder, he added,
“That would be pretty impossible.”

“Well, you haven’t said a word to me since last Friday night – not
even
when I was trying out for one of the spring concert solos. I almost didn’t feel right singing without you telling me not to
B
utcher
my song.”

“Yeah, well, I thought you’d appreciate it if I gave you a break from all that junk.
” He was staring down at the music in his hands, and I thought he was studying it pretty hard, but then he put it down impatiently and
turned
around
to look at me.
“Look,
Rylie
,
I’m sorry
. I don’t know why I was
giving you such a hard time. W
ell, I do, but…
um, could you get off my bed? I
t’s kind of distracting.”

I’d completely forgotten where I was. Abby wasn’t even on the bed anymore. She’d picked up the sock puppet and was sitting on the carpet trying to pull it on. Now completely embarrassed, I got off and tried to smooth away some of the wrinkles I’d made. Not that it mattered since the bed had been a mess anyway, but I wanted to somehow erase any evidence that I’d ever been on it.

I was still yanking at the shee
ts when I felt Colby’s hand on my arm as he
gently pull
ed
me away. His touch sent strange sensations racing across my skin. He turned me to face him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at his hand on my arm like he wasn’t sure how it had gotten there. He let go, but
only to gently trace
the length of m
y arm with his fingers until the
y
brushed mine and drifted away.

Only then did his eyes meet my searching ones
. There was a spa
rk in his that defied the
solemn expression on his face. I caught my breath, completely surpris
ed by the surge of attraction cours
ing through me
.

Brian. You like Brian
.

But n
o matter what I told myself,
I
couldn’t even remember what Brian looked like at that moment.

“So, are you going to tell me why you’
ve been so mean to me?” I asked, wishing my voice didn’t sound so shaky.

“
I didn’t really intend
to, but maybe
I should.”

“
Well, I
definitely
think you
should.
I
don’t have a clue what I did
to annoy you
.
”

“I know you don’t. You’re pretty oblivious like that.”

His
word
s
weren’t exactly sweet, but somehow the tone of his voice
was
– maybe even affectionate
.
I
was so confused and
frustrated
that
I snapped,
“
Would you just tell me already?”

“Fine. It was pretty j
uvenile really. I guess I was
trying to get you to notice me – you
know?
I’d tried talking to you, but you never paid any attention to me until I started teasing you.”

“
You wanted me to
notice you? How could I not notice you? You’re
one of
the best singer
s
in the whole choir!”

He released a deep breath and closed his eyes briefly. Looking at me again, almost piercing me with his eyes, he said,
“I don’t mean
notice me
like
that
.
I wanted you to
se
e me the way you
see
Brian.
I guess I got a little harsh
, but I was pretty bitter by that point.
”
His eyes faltered under my questioning stare. “I guess I even wanted to hurt you, since you were hurting me.”

“
Hurting you?” I almost asked how, but the answer was slowly blossoming in my mind, though my brain was struggling to understand it. “So, you were being mean to me because you were jealous
?
But that would mean…” I questioned him with my eyes, wanting him to spell it out for me.

“
You know what it means,
Rylie
.
”

“I… I’m not sure I do
.”

“Maybe this will explain it better.”
He pulled me
against him and
shattered my world
with a kiss.

It wasn’t a tender kiss or passionate
or
seductive. It was hard and quick. I could sense his frustration more than anything else. Really, as a kiss it left a lot to be desired. As an answer to my question
,
though, it blew my mind.

He was staring down at me, his eyes on fire and his jaw clenched. He was waiting for me to say something. Too bad I
couldn’t
think coherently anymore. Not after that.

“Well, there you go,
Rylie
. Maybe now you’ll figure a few things out.
”

He grabbed a wad
of music and left. I stood there, dazed and afraid to think. Did I
want
to figure out why he’d kissed me? Or why I wanted him to do it again – and do it right?

Abby wrapped her arms around my knees and asked, “Co-
yee
?”

I picked her up and cuddled her close.
“Yeah, I know. He didn’t even say goodbye, did he?”

*****

It was impossible not to think about Colby all weekend, so I didn’t ev
en bother trying.
I thought about him as I ate panc
akes on Saturday morning. I daydreamed about his kiss when I was supposed to be studying.
I saw his face when I closed my eyes to sleep.

Prom was next Friday and I had my dream date with the guy I’d been crushing on for months. But was I think
ing
about
him
? No - except to regret that I’d ever liked him in the first place. And when I thought about it, I couldn’t even figure out what I’d seen in him except his looks and popularity. As far as I could tell, we actually had nothing in common. But I was stuck.

When I got to choir on Mo
nday, I immediately began looking for Colby. I saw him
across the room looking at me
like he’d been waiting for me to get there.
The faintest of smiles touched his lips and the tips of his ears turned red. I smiled back despite the unfortunate shyness spreading through me. I tried to answer the ques
tion in his eyes with my
own, but I knew that I’d somehow have to find the courage to get across the room and actually talk to him.

He must have had the same idea because his expression was full of purpose as he took several steps in my direction. Butterflies took wing in my stomach and I held my breath as I went to meet him.

“
Rylie
!
Oh
my gosh
, I’m so glad I caught you before we started. Mr.
Grisom
gets so livid if we talk in class, but I’m leaving early today for a dentist appointment and I just had to talk to you!
”

I looked blankly at Olivia as she s
tepped in front of me out of no
where.
We were really good f
riends, but at the moment I
didn’t want to stop and talk to
her. I looked over her shoulder at Colby and caught the
disappointment
on his face as he turned around and headed for his assigned place in the choir as the class filled in.

Resigned
, I said to Olivia, “Ok. What’s up?”

“Well, you know how I’m singing at prom?” I nodded and she continued. “Well, I’m supposed to be here to rehearse tonight. Parker was supposed to come w
ith me, but something came up and
he can’t. I don’t want to come by myself because I’m kind of nervous about it
since th
is is my first practice with the
band
they hired to play
.
S
o, I was wondering if you would come with me.”

I smiled
. Olivia was an incredible singer and she was so passionate about her music that she had self-released an actual album. It was really popular at the school and was starting to build a good base of internet sales as well. Somehow though, she was still a littl
e shaky about live per
formances. “Sure. You know I’m
here for you, girl.”

“Great. I’ll pick you up at about 6:30, ok?”

I nodded as Mr.
Grisom
came in and called us to order. Olivia and I rushed to find our places.
The choir room was built with round, rising steps that swept the room in a semi-circle around Mr.
Grisom’s
piano and music stand. The steps were deep enough to accommodate the chairs we sat in, and because of the curve, I could see
Colby
in the baritone section. I kept glancing over to him
. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to see his face. He must have felt my eyes on him, becau
se he turned my direction. Then
he actually winked at me and nodded toward Mr.
Grisom
.

Catching on, I paid attention to what the music teacher was saying.

“So, now I’ll announce the three female soloists for this year’s spring concert: Stella
Henery
, Dawn
Porrello
, and
Rylie
Butcher. And I trust
Rylie
won’t
B
utcher
her solo.”

There was a little forced laughter from the choir
, but Mr.
Grisom
was laughing heartily at his own joke.
I
stared at him in disbelief.
Then, I
looked
over
at Colby and saw that he was
trying really hard not to bust up laughing – though he almost lost it when he saw my face
.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Great. It was the lamest joke ever, but it seemed I couldn’t escape it.

Mr.
Grisom
finally stopped laughing, took a few deep breaths and said. “Well, no
w
. Ok. I’m sure you will do a beautiful job,
Rylie
, as usual. No
w
, let’s run through our warm up exercises.”