Between Songs

by N. Kognytao

  Braydon: What is your schedule tomorrow? I would like you to come over so we can talk.

  Leah had to admit she was startled to see that he had reached out to her first. She was thankful that she was dumbstruck long enough that she did not respond too quickly. The irritated, irrational part of her brain wanted to not respond at all, or at least wait until the next morning. However, she really did want to talk to him and sort everything out.

  I don’t know how late we’ll be tomorrow. After rehearsal, we’re back in the studio. It might be pretty late.

  She waited for his response, trying not to be too anxious.

  Braydon: That’s alright. Even if it is late, I would like to speak with you. Unless you are too tired after work.

  I’ll come over then, if it’s not too late. Should I text you before I leave RM?

  When she had confirmed that that was alright with Braydon, she remained in her bed staring at the ceiling, a strange feeling of excitement, relief, and worry sitting heavily in her chest.

  * * *

  Leah continued to glance at the clock in the studio, eager for them to wrap up the new song so she could go to Braydon’s. She had no idea what he wanted to talk about, but she forced herself not to consider that he would tell her to get lost, or that he thought she was an immature child and he never wanted to see her again, and focused on thinking that he wanted to talk through their argument and resolve it so they could get back to informally dating and trying to get to know one another in their unconventional way.

  When Jay and Alex finally agreed that it was time for them to stop for the day, Leah booked it out of the studio, texting Braydon on her run to the bus.

  She forced herself to walk from the bus stop to his door so she would not appear flustered when she saw him. She was ready to apologize to Braydon, but she also felt that he needed to offer his own apologies.

  She stared at the numbers 8711 on his door for several seconds before hitting the doorbell.

  When the door opened, she felt her breath leave him.

  Braydon looked even more handsome than usual, but it seemed effortless. His hair was combed down and reflected the blonde strands in the light of the entry way. He was wearing a button-down shirt with the top two buttons undone, exposing a sliver of chest and collarbone. Even with the simple white shirt and jeans, he looked dressed up. He smiled gently and motioned her inside.

  She moved forward, a delicious aroma wafting to her nose. She turned to him as he closed the door.

  “Are we having dinner?”

  “A late dinner,” he affirmed. He opened his mouth, looking her over before licking his lips and shaking his head. “I don’t want to spend the evening anticipating this talk, so I’m just going to come out and say it.” He looked her square in the eye. “I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath. “I should not have snapped at you like I did. I was exhausted and irritated at my agent and a bunch of other things, but I should have never taken it out on you. And I don’t want you to feel like you can’t talk to me about things that bother you at work. My attitude was reprehensible and I hope that you will accept my apology.”

  Leah stared at him, blinking, taking time to process the words.

  “Wow…” she murmured. “Um, okay, I was also going to apologize.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for.”

  “No, I do,” she insisted. “I was tired, too, and I overreacted to what you were saying. I said some things to you that I regret.” She looked at him seriously. “I really want to get to know you. I want to be with you and learn all about you, so I was hurt when you pushed me away like that, but I still shouldn’t have said what I did.”

  He looked away from her, opening his mouth several times to speak before he motioned to the table. “Come sit with me for a moment.”

  She obeyed, following him to the table.

  “I’m going to be very honest with you,” he said as they sat. “The thought of being around you, having a relationship with you…scares the absolute hell out of me.”

  “Why?” she asked with a light laugh.

  “Because I’ve never done it before,” he said strongly. “And I don’t know how to do this relationship thing, despite what I may write.” He pursed his lips again. “My point is, I’m scared to be with you, but when you left, I was more afraid that you would never come back. And that realization left me more terrified than I’ve ever been before. I’m not used to wanting to be with people.”

  “That’s okay,” she said. “And it’s okay to be scared. I’m willing to accept the fact that you’re not comfortable with the idea of being in a relationship, but…you still want to be with me, right?”

  His eyes dropped to the floor as he nodded slowly.

  “Look at me so I know you’re being sincere.”

  He smiled and turned his eyes to her.

  “Yes,” he answered. “Even though is scares the shit out of me, I want to get to know you, too. I want to be with you.”

  “Okay, that sounds like a good place to start.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The weeks passed in a blur of flashing lights, pulsing music, and smiling faces.

  Once promotions for the digital single started, Alex would update the musicians every day about the number of people that had expressed interest in the song. Leah had no idea such information could be gathered so quickly and a lot of the numbers and statistics flew over her head, however everyone seemed pleased with the statistics.

  But the proof of public interest was the Friday night they performed at the Jackson Club—the club was packed and people seemed genuinely excited for their songs.

  When Overdrive was released the following day, Leah wanted to constantly check the numbers, but Alex purposely kept her and the others in the dark, insisting they talk about it the following Monday. Thankfully, interviews and another photoshoot over the weekend distracted them enough.

  On Monday, the numbers that came back were even better than Leah could have hoped.

