Fuck, fuck I'm late.

Angela hurried up the stairs, carrying her stack of sheet notes. It was 10pm or later. She was late for fifteen minutes or so. Her alto friend was going to kill her. She ran up, reaching the third floor of the music school and opened the door to the concert hall where everybody was already in their places.

Bowing her head, she made her way to her seat, greeting the leader and keeping her eyes on the floor. She placed her notes on the note stand and took her pencil out.

"Glad you could join us, Angela," the conductor commented upon her arrival and gave her a side glance to which Angela replied with a small tight and uncomfortable smile. She was stuck at work until late becase one cash register didn't add up. There was money missing and they needed to solve it before they closed.

But she never mentioned it to the conductor. She didn't want to bother him with unnecessary details about her life, even if it meant coming late to the choir and being put in an uncomfortable situation. Angela quickly joined in on the singing exercises to warm up their voices. She already missed most of them and she knew she would have probems later singing the higher voices.

She looked to her left. Aurora, her alto friend, was not there. Aurora, Kaitlyn's sister. She didn't show up for the past two months. She would always give Angela shit if she was late even if she knew it wasn't her fault. She liked to rub it in sometimes to which Angela only laughed.

But she wasn't there. Kaitlyn already expressed her worry and Angela couldn't help but worry as well. Maybe she should leave her a message? But she wasn't going to get a reply either way. So what was she supposed to do?

Angela placed her notes on the empty chair next to her and focoused on the singing exercises the choir conductor was leading.

It wasn't long before she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw a bright smiling Andrew in the last row with his hand up, sending a small wave in Angela's direction.

What was he doing here?

Confused, she waved back at him then looked back at the conductor. Andrew didn't sing, at least she didn't know he did. He had never been to choir, so why was he here now? He also never mentioned he wanted to sing so it was even more confusing. But with those thoughts aside, she now had one more friend in the choir. At least for today.

The conductor breezed through the warming up exercises, though he still paid attention to the mistakes and corrected them as they went along. Mistakes like the posture, the mouth position, the vocal timber... Those were all important factors in singing right.

After the exercises they went on with practicing Northern Lights by Gjeilo. It is a very calm and harmonic piece, very high positioned for the vocals but so beautiful and nostalgic. It was a hard piece and they worked every detail of it. First the altos, then tenors, then bass and the last sopranos. After they all learned it, they sang it together, piece by piece.

"Alright everyone, let's take a ten minute break and then we continue with the Mass, alright? Drink some water."

Angela sighed, finally a break after a long hour of singing in very high positions. It was hard on the vocal chords. She picked up her phone and turned around, only to see Andrew already standing next to her with a bright smile on his face.

"Okay so I have no idea how you read notes and I'm kind of lost here."

Chuckling, Angela set aside her sheet notes and made her way outside of the concert room with Andrew.

"I'm surprised to see you here. You never said you sing."

"I kind of don't. But I need a new hobby."

"And you chose choir?"

"Exactly," Andrew chuckled and took out his pack of cigarettes once they made it outside.

Angela took her own and lit one up, leaning against the wall of the music school.

"Plus, you're here so I figured why not," Andrew continued, taking a puff of his cigarette and turning towards Angela. "I think we need to spend more time together outside work."

Angela looked at the male and laughed, shaking her head with a big smile on her face. "Wouldn't it be easier to just text me to meet up?"

Andrew hummed and looked away, taking another puff. The evening was nice, a bit chilly but warm enough to stand outside in a t-shirt. Angela never imagined Andrew would show up to choir, to something Angela thought he had no interest in doing. But it felt nice to have his company.

"I guess I wanted to see your music world."

Angela smiled gratefully. It was a nice thought. Noone had interest in what she was doing in her life so it felt nice to hear that.

"But why choir?"

"Why not? I mean, I've thought about it before, just never had the guts to do it. Mostly because I have no fucking idea how to read or make music."

