somewhere || George Russell

forty-eight

April 24, 2020
Miami, Florida

Storm clouds gathered in the Miami sky, making it look dark, and announcing an imminent storm, just the day before Sofia and Alejandro's wedding.

Laurel opened the weather app on her phone. "Oh, great," she sarcastically said. "A high-pressure system is moving in; we can expect gale force winds for the weekend. Really? In middle April?"

"Don't panic, the wedding is going to be on the lounge, we are safe from any storm," Rafael mumbled and looked down on his phone again. He, Iray and Emilio were the main organizers for the wedding that is finally taking place tomorrow.

But still, Rafael has been a little curtly with Laurel all month, ever since she told him about her idea of moving to London. He just talks to her for the necessary stuff. Emilio and Iray ignore the reasons why he's been acting like that even with them. He is not the talking type.

On the other hand, Laurel hasn't told George yet, and she has no idea of when she will. It has been so hard to look him in the eye and avoid spilling everything, to tell him that everything can possibly change for them.

"Just get ready for your audition," Emilio encouraged her.

They were all in the couches of Rafael's office, fine-tuning the last details for tomorrow's wedding. And Laurel, well, she is just trying to not lose her crap over her audition for Gloria Estefan.

"I think everything will be perfect," Iray smiled and looked up.

"I'll be waiting for you, deep inside my heart; I'm the one who wants to love you more..." Laurel sang, getting to a high note. And she startled her siblings on the way.

"Laurel," Iray cut her off and turned to see her. "What song is that?"

"To love you more by Celine Dion," Laurel replied and looked at her sister.

"Way too difficult," Emilio shook his head.

"You don't understand, I don't want to screw this up," Laurel said and sighed. The last time she was this nervous was when she auditioned for West Side Story, about a year ago. The difference is that back then she had nothing to lose, it was her first professional audition. Now probably everyone has great expectations of her, after months of being on Broadway, the highest commercial level of live theatre in the English-speaking world.

"Yeah, I see you can't wait to run away from us," Rafael sarcastically said without even looking up, still staring at his phone like he didn't care. The tea is spilled, finally.

Laurel felt her brother's words like a bucket of cold water. "Raf," she called but he didn't turn to see her. "Raf," she insisted. To be the oldest, he is also the most childish.

He looked up, finally. "Yes?"

"You don't want me to do it?" Laurel mumbled.

"Oh, no, it's your life, you can do whatever you want with it," he pressed a forced thin-lipped smile on his face and looked down again.

The triplets stared at him. Laurel turned to see Iray, but she shrugged. Rafael is just another stubborn guy who never talks about feelings.

"What is going on?" Laurel asked.

Rafael stopped whatever he was doing on his phone and took a deep breath. "Want to know?" he lifted up his head again. "I don't know how I will live without you."

"What?" Laurel whispered, a little surprised.

"Yes," Rafael nodded and looked at his three siblings. "I thought we would always be together," he spoke with his voice lowering down. "Don't get me wrong, I love that you are finally going out on the world and challenging yourself and stuff, but..." he was just trying to say something, to express how much he was going to miss his little weird sister. "I don't know, I'll miss you, and I have been trying to process all of this within the last month. It's harder than you think to deal with the fact that you might go to the other side of the world instead of just being two hours away."

Iray started to sob as tears started to fall down on her cheeks.

"Are you crying?" Laurel turned to see Iray and frowned.

"Yes, leave me alone," Iray complained and wiped away her tears.

Emilio and Laurel chuckled. She leaned her head on Rafael's shoulder. "You are talking as if I was already moving out, but the truth is I haven't even auditioned, and it won't happen if I don't find the perfect song," she teasingly said. She knew there had to be some reason, but she never expected him to say something like that.

Rafael slightly laughed. "Come on, you had a month to think about it."

"All of that month I prepared this song," she referred to the song she was singing.

"Don't sing that one. Gloria Estefan said she already saw you on Broadway," Emilio said. "She doesn't want to hear your high notes."

"Then what does she want?"

"To see if you can sing and dance," Emilio replied.

Laurel frowned. "I can sing and dance, we do it all the time."

"No," Rafael said, understanding Emilio's point. Even if he doesn't want to, he knows that Laurel is the owner of her decisions, she knows what she is doing. He is the one having trouble with dealing with it. "Gloria Estefan wants to see if you can sing and dance to the rhythm of Conga without losing your breath."

"Yeah, but she can't audition with a Gloria Estefan song, it would be so lame," Iray added to the searching for the song Laurel has to go and sing in front of her idol in just a couple of hours.

"Well, if it's about singing without losing my breath, I can sing Anything goes and dance tap," Laurel shrugged. "Good authors too who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose, anything goes," she sang in a row, holding her breath. "And though I'm not a great romancer I know that you're bound to answer when I propose, anything goes."

"No," the three said at the same time.

"Then what should I do?" Laurel crossed her arms in front of her chest and dropped her back on the couch.

"Sing some salsa..." Iray said and shook her arms. "Oh, I know," she stopped short. "Selena."

"With the Dinos or without them?" Laurel teasingly said and rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Gloria Estefan already heard your high notes, now she just wants you to hear your voice and if you can dance like Selena," Iray said, smiling.

"But Selena used to sing in Spanish," Emilio said.

"We know how to speak Spanish," Laurel shrugged, starting to like Iray's idea. She started to remember the beat of a song from Selena. She is not a big fan, but Gemma is, so she has heard plenty of her songs. "Como la flor, con tanto amor, me diste tú, se marchitó, me marcho hoy, yo se perder, pero ay, como me duele..."

The four looked at each other, smiling.

"That's the song," Emilio said.

"Now let's see how you dance to the tex-mex," Rafael stood up and extended his hand to Laurel. She shook her head, pursing her lips. "You want this role or not?" he raised an eyebrow. Laurel took his hand and he pulled her out, opening his arms to hug her first. "I love you, Laurel. And I am so proud of you."

"I love you too," Laurel smiled, resting her head in his brother's shoulder.

"Now, Iray, play Como la flor."