Playing Autumn (Breathe Rockstar Romance Book 1) (20 page)

And as he thought that, Oliver realized that this was not the first time he had been made to feel this way. He’d always been one grade shy of the obvious choice for people. Unlikely winner of talent show. Unlikely member of the symphony orchestra. Unlikely rock star. He’d done all of this, but with skepticism welcoming every move. He had always thought,
so what?
and proceeded to prove them wrong, but that was the root of his recent problems, wasn’t it? Proving people wrong was the harder job.

“No,” he told Kari. “I’m not stealing Trey’s student. If she wants me to help, we do it in the open, and Trey can go suck it.”

Tomorrow’s Talent
was not going to like that he said that. But they weren’t here.

And if they shut down tomorrow because he failed to woo a pop star into a desperate collaboration, then so fucking what? Did he really think that a piece of shit song with the kid was going to save him, his best friend, and everyone else who depended on them?

***

“I think this afternoon we’re going to talk a bit,” Haley said as Mia walked into the library. “And you’re going to tell me about the song choice.”

Mia had spent the morning by herself, by choice, and showed up at the lunch performance to sing
Chasing Pavements
by Adele. It was her least affected performance yet, but Haley had to wonder if it was because she was feeling it for the first time, singing about giving up and all.

“It’s just a song,” Mia answered, but the corner of her mouth turned up wryly. “It’s not a message to you or anything.”

“Mia,” Haley motioned for the girl to sit down. “I’m obviously not a pop star or a record company executive. But I
have
been teaching music for years. It’s not always about knowing the words or playing the chords, is it?”

Mia gently laid her guitar down on the seat but didn’t sit down herself. “They didn’t tell you about my audition interview, did they?”

No, they didn’t. Mentors were given information about their students: the audition video, a copy of the application form, and notes from the audition process. The audition panel was Victoria and four other people, the composition of which changed year after year. The notes Haley got for Mia were minimal. If Victoria had personally made the decision to accept Mia, the notes would have been more extensive. But Haley had seen the audition video and on the strength of that alone, she understood why Mia was there.

“I was asked one of those dumb questions, whose career I imagined I’d have in five years,” Mia said. “I don’t know who asked it. Some guy who isn’t even one of the mentors now. I said I wanted to have Beyoncé’s career, and he laughed at me.”

Haley fought the urge to giggle herself. Mia, though talented, had but a sliver of the sass required to be caught resembling Beyoncé or her career.

“I know how unlikely that sounds,” she said defensively, “but I have an explanation. I don’t want to sound like her or anything, but I want the kind of control and power she has. I know it took her more than five years to get it done, but she’s from here, and she’s done it. I don’t want to be some puppet like Trey.”

“I respect that,” Haley said. It was almost the same thing as planning to win the lottery in five years, given the astronomic odds of it, but it made sense to want it. Everyone did. “We can’t all be like her though.”

“Exactly. I know all of these people I don’t want to be. I have lists of them. And I get asked who I wanted to be. I sounded
dumb.
It was exactly why I never wanted to
be
like other people, you know? Anyone I chose would be so much more awesome than me and I’d be sure to fail.”

Something clicked in Haley. It was another year, one of those Breathe Music Festivals from her past, a biting comment from a mentor about another student that stayed with her.
Poor man’s this. Poor man’s that.
Generally a student at Breathe Music didn’t want to hear that, not at this place, where each person elevated to the few slots available considered themselves special snowflakes. God forbid they go through the exercise of performing five times in a weekend and be labeled a “poor man’s someone else
.”

It wasn’t
her
issue. (Everyone had a personal issue, that weak spot. Haley’s was something else.) This was Mia’s.

“I get it,” Haley said. “I thought you did very well at lunch earlier.”

“Thank you.”

“You also have two performances to go. Do you know what you’re singing tonight?”

Mia shrugged. “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“And the concert tomorrow?”

“Not at all.”

Haley bit her lower lip and imagined Mia onstage, without the self-conscious hunch, the feeling of being cast and recast as someone else by herself and other people. It was hard. “We’re not going to be able to tell you who you are by tomorrow, I think. But let’s try and get you through? Show them something maybe you haven’t seen in yourself?”

When Mia finally did sit down, it was on the floor. For a moment Haley thought Mia had collapsed; she lazily dropped down, joint by joint. But she was okay.

“What’s it gonna hurt,” Mia said. “I’ll try anything now.”

Chapter 25

Trey hit him first.

The guy had never done this before, Oliver could tell. He kind of
threw
himself over, and that was Oliver’s own mistake that first time. Yes, an entire human body was capable of causing more hurt than a fist, but that strategy most likely led to falling. Pain received rather than inflicted. If anything, Oliver
caught
the guy, preventing him from hurtling right into the table.

Of course it didn’t seem that way to anyone else.

Ash screamed. It was a shrill one, like from a horror movie. John and Kari had jumped out of the way when Trey charged, but Kari’s portable keyboard and stand still toppled over as Oliver and Trey backed up into it.

The few minutes of weight lifting that Oliver got done this weekend wasn’t enough prep for an actual fight. Not that he had ever been ready for one, even when he was actually in one. Adrenaline helped, like it was helping Trey now, and Oliver didn’t exactly have it.

