Tobias tossed and turned in his bed, unable to fall asleep. The moon peaked through the curtain, casting a narrow beam of light through the window, shining a dim glow into his bedroom. Tobias made movements with his hands, casting a shadow onto the ceiling, chuckling to himself as he made the silhouettes of an airplane, giraffe, and a monster appear above his head. The moon disappeared behind a cloud and the silhouettes faded away. He sat up in his bed and stared into the mirror across his bedroom. Wide-eyed and anxious, he looked earnestly at himself in his reflection, hoping to see something familiar. But he didn’t recognize his outline. He motioned his hand from left to right, waving to himself in the dark and saw an indistinct movement in the mirror. Turning his head to his desk, he noticed his guitar case tucked away underneath the drawer, dusty and untouched. He was ecstatic when he got it on his 13th birthday. He had begged his parents for it. It was a rare Gibson Les Paul, too. It had barely been played since the day he got it. Tobias threw off his covers, got out of bed, and fumbled for his guitar case. He blew off the dust and opened it up. It looked the exact same as he remembered it, only that he felt like a different person from the time it was last opened. He took it out of the case and plucked an E-string. It was really out of tune. He was reminded of his childhood dream of being a rock star, playing for thousands of people on stage. Connecting with people through his music had always been a dream of his. He lingered in that thought, in the hallow silence of his bedroom.
Reaching for his small desk lamp, he flicked on the light and got out his phone from his pocket. He opened up the camera app and took a few selfies with his Gibson. He picked the best one and posted it to Instagram with the caption Late night jam sesh #musician. It had hardly been 2 minutes and Sita and Isaiah had already liked it. Tobias wondered what they were doing up so late, but it put a smile on his face. He felt a warm tingling sensation run through his chest. He was pleased with himself. “I will be a musician,” Tobias thought to himself. He put his guitar down and stumbled to his closet. He rummaged about and found his old Beatles tee. It was way too tight but he put it on anyway. He tried his hardest to remember one of their greatest hits but he was unable to. Maybe his memory was foggy because he was still tired, Tobias thought to himself. He took out his phone again, this time posting a selfie with the Beatles tee to his story on Snapchat. He sat down at his desk and opened up his laptop. In a Google search, he typed: “best Beatles songs” and then tweeted, “He’s as blind as he can be, just sees what he wants to see” from the song “Nowhere Man.”
The silhouettes cast by the dim glow of the lamp projected his shadows all over the bedroom walls, creating multiple outlines of Tobias. He sat there, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, wondering if he was really going to make it as a musician. Would he ever be able to unify the world with his music? The sun was beginning to rise. He hadn’t realized how much time had passed. He looked back at his post on Instagram and suddenly felt better. A few more friends had already liked it and he started to feel more confident about who he was going to be. He got up from his desk and turned to his mirror. With the light of his desk lamp and the dawn of a new day, Tobias could now see himself. He stared for a long moment and moved in closer to get a good look into his eyes. His gaze lasted for a long while, but he was still unable to recognize himself in the mirror.
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