The melody in our hearts (6 page)

“Well, then you shouldn’t be worried about my meeting her. You’ve been talking about her for two years, so I think I deserve to meet her. Besides,” he added with a mischievous grin on his face, “she could be my soul mate, for all you know. I’m sure she’s quite cute, with her Irish accent and fair skin.”

Ryan decided to ignore him, knowing that arguing with him would be useless, and he walked into the small bathroom, leaning against the door after he had closed it. Kevin would never stop teasing him, and he dreaded the moment Kevin would meet Valerie because, no matter how badly Ryan would try to keep her away from him, he knew that Kevin would never stop teasing him until he had met her.

Maybe once he realized that Ryan and Valerie were really just best friends, Kevin would eventually leave him alone, but somehow Ryan feared this wasn’t likely to happen.

He shook his head and jumped into the shower, not wanting to be late for Valerie’s arrival.

~
Seven
~

Ryan had been waiting at the airport for over an hour, and had already drunk two Starbucks White Mocha coffees, feeling as nervous as he always did before an exam at school. He and Valerie had been in touch basically every day for the past two years, either by phone, text message or IM, but there was still a possibility that things between them wouldn’t be the same as they were when he was still living in Dublin. After all, they were older now, and two years in the world of a teenager made a big difference: Would Valerie still feel the same as she did before, would she still want to spend time with him, would she still be the girl he remembered? What if after hanging out with her female school friends, she had turned into a silly girl, whose only interests were make-up, shopping, and boys?

He couldn’t imagine Valerie spending hours in front of a mirror or wearing short skirts and high-heeled shoes, but he reckoned that was likely to be the way she was now. When he’d left her, she had just turned sixteen and was still a sweet, innocent girl who was grieving over the death of her beloved grandfather and the inevitable departure of her best friend. But two years had passed, and she was eighteen now – for all he knew, she might have changed into a different person, a woman he wouldn’t recognize and wouldn’t have anything in common with.

The thought hit him hard, making him feel the need for another coffee, if only to keep his mind busy with something else; what would he do if Valerie wasn’t his Val anymore? Would he like her and care about her even if she wasn’t the girl he used to love hanging out with, or would it feel too awkward and they would end up taking separate paths?

He had made a few friends at school, boys and girls, but with none of them had he developed such a strong and deep friendship as he had with Valerie, even if they all shared the same passion for music. Much as he liked his new school friends and his crazy but funny roommate, Kevin, nobody compared to Valerie. Theirs had always been a special kind of friendship that no one else seemed to understand, just because they were a boy and a girl. To him, Valerie was like a family member, an important part of his life, a special friend who’d always been there for him and understood him better than anyone else.

He had fit in well in Boston; he guessed it was because part of his blood was American, so he felt quite at ease there. But there was one thing, well, a person that had been missing so far who would make his life in America perfect – Valerie. And now she was just about to land, and they would be together again and share everything, the way they used to do when he was in Ireland.

He hadn’t really been able to open up or be himself with any of his American friends. They would mainly talk about school, music, exams, and where to go on Saturday nights, but he had never been able to speak about his worries, his doubts, his feelings. Valerie was the only person he had even been able to open up with, and he was glad they were going to be together again soon.

When the sliding doors finally opened and he saw her walk through them, he felt his heart fill with joy and excitement and he ran toward her, calling her name.

“Val!”

There was only one person on Earth who would call her that way and, even if she hadn’t recognized the voice, which she had anyway, she would have known who was calling her.

She turned back and saw him waving at her with a big smile on his face. She zigzagged around the people who were going in the opposite direction and walked swiftly toward him. When she was at a jumping distance from him, she dropped her luggage and literally flung herself into his open arms, hugging him so tight, he was barely able to breathe.

But he didn’t mind; he hugged her back just as tightly, and she let him hold her close for what seemed like hours.

Feeling his arms around her again felt so good, she totally forgot the rest of the world around them; people were passing by, some talking on their cell phones, others laughing and chatting, but she didn’t see or hear anyone. All she could hear was the sound of Ryan’s chuckle, and it was all she needed to feel at home again. She was miles away from what had been her home for eighteen years, but she knew that no matter where life would take her, she would always feel at home if Ryan was with her; he was her safe haven, he always had been, and she was sure that nothing could go wrong now that they were together again.

“I was afraid your parents had locked you up for life in the highest tower of the castle!”

He giggled and she realized how much better it was to hear his laughter and see the smile on his face at the same time, rather than simply hearing it on the phone.

“Almost! But I sneaked out of the window and climbed down. They’ll never find me here!”

He squeezed her tighter, and she suddenly found she didn’t mind other people seeing them. When he was still in Dublin, they had always been rather careful when their families (especially Marie) or their friends were around, because nobody seemed to understand their feelings, and people would always end up making fun of them. But she realized that nobody would think twice about them here, and they could hug and hold hands as much as they wanted without anyone interfering. Boston was a big city, full of busy people who had too much on their minds to care whether they were friends or lovers; they would be free to be whoever they wanted to be, and nobody would make fun of them or say anything nasty.

“Well done! Shall we go now? You don’t want to spend your first day in Boston standing in the airport, do you?”

She smiled and noticed how different his accent sounded now: After two years in America, very little of his Irish accent had remained, and he almost sounded like a native American now. She wondered whether his life in Boston had changed him, just like it had changed his accent, or if he was still the same wonderful person she was so fond of.

