Niall was feeling exceedingly jumpy one Monday evening, and for good reason. The sheet music he had recovered from the recycling bin outside the choir room burned white-hot in his hand as he slipped through the cracked door of the auditorium, an otherwise impenetrable fortress to anyone not an active member of Kennedy High School’s distinguished music program. Niall had only been in the auditorium for assemblies and musicals, but it had never been this empty. Even with the house light on, it still felt eerie.

He was halfway down the aisle when he heard a sound coming from just beyond the curtains onstage.

“Hello?”

The sound, which sounded like footsteps, stopped immediately.

Niall creeped a few steps closer. “Who’s there?”

He waited a minute, then two, but he didn’t hear anything else. Niall glanced around the auditorium once more before turning his attention to the black baby grand piano sitting in the orchestra pit. It had been months since he last played on anything but an electric keyboard. Even standing in front of that much piano was enough for Niall to feel both excited and at peace.

After a lot of flipping through his ever-growing collection of sheet music and some deliberation, Niall pulled out Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida”. He sat at the helm of the piano and glanced around again before playing the opening chords.

A voice started singing along during the second verse, and Niall’s shock caused him to nearly fumble the chords. The voice was obviously female, navigating the notes with both strength and an unexpected softness that fit the song perfectly.

Once the song was over, it took everything in Niall to not whip around and search for the source of the voice. After a moment of silence that could have lasted a lifetime, he heard light footsteps walking away from the stage, then the gentle latch of her easing the stage door shut. Before Niall could fully process what had just happened, his phone started ringing from his bag. He scrambled to answer it, not even bothering to see who was calling.

“Hello?”

“Where are you dude?”

Niall sighed, remembering it’s his week to drive him and his best friend home after basketball practice. “Sorry Alex, I’ll be out in a second.”

“Sure hope so, it’s cold as hell out here.”

Niall carefully shoved the sheet music in his backpack. “Can’t say I’m speaking from experience, but isn’t Hell like, really hot?”

“Don’t be a smartass.”

Alex hung up on him, and Niall had to laugh. His friend was known for being a smartass. Niall relished in any opportunity to turn the tables and get in an Alex-level quip.

In a bit of a rush, Niall left the auditorium and stalked through the dim cafeteria to the student parking lot. His Honda Accord reflected one of the streetlights in the otherwise empty lot, and he fished his keys out of his backpack as he approached Alex, who was sitting on the back of his car.

“Get your ass off my car,” Niall said lightly, unlocking his car with the remote on his keys.

Alex jumped down, careful not to roll his ankle as he landed.

Niall popped his trunk. “If you keep doing that, you’ll screw up your ankle again.”

“’K Mom,” he joked, throwing his bag in the trunk. “Are you giving me shit to avoid telling me what you were doing?”

Niall shut the trunk. “The auditorium was open,” he said simply.

He got into the driver’s seat, and Alex stood outside the car a moment before jumping into the passenger seat.

“Did you do what I think you did?”

Niall didn’t answer, starting his car and jacking up the heat for Alex’s benefit.

“Niall!”

“What?”

“Don’t tell me you broke into the auditorium, Robinson’s auditorium, to play the goddamn piano.”

Niall clicked on his seatbelt. “And what is wrong with that?”

“You have a perfectly good piano in your living room!”

“It’s in the den,” Niall corrected. “And you know good and well why I can’t play it.”

“Because you’re a big baby that won’t tell your own mother that you’re playing the goddamn piano again?”

Niall shot him a look and pulled out of his parking spot.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said after a tense silence. “I shouldn’t have called you a big baby.”

“Damn right you shouldn’t, I’m three days older than you.”

“It’s just frustrating that you won’t tell anybody that you play. You’re good, Niall. You are so goddamn talented! But you refuse to let anyone know about it.”

Niall adjusted his tight grip on the steering wheel. “Do you want to continue chastising me for choosing not to make a big deal about my hobbies, or shall I tell you what happened while I was in the auditorium?”

“At this point, it’s more than just a hobby, but tell me what happened.”

