Hide Me In Your Thoughts

Chapter 9- Perfect Range

Song- Mean! By Madeline The Person

…/…

“Oh my gosh! Collin! You scared us to death,” I said, in between hitting him repeatedly. “Hold up, how much of that did you hear?” Joyce asked him, then my eyes widened because if he had heard everything then that could be a problem.

“Pretty much all of it. You’re in deep stuff young lady”. I held Collin’s hand to drag him further from where the others were seated to say, “You gotta promise to never tell anyone”. “Who am I gonna tell anyway?” he responded.

“Uh, Harry!” Joyce says in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. Collin looks back to see Harry and then he says, “Nah, besides, why do you care if he knows?”. Joyce pushes Collin to the ground and I just stand there watching as she gets on him.

She snatches his phone from him and makes him promise to not tell anyone about everything he has heard and, of course, he agrees. She throws his phone at him but he doesn’t catch it, instead, it falls on the sand. He picks it up and mutters, “You’re crazy” as he walks back to where the others were. I high-fived Joyce and walked back with her.

I sit beside Mace, resting on him completely, then he kisses my forehead. Collin and Harry start chanting “Mason and Lily sitting on a tree…”. I jump on them before they can complete the saying, hitting them everywhere I can. “Wait, what are we doing on the tree?” Mace asks in a suggestive manner. I hit my palm on my forehead, shaking my head while Ian, Joyce, and Carl just sat there laughing at Mace’s question.

“Hey, I brought my guitar. We could sing some songs,” Harry says. Collin and Carl groan at the same time, while I exclaim, “Yay!”. “Oh my gosh Lily! Ian sings beautifully and he plays the piano too”. “Stop. Joyce, on the other hand, is an amazing singer. I’m a big fan”. Ian says the last part, facing her and placing his hand on his chest.

“Yeah, Joyce’s voice is amazing,” Harry adds with sincerity. I look at Joyce to see her smiling subtly, more like blushing. “Yup, it’s still there,” the voice in my head says. I watch Harry as he goes to get his guitar from the car that Chris, our older brother, had given him as a birthday present when he turned 18.

So far, it’s the only thing I know that he loves doing more than drawing or painting. Chris would give him lessons when he came home for the Christmas holidays and a lot of work to do, even from school. It's no surprise that he got so good over the years and now, he’s almost as good as Chris.

“Okay, who’s ready?” Harry asks when he gets back. “Carl, are you ready?” Collin asks as he waves his phone in the air. They move to the side so they’d be able to focus on the game. “What key are we singing on? I mean, I have a fair idea of a comfortable key for both Lily and Joyce, but I don’t know yours,” Harry says to Ian.

Ian is about to speak but Joyce cuts in saying, “This guy? His range is crazy!”. Joyce’s newly found confidence stuns me. It stuns me so much that I can’t help but wonder about the game she’s playing, even if I didn’t know, it looked really good and it seemed like she was comfortable with it.

“Okay, how about we sing Best Part by H.E.R. ft Daniel Caesar,” I suggested. “Oh! I love that song” Joyce exclaims. “I know you do,” I replied. “I was thinking of a song by Finneas but this is okay too,” Ian says. Harry starts by playing a chord, letting us know the key.

Joyce and I sing the first verse together, harmonizing. Ian and Mace join in with the chorus. Mace lets Ian sing the second verse and then we all sing the chorus again. Harry bobs his head slowly to the rhythm of the song. From where we were seated, looking at the ocean, we could see the sun setting, and it was beautiful.

…/…

“It’s getting late,” Collin says. “Plus, I’m tired,” Carl adds. “Gosh, we should do this again some other time,” I say. “Definitely. I had fun. You’re really good Harry,” Ian says. “Thanks,” Harry replies as he puts his guitar back in its case.

“I’m just gonna hitch a ride with Ian since it’s the same direction and all,” Joyce says. I watch Harry hug Joyce but more importantly, I watch Joyce’s reaction. It was cute. “See you tomorrow,” Harry says. Then Collin throws her over his shoulder and runs to where Ian parked his motorbike, shouting, “This is payback!”

“Of course, he has a motorbike,” I say out loud. “It’s faster,” Mace responds. We say our goodbyes and then head to the car, and Harry drives this time. Unbelievably, Collin shouts shotgun from afar. Mace and I sit together at the back, leaving Carl in the middle seat.

On the way home, we’re quiet. Carl alights when we get to his house. “Do you want to sleep over at mine?” Mace asks. “Can’t, I promised my mum I’d see a movie with her”. “That’s fine. I'll just come over tomorrow,” he says. I peck his cheek goodnight and he waves to me as he walks to his front door.

“Really? Really?? Harry, you’re not going to talk about the fact that they should be together. I definitely can’t be the only one seeing these things”. “Just drop it,” Harry replies, smiling. “I’m starting to think you like it when I hit you, cause why else would you keep bringing it up”. “Because it’s the truth and everyone else is acting like I’m crazy”.

“Maybe you are,” I said. “I’d accept that I’m crazy if you accept that you and Mace have feelings for each other but you guys are just too cowardly to say anything or act on it”. I shut up when he says that, so I wouldn’t say anything that’d make him think he’s right, even though he might be, but then Mace probably doesn’t have feelings for me, he’s with Amy.

“When are you leaving for school again?”. “Oh, as though you wouldn’t miss me,” he replied. It started to get under my skin that he always has the perfect comeback, so I just shut up. Harry looks through the mirror to see my reaction.

…/…

“I thought you were going to leave me for your friends,” my mum says to us when we tell her we’re down for a movie night. “Never mum,” Harry says. “I guess I’d just leave you guys, I’m kinda sleepy anyway,” Collin says.

A part of me wanted him to leave us, especially because of everything that happened in the car, but I still didn’t want him to go. “Don’t be silly honey. Let’s all watch the movie together”. He smiles a full-blown smile when my mum says that and then he puts his arm around my shoulder, whispering, “we’re going to have so much fun”.

“We could watch a classic,” my mum suggests. I could tell the kinds of movies she meant. I looked at Harry and Collin’s faces and got the best reaction. “Nah, don’t worry mum, you’re gonna like this one,” I said to her, looking at Harry and Collin because I knew we had the same thing on our minds.

We get settled at different spots in the movie theater. Harry goes to set it up. When he does, he finds a seat and settles in. The theater is dark for a moment, then the words “When Our Stars Meet” appear on the screen.

Collin walks in my direction and takes a seat beside me. I stood up almost immediately, wanting to get away from him. We repeated the process in two different locations, till I got tired because he was making me miss the movie.

I went back to the first aisle I chose and reclined the seat. He does the same thing but this time I don’t stand up to leave. “Didn’t think so!” he says before settling in completely. I grab a bag of chips from the seat beside me, he dips his hand in the bag, and normally, I would’ve shouted and probably hit him, but I was getting tired so I just let him.

“I like this new Lily,” he says. I still don’t say anything to him because I’m starting to get invested in the movie.

…/…

Around 10 pm, I raised my head to see both Harry and my mum asleep. I use a blanket to cover both of them and walk back to my seat. I completely snuggle at Collin’s side, he wraps his arms around me, then my eyes start closing until I drift into nothingness.