Chapter Twenty-Six
Lila (Thursday)
I bit down on my nails as I watched Kyle playing the piano across the room. I was supposed to be writing the damn lyrics that I still couldn’t quite get my head around, but my mind was somewhere else entirely. I’d gotten a few bits down, the odd start to something that could become a song, but I was nowhere near refined with it.
I just couldn’t get that argument out of my head. Michael’s words kept spinning round and round in my mind:
“Kyle, then. He’s just the piano player; we can get that without him. It’s Lila who has the real talent.”
This wasn’t good, not at all. This was our dream sinking down the toilet, and I felt terrible for knowing that without telling my brother. I wanted to talk to him, to let him know, but I couldn’t bear to rip that shine away from him.
“Are you hanging out with Xander later?” he asked me over the twinkle of his keys. He had a massive grin on his face, still floating on air and thinking that everything was going to be all right. Eventually, I was going to have to crush that dream.
“Yeah, I am.” I’d been texting him all week long, acting like everything was all right, but I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to keep up that facade to his face. The weights were piling down on me, and any minute now, I was going to crack. “I don’t know what we’re doing yet, though.”
“You could hang out here; we could all have dinner together. I’ll do my best not to monopolize him this time.” He smirked at me, and I tried my best to match his expression. “Before then, we could take a look at new apartments. Have you seen anything yet?”
“No,” I whispered, that ice cold claiming my heart once more. If this studio deal didn’t work out, then we’d be back to struggling to pay each bill. I would have to go back to the diner with my tail between my legs. “No, I haven’t yet. Maybe we should hold off looking.” I couldn’t stand for him to get his hopes up just to have them dashed. “Maybe we should get this album done first.”
Kyle stopped playing and turned to look at me with sadness in his eyes. “Are you still worried about writing that last song? I can help you with the lyrics, if you like? I’m not necessarily great with words, but I can have a go.”
“No, no, it isn’t that.” I sighed deeply, knowing that if there was ever a time to be honest it was now. “Look, when I went back into the studio on Monday, I overheard a conversation that... that... Well, that I didn’t want to hear.”
“Has Xander done something?” His eyes narrowed, his gaze turned sharp. It was almost as if he’d been waiting for something like this to happen. “Has he hurt you? What’s going on? I thought that you’d been strange since Monday. Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“No, no, it isn’t that. Xander actually defended us.”
“From what?”
I stared into his eyes for one last second, wanting to absorb the way that he looked when his dream was still alive. I was about to rip that from him, and I hated myself for it. “Apparently, the studio is dying.” My eyes were already welling up. I wasn’t going to be able to get through this anytime soon. “I overheard Michael yelling at Xander, telling him that the place was running out of money and they needed to cut artists.”
“Shit.” The penny dropped, and the light flew away from his expression. “Shit, okay, that’s scary. Do you think we’re going to be cut?”
I couldn’t stand to tell him that our names had been mentioned specifically, or more like his name, so I shrugged and answered in a blasé way. “Well, I guess we were the last ones in, so it makes sense for us to be the first out.”
He sat back in his seat, his face turning pale. He was nodding for too long, worrying me. “Okay. Well, we’ll be okay, won’t we? We’ve been through harder times than this... If anything, at least we’ve managed to pay off some of our bills in the process.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s one silver lining.”
“Oh, God,” I cried at a knock at the door. “That’s Xander.” I looked back at Kyle, wondering if he was going to be able to face this. “Shall I send him away?”
“No, no, let him in. I’m okay.” He smiled thinly at me. “It’ll be fine.”
I felt awkward as I swung the door open and strange as Xander leaned down to kiss me. I had no idea what was going to happen next and that had me anxious.
“Oh, hi, Xander, why don’t you come in?” We hadn’t made any specific plans for the day. He’d just said he would come over and we’d go from there, so it would be weird not to let him in. I just needed to keep acting normal.
As he walked into the living room, my heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat. If I was freaking out and unable to act naturally, I had no idea what Kyle would do. What if he was only trying to be nice before and actually he didn’t want to be around Xander at all? What if I’d made a huge faux pas letting him in? Maybe I should have made some sort of plan in my mind so we could just go.
