3. Emerson
“This is not good. Not good,” I repeated over and over as I paced the length of the living room.
Tilly was following me, desperate to figure out what I was talking about. She kept asking who Stone was, but I couldn’t gather my thoughts long enough to explain the history between Stone and my family. She was left in the dark, trying to piece together a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces.
Finally, I stopped pacing, and Tilly almost ran straight into me. Her hands wrapped around my upper arms to keep herself upright. She took this moment to stare into my eyes. “Emerson. Who is Stone?” she asked.
I blinked a few times, realizing that this was real life—I wasn’t in a nightmare. Reality came crashing down around me as I whispered, “I can’t stay here if my neighbor is Stone Walker.”
“That doesn’t explain anything,” Tilly said. I could hear her frustration as she pulled out her phone and typed Stone’s name into her search bar. “Stone Walker is the Tennessee Tiger’s Super-Bowl-winning receiver.” She glanced up at me. “You know him?”
I plopped down on the couch to my left and buried my face in my hands. “Stone was best friends with Cayden until Stone stole Cayden’s scholarship to play at the University of Texas. Cayden wanted to play for them ever since he could throw a ball.” I glanced over at Tilly so she could see my panic. “Cayden would kill me if he knew who was living next door.”
Tilly frowned. “What? Why?”
Frustration boiled up inside of me. “Cayden hates Stone. They’re, like, Capulet-and-Montague-level rivals.”
“But Cayden can’t play football after his ATV accident.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. To Cayden, Stone stole everything from him. Stone stole his future. And if my parents found out?” I sucked in my breath. “They would march me out of this apartment so fast.” I winced at the drama that would ensue. It would epically explode the already fragile threads that held our family together.
“Even if you’re just living next door?”
I nodded. “That won’t matter to Cayden. This”—I waved my hands to encompass the walls around us—“is over before it even began.”
“But I already told Poppy that you would take the apartment. I can’t just pull back now. Plus, we got the money. I can’t just give it back.”
I stared at her, frustrated that Tilly didn’t understand how dire this situation was. There was no way I could live here anymore. It had been hard enough when I told my parents that I was going to live in the same state as Stone. For them to learn that I was living next door to him would be the final nail driven into the family coffin.
My family was why I was so driven to be discovered. Cayden had lost his chance, but I still had mine. If I could only get luck back on my side, then maybe I could heal the mess.
“Tilly, I just…can’t.”
She pulled back and started to pace. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she closed her eyes and tipped her face toward the ceiling. The silence in the room was deafening, but it was finally interrupted with the sound of her phone chiming.
She stopped moving and pulled her phone from her back pocket and swiped it on. I watched as her eyes scanned the screen before she looked up at me. She held my gaze for a moment and then slipped her phone into her back pocket and clapped her hands.
“Here’s what I think we should do. Let’s just put a pin in this for now and get ready for a gig tonight.”
All thoughts of Stone and Cayden faded into the back of my mind as I focused on her last words. “Gig?”
Her smile widened, and her eyes were sparkling now. “Yes. Someone had to cancel, and we got their slot at Night Spirits.”
My heart started pounding as I held her gaze. “You’re lying.” I couldn’t hold in the squeal that emerged despite my best efforts. “Please tell me you aren’t lying.” This was what I needed to help soothe the wound of having to give this place up.
“I’m not lying,” she said as she crossed the space between us and held onto my hands. “And the best part?”
I stilled so I could take in what she had to say. “What’s the best part?”
“If you lived here, you could just walk to the bar.”
I narrowed my eyes at her but inwardly cursed my best friend. She always seemed to know what to say that would cause me to throw my resolutions out the window.
“Don’t start,” I said as she pulled open the front door. Even if I agreed to live here, my things were still at my old apartment, which now felt like a suffocating shoebox. I was never going to be happy with what I could afford after knowing that I could have lived here.
I tried to hurry Tilly along as I stood on the landing, waiting for her to lock the door. The last thing I needed was for Stone to come out of his apartment and discover me standing a few feet from his door. I was certain that Stone felt the same for the Kings as the Kings felt for Stone. We were all better when we were nowhere near each other.
I hooked my arm through Tilly’s as we waited for the elevator to take us down to the parking lot. Tilly was going on and on about all the famous people who had played at Night Spirits and how, depending on which scouts were there tonight, this could be my big break.
