Special Chapter II: Zaid's Onbeat Suspicion
"Stop!"
Grey stopped us playing our instruments, and we all know why. Someone's out of beat, but no one wants to take the blame. Only Grey can tell who's out of beat, he has this skill, I think it's called perfect pitch or something.
He carefully eyed us one by one and pointed his finger.
"Vin, you were half a second offbeat. You need to follow Ice's drum beat or else you'll be off beat." Grey said.
Vin never once fell out of beat, except today. Maybe something's bothering him. His face this past few days was like imbued with sadness permanently. Sometimes he'll just look outside the window or sleep while in class. Maybe that was because of the cases he handles with the police. He almost always turns down our invitations to play computer games or basketball.
Now, Vin was just staring at Daron. Like he was longing for something from him. Like there was some weight in his chest that he wanted to remove but couldn't. I feel that he wants to say something, he just doesn't have the courage to do it.
"Hey Vin, you all right?" Ice placed a hand on Vin's shoulder.
"Yeah, I just want to-"
"To what?"
"Nothing." Vin, walked to the side and placed the bass on the stand and sat on the bench near the wall.
"Should we take a break?" I suggested breaking the tension inside the studio.
I walked towards Vin and sat beside him.
"What's on your mind?" He looked surprised seeing me beside him.
"Ah, Zaid. Nothing, there's just a melody lingering inside my head. I can't shake that melody off and it keeps messing with the beat we're playing."
"A melody? Care to share?" Vin just shook his head.
"Maybe another time. I think I could turn it into a full song and I hope to play it along with you guys." Daron suddenly stepped in front of us
"What's up?"
"Ah, Vin here ha-" Vin covered my mouth with his hand and told me to keep it a secret between the two of us.
Daron looked confused on what was happening, he excused himself and stepped outside the studio.
"I'm not gonna ask." I said as soon as Vin removed his hand covering my mouth.
Ice stepped outside to and left us inside the studio. Silence filled the room. Vin stood up and walked towards the door.
"Vin!" He was about to open the door but stopped on his tracks. He turned around and looked at me.
"Do you remember the thing I was about to say back at Grey's house? The one I was about to ask the time we were about to shoot the parody music video."
Vin took a long hard look at me and seemed to remember it.
"What about it?" Vin said.
"Back then I didn't finish the question because Ice and Zaider appeared."
"Yeah, I forgot to ask you about that. So what was that you were about to ask me?"
I'm not sure if I want to ask Vin, I could be wrong but from what I've observed it is plausible. I hesitated before answering.
"Are you and Daron… have something going on in between? What I'm tryin to say is, do you like Daron?" Alright I've said it, there's no going back now.
"Yeah I like him…" Vin answered.
"Wait what?! You like him?!" I wasn't expecting that.
"I like him as a friend. Wait, are you thinking that I liked Daron more than a friend?"
"That's what I observed, the way you look at him, the way you act around him, and the other little things that nobody seems to notice."
"What… Heh… I-I don't stare at him, and the way that I act around him goes way back from that incident."
Well that explains a lot about his behaviour, he's just looking out for him, checking if Daron's alright. If that's all true… but I doubt he's saying the whole truth.
Vin opened the door and Daron suddenly came in, they both crashed on the floor. Daron was on top of Vin and they were just staring at each other. A camera flash lit up, it was from Grey's phone, Daron quickly stood up and tried to get the phone from Grey's hands. Vin propped himself up and ran outside.
"Is he okay?" Ice asked
Daron manages to get the phone from Grey and delete the photo from the gallery. Minutes later Vin returned, his face was wet the same goes to the hair above his forehead. He dug inside of his bag and took out a towel. He dried up his face, I looked at him and his eyes were bloodshot, I think he cried.
"Let's continue practicing. Vin, try to keep up with the beat okay?" Grey said.
Vin nodded and grabbed the bass from the stand and slung the bass across his body.
The whole time Vin is just looking down on the floor, but Grey doesn't seem to mind that as long as he is on beat.
The band practice ended around 5pm in the afternoon. We packed up and left the studio.
"Hey guys, wanna grab something to eat?" Zaider said enthusiastically.
We all agreed to buy some food from a 24/7 convenience store. While Vin was choosing the drinks I walked up to Daron.
"Hey Daron, can I ask you something?"
Daron looked at me quizzically.
"Wasn't that a question already?" Daron answered.
"Daron, what do you think about Vin?"
He looked surprised, like he wasn't expecting me asking about Vin, but he answered anyway.
"He's okay, I guess… He can be a bit childish at times but gets serious when the situation calls for it."
"No, that's not what I meant. What do you think your relationship with Vin is?"
"Wait, where is this coming from? He's just a friend, I owe him my life."
"Apparently that wasn't what Vin thinks."
"What was that?" Daron snapped at me.
"Nothing, I didn't say anything."
Vin returned with our drinks, he handed everyone their drinks and we ate.
But something is still bothering me about Vin and Daron's relationship as friends, I just can't tell what was it.