She blinked back tears, brushing a strand of her unruly hair back from her eyes. After all they had been through, all these months, all she had given him, it was over. The man who claimed to love her, to want her, left her standing on the side of the road in a small subdivision, hours away from her home town, and the only place she had truly felt happy.
She had a small backpack filled with clothes, and an MP3 player. A $20 was in her back pocket, and the memory of the nights they had shared blasted through her mind. She knew she needed to find a phone and call home, beg her mother to take her back in, but right now, she was too busy feeling sorry for herself. Frustrated, she sat down in the grass, flipping her MP3 player on. Within seconds, her favorite J-Rock song came on, the one he hated. Ok, maybe he was right when he told her that she didn't understand the words, but that wasn't important at all. What was important was that she felt the music somewhere much deeper than just inside her earbuds, as if the music had traveled from her ears straight to her soul. That was when she saw him.1104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNk5yN3x6cd
His eyes stayed on the ground as he walked, too lost in his own world to care where he was going, too lost in his own pain.
"Hey, stranger," she whispered, causing him to jerk his head up. For just a second their eyes met, and what she saw behind those piercing blues actually scared her to death. There was so much pain, hidden behind his eyes, etched into his face, just waiting for someone to notice.
"Sit a while." She didn't know why she said that, but it wasn't a request. It was an order, one that the boy obeyed, sitting down in the cool grass beside her. She removed one of the earbuds, holding it out to him.He took it uncertainly, before placing it into his ear.1104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDW8x08WFEj
"I know this song," he told her, softly singing along to the foreign words. His voice wasn't the best, and honestly, he butchered the song, but he knew the words, and in a way, that was music to her ears. All too soon the song ended, and the next song began. As the Japanese sound flowed from the earbuds, once more he sang along. She watched him, amazed that he could sing this song so flawlessly, and he saw her watching, and smiled as he continued to sing. Just as the song was ending, he reached over, clicking the MP3 player so that the song would replay as he sang along, this time singing the English words to the Japanese song. They flowed perfectly.1104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmg4PQnQ6W3
"I dream of living, alone but fearless, secret longing to be courageous. Loneliness kept bottled up inside, just reveal your brave face, they'll never know you lied."
She couldn't believe that her life was this upside down, and yet here she was, listening to foreign music, in a strange town with a guy she would never see again. It was stupid, it was ignorant, and it was just plain bliss.
She stayed in that spot a while longer after he had left, the song on repeat, because now she had words to go to the melody that she loved so much. Of all the music on her playlist the Japanese music of all genres was the one that touched her the most, and now she had a few lines that fit her perfectly.
"Same tomorrow, regret and sorry, can't let you go, country roads."
For her, country roads began and ended the day she and a stranger spent a bit of time, music their only connection. It was one of those days she would remember forever.
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