When we got to his house, the sun was setting, causing the whole house to glow a deep orange. I smiled and sighed as I crashed on his couch, flopping my purse onto the ground along with my shoes.
Toby peered out one of his windows before joining me. I went to reach for the remote when he stopped me.
“Let’s just relax in this light.” He said and got up just as fast as he had sat down.
I heard him shuffling around in his room until I heard him exclaim, “HA! FOUND IT!”
Next thing I heard was a horrible sound; the guitar he must’ve found was way out of tune. “GOD DANGIT!” he shouted and began to tune it. I finally decided to get up and investigate on what he was exactly up to.
Toby was sitting on his bed with his legs criss-crossed and his face focused on finishing tuning the guitar. I stood in the door frame watching him, wondering if he knew I was there. A smile came to his lips to let me know he did.
When he was finished, he patted the bed next to him and I sat down.
“You play?” I realized I had never heard him play guitar before.
“Yeah, but I haven’t in a long time.” He chuckled and started strumming chords.
“Does your audience know you can play?”
“Yeah, they’ve heard me a couple of times.” He saw my devious smile. “Okayyy you can record me.”
I giggled, “Yayyyy!” I said as I got up and went to get my camera in my purse.
When I came back, Toby was lying down on his bed with his guitar on his chest. The sun had turned the sky and the whole house light pink and I sat on top of his dresser and pushed record.
“This is your favorite Tobuscus playing the guitar, finally after how ever long it’s taken him to actually play for you.” I started off saying then turned the camera to face me. “You’re welcome.” And laughed.
I turned it back to Toby as he laughed with me and started strumming again.
“What do you want me to even play?” he said, staring at the ceiling.
“I don’t know, you’re the one that got it out to play!” I giggled. I turned the camera back to me. “What do you want to hear, Audience?” I asked. Then turned the camera to Toby as he began to talk,
“What’s that? Classical Gas? Again?! C’mon guys, I played it only a couple of times and that was like 5 years ago!” He turned his head to me and my little blue camera. He saw my smile and complimented it with his own. “Okay okay, I’ll do it. Or at least I’ll try…”
Toby started to strum some more before going into a beautiful melody that almost made me fall off his dresser. I listened to him and watched his face go into a little trance. I had never seen him so calm before. The whole house was quiet but his gorgeous guitar playing and I instinctively sighed. This went on for about two minutes before he stopped and looked at the camera.
“I believe the word you are looking for is ‘owned’” he laughed at his little quote and I stopped the video. He then looked at me. “I played this back in 2006 and said that. I was a freakin’ nugget back then.”
I tried my best to laugh but it turned out to be a weird grunt. I was still in a trance.
“You okay?” his voice went quiet.
“You’re just…beautiful is all.” I muttered and motioned him to start playing again.
I set the camera down on the dresser and sat down behind him so that my knees were on both sides of his head and he was upside down. He started strumming at random and went into another little wave of relaxation as the sun dipped lower in the sky and emerged the house into the dark. I reached over and turned on a small lamp on the night stand in case Toby needed to see the guitar.
I combed his hair through my fingers as he played and occasionally dipped down to give him a smooch on his perfect lips. He just kept playing without making a sound and I even saw his eyes droop a bit.
We must’ve sat there for fifteen minutes, him just playing songs that he knew from the top of his head. It was the most relaxed I’ve ever felt in my life. I went down to kiss him again but instead of continuing on playing, Toby stopped and brought his hands up to my cheeks. He held my face in his hands as we silently kissed.
He put his guitar down and took my hand to lead me next to him. I lay down beside him and he put his arms around me so that I was lying on his chest. I felt him kiss the top of my head as we both stared at the ceiling.
There was something in my mind that I was dying to say to him, but didn’t know if it was the right time. Toby started to brush my arm lightly with the tips of his fingers. That sensation drew my mind blank on anything I wanted to say. My eyes drooped and finally closed as he began to hum in my ear one of the tunes he had played on his guitar. He continued on stroking my arm and tickling my ear with his warm breath until he suddenly stopped. After a couple of silent seconds, he whispered for the first time,
“I love you.”
