by Alexa Davis
Something magical happened.
My voice came out strong and powerful. I appeared to find something special deep inside of me. I wasn’t sure where it had come from, how I’d managed to make it happen, but there it was. The song burst free from my chest and it felt incredible.
***
“Oh, my God!” Kyle cried happily the second we raced backstage. “You were amazing. You did even better than at home. Who knew you had such a powerful voice!”
“I know!” I giggled as hysteria consumed me. “I don’t know what happened, it just sort of… Well, I don’t know.”
“That is what you should be doing with your life,” he told me firmly. “You shouldn’t be wasting away in that gross old diner. I know we need the money to keep a roof over our heads, but I actually think you could make a career out of singing.”
“Maybe.” I was riding high, no longer scared about chasing after my newfound dreams. Maybe it was the adrenaline still coursing through me, but in that moment, I felt like I could tackle anything. I thought I was strong enough to take on the whole world. “Yeah, you might be right. We’ll have to go out and mingle in a moment, see what we can find.”
“You guys were amazing,” Jo gushed, wrapping her arms around both of us. “People love your story: two foster kids with such talent, making something of their lives.”
That last part might have been a slight exaggeration, but I was too happy to care.
“A bunch of people handed me cards to give you, and you got a tip, too. Now, I know what you two are like. I know you’ll insist that this money go to the charity, but they donated to us, too. You gave up your time for free, so please, just take this for yourselves.”
My cheeks were glowing with excitement. I felt like I could bounce off the walls. This was just such an incredible bonus. Now we didn’t even need to go and speak to people; they’d reached out to us. That three minutes had been life changing, but in the best way possible.
“Wow, thank you so much.” I peeked into the envelope to see a hundred-dollar-bill sitting there, which made my heart bounce. I could use that to ward off the electric company for a while, and since it was money we weren’t expecting, that was awesome!
“Oh, and here’s Xander again. You must meet him properly.”
I cocked my head in surprise. Jo said meet again, but I didn’t remember his face at all. Maybe she’d introduced him to us before the set – everything that happened before I stepped out onto stage was a blur.
And, I would’ve remembered this guy. He was gorgeous. Way out of my league, of course – in another class entirely – but I could dream. He had light brown hair cropped closely to his head, sparkling green eyes, and a smile I found infectious. I was grinning back at him without even realizing.
“You guys were amazing,” he announced happily, shaking Kyle’s hand. “Sorry I didn’t get to talk to you much before you went on.”
“Oh, that’s okay; it was a bit rushed.” Something about Kyle’s expression looked a bit star struck, which I didn’t understand. I didn’t know this man’s face, at all… But then again, I wasn’t totally up to date on the celebrity scene, though I didn’t think Kyle was, either. “And, thank you for your compliments; that’s great to hear.”
“And, you...” As Xander turned to face me, staring at me dead on, my heart fluttered and butterflies flapped violently in my stomach. He had this way of making me feel like I was the only woman on the planet. I felt scrutinized, but in a great way. “Your voice is wonderful. I’ve never quite heard anything like it.”
“Oh…” Oh God. My whole body was heating up with shame and excitement. I didn’t know how to feel. “Oh, right, thank you.”
“I mean, honestly, I’d love to—”
“Xander,” Jo pulled him away before he managed to finish his sentence. “I need you out on stage for a moment. We want to thank you formally for your donation.”
“Oh, no, that isn’t necessary.” He tried to argue, but Jo was a formidable force of nature. Once she wanted something, it was hard to turn her down. She just wouldn’t take no for an answer. It was impressive, really.
“Do you know who that was?” Kyle hissed excitedly into my ear, sounding more like a child than the grown up he was. “Do you understand who just complimented us?”
“No, please enlighten me.” I was trying to sound sarcastic, like I didn’t care, but I wasn’t sure I was pulling it off right. I was just as excitable as Kyle.
