Holding the Tempo (Needing Harmony Book 4)

Chapter One

“Stop touching your face so much.” Lillian smacked my hand away for the tenth time.

“We’re almost done.” Hazel leaned close enough for me to stare at her slightly parted lips as she put more makeup on my face and then used her finger to mess with it. I swore she was giving me clown eyes.

“Why is there so much makeup? The costume isn’t that hard.”

“We’re doing that pop-punk look—it takes creativity. You’re a beautiful girl, Cadence, but the whole ‘I’m gonna kick your ass’ isn’t you.” Lillian flashed a big smile. “You’re bubbly.”

“I’m…bubbly?” I tried to understand what that even meant. Bubbly? Wasn’t that about being a happy-go-lucky person who laughed all the time? Wasn’t that for people who lived only in happiness?

Hazel laughed. “If you were a social girl, you’d be giving us a run for our money. You could probably take over the school if you wanted to.”

“You’re adorable,” Lillian said in agreement. “You easily put people at ease when they see you. Draw them in.” She smirked, her eyes sparkling with humor. “The guys would agree with us.”

I didn’t know what to do with their compliments. It was hard for me to believe. My looks had never been a priority in my life. I knew I was decent enough, looked fine in what I wore, but that was as far as my thoughts went. I didn’t have time for anything else as I focused on music and surviving.

“So, you’re trying to turn me into Avril Lavigne,” I remarked, doing my best to change topics. When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see what they saw. I saw a girl who carried enough of her dad’s features to make her mother despise her. I saw a girl trying to fight to breathe each day. I saw the pain I felt every day.

As if sensing my downward spiral of thoughts, the dull pain in my back spiked to life, but only briefly. Then it went back to the dull ache that seemed to follow me around today. The only remaining physical proof of my mother’s attack that sent me to the hospital and left me with a spinal injury that didn’t want to go away.

Everyone kept telling me it could be worse. That I could have been stuck in a wheelchair. I didn’t feel so lucky when I woke in the middle of the night with back spasms. Or ached just trying to lift things from the floor. The most frustrating thing was when I needed to sit at my piano for a long span in the proper position. My back really didn’t like me doing that. My music, the one thing I had that I loved, suffered because of an injury my mom caused. It was a bit comical, really, considering Lindie had always prioritized my music over anything. It was what’d allowed her to live comfortably. And then she’d even damaged that.

The doctors were hopeful my spine was going to heal. The longer the pain lasted, the less sure I was. But they all kept saying the same thing over and over again. Spinal injuries took time to heal. I just needed to be more patient. To keep waiting. To keep dealing with the pain.

Lillian broke me from my thoughts as she said, “Avril’s style has always been kickass. She’s a classic icon. Edgy with that rock and roll attitude.”

“You are going to be the perfect Avril Lavigne as soon as we sharpen your features more,” Hazel said.

“And darken your eyes more,” Lillian added.

I sighed and let them keep working. I had asked for their help after all. Well, more like I told Micah the theme this year, and he got them on board to help me. They were the last people I had expected when I opened my front door though, and they’d been more than happy to torture me for the last two hours.

My plan had originally been to just work up until the Halloween party, then toss on a boy band black T-shirt with dark jeans and head over to Seth’s to join everyone.

The twins, Lillian and Hazel, arrived early enough to let me know my plans had changed. A text from Micah verified it. I’d been tricked for Halloween, apparently.

Unfortunately, the twins made it really hard to be mad at them. While they were the most popular girls at school, top grades, top players in volleyball, and respected all around by everyone, including teachers, they were still down to earth and cared more than most people our age did.

There was a story there. It’d been hinted at, but I let it go. These last few weeks, they’d made it a point to claim me as their friend, and they had no trouble standing up for me. They acted like we had been friends for years, not for a month.

I didn’t have the heart to make them leave.

Now they were turning me into Avril Lavigne. The theme tonight was music bands. I picked out the boy band for the guys and they picked out mine. I had originally wanted to dress up like an obsessed fan, but Toby and Paxon refused to let me get away with it.

“Damn, the angsty teen look is coming out perfectly.” Lillian’s grin stretched all the way across her face. “We need to tease the hair a bit more. The makeup is spot on though.”

“Great, time to go,” I said.

My phone buzzed, and I picked it up, expecting a text from one of the guys.

Micah: If I knock any harder, my knuckles are going to bleed.

Me: Isn’t that what a doorbell is for?

“Micah is here,” I said.

Hazel visibly brightened. “I’ll go get him.” Then she disappeared before anyone could say anything else.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Lillian.

She smirked and just shrugged before messing with my hair some more.

“That’s all I get?” I asked, unable to hold back my curiosity. I had noticed they’d begun hanging out soon after Micah transferred to our school, but I didn’t realize it went deeper than that.

“There really isn’t anything to talk about. Yet,” she said.

I made sure my expression told her I wasn’t impressed with her answer. She laughed. “All right, we’re done.”

“About time,” I mumbled and stood up. I went over to the tall mirror leaning against the wall in my bedroom and then did a double take. “What? How?” Speechlessness stole all my thoughts. “This is me?”

