Hallows: Duets

Does She?

J.Cole ft. Amber Coffman & Cults- She Knows

Ashley:

As I finish my homework in Kelly's room, Kels is arguing with someone over the phone. She's trying to get Lily the custom guns she asked for. Carter is sitting on her bed. I'm sitting on Tam's and Tam is in the shower.

"Hey," I throw a paper ball at him. He looks up at me with a glare and I swear I almost regret it.

"What?" he growls.

"I just wanted to say thank you for being nice to Lily. She seems-"

"Why do you even care, Villanueva? Don't get attached to her. She's not the kind of person that stays. Her loyalty is to her father. She's here now because our dads wanted us to form a union. That's it,"

"Still, you can't sit there and tell me you don't care. She's a little cooky but she's really cool under all that. Borderline innocent where it counts,"

"That's your problem right there, Ashley. You try to find the good in everyone," he scoffs. "Why are you here?"

"Shut up, I'm on the phone," Kelly scolds us.

"I was here first," I roll my eyes.

"Kels belongs to me and no you weren't. I went downstairs to get her food because she's been arguing with Des since this morning. Go away. f*****g annoying," he whispers angrily.

I take Kelly's fat ass binder and launch it across the room at him. The binder lands on his chest with a loud thud knocking the wind out of him. I gather my things and walk out of the room to head down to mine.

"b***h!" he shouts after me.

"f*****g asshole," I honestly shouldn't be surprised by his answer. Douche bag.

I barge into my room to find Anthony laying on the floor with Lily kneeling next to him. A black candle in one hand and a dagger in the other. I open my mouth to ask what the f**k is going on but I decide that it's not important. I just step back and shut the door gently. I cover my mouth and laugh.

"Thank you," Anthony calls out as I make my way to the staircase that leads down to the common room.

"Hey," Rudy looks up at me. I look between him and Tam. She's sitting in an armchair with a blindfold on. He has a tray of fruits and a bowl of melted chocolate on the side table next to her.

"Hey," I laugh. "I'll just go somewhere-not here,"

"Is that, Ash?" Tam asks.

"Yeah, it's me. I'll catch up with you guys later,"

I head up to my suite for some alone time. The last thing I want to be right now is a third wheel. Not to mention that none of my friends are doing normal couple stuff. Rudy and Tam, I get it. That was cute. But what the f**k were Lily and Anthony doing?

"s**t," someone slams into me. My backpack slides off my shoulder and swings bumping Tiffany in the face when she bends down to pick up her things. "Ouch,"

"Tiff, I'm so sorry," I say pulling it away from her to help her pick up some things. There are ribbons and lace, and buttons. "What is all this?"

"I'm working on my dress for the Founder's garden party," she says.

"That's like two months from now. Kelly and Tam are teaching me proper etiquette," I roll my eyes. She smiles.

"Yeah, but I'm making my dress. I got some new fabrics from Millan last week that I've been dying to get my hands on. What are you doing up here? Looking for Danny?"

"No, he's in the studio working on vocals for an instrumental,"

"Oh, what are the others doing?"

"Being super weird with their boyfriends," I laugh.

"That's right. You guys all have boyfriends now," she smiles. "I would ask you to come hang out but I'm leaving the school. I'm meeting my mom for brunch. Car told me you guys are all off-limits for a bit. Crazy Dante stalkers,"

"Yeah. It's cool. I thought I could work on some stuff for tomorrow's lesson anyway,"

"I'll see you later," she keeps going.

As I open my suite door, I glance over at Dante's wondering how he's doing but it's been a while since I've been alone. I've gotten so used to having them around me all the time. So, a break should have been in order a while ago. I set my things done and walk to the piano.

It then hits me why I don't allow myself to be alone. I take one look around and I can't help but want to call my mom to tell her everything that's happened. To try and share a little piece of what I have with her. Does she miss me too? Does she feel as alone as I do sometimes? Is she trying her best to keep her mind busy so she doesn't have to think about it?

I shake my thoughts and look down at the keys in front of me.

A tune has been playing in the back of my head for days now and I've been trying to ignore it as much as I can but sitting here alone, I need to get it out. I get comfortable, reaching for the markers Mrs. Dubois left for us to use. I take the lid off loving the smell of it. I open my booklet to a blank page and just let the sound take over. Once I have a few notes down, I set the tempo I think I might need and start to mimic the melody in my head. It takes me a while to pick up a rhythm.

I don't know how long I'm in here but it annoys me when I hear the suite door open. I look back to see Ms. Andrews going through her things by the chalkboards.

"Ashley, I'm so sorry. I didn't know anyone was in here," she says.

"It's okay. I was just enjoying the silence," I lie. Do people enjoy silence? It's terrifying.

"Are you working on new material?" she asks coming over to me.

"Do you want to hear?" I smile knowing that she's just as dorky about this as I am.

"Yes," she nods pulling Lily's throne chair over. We've been in here for a couple of days now and she's made herself at home. I start to play the tune and then loop it around trying to keep it moving. "Is this a romance piece?"

"I don't know. It does feel different from the other stuff, huh?"

"Very, the emotion is less thrill and more like stroking a beast's spine," she smirks. "Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," I laugh.