Niall relaxed slightly. “So I’m in the auditorium and for obvious reasons, I start playing ‘Viva la Vida’.”

“Crazy arrangement, first song your dad taught you, of course.”

“Exactly. So it’s going like normal, until I get to the second verse.”

“Don’t tell me you fucked it up.”

“Are you joking? I’ve been playing that song longer than I’ve known you. No, somebody started singing along from backstage.”

“Really? Who?”

“That’s the thing, I have no idea. But she has this amazing voice, Alex. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

“Maybe I have,” Alex offered. “What’d she sound like?”

“What do I know about describing voices?”

“Just try, Niall.”

He swallowed, stopping at a red light. “Soft,” he began, choosing his words carefully. “But strong. Like she was very mindful of each note.”

“Did she sound like a soprano or an alto?”

The light turned green. “Uh…”

Alex sighed, sounding annoyed. “Was her voice high or low?”

“Oh, high. Not in the rafters, but it was up there.”

Alex shifted in the front seat, crossing his arms. “Between me and all those movie musicals you watch with your mom, you think you’d know what the hell a soprano is by now.”

“It’s possible to enjoy musicals without understanding all the Italian terminology associated with it,” Niall argued. “You act like I work the sound board for every choir-related event, or something overly-involved like that.”

“Working every choir-related event is child’s play at this point,” Alex pointed out. “Not only that, but I secured a stellar recommendation letter from Robinson that will be a huge help in getting into the Ivy League school of my choice.”

“I can’t believe you already sent in all your college applications.”

“Early admission deadlines are November first, you know.”

“It’s October eighteenth,” Niall reminded.

“There’s nothing wrong with being early.”

“You had them done and submitted on the second.”

“Hey Johnny Boy, where are you thinking about applying? Given any thought to that?”

Niall sighed, turning onto Alex’s street. “Duke’s interested in me, as long as this season goes well.”

“That’s good.”

“Mom’s really into the whole idea, me playing basketball at Duke. She’s already looking at sweatshirts and car stickers.”

“Woah Niall, don’t sound so thrilled. Your enthusiasm is overwhelming.”

Niall resisted the urge to flip off his friend. “I don’t even know what I’d study. Like what do I want to do for the rest of my life?”

“Well, what do you like? What is it you want to do even when you don’t want to do anything? What makes you feel like the happiest person in the world?”

Niall’s mind immediately flashed to the feeling of bliss he’d experienced in the auditorium earlier that evening.

“You already know what that is, Alex,” he said, pulling up in front of Alex’s house.

“Then what’s the issue? Music performance is a legit major in a lot of places. And you’re really good, Niall. I’m not just saying that because we’ve been best friends for seven years, either. Like I’d kill for you to spill the beans to your mom so you could play in some videos for me. Some of these people, I swear, they don’t know the difference between a C chord and a keyboard smash.”

Niall ignored the twelfth guilt trip Alex had given him about playing on his YouTube channel that month. “You heard what I said about my mom. She’s already looking into hotels around campus. There are spreadsheets. Color-coded ones.”

“Your mom is one of those people that puts full force into supporting their kids. You know that. Besides, she’s facing a wall of writer’s block the size of Manhattan.”

“I’ll give you ten bucks if you can tell me just how big Manhattan is.”

“Just under twenty-three square miles.”

Niall gave Alex a look and pulled out his phone.

“Hey Siri,” he said into his phone. “How big is Manhattan?”

It took a second to load before giving an answer: “Twenty-two point eight two square miles.”

Niall looked from his phone screen to Alex, then put his car in park with a sigh. He pulled a ten out of his wallet and held it out to Alex.

“Now I don’t have to worry about dinner,” Alex said, triumphantly folding the bill and sticking it in his coat pocket.

“I know I don’t have to tell you this, but you’re literally always welcome for dinner at my house. I’m sure you could move in without my mom batting an eye.”

Alex shrugged. “I appreciate having the ability to get out of bed in the middle of the night and going down to the basement to mess around with a song until the sun comes up.”