Angela chuckled again and brushed her hair away from her face and behind her ear. Andrew was the kind of guy who you could trust. She knew he had her back and whenever she needed him, he was there. Even if she wasn't actively looking for his presence. He didn't know much about her though, she didn't let him. Their conversations were mostly about work, puns and sometimes her music and his interest in kickboxing. But that was it.

"I'm rethinking my whole decision though. It was hard now, trying to understand what that person with the stick is talking about."

"The conductor?"

"Him, yeah. He's bossy," Andrew breathed out the smoke and leaned against the wall next to Angela. There was a lot of height difference between them, Angela barely reached his shoulder with the top of his head, but not because she was short. He was just very tall.

"Well, we're too slow for him."

"What do you mean?"

"He sees and understands the notes differently. For him it's easy, logical and we need too many rehersals to even remember one thing he wants us to know. But it's our fault. Nobody cares enough."

Andrew looked at Angela and nodded, seemingly agreeing with her. Angela took another puff of her cigarette and closed her eyes. Today was a long day. And she still had one more hour of choir practice ahead of her. She was tired. They stayed quiet for a while, both finishing off their cigarettes.

"You know," Andrew started, "Choir wasn't my first choice to hang out with you. You make it a bit hard to catch you when you're available."

Angela shifted on her feet and sighed, turning to look at the tall male. "I have a lot of things to take care of. Between the music school and the job, it's hard."

Angela felt like she was lying straight to his face. It was true, when she wasn't at the supermarket working, she was at the music school, trying to practice. But when she wasn't there, wasiting her time and money like the janitor confirmed, she was at home either staring at something or trying to sleep. She didn't have a lot to do, she just couldn't handle going out.

"I get it. You're young. Me? I have nothing besides work. No one is at home waiting for me." Andrew shrugged and leaned his head against the wall. He closed his eyes and hummed. "I wish I had someone to go home to."

Angela smiled softly and apologetically even if he didn't see her. She reached out to touch his forearm and gave it a light squeeze to let him know she was there. "You'll find someone."

Andrew only smiled to her reply then took a step forward, walking away from the school's wall. "C'mon, we have to go back inside. And I don't want to talk about my loneliness." Andrew chuckled and lead the way inside, Angela following closely behind him.

She didn't have much to say to offer him some kind of advice or peace. But she could stand by his side if he needed to talk to someone. As he said, he was lonely.

The rest of the choir practice went by slowly. They sang a medival mass and they worked and small details that mattered a lot to the conductor. They only got through two pages out of eighteen, two systems per page, two larger musical phrases. In one hour they did nothing because even in the end, they sang it wrong and the conductor got angry. So angry that they finished five minutes eralier because he could not keep his voice not in a screaming tone for three seconds. And he never finishes practice early.

Angela and Andrew exchanged a few more words about work the next day then Angela hurried home, without giving much of a chance to Andrew who just wanted to stay and chat for a while. That was his plan after all, to spend some time with her since he couldn't get her time otherwise. But despite him opening up to her a bit, he didn't get much back, except for a light squeeze.

Once Angela got home, she got back on the bed and lied down. She liked being at home, nothing waiting for her, no responsibilities to anyone once she was in that small apartment. She took her phone out and texted Kaitlyn, letting her know that Aurora didn't show up to the choir. She did that every time since Kaitlyn got worried when Aurora disappeared for the first time. Aurora was younger than her. She still lived at home, with them, but she slept over at her friends's house a lot, it was like her second home there. So they all hoped she was there, just hiding out at her friend's.

Angela put some Kissin to play on youtube then put her phone aside. She lay there for a while, listening to the sound of the piano while tapping her fingers against her arm. She did nothing but that until her phone went off with the sound for a message. It was from Andrew.

Sorry for loading that crap on you before. But thanks for listening.

Without much thought she sent him back a heart.

—————

Hello, this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest but I wanted to focous a bit more on Andrew. What do you think about him? Let me know in the comments!

Oh, and this book will be updated on Mondays and Fridays from now on! Hope you're excited! Until next week!