  “Alright, alright, alright,” Alex said, calming the musicians down as they celebrated loudly in the meeting room. “This is good, but it won’t be worth anything if you can’t keep them hooked. You’ve got seven other club performances and even more interviews. These numbers are great, but they are not enough for you to keep your spot in the Outdoor Show.”

  “They’re not?” Leah gasped. “I’m almost completely unknown! This is nearly eight-thousand over the weekend!”

  “I’m alright if you want to be pleased with those numbers, but never settle for them,” Alex said sharply. “Obviously, if you do well enough at the club performances, you can get more sales, and considering that there is no music video and you are relatively unknown, this is not bad, but you need more to get a good foot-hold. So give your all to these upcoming performances. Keep pushing because you are nowhere near where you should be.”

  Where interviews had taken over their lives before, club appearances stood in place. As they hoped, with each performance, they were talked about more and more. Club-goers asked to pose for pictures with the band members after they finished their show, and there were several that lined up outside the back of the club to catch a glimpse of them as they came to set up before the club opened.

  Leah, flattered and humbled by their adoration, took pictures and signed slips of paper whenever asked. She tried to make sure she appealed to the requests of all those who waited for her or found the courage to ask for an autograph. She felt so grateful for their appreciation that she wanted to return the favor by giving them a picture, a hug, or an autograph.

  The others of the band seemed to feel the same and were equally accommodating to their small fanbase.

  It was a surreal experience each time and Leah had to take several moments when she was free of the crowds to process the popularity she had already obtained. The numbers of sales were quickly rising, but despite that, Alex continued to push them.

  When Leah received her first paycheck from RM Entertainment,
she nearly choked at the sight of the number on the check. She then sat in his dorm room and cried. She had no idea why the tears overtook her, but she was thankful she was alone when they did—she would have been really embarrassed if anyone had seen her in such a state.

  She tried to keep in contact with her family and with Braydon, but she was so busy that most of the time when she was in the car or not working, she was asleep, trying to get what little rest she had been allowed as the weeks progressed. She managed to sneak away some nights to be with Braydon, but their conversations had often been about her upcoming schedule and when she would be able to see him again.

  He had told her over and over again that he understood she was busy, and reminded her that he was perfectly fine receiving even something as small as good night texts for their form of communication while she worked to establish herself as a singer.

  August was quickly approaching and the rehearsals for the RM Entertainment Outdoor Show would start in four short days. Therefore, when Leah and the others set up for their last club performance, the singer gathered his band together.

  “I think we need to treat tonight as though this was the Outdoor Show, even though the songs are different,” she said strongly. “Give it our all, and really show Alex and ourselves what our most serious performance looks like. I’m starting to get a little nervous about the Outdoor Show, so we need to invest completely.”

  “You got it,” Aaron agreed with a smile.

  “I think we’ve solidified our spot in the show,” Yasmine assured, her eyebrows high. “I mean, wouldn’t Mr. Gracie or Alex have said something by now if we hadn’t?”

  “I don’t know,” Leah admitted. “But we shouldn’t assume we have it in the bag. Let’s perform like we’re still trying to earn it.”

  Somehow, the band felt as though that performance was their best yet. The thrill and terror of performing their songs in the clubs had dissipated and they were able to focus entirely on the performance. They were no longer taken aback by the number of people watching them, or the way they cheered, or got nervous when they saw the number of people who clearly did not know who they were, yet.

  As Leah had said on their second performance, if they did not know them, they would know them after that night.

  The energy was electric and intoxicating. Drinks were flowing and people were dancing and it felt as though everything existed in a dream.

  However, there were three people at the back of the club floor that sat bitterly at their dark table, their eyes hard on the performing musicians.

  Glaring Nights had not heard of the success of Leah’s released single until they returned from the east-coast leg of their nationwide tour. Their manager had not wanted them distracted, and while he thought that his temporary ignorance would abate Hayden’s anger about Leah getting such attention, it only seemed to fuel it.

  The three members of Glaring Nights sat in the dark corner, their faces obscured by hats and glasses as they watched Leah perform, grinding their teeth together.

  Hayden’s hands were clenched into fists so tightly that his knuckles were turning white and his nails were cutting crescent shapes into his palms. Watching Leah bound about the stage, the others behind her with large smiles on their faces as they reacted to her energy, and the way the crowd cheered and danced to the songs with expressions of sheer happiness, he felt as though he was being completely overlooked.

  Hayden’s mother had signed him into the RM Entertainment training program when he was only six years old. For years, he was surrounded by the artists of the company, seeing the different singers, actors, and models come and go through the doors as they were needed by the company. His mother had always pushed him to be better, to dance more, to sing more, to be more, so that when he finally caught the eye of the CEO and was put to the front of the a band, he would be better than any of the others.

  That way, he would never be cast aside for the next big star.

  Then came Leah. In such a short time, it seemed the focus of the company had completely shifted onto the newcomer—one who had no formal training and had been brought in on a scouting audition.

  Hayden felt he had every right to be furious.

  Blake and Chris were also irritated at the amount of attention the CEO had been giving the new artists, but they had to admit that Leah had a type of charisma on stage that was captivating and the songs were written in a way that had them bobbing their heads and tapping their feet on the ground in time with the beat, despite their annoyance.

