Three years on campus, and Jupiter still hadn’t found a convenient way to lug both her cello and her backpack around campus. Her freshman year, one of the seniors had told her that she’d never figure it out. She hadn’t believed him then, but now…well, she believed him all right.
The head of the orchestra had always suggested storing instruments in the music building. It was, of course, the most convenient, but she didn’t want to let her cello too far out of her sight. It was the last thing she owned that she felt was truly hers, as her parents had never tried to sway her in one way or another about playing it. It was all she had. The schoolbooks that currently crowded her computer were all business – and truth be told, she was quite dispassionate about business. In another world, she might’ve been a music major.
“I don’t know how you stand that,” Scarlett, Jupiter’s best friend, commented as she fell into step beside her. Jupiter had to imagine she had come straight from class.
“And I don’t know how you stand all those English classes, but here we are,” Jupiter shot back. “What was that you were reading again last week? Rousseau?”
“You don’t understand! His writing has influenced all sorts of-!” she sent Jupiter a sideways glance. “Who am I kidding? You don’t care.”
Jupiter only gave her a smile in return. “If my father had wanted me to go into English, I would’ve moved across the world and changed my name. Perhaps I might have even opted to move to Mars. That’s all I’ll say on the matter.”
“And if my parents were bent on me getting a business degree, I would’ve eloped with the first man I saw on campus. We are of two different minds.”
Jupiter waved her hand. “We are indeed, miss viola.”
“At least I’m not lugging a cello around campus! Besides, viola is the most superior string instrument, and everyone should know this.”
“When’s the last time you weren’t harmony?” Jupiter queried unfairly. Scarlett’s glare was enough answer.
“Not all of us have been playing since we were six, anyhow,” she replied, not giving Jupiter the direct answer she’d wanted.
Jupiter only smiled. “I think I might’ve met someone today who has been.”
Scarlett raised an eyebrow, and Jupiter suppressed a giggle.
“Who?” Scarlett asked when Jupiter didn’t continue.
“Well…”
Scarlett gasped. “Was it a guy? Was it…” she glanced around as if she were about to impart a dark secret and didn’t want anyone to overhear. “…a cute guy?”
“I- now hold on a second.” Jupiter raised a hand. “I already told you we are not doing the whole romancing nonsense again.”
Scarlett smirked. “So it was a cute guy.”
“That’s…beside the point,” Jupiter responded finally.
“And what? Did he play the cello so well you wanted to never pick up your instrument ever again?”
Jupiter pursed her lips. “Actually, he plays violin. Though yes, if I played violin, I may have dropped out of the music program.”
“Is he new, then? You make it sound like we don’t know him.”
“I’ve seen him in class…though I don’t think I’ve seen him before this year. Come to think of it, he might be a freshman.”
“Whew. You’ve got to steer clear of those freshmen. They can get you into trouble!” Scarlett responded sarcastically.
Jupiter fixed her with another look. “I’m not dating another music major. Much less a freshman!”
“Who said he was a music major?”
“With a gift like that, I’d sure hope he’s a music major!”
Scarlett shrugged. “You never know….”
Jupiter picked up the pace as they approached the cafeteria. “I don’t want to know, and we’re done talking about this!”
She heard Scarlett’s wry chuckle right before the door slid shut behind her. This was the one topic she tried best to avoid with Scarlett – boys. After a particularly disastrous relationship during her freshman year with one of the older boys in the orchestra, she’d largely sworn off dating. Partially because she knew it would never pan out – she was going back to New York when she was done with school after all – and partially because she wasn’t quite ready to get her heart broken so radically again.
By the time she’d gotten her food and found a table she could set her cello by without fear of it being trampled, Scarlett was hot on her heels again. This may have been one of the few days Jupiter had regretted choosing Scarlett as a roommate. If they hadn’t shared a room, Jupiter would at least be able to go back to her dorm room and sulk after a conversation like this. Instead, Scarlett’s yammering followed her all the way across campus.
“Listen, I’m sorry I brought up Ez-”
Jupiter shot her a sharp glance. “Don’t say his name.”