"You've got some good pieces here. Try this tempo," she adjusts it and then looks over at me giving me a second to find my pace. I play it again, a slight shift in speed. It's just slightly slower and I feel it. "There you go,"

"Thank you. It would have taken me forever to figure out what I was doing wrong,"

"You've never had a proper teacher," she says when I stop. She takes over for me. "Gen is a vocalist and while she's amazing at this, it just doesn't compare. Had you grown up the way these other kids were, you would probably be composing on your own already.

"I'm glad Lily found someone like you. I've been following her work for some time now. No one wants to work with her because she can be difficult. When Gen told me about you, I couldn't believe when she told me you taught yourself to do this. The first time I heard you play, I couldn't sleep. I knew you two were destined to meet,"

"It does kind of feel like that," I admit.

"Well, I'll leave you to it. I can't wait to hear all of it," she pats my hand and gets up to leave. I hear her open the suite door. "Mr. Blackstone,"

"Ms. Andrews," I hear his voice and my body shifts with fear. I reach up for my notes and quickly hide them. "Hey, I've been looking for you for hours,"

"I was just-" I shut the notebook tuck it under my thigh. He smiles and leans against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Okay," he nods. "Can I hear?"

"It's not done yet," we say at the same time.

"It'll be a while. I just started it," I admit.

"Kelly said you and Lily haven't let anyone in to listen to you play,"

"We're a mess. Lily gets carried away and I have to fight her for dominance. Her go-to tempo is a lot faster than mine. I can play what we have for you. But it's nuts,"

"All right," he nods. The two of us go into the recording booth. I put the CD with the letters FML NOPE written in bright red on the CD player. It starts off with Lily just losing it completely. There's a lot of giggling in it as well. "Jesus,"

"Told you," I laugh.

"Do you have any of her work?"

"Yes, she's so f*****g good," I nod and swap the CD. I adjust the speaker settings and we just sit here listening to Lily and her violin.

"I want to ask you something," he says after a while. I glance over at him. My mind was placing my keys to the song playing.

"What is it?"

"Would you like to work on a song with me sometime? I mean not right now. We both have a lot to do but I have a couple of songs that can use you,"

"Seriously?" I grin.

"Yeah. I know you're more art than recreational but I think we can make something special together. Yes, Anthony and Lily would be included in that,"

"I went to my room earlier and they were doing some weird s**t in our room," I laugh.

"What do you mean?"

"She had this black rug with a weird-looking pentacle drawn on it and he was laying on it, shirtless. And she had this candle and a dagger,"

"Oh, s**t," he laughs. "Was she shirtless too?"

"No, she was fully dressed but she had a book next to her and he looked like he was having a great time. I didn't say anything. I just closed the door. Then I walked into the common room and Rudy was feeding Tam fruits dipped in chocolate. She had a blindfold on,"

"What the f**k?" he laughs. "Do we do weird s**t like that?"

"I mean maybe they think it's weird when I play for you and you sing?" I shrug.

"What were Kelly and Carter doing?"

"She's working and he was being a f*****g jackass. He called me annoying,"

"Yeah, he's told me a few times that you get under his skin with your lovey bullshit," he grins.

"I just want to connect with him, you know? He's Kelly's boyfriend and human. Like I want us to be friends,"

"Carter doesn't really have friends. His dad was one of the biggest crimelords in Hellbourne. They're old money. Just like Lily and he's had to take over since he retired,"

"You too,"

"Yeah, but they were raised properly by their parents. Everything I have now, that's me and Kels taking what we want. They were born and raised in this s**t,"

"Do you think they'll do it?" I ask.

"What?"

"Get married because their dads want them to?"

"Yeah," he nods. "They'll accept it. But I don't know if Tony or Kels will. I think they'll kill De Laughrey and Carson before it's official. Kels might be able to let it go as long as Carter never puts his hands on Lily. But not Tony. If what Carter has told us is true and her father slaps her up. He's already dead,"

"Carter told me that Lily is only loyal to her father,"

"Yeah, if she's serious about Anthony, she's going to have to get over that. He doesn't share and after what happened between him and Kels, there is no f*****g way he's going to let her dad get between them. You know happy go-getter Anthony. Business Anthony is a whole different person. Adding an unstable devil-worshipping goth girl to that," he grins. "Our senior year is going to be amazing,"

"Hey," I put my hand on his chest. His fingers instantly start trailing up my arm.

"Yes?" he looks up at me.

"No one knows we're in here. The doors are locked and it's hella soundproof in here," I shrug. He growls pulling me onto his lap.

"It sounds like you are offering yourself up to the dark lord," he grins.

"I'm not one for rituals. I'd rather pray to my god," I lean into him pressing my lips to his. I turn around to straddle his lap. His hands instantly move to my thighs.

"I don't think we can f**k right now," he groans. "It would be dangerous for you,"

"Then we don't f**k," I shrug and slide down between his legs. He inhales arching his back to make himself a little more comfortable.

"Okay, but you have to stop when I tell you. I'll hold back as much as I can. I want to be able to keep myself from feeding when we're together," he tips my chin.

"Yeah, okay," I nod and reach for his belt.

"Go slow. I feel like you're about to-" he laughs letting his head fall back against the headrest. "No one has ever made me as nervous as you. I'm supposed to be the monster here,"

"Dante," I grin reaching into his jeans. He groans when I grab him. "Shut the f**k up,"