For as long as Agate could remember, he's always been infatuated with the sound of music. The chirping of birds, the humming of songs, and the smooth sound of jazz. Anything with a shred of music in it he always wanted to be a part of. But there's always been one thing that's crossed his mind for as long as he could remember. Are there songs outside in the many places and corners of the cosmos? A melody that in his lifetime he will never come to hear nor witness? That thought sends shivers down his spine, even now as he's sitting in his after-school band practice as a flute is trying to get in tune.
He leans back in his chair, a long stray lock draping into his face. He sighs and takes out the bun his locks were being held to fix them back up again. He has long blackish brown hair with a section of it white from the vitiligo along with vitiligo that surrounds his right eye and ever so slightly the right corner of his mouth. His red and black varsity jacket with the school mascot, Molly the Mare, is stitched onto it. The jacket lifted to slightly show his white tank top. He swears he only put the jacket on to appease his parents who think it's silly that he tries to go out in only a tank top in October. His baggy pants with too many pockets warm him up just enough and the pure style of his colorful sneakers makes him feel warm enough so he's fine. He groans and put his feet up on the music stand and starts to play with his piercings. The other saxophone players gave him a slight look then went back to waiting for the flute to hurry up as the band teacher tried to get them in tune.
The teacher hands her the flute and she goes to play, hoping that it's in tune so they can finally start practice, but to her dismay, a sharp ear-piercing sound fills the band room. Agate quickly covers his ears and sets his instrument down.
"Dear god lady! Are you off your rockers? Is it so hard to play in tune" Agate rumbles off in an irritating tone, mainly because his poor ears have been defiled with such a foul sound.
She turns around to face him, she's heard all about him. "A bully" is what almost everyone in this school knows him as. But as much as he's known for that, he's known for being kind and caring. "Contradicting" is what she thinks of him and the rumors.
"Oh- sorry Agate. I'm trying really hard though-" she mumbled off.
"Oh, you're going to regret that. Try harder, damn!" He stands up, and walks over to her, stepping over people's legs and their instruments to get out of his row and up to where the flutes are. He gets up to her and looks down at her.
He stands at 5'8 and stands with a cocky arrogance to it. She shuddered at the thought of what he was going to do to her, in a clear public setting, with a teacher present at that. The teacher yawns and just lets him do his thing, picking up their phone to pass the time. Agate quickly snatches the flute and wipes off the mouthpiece and starts to mess with it to put the instrument in tune. After a bit, he gave it back to her.
"Now try," he said, folding his arms.
She just looked at him puzzled and then played her instrument. On the tuner, the teacher has shown that a lovely B flat came out. She looks up at Agate and he just had a smug grin on his face and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Now that's how you tune a flute compadre. And there's much more where that came from little missy!" He snickered like he did something evil. The teacher and the students in the room giggle and make fake sounds of being scared for their lives. Agate just seems more proud of himself than before.
"Thank-"
Agate cut her off as he turned to the band director. "Hey compadre, I gotta bounce, it's the day before my bday and I gotta run off to my buds at the diner." They just sighed and waved him off.
"I'll take care of your sax, just run along now and happy 18th birthday Agate"
He grins, quickly runs to the back of the room to grab his bag then runs out of the classroom and the school.
The outside air was cold and crisp. It filled his lungs with a sharp chill that sent shivers down his spine as he ran down the road to meet up with his friends, Jade and Carnelian. A soft breeze blew and lovely red, orange, and yellow leaves gently floated down from the trees on either side of the road. He looked to the right of him as he slowed from a run to a jog. Looking out off the edge of the road, blocked off by a rail, showing the vast breathtaking colors of autumn in the trees and fields. He decided to take it slow and enjoy his last day of being 17 and just take in the view.
As he walked he spotted a familiar face on a missing person sign on a tree. It was Lexion Behman's face. He sighed, Lexion has been missing for 2 years. He has short hair with tight coils that are in a lovely pink with yellow highlights that brought his pinkish-yellow eyes perfectly together. Even in a flat picture of him, the depth of his kindness radiated through. His face spoke volumes that even a stranger could know how kind he was. And it was true, Lexion's kindness is what drew Agate in the first place. Meeting at the end of middle school after his first breakup did wonders for him. His kindness healed him after the mutual, but still sad heartbreak that he experienced. The two had gotten very close after that, going out to have fun, listening to music under the moonlight, their first kiss as a couple, then not long after that their first date. Those were the happiest moments that the two of them shared, most of them after Lexion's football games, long nights out on the town, and in the halls of Apple Acres Highschool. It all came to an end on April 10th, Lesion's birthday. He went out for a walk at midnight and they were just gone. Like the swiftly fading sound of a melody just played.
Agate teared up and quickened his pace. He misses him, he can't stand the fact that he's gone missing. This sadness is something he doesn't need, especially a day before the happiest day of his life.
After a good bit of walking and a good deal of crying as he was reminded of the good times with Lexion, he made it to the diner. The diner was very retro, many people in town don't even remember when it was built. The big sign that was mostly covered up by the encroaching trees said, Chunkies, everyone just assumes that's what the original owner's name was but not like anyone cares. The red strip lights that go in horizontal lines around the protruding front are what mainly give the building its old feeling. But it could also be the big sign that sits near the door that hasn't been changed for who knows how long. Saying something about some 1990's New Years' special. At least the place had good food for as long as he could remember. He fixed up his face so his friends wouldn't notice that he was crying and made his way through the front glass doors. The inside was also very retro, the red booths and the clearly old tables that have been polished and cleaned till they shine. The white and black tiled floors had only a few stray things of straw wrappers and napkin pieces around and about but other than that it was quite clean. He looked around the diner to find his friends, looking past waiters and people just standing around like goons when he heard his nickname being called.
