Page 9 of Breaking the Habit

He had done this to them...he had fractured their bond.

“Jesus,” Andi said, her grin still as wide despite her hesitation. “I had forgotten how much I loved to sit and watch you play.”

ChapterSeven

Rhys

Rhys wasn’tsure he had the right response for what Andi had just said, so he made to rise off the piano stool. Andi frowned, taking a step toward him, a hesitant step that seemed to rankle Rhys, as if he were a cornered animal to be approached with extreme caution.

But he really was, wasn’t he?

“I didn’t mean to interrupt, Rhys. I just saw you were down here and wanted to ... see how you were. I wasn’t going to intrude, but I couldn’t not listen to you play.”

His sister, the take no prisoners, balls-of-steel sister, who never soft-soaped anything in her life, was being overtly polite with him and it felt...strained. But Rhys knew that his conflicted feelings and his downright stupid actions were responsible for this overtly reserved Andi.

“You haven’t looked so content in a long time. It was beautiful.”

Rhys snorted, embarrassed by her words, and yet, he felt like he couldn’t trust them. “Cut the bullshit, Andi. We both know that you’re the better pianist.”

Andi looked surprised at his remark, even more so because Rhys hadn’t been able to mask the resentment in his tone.

“Rhys,” She replied, walking around to lean on the piano. “That was never true. Do you not remember Mrs. Canning? She said time and time again that if the classical music didn’t bore you so much you could have played Carnegie Hall. But she said that your mind was so busy that the usual piano pieces bored you.”

Rhys hadn’t thought of his and Andi’s first piano teacher in a long time, however, he remembered the conversation with his parents about something Mrs. Canning had said after one lesson.

Rhys slumped down in his chair, fully convinced that he was in trouble with his parents. He hadn’t meant to give Mrs. Canning cheek, but she kept trying to make him play boring old classical music piano pieces and wasn’t at all pleased when Rhys tried to incorporate rock songs into the ancient material.

“You’re not in trouble, Rhys.” His dad said as he lowered himself into the seat beside Rhys, nudging his shoulder and grinning.

“I saw Mrs. Canning talking to ya. I thought she was giving out.”

Rhys ducked his head, strands of his hair falling into his eyes. His mam lifted his head by placing her hand under his chin, forcing Rhys to look into his mother’s eyes.

“We know it’s been hard at school since you found out you had dyslexia, baby. But we never cared about grades once you put in the effort. You were born to play piano. It’s your gift and Mrs. Canning just wants to make sure that the gift you have can take you to places beyond Ireland. She wants to make sure that she can give you the tools to do that.”

“But the classical stuff bores me...I’m not like Andi. She’s better than me at everything.”

“Oh Rhys,” His mam sighed, a sheen of wetness in her eyes. “You and your sister are two different people. Andi likes classical and you don’t. That’s perfectly fine. But you need to learn the pieces so you can do more. And Mrs. Canning will help you. You just need to concentrate and let her teach you.”

Rhys hadn’t thought much on it over the years, even if he had done as his parents asked him, perfecting the pieces until one day when Mrs. Canning brought him a book of the best rock piano songs and then Rhys truly knew he could excel.

Being dyslexic had been hard in school. But his parents never made him feel any different or tried to force his to be good at it. Rhys sometimes had trouble reading things, the words jumbled in his head. He got frustrated about it because he didn’t want to be labelled as the dumb kid in class.

He didn’t have many other friends, content to hang out with Andi, but when they went to secondary school and his friend from music school Declan, attended the same school, life had gotten so much easier for him.

Sliding over to give Andi room to sit, Rhys tinkled with the keys as Andi came and sat down beside him. Rhys took stock of her out of the corner of his eye, and Andi looked tired, drained even.

“I haven’t thought of Mrs. Canning in years,” Rhys admitted, lifting his eyes to look directly at Andi. “She’s a major reason why I get to play this way.”

Andi grinned, nudging him with her shoulder. “You were always her favourite. She would always brag to other mothers that one day, Rhys Collins would be a rockstar.”

“And I might have thrown that away.” Rhys admitted with a sigh. “Declan might kick me out of the band. Hell, he’d probably prefer to have you in the band now that you two...yano?”

Andi narrowed her gaze. “That’s not going to happen, Rhys. You and Declan will sort it out. And I would never want to take your place. Do you really think I would do that?”

Her words were soft but they rang with hurt and pain. Rhys ran a hand through his hair. “No.” He assured Andi, the relief on her face evident. “I know you wouldn’t. I’m just not sure how I can get back in Declan’s good graces. Every conversation we have lately ends in some sort of verbal fight.”

Andi was quiet for a time, as Rhys played a few bars from Metallica’sNothing Else Matters, letting Andi make sense of what she needed to. Rhys knew it probably wasn’t fair, him having this conversation about Andi’s boyfriend and that was part of the problem he had.

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