Dangerous Illusion - Ch. 01

Buhh-buh-buhhhhh, buh-buhhh-buh-buhhhhh. That may sound like nothing to you, but that is the song that has been haunting me every day. Smoke On the Water. Listen, whoever is reading this journal, if you are a 'boomer' (I'm talking to you Mom!) and that statement gives you a nostalgic canker sore, imagine how it feels to teach it to 10 different students, 4 days a week, and not one of them practice. NOT ONE. I don't know if this job is 'me' anymore.

I put down the journal and toss it haphazardly towards a pile of clothes in the corner of my room. I was 'half hoping' it was going to land perfectly on its back, but I refrained from yelling "Kobe!" Instead, it bounced back off the wall behind the pile and slid under my bed. Calculated.

The house is soft and the sun has already set outside. Sounds like my parents are still at work. Without looking at the time, I can tell that my virtual guitar lessons are starting soon. I work for a company called Main Street Music in my hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I started taking guitar lessons there when I was 13. I have been teaching there for 4 years now and I am 29. Teaching here really isn't that great of a job, even though I am doing what I love. I love teaching creative people how to express themselves on the guitar. I am also working at a nostalgic place where my love for music was born. The thing that drives me crazy is mostly the students...and the pay...but mostly the students.

I have about 20 different students I see Monday-Thursday. Each student gets 45 minute lessons and the staff at Main Street Music have a strict curriculum to teach. I like to 'buck' the system during my lessons and teach the students cool songs instead of scales and theory from Main Street Music's coursebooks. Cover bands are a huge thing in this area. I got to play in a dozen different cover bands, so my song bank of great music is always full! My boss, Jacques Martin, doesn't like my approach.

"Ey Flunt, course buk, course buk, petit salaud!" Jacques would yell in a slurred French accent when a student's parents would catch them not practicing from their 'coursebook'.

Jacques hit it big in Bethlehem with the music scene when he immigrated from Leon, France, 20 years ago. There wasn't a formal music school within 15 miles. Jacques' classical way of teaching really went over well with the parents. All the, ironically, 'rock-n-roll' loving parents want their kids to play all proper, and sit up straight, and read sheet mu--

*BZZZZ BZZZ BZZZZ BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....BZZZ BZZZ BZZ BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*

Speak of the devil, Beethoven's, the 5th! This is my phone, silently, alerting me that my boss, Jacques, is now trying to call me. Above his name on my display read the time: 5:45pm. I have 15 minutes until my lessons start, what the fuck does Jacques want now? Was it the Sweet Child O' Mine I taught to Aiden last night? I slide my finger on the screen and give a nice, warm, "Hello!"

"Flunt, listen, you first stu-dent, you get new stu-dent. Eh, adult stu-dent. She guitarist now 3 years. Parente very excited, convince her full lesson, hmm?" Jacques was barely understandable. He is basically slurring and choking on his accent..."stu-dent". If he isn't holding a Tenor Saxophone, he is holding a glass of wine. Also, how can anyone mess up saying my name?

"Wait, you are saying she is just doing a trial lesson? Okay...well, I will do my best to show her why everyone comes to Main Street Music, Jacques!" I said, trying to sound cheery, but that notion went right over Jacques' thick skull.

All I heard in response was a loud grunt and then the line hung up. Fucking dick head. I head over to my desk and sit down. I turn on the computer, put on my headphones, grab my guitar and tune it, then plug it into my audio interface. I do this because I live at home with my parents. I know, a 29 year old musician, who lives at home with his parents never gets matches on OkCupid, or Bumble...big surprise. Anyways, the noise of a guitar through an amp would be too loud, so I have to do it directly into the computer. I have a microphone from my band days, which I now use solely for my lessons. The headphones are for cancelling feedback loops in the audio...blah blah blah, do you really care?

I really care about, one might even say love, playing and teaching guitar. Although, sometimes the thing you dream of doing is only topical and aesthetic. The core of that dream has struggles and hardships. These tensions are tests to see if what we are doing is really our dream, or just a 'dream' we tolerate in our favor. We come to usually find this out once we finally get a hold of that 'dream'. Just look at famous celebrities who now can't get privacy, or they have overspent their money, etc. They even admit that it wasn't what they thought it'd be. But there are those who can handle it, and they are the ones that make their dreams reality. I used to have that type of reality, but it all went away...

