Page 2 of Only You
Dani chuckled politely with the rest of the class, although hers held a certain fondness. She had Dr Allen last semester and while he could be a little corny, she appreciated that he always seemed happy to be in class.
‘Now, as we start to prepare our compositions, I want to circle back to a topic that I covered in the previous course, Music 314,’ he said, rolling up his sleeves, ready to get started. ‘If you didn’t take that course with me, that’s all right. The question is quite simple: Is any music truly original?’
A few hands raised around the class, but Dani lowered hers when two in particular shot up.
‘No,’ answered Dre, a percussionist majoring in Jazz Studies, his dreads swaying around his face as he spoke. ‘Everything is borrowed from something else. With technology and exposure, it’s almost impossible for anything to be original.’
‘That’s not true,’ another student interjected, Lauren, a flutist from her performance class. She always had long nails and loved wearing dark academia themed outfits with afro puffs. ‘Everything has a start. Even if the original idea is thought of by multiple people, the execution is completely different.’
Dani smirked as she watched the two debate; they always had opposing ideas.
She felt a pair of eyes linger on her and turned to look at the guest at the front of the room. He looked at her with a slight tilt towards the heated conversation, silently askingWhat’s going on?She tilted her head towards the two before shrugging, letting him know this was normal. He smirked and they shared a quiet laugh. Dani found herself smiling as she turned back to the great debaters.
‘But that’s interpretation, not originality,’ Dre argued. ‘Only if you’re second,’ Lauren said with a steely look.
‘Okay, good,’ Dr Allen interrupted, before the argument could spiral out of control. ‘Both are good points. So, let’s try to apply them. I have one of my favourite musicians, Mr Jones, here.’
The guy holding the guitar waved awkwardly. Dani gave a small wave back, which made the corner of his mouth quirk upward.
‘He’s going to play a song. I want you to decide whether it’s original or not. Jones, take it away.’
He nodded before turning his focus to his guitar, his fingers running through a basic chord before taking off. Dani’s jaw dropped slightly as she listened. Mr Jones was clearly talented given the way his fingers flew over the strings with incredible ease. However, that wasn’t the part that caught her attention. It was thesong.
She had never heard it before, didn’t even know if it was freestyled or not, but it felt like a memory, a melody whose name was on the tip of her tongue. It pulled her into a trance, filling in all the blank spaces to all the songs she had created over the years. It felt like something was righting itself within her as she watched him play, a feeling of coming home after being gone for too long. For a moment, she was drifting, falling into the headspace where it was just her and the music dancing around each other. Nothing to hide and nowhere to run.
Nothing but pure joy.
Mr Jones finished with a lingering high note and there was a beat of silence before the class started to clap. Dani blinked, coming back to herself. She immediately flipped to a new page and jotted down notes as ideas flooded her brain.
‘Thank you, Jones. That was fantastic,’ Dr Allen said as the class quietened down. ‘So, I’ll ask again. Is it original?’
‘Definitely,’ Dani jumped in, eager to talk about it even as her fingers itched to keep writing her composition. ‘While he started off with melodies we’re familiar with, he made sure to bring contrast melodies, giving the song a new energy. It started to sound like John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” in the style but that’s kind of the point. No one can be separated from their influences. How we put them together is where the originality comes from.’
The class was silent. She rubbed her neck awkwardly. Had she started rambling again?
She looked between her professor and his guest. They both had looks of awe on their faces, with Dr Allen even going as far as to applaud. ‘Ladies and gents, Danielle, the know-it-all,’ Dr Allen teased, tipping an invisible hat in her direction. ‘We appreciate you always.’
‘It’s Dani,’ she said, rolling her eyes playfully as the class laughed.
‘Of course,’ Dr Allen chuckled. ‘But let’s make sure. Now, Jones was that a freestyle or a cover?’
‘Freestyle,’ he answered. ‘But Dani is right. I wanted to see if I could do a version of “Giant Steps” like I had my senior year here. Being in this room brought back that memory. Other than that, I just played with different melodies, to see what could create a feeling of tension and excitement.’ Jones looked and caught her eye, smirking playfully. ‘I find that’s usually the best part of a song.’
Was that a challenge?Dani smirked back at him and leaned forward. ‘Says who?’
Their eyes met and, for some reason, in the back of her mind there was an audibleclick. Her smirk dropped as a headache hit her full force. It felt her brain was being pulled apart while a rush of images filled it. She froze, unable to move as they crashed over her. She clinched the edge of her desk, groaning as she pressed her fingers to her temples, the pressure doing very little against the agonising pain.
Just as quickly as it started, it was over. The class and her professor’s voice slowly came back.
‘Dani, are you all right?’ She blinked until Dr Allen’s face came into focus. She looked around, suddenly leaning back when she realised the guitarist was hovering over her. She couldn’t understand why but sudden proximity felt overwhelming. She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew she had to get outnow.
‘S–sorry.’ Haphazardly, she packed her bag and rushed out of the room, the voices around her echoing as she stumbled over her desk.
She started to run through the campus to her car. Her mind felt like it was tunnelling, focusing on one thing at a time: Get to her car. Get to her apartment. Go up the steps. Find her keys – where are her keys? Open the door. Get to her room. Everything revolved around the pressing thoughtgetoutgetoutgetout.She slammed the door to her room closed, locking it. She collapsed onto the floor, trying to catch her breath as she stared at the ceiling.
After a few minutes, the world finally stilled.
She rubbed her clammy hands against her jeans as the tightness in her chest faded. Dani’s heart beat wildly in her chest. She laid down as she tried to come back to her body, emotions rolling through her rapidly. One moment, she was excited like she was lingering on a cliff edge, and then the next she felt terror like she just jumped off.
