Symphony

Chapter Twenty-two

"You're avoiding him, aren't you?" Marie asked, making Leonardo let out a loud sigh as he put down the glass of juice he'd been holding. He let his fingers drum against its sides, letting the tapping noise fill the void of the almost empty café he and Marie were at. The plan was a little way from their college, and no one really visited it. The only reason Leonardo even knew the run-down café existed was that Marie had dragged him out to the place on a random afternoon as she told him about how cheap their pastries and drinks were.

"Yes," he said, chuckling a bit to try and lighten the mood. His voice came out hushed, and rough — which wasn't what he'd been going for. "It's kind of obvious, isn't it?" he ended up asking before letting out a sigh when his plan to play it off didn't quite go as planned.

"Why are you avoiding him. I Don't understand?" Maire asked, frowning at Leo a bit. She wasn't buying the calm face he was trying to pull off. If she knew anything about Leo it was that he wasn't good at discussing issues that bothered him — ignoring them, and pretending that they weren't issues were his go-to methods of avoiding discussion.

"I don't know. I—After that night at his place I just feel odd," Leo started before pausing. "I can't really explain how I feel. The look on his face that night made me feel terrible. I'd panicked and told him I didn't feel the same way because I was confused—I'm still confused."

"I still don't understand why you told him you don't feel the same way — you were the one who kissed him. He didn't kiss you. Is it his fault that he would assume that way you might like him the same way?" Marie said, bringing up the cup of coffee in her hands to her lip to take a sip as she stared at Leonardo. Leonardo looked away from her, focusing his gaze on the table's wooden surface instead.

Everything might have seemed clear-cut and simple to Marie, but she wasn't aware of the fact that Leonardo thought he still had feelings for her, making his new feelings involving Alejandro feel confusing, and out of place.

"I wish it was that simple, really, I do," Leo said with a sigh as he raised his glass to his lips to take another sip of juice.

"It's not?" Marie asked, c*****g her head to the side as she looked at Leo. She smiled a bit, a little worried about how her childhood friend was behaving. "What's so hard to understand? You like him, don't you? And he seems to like a lot too."

Leonardo felt his face warm up at Marie's words. He thought of Al, the talented pianist that was a little bit clueless about his own talent. Leo wasn't sure what to do with the feelings brewing inside him, and they'd only seemed to get more intense after he'd told Alejandro he didn't feel the same way out of panic.

He was beginning to regret that. Sure, he was confused, but saying he didn't feel the same way was an exaggeration.

He looked up from his glass to glace at Marie. He smiled at the young woman that he'd grown up side by side with. He looked at her big brown eyes, heart-shaped face and pixie cut, but the feeling he'd once mistaken for liking her romantically had dulled down to a feeling of plain admiration and fondness.

"Well?" Marie asked, making Leo blink as he came out from his thoughts. "What are you going to do about your situation with Alejandro?" she asked, making Leo sigh as he looked away from her again.

"I'll think of something," he said, dismissing the whole conversation.

"Let's talk about something else, shall we?" he asked, making Marie raise a brow at him. "Please," he added, but the brown-haired woman just shook her head.

"I'll pay for your drink," Leo offered, making Marie smile before she agreed to abandon the topic. Leonardo rolled his eyes at her. It was easy to appeal to the money-saving side of her.

Their topic soon moved to small talk, and eventually, they started discussing what they'd like to do after graduation. It was only a few months away. Marie was planning to do further studies abroad — probably in France. She was planning to go into education, not exactly performance like most people were leaning towards in their college. while Leo wasn't too sure what his plans for the future were yet.

"I'm sure many universities will be looking to take you in for a Ph.D. — on a full-ride scholarship even," Maire said, watching as her friend shook his head and sighed.

"I don't know, I was thinking of joining a professional orchestra right after graduation. Some orchestras are already hosting auditions," Leo said.

"Hmm," Marie hummed, nodding at Leo's words before she called a waiter to order some pastries. Leo asked for some chocolate buns, while Marie settled for velvet cake.

"Hmm, joining an orchestra. That would be a lot of traveling, and a lot of practice hours. You'll barely have time to yourself — well, while you're not on break from touring and performing," Marie muttered in reply to Leonardo's words from before when the blond-haired waiter left the table with their order.

"Yes, I know all of that," Leonardo said, resting his head on his palms. That was another thing to consider. What good would it do to tell Alejandro about how he felt now when they'd probably move to different ends of the earth after graduation? He knew Alejandro was also aiming to be part of a grand orchestra. That was why Leo had been allowed to me Master Rutherford's pupil in the first place. He was essentially there to help Al achieve that by making him more comfortable with playing with people.

"What about the school orchestra? How's that going?" Marie asked, steering the conversation in a different direction. Leo smiled at that. The first-year students had started to straighten out their act. They'd improved tremendously, and he didn't feel so nervous about the events they were supposed to perform at anymore.

"They're doing great," Leo said as his smile widened, making Marie laugh.

"I remember the day after your first meeting with them You complained so much. I'm glad things are working out now," she said as she chuckled, smiling at Leonardo before she looked towards the pastry display. "Will you pay for my cake too?" she asked, making Leo laugh.

"Sure, why not," he said, looking towards the pastry display as well. Not long after their orders were brought to them, and Leo watched as his friend made a mess of her velvet cake with her fork as they talked about everything and nothing.

When they were done at the café, they took a cab together. The taxi dropped Marie off at her stop first, which was at the front of a small busy flea market. She waved the cab off as it drove away towards the apartment complex Leo lived in. On the way home, Leo couldn't stop thinking about how he'd been treating Al as for late.

I have to get my act together. He told himself in his mind as the yellow cab pulled up at the pavement by the apartment building he lived in. The apartment building was a multi-leveled red brick structure that had decent enough one-bedroom apartments.

Leo got down from the cab, paying the driver for both his and Marie's fare before heading into the apartment complex, and taking the stairs to his apartment on the fifth floor.

As Leonardo got to his apartment and made to unlock the front door, he couldn't help thinking about Al, and the current situation at hand. His conscience still felt guilty. Sure, he was confused and overwhelmed, but that didn't give him the right to ignore Al like he didn't exist. Avoiding him shouldn't even be an option, he was meant to help him out with his practices and compositions.

"I at least have to apologize," Leo muttered under his breath as the door to his apartment clicked open. He kicked off his shoes, walking into the living room before shutting the door behind him.

Yes, apologize — and come clean, and he had to do it as soon as possible.