46. Rae
Rae
Noah and I got the final mix of our duet, and he insisted we listen to it for the first time on a video call. He’s back home in Washington, and as soon as he answers the phone a little blonde woman is jumping up insisting she wants to say hi.
“Hi! Oh, wow, you’re gorgeous, you look so much like your mom. I’ve always been a huge Spencer Sparks fan.” She speaks a mile a minute and I chuckle, unfazed and already liking her.
“Sorry about her, this is my mom, Lily.” Noah snatches his phone back, but I hear Lily call out behind him that she has more to say.
“I like her.” I smile.
“Yeah, me too.” He closes a door and sets the phone down on a desk and opens his laptop. “You ready?”
“I’ve been ready and waiting on you.”
“Sorry, my parents love when I come home.”
“I get that.” I nod, not that I live far from them, but they act like I do sometimes.
“They’re the best.” He smiles brightly.
“It’s great you have such a supportive family.”
“You do too. You basically come from royalty.”
I bark out a laugh. “My family is the best too, but I don’t know about the royalty part.”
“I’m pretty sure if my mom met your mom, we’d have to scrape her up off the floor. Or put a muzzle on her because she may end up blurting out her rubber duck story she likes to tell everyone.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I may have to hear this.”
He waves me off. “Another time. Ready?”
I laugh. “Again, I’ve been ready.”
“Press play in 3…2…1.”
We both start the song in our own respective headphones, and I see Noah immediately close his eyes as soon as it starts.
He told me he has synesthesia so music turns visual to him.
It basically creates art only he can see.
Colors, shapes, like a painting in his mind.
I’m pretty jealous because it sounds like a cool talent to have.
I just feel the music through my entire body.
I don’t see anything, but it consumes me in other ways.
The song starts with me singing, the beat a little slower but starts to build, then there’s a chord change that hits with the addition of more bass as the chorus begins which is when Noah comes in.
It’s the first time I’ve heard the mix of our voices with the full back track and it feels even more powerful than when I was in the studio recording it.
It’s better than I could have imagined it would be.
The next verse is Noah alone, then after the second chorus we go to my favorite part, the bridge. It’s like we’re talking to each other, but really when I wrote it, I’m not talking to him, I’m talking to Grayson and Asher.
That’s exactly what I picture when I’m listening; the music builds even more and I swear I can feel it flow through every one of my limbs as we harmonize on the big belt then go into the final chorus.
I’m practically vibrating when the song ends. I look at the screen, beaming with excitement, and Noah matches my wide smile.
“I think we fucking killed it,” he says immediately.
“Me too. What does it look like to you?”
“It’s a mix of bright colors, but not in the obnoxious way. They all complement each other, and it’s like paint strokes starting at first as you get used to the picture, feeling it out. Then, that chorus hits and it explodes in color.”
“That sounds so cool.”
He nods. “It really is. I think we fucking did it, Rae.”
I start to agree, but there’s a loud banging at my door and I’m not expecting anyone. I double check my phone to make sure I didn’t miss a notification about someone being here, but there’s nothing.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, I just thought I heard something.” I try to keep my voice steady, taking out one of the headphones from my ears.
The pounding is back, louder, and it keeps going for longer. My heart starts to race, and I stare in the direction of my front door where it’s coming from.
“Are you sure?” Noah sounds unusually serious.
“I don’t know,” I admit, white knuckling my phone. My mind goes to the weird things that were happening. It’s been quiet for a little while, but this doesn’t feel right. Every part of me feels tense and with the overwhelming feeling that something is wrong.
The pounding stopped, but the unease remains. My chest rises and falls with heavy breaths like I’m just waiting for what’s going to happen next. My hands are shaking as I try to unlock my phone to call my security, but I manage to drop my phone from how sweaty and shaky I am.
“Do you need me to call someone for you?” Noah asks, clearly concerned.
“Um.” I kneel down, picking up my phone again and staying like that as I unlock it just in case I drop it again, especially because I’m shaking even more now. “N-no, I’m sure it’s nothing.” I try to convince myself.
“You sure? I can call your boyfriends for you if you need.” His tone is teasing and I rise up to glare at the computer screen at him.
“You just want an excuse to talk to them.”
He smiles. “You sure you don’t want to share?”
I shake my head. “They’re mine, but I’m sure they’ll be happy to know you’re more interested in them than me.”
He laughs. “I could feel their possessive vibes immediately, but I like them coming from you too.”
I appreciate his joking; it actually is helping my heart return to a normal speed. I think maybe I’m just on edge, but I still send a message to my security asking if anyone is here anyway.
“You can have anyone you want, but those two are mine.” I glare at him playfully.
“They sure are.” He winks. “You sure you’re okay though?”
“Yeah, it must have just been the wind or something,” I try to convince myself. Especially because my security hasn’t replied and that’s unlike them.
“If you want to give me your boyfriend’s numbers for safe keeping, you know, just in case,” he teases.
I chuckle. “Nice try. I’ll call them myself.”
“Enjoy.” He winks. “I think we both agree the song is fucking perfection, though, right?”
I almost forgot that was what we were even talking about. “Definitely. I want to do something big to premiere it. Like a surprise show or something.”
“I love the way you think, Sparks.”
“One condition.” I hold up my index finger. “I want it to be here in Denver.”
Noah agrees easily. “That’s fine. Amity is my home, but there’s nothing here, except a strawberry festival with no strawberries.”