“That was Xander Runner… As in, Runner Records.”
Okay, that made my heart skip a beat. Runner Records I’d heard of. It was more of an independent outlet, but one that had produced a lot of successful artists. The label hadn’t been releasing many show-stopping records recently, but still… They were very well known.
“Are you serious?” I gasped, clutching my chest. “Oh, my God, and he just told me that I had a good voice.” My emotions were darting all over my body. I didn’t know where to even begin with my feelings. “What does that mean?”
“I think we need to stick around,” he told me, dead serious. “I think we should wait to see what he wanted to say to you. What if it was important?”
“You think… No, you don’t think, do you? He can’t….” Oh God, what if he wanted to sign us? That was too much to handle all in one go. I wouldn’t even know how to process that request.
“Look, look, he’s coming back,” Kyle hissed. “Just be cool, wait here and speak to him.”
I turned around to look at him with wide eyes and shock, but it was too late. Kyle was already gone. He’d left me to face this all by myself. I spun back around and smoothed down my dress, the tremors rocking my body once more.
“Oh, you’re still here.” Was it me or did Xander look pleased by that fact? “Good, I wanted to talk to you.”
“You did?”
“I don’t have much time because some of the kids asked me to come back and play more of their games, and you know how cute they are!”
My heart melted at that. A lot of people who came to this sort of event didn’t treat the kids like humans; they acted as if they were zoo animals to be looked at and examined, but not spoken to. It made them feel better about their own lives.
“But I wanted to give you my business card. I’d like to get in touch with you, if that’s all right.”
“You would?” I sounded like a broken record, but I couldn’t seem to stop. Full sentences were beyond me at this point. “Really?”
“I would.” He handed the card over to me, his hand brushing my skin as he did. Electricity prickled all over me, thoughts of where this one meeting could lead.
This could be the first day of the rest of my life. If Kyle and I got signed to some record label, we’d never have to worry about money again. We would finally have some security.
“Thank you,” I panted, no longer able to contain myself. “This is amazing.”
As he walked off, I felt like I was floating on air, like my body was somewhere else entirely. Am I dreaming? Is this actually happening?
“What happened?” Of course, Kyle reappeared now! The hard work was already done. “What did he say to you?”
“He gave me this.” I handed the business card over and watched my brother’s face burst into a big, beaming smile. “He wants me to call him.”
“Oh, wow!” Kyle clapped his hands together excitedly. “This is incredible. This could be it, the big break we’ve always been waiting for.”
Well, the big break he’d always been waiting for, this was something of a new dream for me. Still, it felt awesome to have it coming true.
Chapter 7 – Xander (Monday)
I felt on top of the world as I walked toward work on Monday. I always enjoyed starting a new week of work, not that weekends were much of a thing to me anymore, but today was extra special. Today I had something so exciting to get started on, and I couldn’t wait.
Saturday had been a great night – an epic night, in fact. Not only did I feel good ab
out helping all those children, even if the recognition up on stage in front of everyone did make me uncomfortable, but I also found that incredible female singer, with her amazingly talented brother on the piano.
The next big thing. I could just feel it in my bones. Their performance at the fundraiser had sent chills up and down my spine. They were magic, they were what we wanted. It was going to be awesome.
I couldn’t wait to tell Michael all about it. He would be as thrilled as me. To finally be able to kickstart our new project was just so awesome.
“Hey,” I exclaimed happily as I walked through the front door of the recording studio to see him buried in paperwork. “How’s it going?”
“You’re in a suspiciously good mood.” He eyed me curiously, looking me up and down to see if the answer was going to just reveal itself out of nowhere. “What’s going on?”
I couldn’t wait to tell him; it was Michael’s enthusiasm for the music industry that had made me want to hire him after we reconnected. It only took one hour of drunken conversation on that fateful night for me to just know that he would be perfect for my world, and I’d never regretted that decision.