I was still me, but somehow sharper. Harsher. Punkier. My chestnut brown hair was parted to the side with a strand at the front dyed hot pink. Dark eyeliner. Nude lipstick.

“The power of makeup. We sharpened your features, made sure your eyes popped, and the hair brings it all together. You look like you’re ready to rock on stage for the night.” She went over to her bag. “We brought more accessories to finish off the look.”

By the time Micah came up with Hazel, I was finally dressed. I had a white tank top with a pink skull on it, covered by a black leather jacket. I finished it off with a red plaid skirt and black ankle boots. Then Lillian tossed on the accessories. Bold silver rings, chunky red and black bracelets. Chains. Studded belt for my skirt.

“Whoa, it’s like I’m looking at the real thing.” Micah gave a cat call, making me smile.

If I had to pick only one boy to gain the sweet title, it’d be Micah. He was an artist type, enjoying writing poetry the most, but I saw his sketchbook and he was good at that too. He was nice all around, protective. And super cute too. He was my height with curling brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a dimple-filled smile.

Micah was also my oldest best friend.

“What exactly are you dressed as?” I asked, taking in his spiked-up hair with blond tips, the piercings on his face, and the dark clothing. I knew for a fact none of that was real. Micah had always been against piercings. Even to just do his ears. I’d been trying to talk him into at least doing his ears for a long time.

No way he’d suddenly have ten piercings in his ears, one in his nose, and one in his lip.

Plus, his dad would murder him. His mom would probably laugh it off, but definitely not his dad.

“No-name rock band,” he said.

“Right.”

“We helped him too,” Hazel said, sounding all too proud.

“So they tortured you too?” I asked.

He nodded slowly. “Relentlessly.”

I snorted and made sure to have my phone and keys. “What about you guys?” I asked the twins.

“Oh right. Give us five.” Lillian grabbed a duffle bag and the two of them hustled away.

“It took them two hours to work on me. Why do they only get five minutes?”

“Because we’re pros,” Hazel called out.

Micah laughed as he came over and sat on my bed. “How are you doing?”

“Fine.”

His eyes narrowed and he patted the mattress. “That’s code for not fine. Talk to me, Cadence.”

I grimaced and joined him on the bed.

“What is there to talk about? Shitty things keep happening to me, and I keep trying to deal with it. Tonight is Halloween, and I don’t really want to deal with it. I just want to go have fun with the others.”

“Then tonight, we’ll have fun, and tomorrow, while you’re hung over from all the sugar, I’ll come back to harass you.”

I smiled, knowing he would too. I hadn’t been a good friend to him lately, but he was still by my side. That was how amazing he was as a human being.

“Well, hopefully not too hung over. I already fail at sleeping.”

“Nightmares?”

I snorted and looked at my nails. They had been painted pink and black in a checkerboard style. Hazel had done a really good job.

“If I think about it too much, I’m going to scream. I’m tired of thinking about it. At least for tonight.”

“Okay. Then we won’t. For tonight. I promise.” He held out his pinky to me.

I chuckled and we locked our fingers together, pinky-swearing. It was such a kid thing to do that I loved Micah all the more for it.

“Okay!” The twins jumped into the room.

One of them had red hair and was holding a microphone. The other had blonde hair piled high on her head and held a small toy guitar. Both of them were dressed country-like.

“Is that Dolly and Reba?” I asked as I took in the plaid shirt on Lillian and the red flower in her hair. Hazel had cowboy boots and short red hair.

“Ding ding. You’re good,” Lillian said.

I shrugged. “I know music.”

“Those look great,” Micah said.

“How’d you get done so fast?” I asked, trying to not pout. It didn’t even take them ten minutes.

“We only needed to put the clothes and wigs on. Our makeup was already done when we came over,” Lillian replied.

Now that she mentioned it, their makeup was nicely done while they worked on me. I had been too distracted at being poked at to look too closely.

“Let’s head over,” Micah said. He held out both his arms and the twins looped their arms through his. He puffed up his chest. “This nobody rockstar feels like someone now.”

They laughed as they left. I made sure I had everything and then followed, listening to their laughter, unable to keep from smiling as we crossed the street to Seth’s house.

The outside of the house was already done with spooky fun. There were spiderwebs all over, lights strategically placed, adding extra shadows and creepiness. There were ghosts floating around, zombies trying to get out of the ground, and glowing pumpkins lighting our path to Seth’s door.

We went right inside.

“We’re here,” I called out, hearing the deep murmur of the guys in the kitchen.

I took the lead, looking forward to seeing the guys.

As soon as I got to the door, I came to a full stop, my eyes widening as Micah grabbed on to me to keep from crashing into me.

Then I broke out laughing. Hard enough to snort. I would have fallen to the ground if Micah wasn’t holding on to me. Then he saw what I saw and broke out laughing too.

Pure, belly-aching laughter filled the kitchen. My vision blurred from the tears.