What he was able to do was grab Trey by the waist and haul him up before he crashed into anything.

“
Get your fucking hands off me!”
Trey yelled, kicking. “
You are over! You are done!”

“Oliver!” The voice that cut in was Haley’s, her hands pulling at Trey’s shirt, trying to extricate him from Oliver’s hold. “What the hell!”

It only worked because she got involved. Trey twisted away from them, grunting, checking his hair as soon as he got his footing back.

“You’re looking at me like I started it,” Oliver protested. “How’d you even…?”

Haley wasn’t mad; she was adorably flustered, confused, but not angry. “Kari came and got me. I told her to call hotel security next. And I don’t know, Oliver. Did you start it? You have a record.”

“I didn’t!”

“You provoked me!” Trey said. “What else were you expecting, stealing my student like that?”

Two phones in the room rang simultaneously. A moment later, there was one loud knock and then the door opened, letting in two guys in event security standard black.

Haley shook her head at them. “Guys, thanks, but I think we’re fine.”

“Take
him
away,” Trey said petulantly.

“Ash, John, please excuse us?”

Oliver didn’t say anything (learned not to say anything) as Haley took charge of the room and made everyone else leave. Everyone but him, her, and the kid.

“I don’t need to stay anywhere with him,” Trey said.

Haley sighed at him. “What happened? I told you to be mature about this and let Oliver be the way he is.”

Oliver bristled. “Let me
what?
What exactly is Trey allowing me to do here?”

“Allowing you to act like you have anything awesome to teach us,
asshole
,” Trey spat, the rude words losing their sting when delivered by his voice. “Haley, he was sneaking around and telling my student to disrespect me. Don’t we have rules about that?”

“We don’t have rules about that because no one does that here,” Haley said.

“And no one did,” Oliver insisted. “Your student asked for my help because she actually needed guidance. Stop wasting our time. We get it. The world kisses your ass.”

“Like they used to kiss yours, right? And now they don’t anymore?”

“
Trey,”
Haley gave him a look that would have held back a wild horse. Oliver was impressed. “I talked to you about this, and you’re obviously going to ignore everything I said. Skip this session and head back to your room, or something.”

“
My
room.
I
get dismissed?”

“Do you want me to have you escorted?”

The kid weighed his options and wisely chose to leave without the aid of bouncer dudes. He slammed the door behind him.

Haley rubbed her eyes with her closed fists. “Holy shit.”

Oliver smiled at her. He was turned on by all of this, truth be told. “Does this happen often?”

“Once or twice.”

“Will it mess up everyone’s schedule if he quits?”

Haley shrugged. “There’s tonight’s performance left. And tomorrow’s concert. Ash can practice with me, or you, if he ditches. The kids will be disappointed if he’s not at the concert tomorrow, but we won’t have the Trey Girls across the street anymore, at least.”

They were alone in the room, and he felt it was not inappropriate to hook her arm in his and pull her closer. “Hey.”

She fell toward him in a welcoming way. “Yeah.”

“Should I apologize for anything?”

“No. I don’t even know why you’re spending so much time with him. You obviously clash.”

He cleared his throat, and by then she was leaning against it, her head resting right on it. “Certain people encouraged me to come this weekend to pitch something to Trey specifically.”

Oliver felt her tense up slightly, but she didn’t pull away. “What does that mean?”

“It means there are people whose livelihoods count on me and Trey becoming good friends today.”

She laughed, and he felt it against his chest. “Well, you screwed
that
up. Can I help?”

“We were delaying the inevitable,” Oliver said mostly to himself. “All of us. Making nice with the kid isn’t going to change anything.”

This time she moved. He saw her look up at him, saw those dark eyes of hers, and she \went on tiptoe to kiss him once, softly. “So what happens now?”

“I don’t know. We accept that our lives are going to change. Some things don’t last forever.”

She was biting at her bottom lip again, and it made him take a nip at it, too.

“That’s true for everyone, eventually,” Haley said.

Chapter 26

“I feel like I should be wearing a puffy shirt.”

Haley laughed despite the dread building up in her belly. Maybe she had left out the tiny detail that her special dinner with Logan was actually going to be at the Renaissance fair. It had registered with her only as a matter of where and when, and she tried to push to the back of her mind why it would be significant.

Logan liked the Renaissance fair. It was open for only a specific time period per year. (Beer, food, costumes. How could it suck?) He did once cheat on her with someone who worked as a waitress in one of the concession stalls who spent her days dressed as a wench. This was supposed to mean something to her, how?

Maybe Logan was hoping to redeem this place. They had, after all, spent some time in this annual fair together from back when they were hanging out in high school. It seemed like the thing to do when you had friends who unironically watched the staged jousts featuring actors playing medieval knights.

“I told you it would be entertaining,” she said, ushering him in through the gate that resembled a huge castle entrance. “You've never been here? Even when you were a kid?”

“Was this here when I was a kid?”

“It feels like this has been here forever.”

Oliver’s eyes still followed the pirate lady who welcomed them inside. “I don't think she's from the Renaissance.”