“You okay?”

He shook her out of her reveries and she nodded, realizing how stupid it would sound if she told him what she had been thinking of.

“I’m just… um… dazed, I think.”

“Yeah, I know. I tend to have that effect on people.”

She glared at him, feigning indignation, and he laughed, the crispy, bright laughter she had missed so much. She realized that no, Boston hadn’t changed her friend: He was still her Ryan, and even after having been apart two years, they were still as close as ever.

~
Eight
~

Ryan helped her bring her luggage to her bedroom, and when they opened the door, her new roommate looked up from the magazine she was reading and smiled.

“Hi!” she said and stood up from the bed. “I’m Karen.”

Valerie held out her hand. “I’m Valerie, nice to meet you.” She saw Karen eyeing Ryan, and she moved aside to let him in. “He’s Ryan, my friend from Ireland. He studies at Berklee College.”

Karen looked at him, and Valerie knew she was going to add Karen to the list of girls who were drooling over Ryan. She had met quite a few in Ireland, and she could spot the signs by now. She had seen the way Karen’s eyes had lit up when he had smiled politely and said hi, and that was definitely one of the main signs.

She dropped her duffel bag on the floor and looked around, checking out what would be her new home for the next few years.

“So, um...I guess this is my bed?” she asked, pointing at the bed on the right-hand side of the room.

“The bathroom’s behind that door. This is your part of the closet, and that’s your chest of drawers. If you need more space, I can try to remove some of my stuff to make more space for yours.”

She seemed quite friendly and Valerie was glad: When she was still in Ireland, she had worried a lot about what her roommate would be like. She had never gotten along very well with girls at her school, and she was scared that would be the case with her roommate.

But Karen seemed nice enough, so things shouldn’t be too bad, she thought, as she opened her closet to check whether all her stuff would fit in there.

Ryan placed her suitcases next to the bed and looked at Valerie, wondering whether she wanted to be left alone to get used to her new room and life or whether she wanted to hang out with him and catch up.

“So....” he said, clearing his throat, and Valerie turned back to look at him.

“Do you have to go back?” she asked, pulling her hair back in a ponytail, ready to unpack.

He shrugged and seemed a bit uncomfortable there.

“Not if you want to hang out for a while.”

She smiled, the big grin he had missed so much, and nodded.

“I guess I can unpack later. We have some catching up to do, don’t we? Besides, I’m starving. Can we go eat something?” Then she turned to look at Karen. “Do you mind if I leave my luggage here? I promise I’m a very tidy person, and I’ll put everything away as soon as I come back.”

Karen smiled and shrugged. “No problem. Go have fun, I’ll see you later, and maybe we can chat for a while and get to know each other.”

Valerie nodded, then took her bag and followed Ryan outside.

They walked for a while and stopped at a deli for a couple of sandwiches; Ryan never stopped talking, giving her hints about nice places to go for coffee or a sandwich, and informed her about the plans he had made before her arrival, telling her in detail all the things he wanted to show her.

“Sounds like I’m gonna be pretty busy in the next few weeks!”

Ryan chuckled and reached across the table for her hand, squeezing it. It felt good, just like in the old days in Dublin, when they never thought they would ever be apart.

“I’ll leave you alone for a few days so you can get used to your new roommate, the campus, and everything, and we can go sightseeing when you’re ready.”

She nodded, wondering whether the weird way she was feeling was due to the jet-lag or if she was still living in a sort of daydream from which she didn’t want to wake up. Ryan was sitting across the table from her, holding her hand in the same way he used to back in Dublin. He was there, he wasn’t a dream, and she had just started a new life, far away from her family and home, but with the one person who meant the world to her.

“Go on, finish your sandwich, and then I’ll take you back to your campus. You look like you need to rest; it’s gonna take a while to get over the jet-lag, so you’d better start now.”

She nodded and smiled, taking a bite of her cheese and tuna sandwich, while he finished his soda with one last gulp. As she listened to the people talking all around them with an unfamiliar accent she would soon have to get used to, she felt sure she was going to like her new life in America.

Valerie had finished unpacking and was lying on her bed, checking out some informative brochures Karen had given her. Karen was in her second year, and she had given Valerie some hints on how to cope there, but she had also wanted to know everything about her life in Ireland and, obviously, everything about Ryan.

“So, your friend…um…what did you say his name was?”

“Ryan.” Valerie smiled, sure that Karen knew exactly what his name was, but was trying to inconspicuously find out more about him. Just like Valerie had guessed, she had ended up on the long list of girls who went crazy about Ryan at first sight.

“Ryan, yes. He studies at Berklee, right? Is he, like, a musician?”

“A pianist.”

Karen didn’t seem content with Valerie’s short replies, as she obviously wanted to know more details, but Valerie had started to enjoy keeping them all on tenterhooks and watching how they all tried to gather as much information as possible from her, without saying that they had a crush on him. It seemed half the female population drooled over him, while she was the only one who had always been immune to his charm and who’d ever been allowed to be as close to him as all of those girls wished to be. This, in part, had also caused a few jealous girls to hate her and glare at her every time she passed them by, simply because she hung out with him and they didn’t.

“That’s cool,” Karen said, pretending to read something in the magazine that was open on her bed. “And, um…how long have you two been together?”