As I sat there imagining to myself, sadly, a reality of where I was getting paid above minimum wage, getting laid, living in my own place, playing in bands again, getting laid...wait did I say getting laid? Yikes, being single and 'out-of-the-business' for almost a year has really been a struggle for me mentally. Porn does it sometimes, but just like playing in a band, you can't fully express yourself, by yourself.

I come back to reality and quickly load up Zoom. The reason why I am giving lessons in Zoom and not in person is because COVID has really been bad in my area. We are still in quarantine, a year later, so lessons have been done remotely. It has been a huge blessing because I am an insufferable introvert, and now all these new students are taking lessons because of being home alone all the time. The downside is the lack of human contact, lack of dates, lack of matches on OkCupid and Bumble, lack of getting lai--wait a second...did Jacques say 'adult student'?

An adult student is classified as anyone over the age of 18 getting lessons. Since cover bands are big with the boomers in my area, I get a lot of old guys coming in with fancy guitars wanting to learn how to play, Smoke On the Water. Didn't Jacques also say the student is a 'she'? I look at my computer's clock and it says 6:01pm, shit! I click on the username box and type in my employee email address, "fmoore92-at-mainstreetmusic-dot-com". My autosaved password comes up and I click it. I continue into the "Meetings" tab and start a new private meeting.

My display opens up and I see myself with a guitar in hand, a messy room backdrop, and a big hole in my pants. Wait what!? I forgot to change into my jeans and I am wearing my crappy pajama pants with a huge hole by my crotch (don't ask). As I fumbled with the camera and the positioning of the guitar to cover my crotch area better, a notification displayed reading, "Mia Walker is requesting to join the meeting." Mia huh? I checked my video display one more time for any 'inappropriate' skin showing, but I was well hidden. I clicked the accept button under Mia's name and waited for her video to load in.

As the display finally loaded up, I was greeted with a soft, almost sing-songy, "Hello."

I didn't respond at first because my first sight of Mia caught me off guard. Here sat a petite, big brown eyed girl with shoulder length curly dark brown hair, big lips that cradled her nice teeth, and a voice that was softer, and more intimidating than silence. God she is gorgeous! Mia catches me off-guard because I am used to adult students being deadhead oldies, but here sat a beautiful girl wanting to learn guitar...from me! Well maybe not me, but from where I work!

"Uh, hi Mia, I'm Flunt, I-I mean Flint!" I said, stumbling through my words because Mia started turning her head slightly and smiled innocently.She has a look on her face like she is genuinely interested to hear my voice and words. I haven't had someone do that for me for a long time. I am so awkward right now.

"Ha ha, hey Flint! It's all cool," she said warmly, but confidently, "I really like the name Flint, it fits for a rockstar guitarist!" Mia giggles and tilts her head to the other direction.

She does a little bounce and her chest comes into sight of the camera. I catch her braless breasts bouncing behind the fabric of her tight t-shirt. Was she doing and saying this to flirt with me? We only got two sentences into meeting each other? Nah, that is my loneliness speaking right now.

"Great, cool. Uhm, so yeah you want to take music lessons and learn guitar? That's really awesome! You know, I play guitar too!" I said, sticking my thumb up. As I finish my statement I cringe horribly. Mia laughs and obviously thinks it is cute.

"Ha, yes I have heard from my parents you are a 'rockstar'. I love rockstars! I have a huge crush on John Mayer. Do you think you could teach me some of his songs?" Mia says excitedly, and then proceeds to bite her bottom lip.

That really stuck out to me because most kids these days do not have the drive to even tell me their favorite songs! Let alone practice ANYTHING I tell them to. It is so ridiculous, so to see someone with genuine drive, it really excites me!

I let her get to me and I responded,"You know what? Sure, why don't we try 'Slow Dancing In A Burning Room'? Don't tell your parents or Jacques though, because I am supposed to be teaching you from the coursebook."

"Slow Dancing In A Burning Room' you say? Okay I will do that with you, but what John Mayer song do you think I could learn?" Mia responded, with a big, cheeky smile on her face.

Okay, she is definitely flirting! Before I could respond, Mia burst out laughing.

"Ha ha ha ha ha, I am just kidding dude. I love that song though. That would be perfect!"

