To A Wild Rose

How long is this going to last?

Hayden was lying upside down on the black, worn-out couch in the living room, trying his best to ignore the screaming coming from his parent's bedroom and failing to focus on the chess match he was currently engaged in online.

Yup. That's pretty much how everything was being taken care of these days. Wanted to get a new pair of jeans? Order it online. Craving some McDonald's? Get it online. Missing classes due to a goddamn global pandemic? Not to worry, your college already has them scheduled online. Just do your part; wash your hands and stay at home, nevermind the fact that you live in a toxic household that's constantly challenging your sanity.

aaron_153: I miss your stupid faces, man

layla98: when this quarantine shit is over, we're going on a road trip or smth

me: amen

aaron_153: come over guys :( my apartment sucks without company

me: I'll move back in a few weeks, it's a drag but gotta stay with the fam for a while

aaron_153: ugh yes please🙏🏻

_gale_f: I'll be over next week, dude. one more sec in this house n I'mma jump out the damn window

me: #mood

haleeyyy_: hang in there, y'all :(

Hayden didn't reply to that. He knew he had no choice but to 'hang in there'. Wait it out. It had to end someday, right?

Having lost another chess match, Hayden thought he'd had enough of the game and he started to look for another. He scrolled through Google PlayStore, looking for an app that'd catch his fancy.

"flowkey: learn piano (Editor's Choice)"

Hayden had wanted to play the piano ever since he'd watched an anime in his early teens where the protagonist was a gifted pianist. Heck, he still enjoyed listening to Yiruma's albums while studying. River Flows In You was his all-time favourite piece by the artist.

So, what better time to learn an instrument than now? Could he learn to play without actually having a piano? A quick Google search revealed that there were quite a few apps out there that'd allow you to have a 'virtual piano' of sorts and hence, learn how to play.

Hayden got up and went to his room, shutting the door and clearing his desk quickly. He got his tablet out and installed the Perfect Piano app.

Virtual piano: acquired.

Then, he downloaded the flowkey app on his phone and tapped on the first free lesson. Of course, he'd have to pay for the rest of lessons but Hayden still didn't know whether he'd actually stick to learning how to play or give up after a few days.

"Well, here goes nothing."

.

"So, you've gotta place your hand on the keys as if you're holding like, a ping-pong ball or something! And this, this is the C-position-" Hayden excitedly babbled on for a few minutes before realizing that his sister wasn't really responding to him except for smiling and nodding every once in a while.

"Abi, you're not really listening to me. Are you?" Hayden frowned at his sister, Abigail.

She hadn't budged from her cocoon-like position on her bed ever since Hayden had barged into her room.

"Of course, I am. Did you learn to play a song or something?" she murmured.

Hayden's eyes lit up and he placed his tablet onto the duvet before positioning his right hand appropriately over the virtual piano keys. Abigail sat up a little to observe.

"I'm gonna play Beethoven's An Ode To Joy since it- well, it's supposed to be played using the C-position thing-" Hayden stammered before regaining his composure.

"Just listen."

He messed up a few keys or… notes, Hayden didn't really know what to call them, but it wasn't as if Abigail actually noticed. She did comment that it had sounded nice, like an actual song.

"Do you wanna get an actual piano? It'll be easier to learn it that way," Abigail asked after a while of watching Hayden practice An Ode To Joy.

Hayden paused. He still hadn't thought about whether he was gonna commit to learning how to play. Besides-

"Aren't pianos expensive though?" Hayden asked, pushing his blonde hair out of his eyes.

"I guess but… keyboards aren't that expensive, I think? I went out to get one with a friend back in college," Abigail explained, still in her blanket-cocoon state.

"Oh. Well, I don't even know if I'm gonna go through with this or not, to be honest…"

"Go for it. What better time is there? Besides, you'd be doing something productive for once," Abigail smirked before tickling Hayden in the ribs with her foot.

"You're one to talk, you haven't been out of bed ever since you got home," Hayden laughed, pushing her foot away.

"If you must know, I quite recently broke up with my boyfriend of two years due to work shit and just as I was planning to go on a trip with my friends to recuperate, a pandemic happened and-"

"Yes, yes. All your plans got canceled, boo hoo. So did the rest of the worlds'- "

Hayden got kicked in the spleen for that one.

"I'm saying, I've got enough money saved up to get you a keyboard, like pronto. So, if you're gonna do this then be sure about it. You have nothing holding you back right now," she explained with a smile.