“I’ve found someone,” I announced proudly, flopping in the seat beside him. “At the fundraiser, I found the people we want next.”
“Are you kidding me?” he scoffed, completely surprising me with his unexpected reaction. “You found ‘the next big thing’ at some cheesy benefit? Please.”
“I’m serious.” I felt myself go a little misty eyed as I thought about that night. Her voice had goosebumps popping up all over my body, his playing was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and on top of that, they were raw, totally unpolished, which meant they could give us exactly what I wanted. “They even wrote their own song, so we know they have talent there, too. Trust me, when you see them, you’ll be as blown away as me.”
“Oh, yeah? And when am I going to see them?” Why was he so skeptical? Didn’t he trust my judgement? Hadn’t I proven time and time again that I knew what I was doing? Okay, so maybe there hadn’t been any direct magic recently, but we were working to rectify that. This would change all of that.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t yet had a call from them, so I wasn’t able to come up with the answer Michael needed.
“I haven’t set up a meeting yet; I wanted to discuss it with you first,” I bluffed, hoping he wouldn’t be able to see right through me. “But whenever you’re ready, I can set it up. You can see them firsthand and eat your words.”
“You might as well get it done this week. We want to progress as soon as possible, right?”
I nodded, internally praying that I’d hear from this girl sooner rather than later. I probably should’ve taken her number, too. Maybe I made a big mistake with that one. I’d just been so distracted, wanting to speak to everyone before the night was up.
“Especially when you hear that Aiden’s agent has been on the phone again, insisting he needs to come back in.”
“Ugh, he’s a pain,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Let him get on with it, book him in. I know it’s hard, but try not to let him annoy you. Hopefully, it’ll all pay off in the end. Maybe we’ll be surprised by how well he does.” Even I didn’t believe that, but I had to try and get Michael off that topic as quickly as possible.
In that moment, my phone blared shrilly in my pocket, making my heart leap into my chest. I hoped and prayed it was going to be the girl from the fundraiser so I could get the ball rolling, especially now that I had something to prove with Michael. I glanced discretely at the screen and noticed it was a number I didn’t recognize, so I excused myself quickly to answer in private.
“Hello?” I glanced behind me as I answered, but Michael was ever the professional, back to work in an instant. “Xander Runner speaking.”
“Oh, hi...” It was a female voice, and she sounded very nervous, which I had to see as a good sign. “It’s Lila… we met at the fundraiser.”
Relief flooded through me. Thank God! “Hi, yes, I remember. How are you?”
“I... I’m good, thank you, I just wanted to call you because...” She trailed off, clearly having no end to that sentence.
“Because I asked you to?” I supplied. “Thank you very much. What I wanted to talk to you about was possibly coming in for a test recording, if you wanted to?”
Please say yes... I probably need this just as much as you do!
“Oh, wow, that would be awesome,” she exclaimed happily. “When would you like us to come in? And, for how long? And how many songs would you need?” Nerves transformed into excitement, which equaled a whole load of questions.
“Whatever you have.” I chuckled. “It’ll be more to see if we’re a good fit for one another, to see what we can do. I have a piano here, so there isn’t anything you need to bring with you. Do you think you’ll be able to make it Thursday morning? I’d like you to meet my business partner, as well.” I would just have to warn Michael in advance to keep away from her. He was great at never actually mixing his professional and personal life, but Lila, whose name I now thankfully knew, was stunning. Possibly too irresistible.
“That’s great. Kyle and I will see you then.”
As we said our goodbyes, I noted their names in the schedule, feeling good about it. Lila and Kyle. I had the strong sense that this was going to be an amazing new venture, and I didn’t feel like this was just hope anymore. I felt like I had something substantial to look forward to.
“That was Lila,” I told Michael proudly. “I have the new act booked in Thursday, so you will see exactly what I’m talking about then.”
“I hope you’re right,” he told me with raised eyebrows. “I do. We need this. I just don’t know if you’re going to find someone unique enough at a snooty charity thing.”