For the remainder of our lesson I taught Mia how to play "Slow Dancing In A Burning Room". I tried working more on advanced abilities, since she was far from being a beginner. Actually she is very advanced! This struck me as odd. Why was someone as talented as her learning an easy song?

At the end of our lesson, as we were wrapping up, Mia asked me, "Hey Flint. My parents told me only some details of your past experience as a rockstar, but I would like to hear your version of your history! If you don't mind telling me before your next lesson?"

Taken aback by the out-of-the-blue statement, I respond, "Oh wow, my students don't really ask me that too often. Well I played in a lot of local bands in the area. Some of them were big and some were small. This one band though, made me somewhat famous in the area. The band was called, "Wild Card", and we played some really cool 'underground' rock. There is a huge underground scene here in Bethlehem, if you didn't know. Our band was the biggest and we toured into New Jersey and New York all the time.

"Oh wow that sounds so cool! It sounds like you were famous or something? Do you have an Instagram I could look up? Any cool show pictures or anything?" Mia responds, while pulling out her phone. She then looks up at the camera, as if giving 'puppy eyes'.

"Well Mia, I can't do that because it would violate the 'teacher-student consent agreement'. The staff at Main Street Music can't give away personal information or social media to the students!"

I TOTALLY wasn't fishing for her age or anything right? Mia just looks so young but acts very mature. I tend to prefer girls who are mentally mature more than attractive. Intelligence is a big turn on for me because I am so tired of the 'dumb' porn girls I sadly jerk off to.

Mia responds immediately in a higher pitch, "Oh gosh Flint, I-I mean Mr. Moore, that isn't a problem! They don't say anything about that for adult students, I read the whole thing! You will come to find out that I am not like most 20 year old girls."

The cutesy way Mia responded made me start to get hard. Of course I watch those stupid porn videos of the young, hot, 'teen' girls like Lana Rhoades and Cadence Lux, so my dopamine addicted brain sends a flood of blood down to my dick.

I start imagining Mia nude. I currently can't do the thing where you look at someone's body through their clothes and imagine their naked shape. This was all thanks to how Mia's camera angle was cutting off her chest and below. The failed thought leaves my mind and I feel a bit ashamed of myself. Here is this nice, beautiful, young girl wanting to learn music, and I am sexualizing her.

I felt an awkward silence approaching so I quickly blurted out, "Alright Mia, but please, you can call me Flint, it's alright! If you looked over the agreement and saw nothing wrong with sharing social media with an adult student, then my tag is 'wildcardflintyboy!"

"Okay hold on!" Mia says with a smile as she puts down her guitar and stands up.

She turns around and walks to the back of her room towards the open door. I can now see her entire body, and more. Mia looked to be average height, but she was very petite. I wouldn't say anorexic, but just not fully 'grown'. She has a small pair of, my guess, 34B breasts, and big nipples. Her big nipples were accentuated by her skin tight, crop top Nirvana t-shirt. I was right, she was definitely not wearing a bra and the cold temperature of winter in her room must be getting her nipples hard. You could see them poking out far through the fabric of her shirt.

Her slender body had a nice bump at her butt, to which her short shorts teased her cheeks each time she swayed her hips while walking. Was she wearing underwear? I start visualizing myself fucking her over her desk. She has her ankles back behind her ears, and I'm 'dick punching' her stomach.

There was too much to process with my animal instincts kicking in when Mia suddenly plops back down in the chair with her face in her phone. I was so caught up in observing Mia that I didn't realize she closed her door.

While still looking down at her phone, Mia says, "So, Flint, my parents are at home right now, but we will be normally doing our lessons on Thursdays at night, when they are working at their business. I closed the door just now so they didn't hear us talking about our social media. They get kind of weird with me and strangers. I don't know...parents!

While Mia was talking to me I got a notification on my phone from Instagram. I open it up and see that 'miamamamia' has started following me.

After seeing this I respond, "Alright I got it, I will follow you back later, I got to get ready for my next lesson!"

Mia flips her hair and gives me a gorgeous smile, "I had an awesome time meeting you Flint, and I look forward to our first lesson in a couple days! Please don't forget to follow me back, you might find some 'cool' photos." Mia stops to laugh and covers her mouth, "Ha ha ha, oh wait, my parents wanted to talk to you before you signed-off! Some blah blah stuff probably. By the way, nice pants!"

