Are You Serious?

Chapter 4

Eventually I found the right door and opened it slightly peeking in. Riley sat behind a beautiful silver drum set with headphones on, banging away on the drums.

I walked in all the way and stood next to the door awkwardly. I didn’t really know him that well, so I felt like I was invading his personal space or something.

He noticed me then and smiled at me but kept playing.

There was a table near the door so I went over and sat on it watching Riley. I have to admit, he’s pretty good. It didn’t sound like he hit any wrong notes, but it was hard to decipher which song he was playing. That was probably because I couldn’t hear the other instruments that were probably in his headphones.

Soon Riley finished the song and set his drum sticks down and hit a button on a panel then took his headphones off.

“Hey!” he said smiling again.

“Hey” I replied and smiled back.

“So Watcha doin’?” Riley asked and I shrugged. He was breathing a little heavier than usual from drumming for who knows how long.

“I had nothing to do, so I decided to come and watch you play” I looked around the room a bit. It was pretty simple. Dark grey walls, wood flooring, a few sound absorbers, a table with some sheet music and other stuff, and a drum set. “What are the headphones for?”

“Oh! They play the rest of the song so I can hear it. It’s kinda like how up on stage they always have ear pieces that allow them to hear the song, but instead, these play the song without the original drum part then put in my drum part. Kinda confusing but it works”

“Oh…..okay” It confused me a bit, but at least the first part confirmed my thoughts about the headphones.

Riley chuckled, “Well I guess since you came to watch me play, I’ll play another song. I think there’s another pair of headphones over there if you wanna hook them up too”

I turned around and sifted through all the papers and objects trying to find them. I easily spotted them and plugged them into the panel that Riley’s were plugged into.

Once I had sat back down, Riley hits a button and I hear the song start. The bass came in starting the song then right as the singer came in, Riley started drumming.

I immediately recognized the song this time as “Time Is Running Out” by Muse. My friend back in the 8th grade was a huge fan of them, so naturally I heard a lot of their songs and also became a big fan.

I started singing along after a while, the music getting to my head.

You will be the death of me,

Yeah you will be the death of me,

Burry it, I won’t let you burry it,

I won’t let you smother it,

I won’t let you murder it

And our time is running out

Well our time is running out,

You can’t push it underground,

You can’t stop it screaming out

I wanted freedom, bound and restricted,

I tried to give you up but I’m addicted,

Now that you know I’m trapped, sense of elation,

You never dream of breaking this fixation,

And you will squeeze the life out of me