In the Crowd (Tye)

Chapter 23

Is it just me? Or is this chapter waaay longer than usual? I kind of lost track. Well, if you like short chapters, consider this 2 seperate ones. If you like long chapters, consider this an apology for me being such a crappy uploader- and if this is kind of bad :)

Love you allll <3

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When I pulled up in front of AT’s massive building, Ken was standing by the entrance. After parking my car, I hopped out and walked up to Ken. “Have you gone in yet?”

“Nope,” Ken shook his head. “This is only my fifth time being here, I feel like I don’t belong.” He said, staring at the door.

“Same,” I agreed before we fell into silence. Ken hesitantly reached for the door.

Before he even touched the handle, the door swung open to reveal Serena from the girl band Life and Death. She ran past us, nearly knocking Ken over while sobbing uncontrollably. “Hey Serenity,” Ken called out to her. Serenity was her stage name. “Are you alright?”

It seemed she hadn’t noticed us before, but now she did. Serena whirled around, furious. “Does this look alright to you?” she snapped, pointing with a shakey finger at her tear-streaked face. There was mascara running in watery black lines down her high cheekbones. And people wonder why I think mascara is stupid.

She stormed up to us with quick strides, which shocked me considering I would have broken all my bones trying to take one step in those heels. Then again, I’m not a girl.

“I try so hard, everyday, to put up a good image for them,” she gestured furiously up at AT’s building. “And are they satisfied? No! They are never, damn, satisfied!” she screamed into Ken’s face. He took a step back.

The door swung open again, this time Life and Death’s leader, Aria, stood there. “Serena, calm down.” She said, exasperated. Her “delicate” (I’m quoting the media here) features were stretched in an aggravated expression. Serena didn’t calm down, in fact, upon seeing Aria, she only got more pissed off.

“What do you know?!” Serena snarled. Augh. The way her lip curled up was more than a little disgusting. “You’re perfect. Everyone loves you. You have no idea what stress I go through just to think up lyrics and perform!” She cried out, starting to sob again. Oh yeah, I’d forgotten. Life and Death was a vocals-only pop group- By that I mean they didn’t play their music like us.

“Serena…”

“Everyone loves you; you don’t have to constantly change your style to keep attention. You have no idea!” Serena continued. I guess Hourglass was very lucky in some ways. None of us had ever experienced a problem like that. I think.

Ken shot me a look. I knew we were both thinking the same thing. We had to get out of here. Thankfully, the two were so busy bickering Ken and I managed to slink inside without causing another issue.

The weird thing is, the few times I’d seen Serenity (on stage when Bailey took me to one of their performances and online), she’d always presented herself in a totally cool and calm way. I guess people who faked an image would all break down eventually.

Ken ran his fingers along the expensive and fancy furniture. I didn’t bother paying attention to it so if you asked for a description, I’d tell you, “It was prettier than your face.”

“Think one day our apartment could look like this one day?” Ken asked, glancing up at the huge lights.

“No.” I replied immediately. Ken laughed.