Chapter 17: Where did you learn to play the song?

Mia was astonished to see her professor hitting the pervert, she didn’t even realize she had stopped playing and had stood up from her performance seat to watched as her professor was pulled out of the bar after he’d knocked the other man unconscious.

What was he doing in a place like this not to mention fighting? Mia thought to herself, she had never seen or heard any professors from Ivy Grove institute get involved in any fight or visit a bar. The school carried themselves high enough not to draw any bad news in Zen city. All the professors were sure to go under background check and being on their best behavior before they were assigned any position in the school. But here was their new professor knocking someone unconscious in a downtown bar like a red bull.

As Mia was staring at the exit of the bar where Mr. Bennett had been chased out, she was snapped back to her senses by the bar manager’s voice, "Miss, I am sorry but you have to leave. It was your fault that savage man knocked down my best costumer." He said displeasingly. He had heard from the friends of the man knocked unconscious that the savage man had hit the other man because he’d commented on the girl singing on the stage. So it meant they knew each other.

Mia was taken aback by his words, "What about the money we agreed on awhile ago?" She questioned, "You have to pay me before chasing me away. Besides, I didn’t ask that man to knock your costumer unconscious. I am_"

"I don’t care, Miss. Take yourself and your guitar and get the hell out of my bar before I tell my men to throw you out." He rebuked sternly.

Mia was going to argue her right to be paid but when she noticed some men in black suits walking towards her, she quickly gave up any idea of argument. However, she couldn’t help but curse Mr. Bennett for the bad luck he was bringing to her life. First, he would be the cause of her getting bad grades in school for not showing up to supervise her assignments, and now he was the reason she was being chased out when she needed that money to support her mother financially.

Mia walked out of the bar slipping her guitar case behind her back. As she was walking down the road that would lead to the bus station, her soul almost jumped out of her body when a voice suddenly spoke from the side of the road.

"Where did you learn to play that song?" Came Neil’s voice from the side. He was sitting casually on a short staircase that lead to a closed bookstore. As it was already late at night, all the shops and stores around the road were closed, and the lights on the street were dim. The dim light illuminated his emotionless features as he sat there with his long legs spread apart, his elbow resting on each of his knees, between the fingers of his left hand, was a burning cigarette. His black attire made him look like a leopard waiting for it’s prey to pass by.

He locked Mia in place with his piercing gaze. She suddenly felt a chill down her spine from the way he was looking at her, she didn’t even realize he had asked her a question earlier until he’d repeated himself.

"Are you deaf or just acting deaf to make me repeat myself. I said where did you learn to play like that?" He repeated, his voice betraying his growing irration.

Mia suddenly felt she was short for words to reply. She wasn’t expecting him to wait here for her to pass just to ask such question. Despite her reluctance to speak with him after what he’d done, she cleared her throat, "I didn’t learn it from anyone, I just know how to play it somehow." She answered honestly.

She had naturally found out she could play the music, and whenever she told anyone who asked her about how she’d learned it, they would always react in surprise or even call her a liar. However, if the man before her was surprised or took her for a liar, he didn’t show it. He just continued to regard her with those burning eyes of his. For a moment, Mia almost thought he hadn’t heard her words and was going to repeat it when he suddenly opened his mouth and said the last thing she’d except him to say.

"Come sit here and play the song for me." He patted the space beside him on the staircase.

Mia didn’t move nor attempt to sit beside him. She would be out of her mind to sit out here by this time of the night with a man who she was starting to become wary of after everything she’d noticed about him. First it was his ominous snake tattoos that she’d noticed the other day, and tonight she’d witnessed him knock a man unconscious for whatever reason, last but not least, he was smoking and sitting outside like a creep asking her to play him a song.

"I am sorry, sir, but i_" Mia began to give her excuse for why she couldn’t sit out here with him, when he blankly said, "I wasn’t asking you to play me the song..."

Mia started to sigh in relief but his next words knocked the breath out of her.

"I was commanding you to come sit here and play me the song." He remarked nonchalantly, but his tone was fridge and left no room for her to dare refuse him.

Mia reluctantly dragged her feet to move towards him, and when she stood before him, he moved over to make more room for her to sit on the staircase. She removed her guitar case and brought it out. It would be a big fat lie if she said she wasn’t nervous sitting beside him. Even her movement became clumsy as she could feel his unwavering gaze following her every movements.

Because of her momentary trembling hands, she mistakenly used the guitar’s fretboard to hit hard against his knee when she tried to find a comfortable position on the staircase.

"I hate clumsy people, start playing." He hissed as he moved his knee from her guitar’s reach.

Mia glared at him as she wanted to say wasn’t it your fault I was being clumsy? But then she didn’t dare speak upon meeting his no-nonsense stern gray eyes. The dim light of the street only made him appear sinister. She gulped down her saliva and looked down at her guitar. She couldn’t help but wonder why he was so interested in hearing her play that song when he didn’t look the kind to listen to music.

She cleared her throat and started to move her long slender fingers across the fretboard of her guitar. She closed her eyes and began to sing along with the tone she made. This song was a song that had been craved into her heart for as long as she could remember. And whenever she sang it, all her worries and life burdens seemed to disappear. And just like everytime, as she was singing it now, she was so immersed in the song she didn’t notice the expression of the man sitting beside her.

Neil stared at her side profile in what seemed to look like a disbelieving expression. As the soothing melody seeped into his mind and soul, he didn’t realize the cigarette between his fingers had burned to the end until it burned him. He muttered a curse and flung it away.

’Look, now that I can play the song, I will play it for you every time you want to hear it to sleep like your mama does.’ said a small voice from the past memories he’d buried along with his parents’ death. After the incident years ago that stripped him of his happy life with his family, Neil had hated music and any instruments that would remind him of his past and the memories that were buried with them. However, tonight when he heard this girl sing in that performance stage, he felt a sense of peace he hadn’t felt for fifteen years. He realized he might hate every song on earth, but not this one.

Longing. Longing is a song that would forever be his favorite on earth, because it held those bitter and beautiful memories of his past.

As Mia finished playing the song, she opened her eyes and glanced at the man, who had been quietly listening to her sing beside her. He wasn’t looking at her now but staring blankly at the flinching lamppost on the street.

Mia had heard from a lot of people that this song always brought them to tears as it held a deeper meaning and emotions. It seemed even her frosty professor was touched by it. She gazed at his side profile for awhile before realizing she had to return home before her mother realized she wasn’t at home.

She brought out her phone and glanced at the time, she was astonished to realize it was already 11: 50 pm.

"Shoot, I have to leave Mr. Bennett," She hurriedly placed her guitar back inside the case and stood up. "Though I would have love to sit and pour out my disappointment in you for ditching me in your office today, but I have to get home before my mother or my neighbors realize I went out at this time of the night. Good night!"

Mia hurriedly left the place even before Neil could reply.

He watched her slender back disappear into the night with an unfathomable expression in his eyes.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read