**Genre:** Drama / Coming-of-Age / LGBTQ+
---
SCHOOL MUSIC ROOM – LATE AFTERNOON**
Sunlight filters through dusty windows. A quiet, gentle hum of the city outside. A lone piano sits in the corner.
**RAE (17)**, sensitive and soft-spoken, plays a melancholy melody. Each note carries unspoken emotion.
The door creaks open.
**AXEL (17)**, easygoing but distant lately, steps inside.
---
**AXEL**
(softly)
You’re still here?
**RAE**
Yeah. Just... finishing something.
*RAE keeps playing. AXEL walks over and leans against the piano, listening.*
---
**AXEL**
It’s a new one?
**RAE**
Sort of. I started it a while ago. Never finished.
(beat)
I didn’t know how it ended.
**AXEL**
And now?
*RAE stops playing. Silence.*
---
**RAE**
Now I do.
**AXEL**
Play it.
*RAE plays the final notes—gentle, unresolved. They hang in the air, like a question.*
---
**AXEL**
That’s... sad.
**RAE**
Not everything gets a happy ending, right?
*AXEL looks away. Guilt and affection flicker in his eyes.*
---
**AXEL**
I didn’t mean to hurt you.
**RAE**
You didn’t.
(beat)
Not really. You just didn’t say what I wanted to hear.
*Silence. The air is heavy between them.*
---
**AXEL**
It’s not that I don’t feel it. I do.
But everything’s a mess. My mom, my dad… they’re still trying to breathe.
And I... I don’t know who I’m allowed to be right now.
---
**RAE**
I never asked you to choose.
I just wanted the truth.
---
**AXEL**
The truth is...
(beat)
I love you. But I can’t be with you. Not now.
*RAE nods. Tears threaten, but he smiles softly.*
---
**RAE**
Then maybe this is our song.
A beginning... and an end.
*AXEL sits beside him. For a moment, they sit in silence. RAE places AXEL’s hand on the piano.*
---
**RAE**
You remember the notes?
*AXEL nods. Together, they play a few bars from the song they once created as kids. The melody is soft, full of memory.*
---
**AXEL**
(quietly)
I’m sorry, Rae.
**RAE**
Me too.
---
AFTER THE PIANO PLAY
SCHOOL COURTYARD – SUNSET**
*RAE walks away from the music room alone, headphones in, listening to the final version of the song. Behind him, AXEL watches from the doorway, hands in pockets, face unreadable.*
*As the music swells, RAE disappears into the crowd. AXEL remains, still.
*"Some loves don’t last forever...
but they echo in every song we never finished."*
#boyslove#mildromance