This seemed to have a lot more to do with the charity than anything else. That was fine. If he wanted to feel that way because of his own past, that was up to him. His mind would be changed soon enough, I just knew it.
“It’s got to be more fun than working with Aiden again, right?” I nudged him playfully. “Just remember that and this won’t seem so bad.”
“If their sound isn’t generic and they don’t have a stinking attitude, then they will already be beating him!”
“I don’t think we’ll have much trouble with that!” As I thought about her shy face, the way she looked so terrified as she stepped out onto the stage... This was a girl who’d be grateful for the chance, not someone who’d want to throw it in our faces.
“You know, these two are brother and sister, and they were fostered, too.” I could see Michael’s eyes glazing over, him shutting down as I once again tried to tackle the one subject that bothered him the most. “They have a great story, rising up over the hard start in life, making a difference...”
“I don’t think we need to focus in on that.” He shut me down in a heartbeat. “The world has enough sob stories. I don’t want to turn into that ourselves. People don’t just have to be their pasts, where they came from.”
A thick silence hung in the air, and I desperately wanted to reach out to my friend, to do whatever I could to help him, but I had the sneaking suspicion that wouldn’t be what he wanted. “Okay.” I finally nodded slowly. “We don’t have to talk about it. I wasn’t saying it for that reason, anyway. I was just telling you.”
“Yeah, okay... well, I don’t want to know.” The anger and tense muscles simply fell away in that moment and he seemed to become a shadow of his former self. It was almost as if the tough, adult exterior had simply fallen away, and all he had left was a sad, scared child. Every now and again, I got that feeling myself.
“I don’t want to think about anyone’s childhood, especially if it was like mine,” he sighed, breaking my heart a little bit. “I hate how people see kids with no parents, it isn’t fair. It isn’t like we chose that life, yet we’re the ones who have to suffer.”
Shit, is this him actually opening up to me? “I know. That’s w
hy I want to help...” I tried, but clearly, that was the wrong thing to say.
“That’s how you deal with it,” he snapped angrily, scraping his chair back. “I just want to forget. I don’t want to think about the orphanage or the endless families I had to stay with. I don’t want to recall being in the way or never being loved, never even having a stable home. I just want to forget about it.”
As he walked off, I realized how lucky I was. Sure, my situation had been similar, but it never stuck with me, it certainly hadn’t impacted on me as hard as it had Michael. I wasn’t sure how, but I’d managed to move past a lot of it without too much pain.
I had to stop trying to get through to Michael. I had to stop talking about it. If he wanted to forget about where he came from to move on, then I had to let him. We might have had a similar background, but it wasn’t identical, and it had affected us differently.
Anyway, that wouldn’t stop me from pursuing Lila and Kyle. Their story wasn’t just about that, and as soon as Michael understood that, his outer icy shell would thaw. He would see that they had talent, and I hoped he’d go on to respect them for that.
This had to work. I needed it to. I couldn’t imagine ever feeling so positive about anyone else, so it meant a whole lot to me. I wasn’t sure my enthusiasm would flow quite the same for anyone else. I didn’t think I could get quite as excited. I just needed to find a way to get Michael feeling the same.
Chapter 8 – Lila (Wednesday)
Oh, my God! I bolted upright in bed, excitement tearing through my body. I’d been that way ever since the phone call with Xander. I could barely contain myself. The fact that Kyle and I were going to go into a real recording studio to sing our song was incredible. It was the sort of thing that I never dared dream would happen to us.
Yet tomorrow, it would. Tomorrow could be the biggest day of our lives.
I jumped up and paced my bedroom, my mind spinning over everything. We had our one song, the one we’d done at the fundraiser, and we’d been spending time over the last few days working out some lyrics for Kyle’s other pieces, but I still didn’t totally feel ready. What I wanted was something nice to wear.
