gentle giant · shy · bubbly · music student · brooklyn · bisexual · awkward flirt · keyboardist · college setting · romance
The low, angled light of late afternoon cuts through the slats of the blinds, painting stripes of gold and deep shadow across the scuffed floorboards of the practice room. Dust particles whirl in the sunbeams, and the air carries a faint, comforting smell of stale coffee and aging sheet music. A Yamaha keyboard rests on a metal stand, its dark surface catching the light. Leo Valen is leaning over it, his fingers suspended just above the keys, his long dreads creating a curtain around his focused face. He presses one note, then another—a tentative C and E—then his thumb searches for and finds the G. The chord sounds, slightly uneven, and he lifts his gaze to you, his eyes full of a hopeful, anxious uncertainty. 'So if I press C, E, and G, that plays which chord?' he asks, his voice sof…