  However, they both stilled in their movements when they saw the fire in their leader’s eyes.

  * * *

  Leah half-scurried, half-bounded across the living room to flop next to Braydon as he sat on the couch, his laptop on his lap. He turned to her, lowering the noise-cancelling headphones around his neck.

  “You slept like the dead,” he noted. “You were hyper when you got here and then, ten minutes later, you were out cold.”

  “Adrenaline wore off, I guess,” Leah said, rolling over on her back and looking up at him, reaching up to trail the back of her fingers over his shoulder as he tapped the keys lightly, typing slowly. “You should have been there last night,” she breathed. “We were awesome.”

  “Suddenly pretty confident considering how self-conscious you pretend to be at times,” he teased.

  “Well, I can be confident. We’re getting amazing response. We’re almost at twenty thousand digital copies sold!”

  “Be careful,” he warned. “Once confidence turns into cockiness, that ego of yours is going to get very fragile.”

  “I don’t have an ego.”

  He glanced down at her, smiling. “Then don’t start getting one now.”

  “I’m sure that if I start getting to full of myself, you’ll have no problem pulling me down a few pegs.”

  The two fell silent, Braydon turning back to his computer and typing away, his headphones settled around his neck as he worked. She turned her eyes to him, watching the way his eyes changed as he wrote. It was almost indiscernible, but every now and then he would narrow his eyes or widen them in response to whatever he was writing. She had to watch very carefully for the changes, but every time she saw them, she found herself enthralled, as if those tiny actions were an incredible performance.

  She wondered what he saw when he watched the words fly across the screen as his nimble fingers tapped the keys in rapid succession. She figured she would ask him another time about his “wild hallucinations,” as he called it, but for that afternoon, she was content to just sit quietly and watch him.

  To Braydon’s complete surprise, he was also content with her sitting next to him, occasionally falling in and out of sleep as they sat with only the sound of the keys clicking to break the silence of the room.

  Two days before rehearsals started for the Outdoor Show, Alex hauled everyone up to Tim Gracie’s office.

  The CEO’s office was on the twelfth floor and had large windows behind his desk that overlooked the city with a large view of the Aurora Dome, outside of which was where the Outdoor Show was being set up, the stage being erected by frantic workers for the start of rehearsals. Adorning the walls of Mr. Gracie’s office were Gold and Platinum record awards for 4Ever as well as old promotional posters and photos that the group of four had done before disbanding, as well as newer promotional materials for 4U and awards for the company. The furniture was clean and modern, making it very uncomfortable to sit on, since the young musicians were worried about dirtying the pristine furniture.

  Mr. Gracie was on the phone when they entered, but he motioned them in anyway, leaning back in his chair and touching the earpiece in his ear.

  “I understand completely,” he said. “I need you to stop worrying, though. It will be alright.” He listened to the other person speak as he motioned the musicians to sit on the couches around the glass coffee table to one side of the room. The younger people in the room spent their time looking around the office, studying the numb
er of awards won by both 4Ever and RM Entertainment as the CEO finished his phone conversation.

  “You don’t need to worry yourself with my troubles,” Mr. Gracie teased. “There will always be drama when running an entertainment company. It’s part of the business.” He laughed at whatever the other person said on the line. “Very well, we’ll meet up for drinks when you’re back home.” He leaned forward, his finger hovering over the button to end the call. “Alright, I have to say goodbye now, I have a meeting. Okay…okay, goodbye.”

  Taking out his earpiece, he stood and straightened his tailored coat, walking around his desk.

  “Sorry about the delay,” he said, walking to them. He shook hands with each person individually before taking a seat in the only armchair in the sitting area. He leaned back, his shoulders square and his posture strong. The musicians felt themselves become nervous. “You can all relax,” he assured. “You are not in trouble. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

  They waited nervously for him to elaborate.

  “You have exceeded even my expectations,” he continued. “And the only reason I called you up here is so that I can tell you all personally how pleased I am with your performances and your drive to succeed.”

  “Thank you, sir,” they all murmured, trying not to beam with pride at his praise.

  “The sales of the digital single have been higher than expected, and there are many who are already demanding an album. Which we will consider after we hear the response from the Outdoor Show.”

  “Then…we’re performing at the Outdoor Show?” Leah asked hopefully.

  “Yes, Ms. Dillon. You are performing at the Outdoor Show.”

  Before she could help herself, Leah let out a triumphant shout and leapt to her feet, dancing excitedly. The others were also excited, but they managed to remain seated, laughing loudly and giving one another high-fives. Mr. Gracie smile broadly as Alex yanked Leah back into her seat by the back of her shirt.

  “This will be a very big performance, though,” Mr. Gracie said seriously, though he was still smiling slightly. “Your ability to project the energy to your club audience has been incredible, but there will be nearly fifty-thousand people in attendance and that energy is going to have to translate to all those people and the cameras that will be constantly on you.”