“Hi, Xander. It’s good to see you again,” Kyle said, sounding natural.
“You, too, at the piano as always. What are you working on today?”
I moved into the kitchen to make some hot drinks while I steadied myself, half listening to them talk as I did. Things seemed to be all right, they were talking about music, planning the damn last song as they went.
I was starting to think that maybe we could just overcome this entirely, while we waited for something to happen either way, then I heard the next dreaded words leaving Kyle’s mouth. “So, Lila told me that things aren’t looking good. What’s going on there?”
My heart stopped dead in my chest. How could he just attack the awkward topic like that? I’d wanted to ask Xander about it again for days, but I couldn’t think of the right words for it. I was only able to ask in the studio because I was in so much shock. I grabbed the mugs quickly and raced back into the living room, my brain whirring desperately, trying to find a way to make this all right again.
“Yeah, well, I had a bit of a spat with Michael.” Luckily, Xander didn’t sound too pissed off by this direct question, which was a good thing. “But I’ve been talking to the accountant for days, and I’m working on a plan. Please don’t worry about your future. I know for certain that you and Lila are safe.”
Was that because we were hooking up? I didn’t want to keep our dream alive based on my sexual prowess. I didn’t want Xander to get into financial trouble over us, no matter what else happened.
“Oh, right, because we would understand.” It seemed like Kyle was possibly thinking along the same lines as me. “We were the last ones in.”
Xander stood up, smiling, and patted Kyle on the back. “You guys do not need to worry, trust me on that. I haven’t ever had the pleasure of working with two such lovely people. You two are going to make me enough money to never have to worry again.”
Kyle laughed happily, totally falling into Xander’s promises, but I felt a little strange about it. How could he be so sure that we’d be a success? How could he be so frivolous with his money? I needed to get out of the room, to take some time to adjust to all of this, and there was only one way that I could think of to deal with that.
“I’m going to make some lunch,” I told them both. “Why don’t you guys work on the music a little more?”
“Sure, sounds good.”
As I flicked the oven on, I took some deep breaths and tried to steady my nerves. Maybe I was overreacting, acting totally crazy and freaking out over nothing. After all, Xander knew what he was talking about. He’d been working in the music industry long enough to figure out what he was doing and know what would work.
He wouldn’t throw his company down the toilet for me, would he? He wasn’t that naive. He’d probably been in all kinds of relationships before, I had no idea what we were really; maybe I should just accept it that we were talented.
Why would he want to get rid of Kyle anyway? Even if someone else could play the piano, no one could do it like him. It would be much more likely that he’d get rid of me first. Anyone could sing; there would be other people who could write songs much better and far quicker than me. I was making a mountain out of a mole hill.
By the time I actually took food out to the table and we all sat down to eat, I found myself much more upbeat. Things would work out. We would find a way to make things work even if this plan didn’t pan out. Kyle and I had been through worse; we could get through this as well.
“So, are we going to spend the rest of the day writing these lyrics?” Xander smiled happily at me. “Kyle told me that you were struggling, so why don’t we work together to get it done?”
That sounded nice. Maybe I’d spent too much time piling the pressure on myself. I was struggling, but I’d been too proud to ask for help before. Now, I needed it more than ever before. Plus, maybe it would be fun to work on it as a team.
“Yeah, okay.” I smiled slowly. “That sounds good. You two can be my employees for the day. I can boss you around, demand drinks and snacks, and then you can give me ideas, too. Maybe I’ve been looking too hard for inspiration, when all I needed was some manservants.”
“What have you gotten us in for?” Kyle shook his head at Xander. “Rookie mistake. She’s gonna take that power and run with it.”
“Not when she hears all the awesome ideas I already have.”
As the two boys started batting ideas around the table, I grinned happily to myself. This was awesome. I was the luckiest person alive to have these amazing people in my life. As I sat back and took a swig of my drink, I felt like everything was right with the world. Finally, after years of having it hard, things were going well, and I honestly couldn’t see anything getting in the way of that.
Every time I was scared that things were going downhill, something pulled them right back up again. Xander had this magical knack of making everything work out.
I felt like this could possibly be the start of my happy ever after.