Felix drummed his fingers against his violin case, letting out a sigh. No one had been to the piano all day, letting it sit in the sea of shoppers that filtered by. Typically, at least three people stopped by the piano to play on Sundays, but it had been over five hours and not a single soul had even given the piano a glance.

"Need more coffee?" Sharon asked, gesturing at Felix's empty mug. With a sigh, he nodded, glancing back out the window of the small shop.

The shop was one of the cheapest stores in the mall. Malls were notoriously expensive in the days of online shopping, and it was getting increasingly harder to get anything at a reasonable price. Thankfully, the Solar Cafe kept its prices low and its service high. They were nice enough to let Felix have an entire table to himself for a whole day, if the cafe wasn't super busy.

Felix glanced down at the violin case on his lap. He was itching to play, even just a single note. It'd been a while since he'd played, with everything changing in his life. The violin, his calming activity, had been unreachable for so long, it was starting to take its toll.

"Here you go," Sharon said as she placed a steaming hot cup in front of Felix. "A horrifyingly cream and sugar filled drink that barely resembles coffee."

Felix rolled his eyes. "Black coffee is too bitter."

"There's like two drops of coffee in this. Any less and it'd be cheaper to just buy a bag of sugar and eat it."

"And that's still too bitter."

"Whatever you say, weirdo," Sharon peered out the window. "Still no one?"

"No," Felix sighed. "I might just go home at this point. Come back another time."

"You should wait a little longer. Have patience."

"It's been five hours. I've practiced quite a lot of patience today."

"Then what's one more hour?"

Felix opened his mouth to object, but Sharon's boss shouted to her from the kitchen. She quickly hurried away, off to fill more orders and deal with her boss. Felix watched her for a moment before turning to the coffee. Steam was rolling off of it in such a thick cloud that he could barely see through it. Deciding he still wanted his taste buds, Felix ignored it for a bit.

Time seemed to crawl by as Felix watched the piano, his gaze unmoving. Even still, no one seemed interested in the piano. Every person that passed by made Felix slightly more irritable, his impatience growing by the second. Half an hour in, he gave up, setting his violin beside him.

Felix grabbed the coffee and started chugging it, the liquid now cool enough to drink without burning his throat. He drained it, then set it aside. He pulled out two twenty dollar bills and placed them on the table. He was fairly certain he overpaid by a large margin, but it just meant more for Sharon.

As Felix grabbed his violin case, he heard the faint sound of a piano note. His head whipped up, scanning the piano area frantically. A young woman with long blond hair was sitting at the piano bench, staring at the piano. Gently setting her hands on the keys, she began to play a melody.

Hurriedly grabbing his things, Felix rushed out of the cafe and towards the piano. People gave him weird looks as he sped walked, but he didn't care. He'd waited all day just to play in public, and he wasn't going to let the opportunity pass. As he drew close, he slowed down, not wanting to offset the piano player. He set his stuff down and waited quietly for the piece to end.

"Hey, would you mind if I played with you?" Felix asked the woman once she was finished. She nodded slowly, looking at him warily.

"What do you want to play?" She had a thick french accent, which made it slightly hard for Felix to understand her.

"You can choose, I'll join in," Felix said as he took out his violin, doing quick checks.

She gave him one last weird glance before turning to the piano, staring at it in thought. She placed her hands on the ivory keys and slowly began to play. A slow, beautiful melody began to ring from the piano, quietly echoing through the loud mall. Felix took a moment to listen to the song as he did his final checks, placing the violin under his chin. Then he joined in.

The violin was quiet compared to the piano, which was slowly growing louder. Felix had realized that the song was Moonlight Sonata, which was a relatively easy part in the first movement. He matched what the woman was playing, playing it slightly louder to cut through the volume of the piano.

As Felix played, he felt his eyes close, his body beginning to sway slightly with the music. He had forgotten how truly good it felt to be playing music, to feel the vibrations and rhythm within himself. Every muscle in his body began to relax, the stress hidden in his bones melting away slightly.