The guys did stick to the theme, but instead of the boy band outfits I had planned for them, they went in a completely different direction. All five of them wore wigs of different colors and dresses and clothes that were clearly not made for men to wear. Most of them looked like they had to squeeze into them.

Bryan wore a red wig, sporting a dress designed to look like the British flag. Paxon had on a dark wig, a red sports bra stretched over his hard flat chest, and loose black sweatpants on. Toby wore a blonde wig in ponytails, a too small simple off-white dress, sneakers and socks that went up to his knees. Seth was in leopard-print pants and tank top and a black curly wig. Justin had on tight, black pants, a black crop top, and black sunglasses. His wig was long, straight black hair.

“This is killing me,” I said, going into the room to let the others inside. My sides ached so hard, and it was becoming difficult to breathe. I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself. But then I saw the way Paxon’s sports bra stretched over his frame, showing off all his muscles, and I broke out laughing again. It was too ridiculous.

Every time I thought I was going to be okay, I’d see something else just as ridiculous that would set me off again. The guys just stood there, grinning big. Paxon and Toby even flexed to goof around.

“I can’t anymore,” I wheezed and turned to leave the room. “I was only joking when I had mentioned the Spice Girls outfits.”

“Are you really going to wear this?” Lillian asked.

“Naw, we just wanted to see Cadence’s reaction,” Seth said.

“Mission successful,” Toby said. “Now to go rock ourselves out so we can better match Miss Lavigne.” Toby squeezed by me, the pigtails of his wig brushing against my face. As he walked away, he had to pull down his dress as it rode up his legs. Laughter bubbled out of me again at the sight. That dress was so about to tear. He’d need help getting it off.

I hid in the living room with Micah and the twins while we waited. Micah was sweet enough to get me a cup of water as I worked through breathing exercises to try and calm myself. I nearly choked on my water three times before I was able to calm down.

“I did not expect that. Please tell me someone took pictures,” Micah said.

Damn. That would have been a great picture. “I was too busy laughing.”

“I snapped a quick one.” Hazel held her phone up. “I’ll send it to everyone.”

A moment later, my phone buzzed. I looked down at it and began laughing again. She actually got a pretty good photo of me nearly bent over with the guys in the background with shit-eating grins on their faces. They looked way too proud.

I absolutely loved it. And it reminded me that I didn’t have any photos of us. Two months of knowing each other, and this was the first photo I had of us. I made sure to save it, even sending to my email so I could mess around with it on my laptop later, maybe print a bigger version of it to frame. Seth had a bunch of photos lining his stairway and hallway. If I added this picture to it, how long would it take anyone to notice? I was tempted to find out.

The guys came back down shortly after and did a little show. They looked absolutely great. All of them wore all black, wearing skinny black jeans for men. Then they got creative for their tops. All of them were black T-shirts, but each one had different colored writing on it for different Backstreet Boys songs like ‘I Want It That Way,’ ‘Shape of My Heart,’ ‘As Long As You Love Me,’ ‘I Need You Tonight,’ and ‘It’s Gotta Be You.’ Bryan and Justin had a black suit jacket over their T-shirts. Seth wore a black fedora hat. Paxon wore a black beanie that said Backstreet Boys across it.

“Oh, this works really well,” Hazel said appraisingly.

“What do you think?” Paxon asked me.

“Agreed. You guys truly look like a boy band,” I said. “I love the shirts.”

“Great.” Toby smirked and glanced at Paxon. “Tonight is going to be fun. Now, we need to finish setting up. People are going to arrive before we know it.”

“What can I help with?” I asked.

“Just last-minute decorations. The snack table needs to get set up. Furniture moved. Breakables hidden away,” Toby answered.

“Breakables hidden away? Is it getting that crazy?”

“Of course not,” Seth said, glaring at Toby. “I already promised we were keeping it small this year. More relaxed.”

Toby shrugged as he began moving the furniture to the side of the room. I eyed him, noting how he was a little stiffer than normal. Something was up. He was clearly hiding it from us. “Sure, but you never know. Have you seen people dance these days? It’s all flailing limbs. I think at the last dance at school, a girl got a black eye from her dance partner.”

“Oh, Tracy,” Hazel said, giggling. “I remember that. Her boyfriend whacked her in the face when he was dancing, trying to show off. He’s lucky she didn’t break up with him then and there.”

“So much for showing off,” I mumbled. “I’ll work on the snack table. That I can do.”

“I already cleared off the dinner table. We can use that,” Seth said.

We spent the next hour making sure the party was all set. As soon as the time came, people were already knocking at the door.

“I got it!” Toby called out, way too excited. He and Paxon had set up a sheet against the wall and had a projector up. It was currently playing Halloween music videos. It was a really good hookup, frankly. More creative than I would have ever been.

Greetings were loud the moment he opened the door and a small group came through. I didn’t recognize any of them.

Something inside of me tightened as my nerves blazed through me. I hadn’t been around this many people since my assault last weekend.

Bryan caught my eye and gave me a reassuring smile. I returned it, reminding myself that I wasn’t alone. The others were here with me. So were Micah and the twins.

It was going to be okay.