"Pebble! Get your ass over here!" She smacked the table and then flopped back down into the booth, her short, somewhat spiky blond hair flopping around and her sparkling jade eyes staring back at him. She wore a dark green hoodie that was baggy and droopy on her body, and a big black beanie that she had in her hand, spinning it around her hand like it's a toy. She put her legs up on her side of the booth, wearing black ripped jeans and big clunky boots, laces crawling upfront of the boot in a crossing pattern. She's very lean and can pack a punch if she so wishes, her baggy hoodie hides it but her arms are well-defined with muscles that ward off any unwanted attention.
"God Jade- we are in public please calm down I beg of you-" Carnelian pleaded, his messy dark orange curly hair waving around in his face as he desperately tried to keep that and Jade in check. For lord knows if he didn't she'd bring the place to the ground. He's wearing a blue jean jacket with a red plaid shirt underneath. He wears black gloves on each hand, dark blue jeans, and a pair of chunky tan boots. He's more on the bigger side and is quite the soft fellow, sadly he didn't get the warding off unwanted attention that Jade has because of her appearance, if anything he attracts it. But one thing a person should know about him is that you don't want to get near him when it comes to the drums or video games.
"Yeah yeah yeah, don't get your panties in a knot girl." He plops himself next to Carnelian and gets comfy. He looks up at him for a quick second, seeing his warm orange eyes. He looks back at him and smiles, his smile is a soft sight for sore eyes. Carnelian has always been there for him for as long as he could remember. From his 5th birthday party that went downhill due to agate face-planting into the dirt and losing a tooth, to his first breakup, which just happened to be between the two of them. He chuckled and put his hand over Carnelian's soft chubby face and pushed him back slightly. He chuckled as Agate leaned up against him to relax.
Jade sits up and looks at Agate, his eyes slightly red from crying on his way to the diner. She sighed, "Were you crying again man? About Lemon?"
Agate quickly looks up at Jade and gives her a silly look "Compadre, I think you forgot that nickname is a boyfriend-exclusive name," Agate said in a joking manner, but it was clear that he was serious.
"Right right sorry head honcho. Lexion, you still worried about him?"
Agate sighed and rested his head on his hand. "How could I not? He just disappeared. Poof! On- on his birthday at that! It makes no sense... doesn't help seeing his missing photos all around town."
Carnelian spoke up, patting Agate on the back, and smiling slightly. He's not the best in these kinds of situations but tries to make people feel better. "Well, at least you know they haven't stopped looking for him, you know? He might just pop up."
"Yeah. He might just pop up out of nowhere! He might be the next person through that door. Or... or umm..." she got lost in thought for a moment, her hands grasping the table, "He might just umm- be in um- in your closet!"
"...my closet. Of all the places." Agate looked at Jade blankly for a bit then just started giggling. "I swear to god you think of the strangest things!"
"I mean it is her specialty. She's just random like that." Carnelian says in a teasing tone.
"But anyways, Agate, good sir, bro, man. What dastardly deeds do you have in store for tomorrow in school." Jade said in a devilish tone as she leaned back into her booth and looked at Agate with waiting eyes.
He grinned and leaned in on the table. "I have a lot as always, I am a busy man of course. First, I'm going to go and bully that new kid. Imma make it so he'll never be able to eat his mothers cooking again, by, of course, making my famous clam chowder. And then imma go and make it so that the teachers will never be able to do their job again! By of course getting good grades so they'll never grade things ever again" He snickered, wholeheartedly believing that's what being a true bully is.
"Oh goodness! Such dastardly deeds, right babes" Jade turned to Carnelian who nodded. Leaning back onto Agate who's smaller than him, he's basically crushing him.
Carnelian sighed and went into his pocket to grab a cigarette "I wish we were still in school so that we can hang out more often. I feel bad leaving you all alone." Carnelian looked a little sad as he lit one up. Jade quickly grabbed it and put it out, and of she went on her tangent to Carnelian on why not to smoke, and in the middle of a restaurant at that. Agate chuckled and relaxed as he waited for the waiter to come to their table. The cozy bustling of the diner, the soothing music playing on the speaker. It wasn't mainstream music, the owner just plugs in his playlist on his phone to the speakers of the place. He taps his feet to the beat of the music as a somber feeling flows over him.
They graduated last year, Carnelian and Jade. The two of them are 19 and are going to leave the sleepy town they've all known for greener pastures than just the farms and cattle that litter the place. Agate sighs as the music in the diner changes and so does the tempo, interrupting his train of thought as he now has to pick up the tempo of this one to keep tapping his foot along. He doesn't blame them, they're people who have dreams of their own. It just happens that he might not be a part of them. Carnelian wants to be a scientist while Jade wants to be a doctor. And what does Agate want to be? A singer. He wants to be a rock star, nothing as noble as what his friends want to be. He's just going to hold them back at this point.
That somber feeling consumed him at this point and he wasn't hungry anymore. With Lexion missing and his two friends about to leave is just too much to handle. He goes to stand up and leave out the diner when a soft smell hits his nose. It wasn't overpowering but just enough that you'd notice its presence. The smell reminded him of a chilly morning after a snowstorm that blanketed the town in a shimmering white shine. It was calming.
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