Niall laughed. “Well my mom would appreciate you sleeping more than three hours at a time.”

“I’m averaging four hours a night this month, relax. And don’t bother telling me that doctors recommend teenagers get at least six hours of sleep every night. That stat hasn’t fazed me for years.”

“Right, you’ll sleep when you’re dead, I’ve got it. I’m just passing along my mother’s omnipresent concerns for your overall health and wellbeing.”

Alex clicked off his seatbelt. “You know I would move in, but I have a feeling that would screw up my FASFA even more.”

“With a head like yours, you’ll get a full ride regardless of how screwed up your FASFA gets.”

Alex laughed. “I think I’ll take that as a compliment? Honestly, I still can’t tell with you sometimes. Your parents still have way too much influence on your speech patterns.”

“Let me and my eloquent vocabulary live, dude.”

“And yet you still can’t tell me the difference between a soprano and a baritone,” Alex said, popping open the car door. “You’re something else, Johnny Boy.”

Niall waved him off. “Last chance on that dinner offer, Alex. My mom made sure to order enough egg rolls for the both of us.”

Alex stopped halfway out of the car, weighing the decision in his mind. “Will you tell your mom that you still play piano?”

Niall sighed. “I can’t do that to her. Not again.”

“Then why even bother?” Alex sat back down in the front seat, leaving the car door open. “If you’re so hesitant for even your own mother, who loves you more than anything in the world, to know you play the goddamn piano, why do you even bother playing?”

“Alex, you know—”

“You know what I know? I know that you are so goddamn talented. I don’t tell people they’re talented just for the hell of it, and you know that. I’m not saying you march home and tell your mom that Duke can suck it because you’re gonna bring the house down in Carnage Hall next fall. But maybe, just maybe, you could get over yourself for a moment and at least tell your mom that you still play so I can get my favorite keyboard back and you can play on the very real piano sitting in your den instead of breaking into the auditorium and chancing the wrath of Ms. Robinson. You love this, Niall. You love it more than anything in the world. And yeah, it’s not the most conventional profession. But you have the world’s most supportive parents. Even if you were to do something shitty, they’d love you like you put the stars in the goddamn sky. They supported you through basketball and piano lessons in elementary school and that year and a half you went without a haircut in the sixth grade. They’ll support you through this too.”

Niall ran a hand through his hair, not really looking at anything.

“Are you staying in the car or not?” he finally asked, an edge to his voice.

“Niall—”

“I don’t want to talk about it. End of discussion.”

Alex shut the car door.

“Niall, I didn’t—”

“I know. I’ll take care of all of this at some point. But tonight, I’d just like to go home and eat Chinese food and hang on to this piano high as long as I can.”

Alex wordlessly buckled his seatbelt, and Niall shifted the car into drive.

“Do you know Lola Evans?” Alex asked after four tense minutes of driving.

Niall shrugged, grateful the tension was rapidly beginning to dissipate. “Know of her, yeah. Why do you ask?”

“I want to text her about studying for this calculus test on Friday, but no one seems to have her phone number or anything.”

“Alex the math genius wants to study for a math test? I never thought I’d see the day.”

“There’s no harm in studying, you know. And I swear, Lola actually is a goddamn genius. She gives me a run for my money.”

Niall turned down his street. “Dakota hangs out with her a lot. You could ask him.”

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Alex unlocked his phone and started typing a text to their teammate as Niall pulled into his driveway and turned off the car.

“I’ll keep an ear out for you.”

Niall looked at Alex over the top of his car. “For what?”

“The girl from the auditorium. I’m helping Robinson hook up some speakers in the choir room while they’re rehearsing tomorrow. You’re sure it’s not Virginia?”

“Virginia isn’t the type to hide in the curtains when she sings,” Niall said, holding back a scoff. “Besides, this voice was a lot lighter than hers.”

Alex nodded. “Well if I can hear anyone over Virginia that could fit the bill, I’ll let you know. Do you plan on going back? Seeing if she shows up again?”

They started walking towards the house. “Do you think I should? Would she even come back?”

“There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”