Chapter 8
The Melodies of Yesterdays
Sophia’s driving to school was shadowed with guilt. Later today, Giovanni would come to her with all his loving splendor, and she barely knew what to do anymore. Giovanni was the type of boyfriend that every girl could ask for, but it was Jericho who kept on pulling her back.
Making her way to the locker, Giovanni suddenly appeared before her, with a box wrapped in red and laced with a white ribbon.
“For you,” he said, smiling.
Her face on fire, Sophia tried to return the same smile, but it felt like her heart would fracture at any moment. The more Giovanni persisted, the more it killed her, and it just didn’t feel right anymore. “Thank you. I’ll open it later.” She slid another smile and quickly avoided Giovanni’s stare.
Then Zarah joined them with a rushing announcement. “Hey, you guys, have you heard of the good news?”
“Good news?” The two bestowed her with a puzzled look.
“Ms. Garcia has a leg injury! I heard the principal couldn’t find a substitute. Thank God! It’s not time for St. Thomas on Critical Thinking!” Zarah was obviously swarming with relief.
“Yeah, we understand you hate logic.” Giovanni passed her a mocking, friendly smile.
“And philosophy too,” Sophia incorporated, making Zarah the center of their ridicule.
“Hey, you guys! You know I’m not into those kind of things.” Zarah made fun of herself, too, and poked Sophia about Forest Green.
“How’s Forest Green? Did you have fun?” Zarah asked, and Giovanni listened in with interest.
A negative energy surrounded Sophia for a moment, thinking of words that would echo enjoyment and cover up the name Jericho. There was no way that his name would ever be mentioned, especially with Giovanni’s presence. And so, she brightened up her face and said, “It was fine,” adding more and more liveliness to her voice.
“That’s good. And Alex?” Zarah’s face immediately turned serious. She was aware of Alex’s Waterloo for girls. “Don’t tell me, he spent some time with some girls there!”
“Of course, not! My brother will always be loyal to you,” Sophia defended her brother but the word loyal somewhat slid a lump on her throat.
“Yeah, where is that guy, by the way?” Giovanni, finally said some words.
“In his Social Science class, maybe.”
Zarah’s assumption went wrong when Alex hastily joined them.
“Giovanni, I saw this posted. Battle of the Bands, bro! What do you say?” Alex handed Giovanni a flyer that was almost torn apart.
“Cool, bro! This will be a lot of fun!” Giovanni agreed laughing, giving Alex a high-five.
“Wow! That’s interesting!” The two girls slipped in, with glee too.
“Practice at the house, bro!” Alex offered, exceedingly excited. After a long wait, another award would add up to the hundred of trophies their band had received since grade school.
“Yeah, at the garage,” Sophia uttered and they all laughed at it.
When school was over that day, Alex and Giovanni waited for Sophia and Zarah at the parking lot, along with the rest of their band.
“So, what do you think of the song?” Shall we compose one?” Alex asked the guys.
“Yeah! More points if we have our own song,” Giovanni put forward.
“All right! So, what would be the theme of the song?” Rambo, their arrogant bass guitarist, asked.
“About heartbreak, perhaps?” Alex proposed.
“Heartbreak? Dude, come on!” they grumbled sniggering.
“Come on! It’s what girls want to listen to.”
“Whatever, dude!”
“Hey, Rambo! Jasmine just dumped you, right? I guess you would be the perfect one to write the lyrics!” Alex hit back.
“Wait a minute, dude! No! I don’t write down my heartbreaks!” Rambo shrugged more arrogance.
Their banter was fettered as soon as Sophia and Zarah came to them, endowing them a grin of curiosity because the guys were laughing out loud.
“Okay, the princesses are already here!” Alex clogged the giggling, and at the same time, asked everyone to already get into their cars.
They arrived at the Vabueretti residence in almost an hour, and rushed straight to the garage. All their musical instruments were still there, after several months of no-rehearsals for causing an earsplitting noise throughout the entire neighborhood. They initiated playing them yet again, and echoed the same loud noise that would definitely irritate the folks around.
“I think they need some refreshments,” Sophia spoke to Zarah, feeling like they needed to leave the guys.
“Aha,” Zarah nodded, and they went to the kitchen.
Alex, at a snap of a second, remembered he used to write a song before. He ran the lyrics through his mind and quickly wrote them down on a white paper, including the guitar chords.
Then, his bandmates read the lyrics as they listened to him with his acoustic guitar.
Everyone liked it. Quick as a flash, they began playing his song.
Sophia and Zarah were, of course, very supportive to the guys, but throughout every strumming of guitar and crooning of every lyric, Sophia couldn’tby farforget those pleasing melodies of yesterdays, of how Jericho sang before her, along with the songs he wrote for her. Though she did try, the ghosts of Forest Green just kept on haunting her.