The movement slowly came to an end, the last note ringing out. Felix slowly opened his eyes, turning to the woman with a smile. She looked surprised, but smiled back. Felix went to ask what song she wanted to play next when he was interrupted by a round of applause. Several people had gathered around them, some with their phones out, others watching intently.

"Play Wellerman!" Someone shouted. Felix glanced at the woman, who shrugged. Felix took that as a yes and placed the violin back under his chin.

It took a second to get the right key, but Felix quickly found it, falling into the groove. The piano soon accompanied him, the woman following suit. At first it barely represented the piece requested, but it smoothed itself out, and soon the crowd of people began to grow as they heard the tune they all knew too well.

This music felt different than Moonlight Sonata. Moonlight Sonata provided a dreary yet warm feeling. A wave of soothing noise. Wellerman was more like a wake-up call, bringing up Felix's pulse to match its rhythm. It woke him up, ripped him from the numbness in his mind instead of nudging it away.

Once Wellerman ended, the now large crowd broke into applause. Some even whooped and hollered. Felix and the woman shared a glance, smiling awkwardly at one another from the praise. Then they turned to the masses and asked for more song suggestions.

The music requests continued on for what felt like two seconds, but Felix knew it was more like an hour. Every song took over the emotions of Felix's body, taking control to show through him the feelings embodied in each song. He was happy to be their vessel, letting them show the crowd of bodies what music was meant to be.

At some point, the woman apologized and announced she had to leave. She quickly thanked Felix for the duet before hurrying off, glancing at her watch anxiously. Felix watched her leave before slowly turning to the mass of people, their gazes latched on him. A few people had left, but most stayed, waiting for Felix to grace them with more music.

Anxiety suddenly clutched Felix. His hands felt clammy, sweat beginning to form on his forehead despite the cold temperature of the mall. He wasn't ready to perform alone, especially for such a big crowd. Their beady gazes dug into him as he stood, frozen in fear.

"I'm sorry, I have to go as well," Felix blurted, hurriedly grabbing his violin case. He shoved the pieces into the case as people muttered in disappointment, the crowd dissipating quickly.

Felix let out a deep breath as he closed the case. He was tired of waiting for hours just for someone to play piano with him, and to only have an hour or less of playing time; he wanted the courage to perform alone. If only he didn't have to see the crowd he performed live for.

"Hey man," A random dude said from behind Felix. "You did great out there."

Felix turned around, facing the guy. He seemed like a douchebro, but Felix learned long ago to not judge people by their appearance. Smiling, Felix nodded graciously, then noticed the guy's outstretched hand. He quickly took it and awkwardly shook it.

"Thank you."

The guy glanced at the violin case, then back up at Felix. "Do you do it as a job?"

Felix laughed. "I wish."

"Why don't you?"

"If I did, I would be starving on the street."

"But you're good, you could definitely do good."

"The music industry is heartless, I'm not good enough at violin to survive it."

The guy shrugged. "You sound pretty good to me. What does the music industry really know?"

Felix decided to ignore the statement and just take the compliment. "Thank you, maybe I will try being a musician."

Even though Felix had no intent of quitting his job to become a musician, the answer seemed to satisfy the dude. He left without another word, just giving Felix a comforting pat before disappearing into the stream of people. With a sigh, Felix grabbed his violin and made his way towards the exit. An hour was as much as he was going to get today, it'd be too time consuming to go any longer.

As the cold spring air hit Felix and he began to stroll towards his car, he pondered what the guy had said. Perhaps the guy knew what he was talking about, and Felix should try becoming a musician. Then again, he didn't seem to know much about the music industry. But despite the lack of support for his statements, Felix couldn't help but smile at the interaction. He didn't really receive praise often, so maybe the praise had some merit.

Maybe he was actually good at playing the violin.