My stomach was twisted into knots as I climbed into her car. I finally had to beg her to talk about the weather as she drove me back to my apartment. Once we got inside, I hurried into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
I walked out to grab a towel to find Tilly ripping open already packed boxes of clothes to find the right outfit. I gave her a pointed look, but she just waved me off stating that she would spend the night repacking them if it meant me getting a talent scout interested in my songs.
I smiled as I disappeared into the bathroom to shower. Once I was finished, I dried off and then slipped on my satin robe before sitting at my vanity with my hair wrapped up in a towel. I busied myself with putting on my makeup while Tilly settled on a pair of distressed overalls with a strapless lace tank. She found my jewelry box and laid out some chunky bracelets with blue stones and varying lengths of necklaces for me to wear.
With my makeup finished, I worked on curling my hair, so it lay in soft waves around my face and spilled down my shoulders.
It was 7:15 when we finished, and my stomach was grumbling, but I was too nervous to eat. I slipped on my cowboy boots, and she slipped on her tennis shoes. We grabbed our purses and headed out the door. My time slot was 10:30, and we still needed to drive back downtown with bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Thankfully, we got to Night Spirits by 9:30. We had to park a few streets away, and I could feel Tilly’s gaze on me as we met up on the sidewalk. I knew what she was thinking. If I lived in Poppy’s apartment, we would be there already.
I just gave her a big smile as I shifted my guitar case to my other hand, so I could link arms with her as we made our way down the sidewalk. I was shivering with excitement by the time we got to the front doors of Night Spirits. A bouncer was standing outside, and he raised his eyebrows as he studied us.
Tilly told him that I had a time slot and showed him the email on her phone. He didn’t speak; he just nodded and stepped to the side so we could enter.
The place was packed as we slipped through the doors. There were so many bodies that we had to keep to the walls to get through. I kept my guitar close to my body, so it wouldn’t hit anyone. I followed Tilly over to the DJ booth sitting on the far wall. The music and crowd were so loud that I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but when the DJ flicked his gaze in my direction, I knew they were talking about me.
Tilly turned toward me and extended her hand. “Give me your guitar,” she yelled as she leaned in.
I frowned, but she just wiggled her fingers. “Troy said he’d keep it back here until it’s time for your set.”
I hated giving my guitar away. It was like giving up a limb. But there was no way I could hold onto it in this crowd, so I reluctantly handed it over. Troy lifted it over the table and tucked it against the wall behind him.
Guitar-less, I followed Tilly as she pushed through the crowd to the bar. She ordered a basket of fries and two beers. Once she had the items in hand, we squeezed our way through the crowd until we got to the tables set in front of the stage. Thankfully, just as we approached a table, a group of drunk women got up, so we dropped down onto the seats before anyone else could.
We ate and bobbed our heads to the music, unable to talk over the bass blaring from the speakers and the conversations going on around us. The fries disappeared, and all that was left was the beer. I sipped it, not really liking the taste but needing it to calm my nerves.
Tilly tapped me with her foot. I drew my attention up to her, and she smiled. “You okay?” she mouthed.
I forced a smile and nodded. “Just nervous,” I mouthed back.
“You’ll do great.” She gave me a big smile.
It was moments like this that I was grateful I had Tilly in my corner. She had this level of optimism that I could never seem to conjure up for myself. It was silly, but with my family’s bad luck, I went into every situation with a pessimistic attitude. Tilly always managed to help me see the sunlight through the clouds.
We enjoyed the next few sets, but when Tilly moved to stand and I followed after her, everything around me began to fade away. All I could think about was what I was going to sing. I took slow breaths as we picked up my guitar from Troy and followed his directions to get backstage.
I stood offstage, watching the band currently performing finish their song and gather their things. Tilly was talking to me, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t make out what she was saying. All I could hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears.
The MC grabbed the mic and introduced me before extending his hand to invite me onstage.
“Smile!” Tilly hissed into my ear before she pushed me to get moving.
My feet carried me across the stage. I managed to thank the MC and wave to the audience before I grabbed the stool that was brought out for me. I strummed a few chords on my guitar to tune it. In the familiarity of those actions, I could feel my nerves slowly melt away. It was just me and my music.
That was all I needed.
I closed my eyes and tipped my face up to the microphone. My fingers fell into place on the strings. I sucked in my breath before I parted my lips and strummed.
Just breathe.