I tilt my head to the side. “Why would it be a strawberry festival then?”
He shrugs. “No idea, but that’s just how it is.”
“Maybe I’ll go to the next one.”
“If you did, that would be the biggest thing to happen in this town…ever.”
“I doubt that. You’re from there.”
“And I’ve got nothing on the Rae Sparks.”
I shake my head. “Oh whatever. I’m going to keep listening to this masterpiece, but we will get something planned.”
“Have your people call my people,” he jokes and we hang up; surprisingly, I feel better.
Enough that I manage to leave my office I hardly use because I’m usually at my piano or outside.
As soon as I step out into the hallway, I try to shake away the uneasy feeling that returns.
It’s so quiet, and with winter around the corner the sun has set.
I’ve never been afraid of the dark, but right now there’s something about it that has my stomach flipping as I take another step
Quiet should be good. Quiet means I’m alone.
But the thought of how alone I could be is what’s causing the anxiety.
My security still hasn’t replied, and I send another message full of question marks.
I feel like I’m living in a horror movie, and lighting is going to strike outside my window any second.
Snow is falling, the thick flakes are starting to stick to the ground and window, but no thunder or lightning.
I do think about reaching out to Grayson and Asher.
Looking at the time, I realize Grayson is probably at the arena for his game already and I’m going to be late because this has distracted me a bit too much.
I decide to text Asher, knowing Grayson won’t be paying much attention to his phone.
Rae
There was a weird sound at my house, and my security isn’t getting back to me. Are you going to Grayson’s game?
He has yet to join me at one, but I feel like there’s been a shift lately, and I still ask. He also could be at the gym and not paying attention to his phone either. He usually is quick to reply to me, but when the message stays on delivered instead of read, I know that’s probably the case.
I’m sure everything is okay. I just need to change and go to Grayson’s game. I’m being overly paranoid, that’s all.
“Hey, Rae,” a voice I don’t immediately recognize calls out, and I freeze. I grip my phone tightly, shaking once again as I try to call my security. “I wouldn’t do that. I just want to talk.”
I look around, still not seeing where the voice is coming from, but then I see him at the bottom of the stairs, a large silhouette I don’t recognize. And when he steps into some of the dim lighting, I see his face, and rear back.
“Why don’t you come down here and we can get some things straight.” His tone is menacing and I’m completely rooted in place.
“Sh-shouldn’t you be at the arena?” I stutter. Grayson’s teammate, Chad Collins, steps one foot on the bottom stair and I take my own step back instinctively.
He lets out a rough laugh devoid of all humor. “You know I’m suspended. You can thank Wheeler for that. But I’m not here about him. I’m here because of you.”
“W-why?”
He smiles, and the look is so sinister a chill runs through me. “You didn’t reply to any of my gifts.”
“You didn’t exactly leave a return address,” I snark. The way his eyes darken, he clearly doesn’t like me talking back.
“I thought you were sweet and innocent, the perfect woman.” He takes another step, and I do the same backwards. “We could’ve been so good together. I always thought that. Then you went and ruined it.”
“Y-you don’t even know me.” My phone vibrates in my hand, signaling a text, but I don’t want to look down at it and risk him taking the opportunity of me being distracted. But I need to call someone or get out of here. Something.
“I thought I did. It should’ve been us, Rae. It was supposed to be us.”
I shake my head. “You didn’t have to do this. You could have just tried to talk to me and ask me out.”
He barks out a laugh. “Right. Would you have said yes?”
No.
“Maybe. You never tried. You jumped right to…whatever this is you’ve been doing.”
Stalking me.
“I wanted you to see there was someone better for you, especially better than Grayson fucking Wheeler.” He spits the name with so much venom I want to defend my best friend, but I know that’ll only make everything worse. “But then I saw you with him. Both of them.”
I swallow roughly, looking around for anything I could possibly use to defend myself if this escalates because with the way he’s talking and acting, I feel like it may.
Also, where the fuck is my security?
My phone vibrates again, and I hold it against myself hoping he can’t hear it go off.
“You’re fucking both of them, but wouldn’t even give me a chance?” He takes several more steps up the stairs, and I prepare to turn and run.
“I-I mean, maybe if you tried to talk to me, I would have—”
“Bullshit!” he yells. “You wouldn’t have, but guess what? They aren’t here now, are they?”
I try to hide the way I’m hyperventilating. “Wh-where…I have security. They’re right outside.” I try to sound more confident than I am.
He smiles, and it reminds me of some sort of super villain. “No, they’re not.”
“H-how do you know?” I look around, wishing there was a window nearby where I could try and scream or something. Even though that may make things worse.
“You know how powerful money can be, right? You grew up with plenty and I mean”—he looks from left to right—“you’re not lacking now.”
“You paid them off?” I question, not believing that would be enough for them to look past their job. Unless I’ve been very wrong about the people I’ve hired.
“Nah, that would’ve been easier. I hired my own guys to switch yours.”
I shake my head because that’s just not possible. None of this makes sense, but he’s here and clearly unstable.
“Asher is going to be here any minute,” I lie, hoping that if I say it, maybe it’ll be true. I would say both him and Grayson will be, but I’m sure he knows Gray is at the arena for the game already.
“No, he’s not.” He smiles. “I have you all to myself.”
“D-did you do something to him?” I panic.
“Not yet.”
I’ve heard enough, and this may be a mistake, but I know my house better than he does. That’s why I spin around and run.