Scarlett winced. “Well anyway, I’m sorry. I just think that it would do you some good to get back on the dating scene, y’know? Not every guy is-” she caught herself this time. “Him. And not everyone is quite so…religious.”
That had been the major point of contention in her relationship with Ezra. She was religious, but not in the way he was. The way he practiced religion made her look downright agnostic. She sighed and picked at her food, almost regretting having used a meal token so early.
“It’s fine. I just can’t think about it anymore. Ezra – and dating – back of my mind. We’re not discussing it anymore. Deal?”
Scarlett held out her pinky finger in a ritual they’d been doing since freshman year. Jupiter hooked their fingers together gratefully.
She wished she could say that was the end of thinking about the mysterious violin boy, but it was not. In fact, she itched to snoop around and see if she could figure out who he was. His reaction to her hearing him play had been so obtuse that she had to admit he fully intrigued her. Did he not like people hearing him play? And if so, why on earth was he in the orchestra? The man was an anomaly indeed.
She lay in her bed that night staring at the ceiling, which was entirely unhelpful if her goal had been to get her mind off of him. The image of his startling when she’d spoken to him and the look that had passed over his face would not leave her mind. And…well, all right, she had to admit he was a bit cute, no matter what she said to Scarlett.
The clock on her nightstand glared an angry red as she stared at it. It was after midnight, which was just as well. She had a class at eight a.m. the next morning, but what was sleep when you had an encounter with a cute boy running around in your mind?
It was essential, that was what it was.
She rolled over in her bed and groaned into her pillow. She just had to find him and give him his music sheets back. Surely that would get him off her mind, right?
Except that no amount of her telling herself that got her to fall asleep. She rolled to one side of the bed. She rolled to the other. She tried sleeping flat on her back, and then on her stomach. It was no use. No matter what she did, she could only see his shocked face in her mind’s eye. What was he even – seventeen? Eighteen? Granted, she’d graduated high school early, so her gauge on how old university students were had always been a bit off, but he had to be at least a year younger than her, surely.
She hugged her pillow to her chest and stared up at the ceiling again, choosing this time to focus on the snatches of light that flickered through the shades. She could not think about a boy. She could not think about a boy. She could not-
Next thing she knew, her alarm was blaring, and she was scrambling to find the snooze button.
Scarlett threw a pillow across the room. “Set an alarm on your phone like a normal person! That clock is awful!”
Jupiter sighed into her pillow. Today, she’d find the guy. She’d find him and give him his music sheets back, and she could pretend none of this had happened. She might see him on occasion in their orchestra class, sure, but it wouldn’t be the same as spending time together, not the way she and Scarlett did.
It took some mental coercion, but she got herself out of bed and ready for class, no matter how she hated eight a.m.’s. After her class ended, she sat in the hallway and mentally reviewed all the places a music student might hang out. There was, of course, orchestra class, but that was on Tuesdays, and today was Thursday. There was once again the practice rooms, but she had to wonder if he’d go there again anytime soon, judging the reaction he’d had to her finding him in there. There was also the whole of the fine arts building in general, and truth be told, it was not that large when compared to the rest of campus, so she might as well try searching the building for him first.
She dragged herself across campus to the fine arts building, enterally glad she’d left her cello at her dorm that morning. She peeked her head into a number of classrooms and even checked quite a few of the practice rooms, asking around for a man with his description when she ran into someone who didn’t seem hurried or otherwise occupied, but she had no luck. She might’ve been convinced he wasn’t even a student there had she not seen him in orchestra class.
She gave up the hunt when she had half an hour until her next class, which just so happened to be about five buildings down from the fine arts building. Oh, how she hated going to school on such a large campus.
Feeling miserably hot even in the temperate weather, she hiked back across campus. She was used to the cool autumns of New York, and the bitter cold of their winters. California left a lot to be desired on both fronts, but she had discovered that years ago when she’d first started at the university. It was just a hazard of the experience at this point, and she had long decided it was worth it since it meant she got to stay so far away from her family.
