Cornelius yawned and adjusted in his seat to try and wake himself up. After all he was the one who agreed to head out at night to make it to their next show location early. Even with the radio on and Harvey lightly snoring in the back seat, the car still had an uncomfortable aura. Static sat looking out the window into the void of the dark land moving outside the vehicle. Awkward small talk would pop in and out, but weird tension lay within them since Static got his memory back and they were trying to connect as friends again. The pitch black exterior and dead road didn’t give them much to talk about.
Cornelius flipped through the songs he had recorded on the inserted tape. Most he had already played 100x over when on the road by himself. He stopped on a particular song as soon as he heard the first few chords. Cornelius’ eyes glanced over at Static, still daydreaming out the window, then back to the road ahead as the song played. Cornelius hummed quietly.
While the song went on, Static caught himself quietly singing along as well. He stopped for a moment. Wait, why is this song so familiar.. He thought to himself. Static normally didn’t listen to the same type of music Cornelius did. However, this song stuck out in his mind. The memory suddenly started to play in the back of his mind like an old home movie.
They were back in Cornelius’ old room. The boy infront of him looked alittle different, darker hair, sadder eyes, all dressed up from his recital that night. Cornelius was trying to teach him how to dance as the song played in the background. He tried to keep up with him but kept stepping on his toes, his movements not as fluid as Cornelius’ were. “Ah! I’m sorry!” he exclaimed with each miss step. Every mistake just made Cornelius smile. “It’s my bad, my mom made me take waltzing lessons when I was really young, this is really the only way I know how to dance, not really fitting is it?” He laughed. “We’ll both look like idiots if we dance like this at prom.”
Cornelius stopped and held Static’s hand tight within his. He realized Cornelius could probably see just how nervous he was. “Take a deep breath and just follow the music with me” his voice was so calming. He trusted Cornelius enough that he closed his eyes, taking in the song and moving where he felt was right. They were finally in sync with each other. There was a connection between them he couldn’t describe. No bad thoughts or feelings were plaguing their minds for once. It was just the two of them and the music in the moment.
As the song trailed out he opened his eyes to see Cornelius had his eyes closed as well. He got lost in how happy Cornelius looked. However, it caused him to not anticipate Cornelius’ next move. Cornelius pulled him in for a spin but He tripped on his bed, He freaked out and apologized “I-I I’m sorry! it was my bad I-” he was stumbling over his words as he tried to pick himself up off of Cornelius. He was shocked to find Cornelius was holding him tight ontop of him. They stared at each other for a moment. In the silence they could hear both their hearts pounding. Cornelius broke it “I..I’ve never felt this way.. about anyone before. Static, I..” he could see he was choking on his words. “I think I really..love you.” He pulled Static in for a deep kiss before he could react.
The memory faded out and Static looked around, then at Cornelius. Cornelius looked away from the road back at him. “You ok?”
“This is the song that we..” staring at Cornelius again made him lose his thoughts.
“Yeah.. I guess it is..“ They caught themselves staring at each other for alittle too long. Both could feel their faces heating up.
The moment of connection was broken by a loud car horn. Their focus snapped to the car they were heading head on towards. They both screamed as Cornelius swerved hard back into his correct lane.
“What the hell was that !?” Harvey stirred in the back sitting up from his rude awakening.
The crew was all alittle more awake from their adrenaline rush.
The action caused a disturbance in Static’s connection. Cornelius reached over at him to try and help. “Are you ok?? I’m so sorry ahh” Static fixed it himself “I’m fine I’m fine don’t worry” he had slight amusement in his voice. Their hearts were still beating fast, and not just from the near miss.