24. Harlowe
My performance advisor was just as cool as Aurelia was. He said he was a soloist for the local symphony and had put out a few albums, but he enjoyed teaching. He’d also seen the video of me playing in the subway and understood why I was snatched up.
I had mixed feelings about that video. I was playing in public and putting on a show, so of course people might take pictures or film. Some of them might even post them online. It was who posted it that made me feel weird. Why did he do it?
Gadreel didn’t want me here, but that video helped me. I knew I was here because the owner of the school caught my performance live, but everyone else thought it was because this video kind of blew up.
I wasn’t reading the comments because it felt weird and masturbatory, but JaToya was.
I’d already been identified in the comments because it reached people from undergrad who I knew were playing in symphonies in Europe.
JaToya said a guy who played bass in a local band that didn’t totally suck and I went on one date with before deciding absolutely not was acting like it was more than one shitty date.
He was acting like we were soulmates and trying to use my video to promote his band.
Both of my advisors had seen the video and thought that was why I was here now instead of when it would make sense.
People here weren’t subtle. If they hadn’t seen it my first day, most of them had seen it now.
Cullen gave me a hard time about holding out on him and told me I could make it up to him by showing them my dance moves.
I spent most of my time writing. What could I say?
I was inspired. This was different from undergrad.
In undergrad, all the departments and classes were in different buildings.
The dance department and the music department rarely collaborated and the theatre department didn’t always have a musical in their season that year.
Cullen, Rue, and the rest of their friends were all over our dorm stretching and marking some of their choreography.
I never had the practice rooms to myself.
Some of the musicians hadn’t introduced them to me, but if I was working and one of them happened to be inspired by what I was doing, they’d improvise and join in.
It wasn’t annoying in the slightest. They weren’t playing over me or trying to compete with me. It just gave me new ideas for my piece. There was a cello player who liked to join me sometimes, and they played beautifully.
That strange hot guy, Topher, slipped into my practice room again. He leaned on the piano and smirked at me.
“Listen, I am very good at recognizing talent and putting it where it needs to be, but I don’t actually have any. Meadow is a big fan and likes playing along, but I think what your piece really needs is the right piano player, a ballet dancer, and someone painting while it’s played.”
“Are you insane?” I laughed.
Because it sounded like he wanted me to get Immortal Nightmare back together and make music with them. Those guys were way more talented than I was. I didn’t know why they were here, but if they wanted to get back on stage, they didn’t need me to do that.
“Only on Fridays,” Topher purred. “Friday, I’m also in love.”
Ugh. Today was Friday, and he was flirting. I wasn’t going there, even if he was exactly my type.
“Friday is when I tell off limits guys to keep it in their pants.”
He leaned in and his purple hair fell in his eyes. I could see his eyeliner up close and when he smiled, it was almost like he had baby vampire teeth.
“It’s pierced and tattooed. I made it pretty. If I took it out, you wouldn’t tell me to put it back.”
“Why are you here, Topher? Are you a secret Immortal Nightmare fan and are trying to get them back together?”
“Actually, I’m here on business. Your patron is somewhat of a spiritual father to me. He’d never presume to tell a woman what to do with her body or talent. It’s not an order. Do what you want, but he thinks you’d work well with them.”
“Misha is lovely, but Azriel scares me and I don’t think Orion likes me.”
“Orion hates everyone until they give him a reason not to. It’s not my story, but I don’t blame him.
Azriel is like a rabid chihuahua. He’s got his people and bites everyone else.
He has his reasons too. Misha can be lovely, but he’s also the worst of them when pressed.
You don’t have to like them. You don’t even have to do it if you don’t want to.
Surely, you’ve noticed even if you don’t play well with them, your music does. ”
I mean, yeah. I’d whipped my violin out while listening to them and improvised my own part. And I wasn’t stupid. Some of my pieces would sound fantastic with a piano. Throwing in ballet and visual art sounded amazing.
“What I want doesn’t matter. Luca either.
If they wanted a violin player, they would have found one.
I’m not making myself a target by asking to insert myself in whatever they have.
But since you are interrupting my rehearsal, you can answer some questions about your spiritual father.
Why does his brother think he’s Lucifer and trying to buy my soul? ”
“Controlling, powerful father, black sheep of a brother. Luca was disowned ages ago, and he didn’t even do anything wrong. He was paying someone a kind compliment and his family thought he was insulting them. Luca was punished and acted out. His family never really forgave him for it.
“Luca isn’t a bad person. He really does love the arts.
Probably a little too much. He doesn’t want your soul, he wants you to create.
Luca wants you to do something amazing while you’re here and he thinks you can do that with the Immortal Nightmare boys.
Again, it’s up to you what you do while you’re here. ”
“Well, I can’t do any of it if you keep crashing my practice room.”
“I think you like it when I crash your practice room.”
He wasn’t wrong. There was just something fun about him. Topher was easy to look at and talk to. There was also a fine line when it came to flirting. I either wanted to flirt back or kick you in the balls. Topher did it like he didn’t even take his own bullshit seriously. I liked that about him.
“I also think you said you don’t fuck students and I seem to recall me saying I’m not fucking someone who could have my career in their hands.”
Topher immediately backed off and took his elbows off the piano.
“We did say that, didn’t we?”
Maybe we were being stupid. He was exactly my type, and I wasn’t opposed to one-night stands or torrid affairs with the wrong man.
He seemed attracted to me too. Still, there were still people who didn’t think the video was why I was here.
I heard at least one whisper I was here because I fucked Faustus.
I didn’t need anyone thinking Topher got me in front of someone because I slept with him.
Which was a pity.
“In another life, I think we would have had some really hot sex if we didn’t have a really messy relationship.”
“Girl, you have no idea how messy it would have been. We would have been epic in another life. Think about something for me? We aren’t going to happen because I can make a career happen for you.
Your viral video helps, but you’re going to want to think about the kind of career you want to have and start moving your pieces now.
“Do your own thing and make more videos or collaborate with the Immortal Nightmare boys, but half of making it is talent and the other half is marketing. Figure out your marketing before someone else does. Something tells me you like being a nameless face in a group, but you’d be happier playing things you wrote yourself.
Make friends, Harlowe Lopez, and then collaborate and make beautiful art with them,” Topher said, disappearing.
Topher was right, and he saw me. I was actually doing this and a stranger in the subway believed in me enough to give me the tools to do it.
I could play in an orchestra and do weddings and events the rest of my life and be content.
But that secret part of my soul wanted to get up in front of a packed audience and play things I wrote.
I could quite easily do that by inserting myself into a relationship that seemed deeply enmeshed and seemed slightly unhinged when outsiders tried to involve themselves.
I didn’t particularly want to do that, even though it would be amazing to just make music with them. My current living space was small like my apartment, but it didn’t have ugly walls I couldn’t do anything about.
You weren’t going to catch me dead asking Orion Hart to write music with me, but I could make videos and try to build on the viral fame Gadreel decided to bring me.