Hayden glanced at his sister from under his bangs and realized how she'd always been so supportive and kind when it came to matters concerning him, ever since they were kids. Perhaps she'd realized how difficult it was to grow up with parents who'd constantly bicker amongst themselves and lash out when things didn't go their way. It had been hard when she'd gone off to college but she'd never failed to stay in touch and check up on him. Now that they were both adults and she'd started working, Abigail still looked out for him in her own ways.

"Kyle was an ass for breaking up with you," he muttered, tapping idly at the piano keys on his tablet.

"He wasn't gonna move to another state because of my job and honestly, I don't blame him for that," she shrugged. But Hayden could tell that she was very sad about it.

.

"-and that's what you call a C major scale since it goes from C to C."

Hayden was out on the little balcony outside his room, munching on some cookies his mom and Abigail had baked and watching a piano lesson for beginners on YouTube. It seemed legit enough and he would be lying if he said he wasn't excited to learn more. Being able to play an instrument would be such a level-up.

Hayden heard a faint rustling and the distant smell of smoke but he was too busy listening to and memorizing the notes for Pachelbel's Canon in D that he paid it no heed until a voice spoke up.

"You can't expect to play an instrument without actually practicing on it, ya know."

Hayden frowned and looked up. Perched on the rooftop of the house next-door was a girl with short black hair, dressed in an NYU jersey and jeans, smoking a cigarette and staring him down.

"...NYU, huh?"

Out of all the things that Hayden wanted to say, that's what came out of his mouth right then. For some reason, she looked like she'd be in high school instead of university. She smirked as she took another drag; Hayden tried not to think about how the dark lipstick she wore looked amazing on her.

"Just got back an hour ago, actually. I'm Raelynn, nice to meet you," she waved a little, with the hand that held her cigarette.

"Ah. No wonder I haven't seen you around before," Hayden replied, getting off the chair he was lounging on and leaning against the railing to face Raelynn.

"I haven't been back here in a couple of years so…" she laughed.

"Do you play?" Hayden asked when the silence stretched too long.

"I used to," Raelynn took another drag and looked off towards the street in front of them, past the huge tree spread out between the space that separated their houses. Hayden waited for her to elaborate but she didn't.

"What are you doing out here? It's dangerous up there," he motioned towards where she was sitting with her legs crossed.

"It's just… exhausting," she motioned vaguely with her hand but Hayden understood what she meant. Sometimes, families could be quite draining.

.

It became a routine for them. Hayden would find a way to retreat back to his room with some snacks and go out to the balcony. Raelynn would emerge out of her window, climb the tree and sit on the branch nearest to Hayden or if she was in the mood for a quick smoke, she'd climb up towards her rooftop and sit there. She'd watch him try to play on his tablet and give out helpful little pointers sometimes.

"You've got to relax your wrist."

"You're slouching, Hayden. Sit upright."

"Play that verse again and don't stab the keys, dumbass."

Abigail and Hayden had looked through some keyboards online earlier but they couldn't figure out which one to buy. Hayden thought Raelynn could provide some input but he didn't know how to bring it up despite the fact that they'd grown quite comfortable around each other.

"... is everything alright?" Raelynn said after noticing Hayden back off from saying something a couple of times.

"Uh. Well, I wanted to get your opinion about what keyboard I should get? Abigail and I looked through some stuff online but well…" Hayden said, gesturing to his room while pushing his bangs away.

"Sure, alright."

.

All Hayden could think about was how hot it was to witness Raelynn climb up, further than she'd done so before, walk across a branch onto the rooftop of his house and then jump down onto his balcony.

"Damn," he said as she landed in front of him, the lingering smell of cigarette smoke wafting across the space between them.

"High school gymnastics," she said with a laugh and then walked into his room.

In his mind, the words 'social distancing' and 'mandatory 6 ft distance' were bouncing around in bright, bold red.

"So, what are we looking for?" she asked as she took off her sneakers and sat down on his bed.

Hayden brought his laptop over from where it was charging on his desk and opened up one of the pages he'd bookmarked.

"Something beginner-level? I don't really know," he said, pushing his bangs away again. He needed a haircut.

"Mm. You'd be okay with a 61-key digital keyboard but if you wanna play classical pieces, I'd recommend getting the full 88-key one," she said as she scrolled down the page Hayden had opened up in front of her. He stood awkwardly for a while before walking around to the other side of the bed and sitting down next to her. Raelynn glanced over but didn't say anything.

"Since you're a complete newbie… This one, the Yamaha YPT-260 would be good enough for you but it's better to have options, I suppose."

"I did some research and apparently the weight or… feel of the keys matters too?" Hayden said hesitantly.

