The First Steps (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 1 of the Hardships Saga)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

❝invisible (pronounced ɪnvɪ'zə bəl or in-viz-uh-buh l), emotion
feeling ignored, unwanted, or worthless❞

Within a month, Lilly and Hunter had handed in their keys for their individual apartments and were living together in their new cottage. It was November, over a year after the fire, and Hunter was busy doing gigs and planning the next album. He had come back from tour a few days earlier, and Lilly had made him a massive dinner of gumbo, which Lynette had given her the family recipe to.

Living together, which for most couples meant their first few arguments together, was no problem for Hunter and Lilly. They had done this before, albeit over a year ago, and they pretty much lived at each other's houses ever since.

Lilly worked in her study room, one of the smaller bedrooms which she and Hunter converted into a cosy little nook for reading and writing. Hunter had his own music room as well (sound proof so that they would never bother each other), and there was a guest bedroom, plus the room Hunter and Lilly slept in. Lilly sighed, closing the lid of her laptop as smiling. Finally, she could breathe easy, since she had finished all her work in one night- it was a first, and she felt brilliant.

She heard the front door open and close, and heard Hunter's footsteps. "Petal?"

"In here," she called, and Hunter wandered in, sighing as the warmth of Lilly's electric fireplace hit him after the chilling wind outside.

"The album is going so well," he said. "We recorded a lot of the piano stuff today."

"That's awesome," said Lilly.

"I'm tired, though," he said, flopping onto a beanbag. "My brain hurts. My whole body hurts."

"How's 'Invisible' going?"

He sighed. "I think it's finished. Wanna listen?"

"Of course," she replied, standing up from her tall chair (patterned with French words and pictures), and followed him into his music room.

Hunter's music room was different to Lilly's study. While Lilly's study was all plush beanbags, bookshelves, inspirational quotes written on the walls in chalk and soft carpet, Hunter's studio was a greyscale room which was sleek and modern. Lilly loved both rooms for different reasons. Hunter's room always smelled clean and fresh, and it was the one thing he constantly kept clean, no matter what. There were records hanging from the walls, and his platinum awards hanging with them. There was an elaborate setup, and Lilly loved it beyond anything else. He pulled a plug from his laptop bag and plugged his Mac into the board filled with dials. He then played the whole song and watched her reaction for it.

"I don't like it," they said at the same time.

"Why?" asked Lilly.

"It's just... not... raw. It's not what I wanted it to be, it's just overdone. Too many instruments, too much going on."

"I was going to say the same thing. So, what are you going to do about it?"

He groaned, putting his face in his hands. "I don't know."

"You could redo it."

"Redo it?" asked Hunter. "It would take too long, you wouldn't-"

"Hunt, listen. Strip it down to just your voice, bass, electric, acoustic, piano, and a drum beat," she said gently. "Do it tonight. Do it your way. You've been trying so hard to get it right that you've overdone it. Just do what you think is right, and as cheesy as it sounds, don't do what your head says, do what your heart says. This is too much of a heartfelt song for it to be done wrong."