[Where are you?]

          Lucas stared at his phone screen, debating whether to answer or not. His finger hovered at the screen as he looked away from it, sighing. Minutes have passed, but he still doesn't understand Aubrey's sudden change in temper. It was out of the blue.

          He thought of her as a calm and collected friend. The kind of girl that wouldn't dare yell at you even if you screwed up at something in life.

          But she did.

          She really did. Just earlier. And it's because of his failure at a left hand pizzicato.

          It was his first time seeing her eyes flaming with a fury of emotions that he can't comprehend. Her soft hands that always held her bow firmly during her performances, and her soothing voice that she never raised... All of it changed for that one moment.

         He could clearly see her form as still as a rock after her outburst. Her form that would always sway with the music, guided by the melodic pieces brought by her playing, is still.

          He could remember hearing a snap when he left the room with his toneless question. But he can't figure out what made that sound.

          Or rather, he's afraid of discovering it.

          Lucas turned his phone off, putting it inside his pockets before getting up and pushing the doors of the cafe open. He needs a place where he can be alone with his thoughts.

         His feet guided him down the street, but he didn't have a clear place in mind. His brain is commanding him to turn back and start his journey home, but his legs ignored its orders and kept wandering aimlessly.

         As he went farther away from the cafe, he started to notice the leaves on the ground, forming a small tornado when the wind whirled them into a chaotic shamble. He squinted, gazing at the now scattered leaves.

         He knew it all along.

         He was a plain coward who's easily swayed by the waves of his baffling emotions. Just like the dried leaves he watched. He's a helpless fellow who let the wind carry him into a vast nothingness.

         It was Aubrey who made their world harmonious, who made it pleasant to hear. He thought that it would be perpetual, but the thought of it cracking like glass never crossed his mind.

          Seeing her lose her composure like that... It gave him a sharp, tingling pain. It was short lasting, but it was something that's embedded in his heart and mind.

          He's just afraid. Afraid that the sun would lose its warmth, that it would no longer envelope him in its cozy and caring tenderness and just leave him in the dark, cold and alone. He's afraid that one day he would wake up, only to find that the rose he's been watering daily has wilthered, before vanishing in front of him, like it never existed. Like his memories of the thing that he deeply cared for has been wiped out, and he's left with an empty feeling. A box of happiness that can never be filled.

           Lucas then halted. In front of him is the same old park him and Aubrey would hang out on whenever the practice rooms are unavailable. He stared down at his pockets, fishing for his phone.

            [I'm here at the park.. I'll be waiting.]

            Their bond is harder than diamond, stronger than steel. But nothing lasts forever. Diamonds can be chipped, and steels can be melted until it becomes a deformed piece of metal.

            He's a coward for not facing the truth early on. He's a coward for being blind, for not seeing the things that's already in front of him..

           But it's over.

           Because he already chose someone else.