"Mm. If you were already learning through an acoustic piano and using a digital piano for practice, then you'd need to go heavier with the keys," Raelynn murmured as she opened up the descriptions of specific keyboards in new tabs. She turned towards Hayden and gestured with her hands, "Having too big a difference in weight can cause inconsistency in your control when you go back to playing a real piano for lessons, for example."

"Right, so since I'm not doing all that…" Hayden began.

"Then you can afford to go a little lighter with the weighted keys. This can speed up your development early on because it’s less physically demanding," Raelynn finished.

Hayden watched her for a while, not really paying attention to what she was doing on his laptop. He got a weird feeling that he wanted to know more about her.

.

In the end, it came down to the Yamaha P-45, the Casio PX-770 and the Korg B1SP. Since it fell between the price range Hayden was going for, they decided on the Yamaha P-45.

The day it arrived, Raelynn came over through the front door for once and helped set it up. Hayden's mom and Abigail were a little surprised to see that they'd already been friends for a while now. The last girl he'd brought home was his ex, Emily. And that had been a year ago.

Hayden loved the feel of the keys beneath his fingers. He loved playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Fur Elise since he'd almost perfected those two pieces. His technique still wasn't as good as he'd hoped it'd be but Raelynn had sent him links to short exercises that he could do daily that'd help him improve.

She'd left her number on his desk that day when she'd first jumped onto his balcony. He hadn't seen much of her for a couple of days now… Nevermind that, his next step was to learn how to read sheet music. He'd thought about heading to the library and getting a book about-

There was some sort of commotion next door; Hayden heard yelling and then the sound of the front door being slammed shut. He looked out his window to see Raelynn walking out of the house, her back rigid with tension.

In a few minutes, Hayden put on a facemask, grabbed his car keys and another mask for Raelynn, put on his hi-tops and ran out the front door. He caught up to her and pulled out one of her earphones.

"Put this on, dumbass," he said as he passed her the facemask and tried not to think about the faint red coloring her cheeks. She mumbled a 'thanks'.

"So, musical theory. Rhythms. And sheet music. You think we can find a book at the library about any of those?" Hayden asked as he checked off the topics on his fingers.

"I don't know about the library but there's this other place that I know of… we can't exactly walk there though…" Raelynn said hesitantly.

Hayden stepped in front of her and dangled his car keys right in front of her face, "Wanna grab some McDonald's while we're at it?"

He couldn't see her whole face of course, but he'd bet his keyboard that she was smiling under the mask.

.

Surprisingly, the music store Raelynn directed him towards, was open despite the lockdown and Hayden ended up buying two novice-level books that interested him. Unsurprisingly, McDonald's was only offering takeaway and delivery services so they grabbed their Big Mac's to-go.

The drive back home took a while and Hayden let Raelynn take over the music system. She ended up playing a lot of slow-jam, sultry, lo-fi songs and Hayden chanced a glance at her whenever she looked out the window. His heart beat faster every single time.

"I'll be going back to Manhattan in a couple of days," Raelynn said quietly, later that day.

They'd had their food in Hayden's bedroom, leaned against the bedpost (and each other) and read through a bit of the books they'd bought. Hayden was idly trying to play Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake Theme when Raelynn sat next to him on the bench.

She put her left hand on the piano and started playing the bass chords for the song. Hayden dropped his left hand onto space between them and started playing the melody using his right.

"Do you have to?" he murmured, just as quietly.

Raelynn glanced at him and took a deep breath before slipping her right hand beneath his on the bench and holding on to it. Hayden turned towards her and she shrugged when she met his gaze.

"I'll stay with a friend until things get back to… normal," she added.

"... I'll probably move back in a couple of weeks too," Hayden replied after a while.

"So, what you're saying is…" Raelynn trailed off, before she began to play a very familiar song.

Hayden felt as if his entire being had come to a sudden, melodic halt. He felt light-headed, his heart was beating like crazy and all he could think about was how Raelynn was playing River Flows In You on his piano, with her left hand only.

He held her hand tighter and when she looked up at him, he leaned down and pressed his lips to her's. Almost immediately, her hands were in his hair and she kissed him back as if she'd been meaning to for a while now.

Hayden had his hands on her waist and she'd almost straddled him when he remembered what he had wanted to say.

"So, I'm saying… you'll have to…come over and… teach me… to play…regardless," he said in between kisses.

"Deal," she said quickly before nipping Hayden's lower lip.

"Even when… classes start again… Even after we're done with this quarantine. I want to know everything," Hayden said, holding her firmly in place so she'd understand what he was trying to say.

I want to know everything about you.

"... Good thing Columbia isn't too far off from NYU," she murmured before pulling his head down for another kiss.

"Okay. I'll tell you everything."

.