15. Harlowe
All of this was weird and Faustus was kind of an ass who thought I should just be grateful and ignore all the red flags. I mean, I was, but I was also fully prepared to leave and sleep on JaToya’s couch until I could get another job and apartment.
I was excited about my composition advisor.
I was introduced to her music in undergrad by two of my professors.
I was given one of her violin solos for a jury and we performed an orchestral piece at the end of the year.
I ended up doing a deep dive into her and her works after I drank two pots of coffee to write a paper on tonal harmonies two days before it was due and then ended up not needing that much caffeine to finish.
Needless to say, I was a big fan of hers and nervous as shit. I didn’t know if this was going to be a never meet your heroes moment or I was just going to make a complete fuck muppet of myself. I did that sometimes.
My palms were sweaty and my heart was racing when I knocked on her door.
So far, only the dance students had been welcoming.
I hadn’t really interacted with the theatre, creative writing, or art students, but the music students didn’t like me.
Orion Hart didn’t play even play the violin and was way more famous than I’d ever be and he didn’t care for me much either.
I didn’t care about anyone else, but I really hoped Aurelia Barclay didn’t dislike me because of how I got here.
Oh, Motherfuck. Orion Hart answered the door. What was he doing here, anyway? I meant Blackvale in general, not this office. He just smirked at me and damn, he was pretty.
“Try not to look so disappointed. It’s bad for my ego.”
I looked down at my phone. I wasn’t super early, but I guess I’d interrupted their session. I grumbled an apology and moved to step back, but he opened the door wider.
“Sorry? I didn’t know it was your office hours. I can wait.”
“I’m Aurelia’s latest boy toy. We’re madly in love. She was just about to spank me.”
“You little shit. You couldn’t handle me. Stop harassing my students or I’ll make you stand in the naughty corner. Harlowe, ignore him and get your ass in here. He’s my new assistant.”
I hid my smile as I walked in. She might end up not liking me, but that just cemented it. I liked more than just Aurelia Barclay’s music. She pointed to a chair across from her.
“Sit. He doesn’t bite. I want to hear all about how you got here.”
“Um, I’m still not exactly sure.”
“Well, I saw the video of you playing in the subway. I caught your compositions and the half of the Devil’s Trill Sonata before the video cut out.
Devil’s Trill is technically demanding, but so were the pieces you wrote.
I’m more curious about what someone with your talent was doing in the subway instead of here or on an actual stage. ”
Oh. Some of us wanted our asses kissed and others were extremely uncomfortable with praise, especially when it came from other artists we respected. I was pretty sure I was about as deep purple as the polish on my toes.
“My mom got sick my last year in undergrad. She’s in the hospital now. There was an incident involving an influencer with less than thirty followers, a shitty manager who was breaking all kinds of labor laws, and an eviction happy landlord that led to me playing in the subway,” I grumbled.
“Sounds like fate.”
“Sounds more like a man with too much money and a brother who is deep in religious psychosis decided not to hire a car that day.”
Yeah, there was my mouth again, but I didn’t believe in fate.
I also wasn’t remotely religious. If someone had been meddling in my life, they hadn’t been very nice about it.
My mother caught my father cheating when she was just about to pop with me and kicked him to the curb.
I didn’t blame her for that in the slightest. Every time my life started working out, it tended to go ass up.
I wasn’t all that convinced it wasn’t going to do that now.
“You met Gadreel?” Orion said, perking up.
“I got stalked by Gadreel. He was the one who posted the video of me playing in the subway and he crashed my train ride here. I don’t believe his brother is the devil, but no one will tell me if his parents hate him enough to call him Lucifer.”
“He didn’t tell you to call him Luca?” Orion asked.
Well, that answered the question of his name, but not why his brother thought he was the devil. Cullen said Luca too.
“He never spoke to me. We broke eye contact, and he disappeared. Dr. Faustus showed up after that and invited me here, but I only had a day to decide and I had to come here at a weird time because apparently, they were worried I’d run and not come.”
“I see why they worried. You have this way of dipping into the dissonant and making us think you aren’t going to resolve it, but then you do it perfectly. What are you working on now?”
“Professor Barclay—”
“Aurelia, please.”
“Aurelia, I have about a dozen unfinished pieces on my laptop. My mother fell and broke her hip. I’ve been so worried, I haven’t been able to work on them. This Luca guy offered to pay for her treatment, which takes a huge load off, but I think I’m still in fight or flight.”
“What do you need to settle in?”
“I think just time to get used to this being my new norm.”
I could deal with everyone hating me except the dancers. I had ample experience dealing with weirdos like Gadreel. I just needed more than five minutes to deal with all of this.
“Let me see your schedule,” Orion demanded.
I resisted the urge to get him to say please because he’d been mostly helpful so far. I pulled it up and handed him my phone. He gave it a brief glance and handed it back. My schedule wasn’t super extensive.
“Klaus is a drama queen. If you’re going to be his assistant for orchestra until the end of the year, get his coffee right.
He’s not going to tell you how he likes it so he can yell at you.
Don’t make it from the regular coffee machine.
Go to his office and use his special coffee and he wants exactly two hazelnut creamers. ”
“His office is under the orchestra pit,” Aurelia said. “He’s not wrong. There’s been instances where someone was on probation and couldn’t audition for orchestra, so they were his assistant. He loves making people cry.”
“Good thing I have no feelings,” I deadpanned.
Good luck with that. There were some folks who couldn’t go out to eat, buy groceries, or deal with customer service without berating someone and trying to make them cry. I’d dealt with all of them. I was the reigning champ of that battle of wits.
Aurelia just laughed.
“Use that. I want you to pick one piece that resonates with you and work on finishing it. Obviously, I won’t be grading you, but I’ll be one of your composition professors next semester if I’ve been assigned your advisor. This will give you a leg up.
“Obviously, you won’t be working on everything that strikes your fancy.
I’ll be preparing you to take commissions and write for any job.
Sometimes, taking a commission you absolutely know is going to make you miserable pays your rent and opens the door to all kinds of new work.
That’s all for today. Book a practice room and do what you need to do to prepare for Klaus. That man is a lot.”
Okay, so I was officially getting excited about Blackvale Academy. I was excited for the assignments Aurelia was going to give me. She’d written for orchestras, movies, and musicals. I liked my creepy stuff, but I also loved a challenge.
I just had to get through the challenge of orchestra practice later.