She winks again while smiling, and with that, gets up and walks back out the room leaving the door open. I get another view of her cute butt as she walks out the room and down the lit hallway. I start to get really hard this time. I looked down and noticed the hole in my pants was completely agape and my dick was fully sticking out! Oh my gosh, that is why Mia made that weird comment to me about my pants. She was looking at my dick probably the whole time! The embarrassment caused me to immediately lose my boner, just in time as Mia's parents walked into the room.

The mother greets me first saying, "Hi Flint, it's great to meet you! Jacques has said wonderful things. Mia seems to really love you too! I am Terri and this is my husband Mike, we are the Walkers."

Her husband stood awkwardly behind her. Mike is a tall, dark skinned, but not black, man with short, buzz cut hair, and a 7 o'clock shadow. He was wearing a casual polo which stretched over his muscular biceps. He had a right pair of short gym shorts on, and I could've sworn one of his testicles was poking out the bottom of his pants hole.

Terri is an attractive middle aged suburban mom. She has nice medium length, dark brown hair with highlights in a ponytail going halfway down her back, possibly 34C breasts, and an hourglass body. Her lips were big, like Mia's. They almost had a Kardashian look to them. Speaking of Kardashian's, her skin is a nice golden brown. Her floral blouse and tight work business pants made her have an 'authority' vibe, which was really sexy! Her smile was just like Mia's, addicting.

I stop gawking and respond back to Terri, "Mia is a really great guitarist! To be quite honest, I don't even think our current coursebook is high enough for her level. I will get Jacques to get you guys the advanced book for this Thursday. It is nice to meet people who raised a talented musician!"

Terri replies, "Oh you are too kind, Flint! We think you will be a great match for our Mia. She was a blessing to our family when we got her." Suddenly, Terri and Mike both looked somber, and then back to being cheerful. Weird.

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you mean by 'got' her?" I asked, genuinely curious. They also didn't refer to her as their 'daughter'.

Mike now speaks up in a loud, dominating voice, "You see Flint, we need to talk about Mia. She is a great girl, very smart, and as you have seen, very talented, but we need you to know, she is a bit 'broken'. We don't like putting that label on her, but that is usually the case with orphans. We got her from an adoption agency when she was 8 years old. Her family died in a bizarre house fire, but she somehow miraculously managed to be outside on the lawn with a broken leg. The police think her parents threw her out the window. Terri and I saw the news about it since it was local. We were trying to have kids for so long but could never get anything to 'stick'. We thought it was a sign and so we filed to adopt Mia."

Mike paused, looked down, then continued, "Sorry for being so 'TMI' but we are a very open family and people. We just want to make sure you are aware of Mia's background and to let us know if anything is off with her. And to just be a little more easy with her, she has had a hard childhood and remembers all of the accident. Well almost all of it"

I am a bit flat-lined hearing the news. This beautiful, nice, talented girl with a smile for miles, has a traumatic backstory and doesn't show ANY of it. The world can really be cruel sometimes. The Walkers seem like a very nice family that takes care of Mia very well.

I sense their lack of morale and cheerfully reply, "I am really sorry to hear about all of that, you guys. I promise I will do my best to elevate Mia and to be the best teacher for her. I am very passionate about my students and that usually takes them to new heights."

Terri now responds, "Oh I am sure you will elevate her, Flint! I am, quite, sure. So, for this Thursday, get the new book, and anything else?"

"Nope that is all, I look forward to Thursday, I hope you both have a great night!", I say with a genuine smile.

"Really great to meet you, good bye!" Terri concludes, and signs out of the meeting.

I go on to finish off the rest of my lessons for the night, still thinking about Mia. As my last lesson ends, I quit Zoom, put my guitar down, and lay down on my bed. I opened up Instagram and navigated to Mia's profile. Mia has 50,000 followers and she only follows 50 other people, including me! Wow I must be special or something! All of the other accounts she follows are famous rockstars, and some rockstars unknown to me.

I start to pour through ALL of her 300 photos and videos. I absorb every detail in a weird way. What she is wearing, what her makeup is like, what she probably smells like...God, I must be so lonely. I really need to stop being creepy because this is definitely pushing boundaries. All of her photos were either professional photos, or really well taken phone camera photos. Lots of which were her holding products and talking about them in a video or in captions.