Vengeance

CHAPTER- 3

It was. "Hey, Isa! Good morning!" He said the next morning when I opened the door. "Isa?" I asked. "Well, you said no to Bella and Izzy. So, Isa seems good." He explained. "No, it isn't like that. My sister used to call me Izzy. I just really miss her." "Oh. I'm really sorry. I didn't know." He did seem sorry. "It's okay." I patted him on the back. Wrong move. It made things so awkward. But of course, he saved the moment. "Wanna grab some coffee today?" "Yeah, alright."

After work, he picked me up. We went to a local book café near our place. I grabbed 'Murder on the Orient Express' and he took out 'How Music Works'. "You want to be a musician?" I asked him. "I do, yes." He replied. "Then why aren't you touring right now?" "My parents never supported me. They want me to do something practical like being a chartered accountant. When I told them I didn't want to become one, they gave me one year. One year to become a successful singer." "That's why you're living here alone?" I was weirdly interested in his story. "Yeah. But I'm thinking of going back home." "Why?" "It's hard. Really hard. I can only find less-paying gigs here and there. I've tried uploading some of my songs on the internet, but no one's really interested in them." He sighed. "They must be missing something. Come on." I said. "Wha-?"

We went over to his place and he motioned me to sit. I sat on his couch. I asked him to show me some of his songs. After hearing them, I made some corrections. "Well, for starters, your chorus is not upbeat enough. It's dull. You need to work on it. Make it more happy. Next, all your songs sound the same and have the same meaning. Change the meaning and use different chords. Try that. The rest is good." "Woah. How d'you know all this?" He asked, bewildered. "Oh, I took music lessons when I was around 10. Also, I love listening to music in my free time." "Neat." After he made the corrections, I listened to the songs again. "They're brilliant! They sound a whole lot better now. You should upload them." He did. We waited until midnight. Nothing really happened. We only got a couple of likes. "I-it's fine. You should go home now." He said. "I'm sorry... See you tomorrow."

At 5 A.M. in the morning, I got a call. "WAKE UP ISA! WE'RE VIRAL!" Ethan screamed into my ear. I was baffled. "What the heck are you going on about?" "The song! It's a hit!" He repeated. "What song? Wait a minute! THAT SONG IS VIRAL?!" I yelled. "YES! COME OVER NOW," I hung up the phone, got dressed, and went to his apartment. "Show me," I told him. It was indeed viral. We had over a million hits, 7k comments, and 900k likes. "I can't believe it. Congratulations!" I hugged him tight. "I'm so proud. Tell your dad." I was so happy for him. He seemed so proud too. But when I mentioned his father, his smile faded away. "I did. He said it was too little and that I might just remain a one-hit wonder." "He's wrong. Look how many people are using your audio. You'll be touring soon, I swear."

We celebrated with drinks that day. Ethan even asked me to help him with all of his songs. Of course, I said yes. But then I thought, Do I deserve to be this happy?

This became my everyday activity. Hanging out, writing songs, and talking to him after work. And just like that, he became an extremely important part of my life. Once again, after so many years, I had someone to depend on. 

His fame also started to grow. "Hey, Isa! Guess what?" He spoke from the other end of the phone. "What?" I asked. "I just hit 100k subscribers!" "That's amazing, Ethan." I said, a little down. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm alright. It's my parent's 15th death anniversary." "Oh... I'm terribly sorry." He said. It seemed like I'd ruined his mood too, so, I quickly changed the topic and sent him a cake which said, 'For your 100,000th subscriber'. I would've delivered it myself, but, Celine had called me over. She had something to discuss with me. 

"Hello, honey, sit down." She said, when I reached.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked her, kind of concerned by the serious look on her face.

"I'm selling the house,"

"What?"

"Well, a family's really interested in buying, and I'm moving to California to improve my business."

"You can't! All of Clara's stuff is still here!"

"And that's why I called you today. To take all the stuff away and throw whatever you don't want. There's some more stuff of the farmer's"

"Farmer?"

"Yes, a farmer used to live here before us."

"Wait... Okay, I'll take the stuff then."

I'd remembered something just then. 'Search for footage where there once lived a cow'  Footage. As in CCTV or camera footage. I ran up to the attic where all of her stuff was kept. I found an old mobile phone. 'You will find it near the number we once chose' Which number did we choose? I took the phone and some more of the stuff with me. I couldn't find any footage though. I gave up after a long time. I came back home and tried to fit the things into my tiny, cramped up apartment. I asked Ethan if he had some extra space, and of course, he said yes. The next day, I tried to remember anything about a number, and then I did.