The only thing she truly missed about living in New York was the clothing she got to wear, and perhaps the rain. She was much more inclined to the overcast skies than she was the sunny days of California. She’d acquired quite the tan since she’d moved, though perhaps that was also to do with all the walking outside she’d begun doing more than it had to do with a change in scenery.
Over the next week, she searched again and again in vain for the boy who played the violin. She couldn’t even begin to guess what he did with his time, seeing as he didn’t seem to ever be in the fine arts building. She would’ve assumed that someone there would know him, but no one did. Though admittedly, saying he was an Asian boy with dark hair and a violin wasn’t much of a description. That description could’ve fit a number of the boys in her orchestra, but she knew for a fact that it was none of them.
Perhaps to make matters worse, he wasn’t in orchestra on Tuesday, which meant her search was not over. Had he dropped out? She couldn’t think of anything else that would make him untraceable on campus for a full week, short of him being extremely ill.
She sat in front of the fountain on Tuesday night, staring into the water as if it would give her an answer to her problem. Scarlett joined her after a short stretch of time, half-eaten muffin in hand.
“You’re just upset because you wanted to see the cute boy again,” she said.
Jupiter glared briefly at her before returning her gaze to the water. The image of him was almost entirely faded, but she clung to it as if imaging him were enough to make him appear.
“I just don’t understand what happened to him!” she exclaimed finally.
Scarlett picked thoughtfully at the wrapper on her muffin. It went on for so long Jupiter thought she might not get a verbal response, but finally, Scarlett said, “Maybe he went to sea.”
Jupiter couldn’t help the confused laughter that bubbled out of her. “What?”
“Isn’t that what anxious women do in ancient literature? They take a trip to the seaside?”
“I suppose,” Jupiter drawled. “Though we’re about as close to the sea as you can get without actually being in the sea. And anyway, whoever that guy was, he’s not an anxious woman.”
Scarlett shrugged. “He was clearly anxious if he ran away from you the way he did. And who cares if he’s not a woman? Men can have their seaside trips too.”
Jupiter pressed her lips together. “All right, I’ll let you have it. But I truly think he must’ve dropped out. There’s no reason I can’t find him otherwise. I’m not imagining it – I know he was in orchestra.”
The truth was that his disappearance seemed like too much of a coincidence to not be connected to the fact that she’d barged in on him in the practice room. Or perhaps she was overthinking, as she always did.
“Whatever you say,” Scarlett said simply.
Jupiter did not give up the hunt after that. In fact, she was even more persistent in her quest to find him. She would find him, and then she would get him off her mind.
Ironically, the place she finally found him was the place she least expected – though perhaps it should’ve been the place she most expected to find him. The cafeteria.
The way she went about it was quite dramatic, if she were being honest. She gasped and pointed across the hall, hollering, “you!”
He didn’t react at first, apparently having thought she was not calling for him. It was only when she was halfway across the hall that he began to look somewhat panicked. She didn’t give him the time necessary to get up, sprinting the rest of the way across the room. She was not going to lose him. The papers were out of her backpack and in her hands before he could even think about standing up, and she was thrusting them in his direction.
“You left these in the practice room last week.”
He blinked dumbly up at her, and she thought perhaps she had caught him a bit off-guard. He took them from her, his hands shaking slightly.
“Um…uh, thanks.”
Only then did it click in her head that he had a British accent. That would’ve been a useful piece of information when she’d been searching for him.
A wash of anxiety passed over his expression again, as if he weren’t used to people pointing out his accent. “It’s…er, yeah.” He stood and unzipped his backpack, placing the papers flat between two notebooks despite the speed with which he moved. “Thanks for returning these.”
She didn’t get another word in before he left the cafeteria, only stopping briefly to dump the remains of his dinner in the trash. She watched him go, confused.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” Scarlett said simply, reminding Jupiter that they’d walked into the cafeteria together. “He is quite anxious.”
Jupiter had half the mind to wonder why he was so anxious, but she shook the thought from her head before it could fully form. She didn’t need to be thinking about him anymore.