Lynne

Chapter 20

It took a few tries, but we finally produced a track that seemed flawless and came out exactly as we planned. I sang each time with my eyes closed, opening them after our second attempt to find Len had disappeared out of the viewing room. After a couple more tries, he had still not returned.

I didn't think much of it until we exited, and I noticed my phone missing from it's spot on the counter.

"It kept ringing," Erik told me, swinging his chair to face us. "So Len took it outside."

"Okay," I huffed.

"We didn't want it to be on the track-"

"No, it's okay.I forgot to turn off the vibrate. My fault." I pushed my way out of the studio.

Len was standing just outside the door, my phone in his lowered hand. He shot me a dirty look as I came out.

I held my hand out. "Sorry," I told him flatly.

He made no indication to give me the phone back. "You don't need it."

"What?" I pushed my hand toward him again. "Give it."

"So it can ruin everyone else's tracks, too?" To my fury, he pocketed it. "Your boyfriend can wait."

My face flushed, and fury rose up in me. "Len, you have no authority to take my fucking phone away from me. I'm not a child." I crossed my arms. "And he's not my boyfriend."

He kept his hands in his pockets. "Then you should have no problem waiting 'till we get home to text him."

"Give me my fucking phone," I sneered, my hands balling into fists at my side.

"Technically," he smirked, "You are still a child."

I heavy breath flew out of my nose. "Well, as of next week, I won't be."

This seemed to catch his attention.

"Give it."

"No."

"What the fuck makes you think you can tell me what to do?" I asked, taking a step closer to him. It was hard to be threatening when he was a good four or five inches taller than me.

He stared down at me, not speaking. I was close enough to headbutt him, and I really wanted to, but he finally sighed in defeat and pulled my phone out of his pocket. I snatched it from him with one more nasty look, and silenced it as I pushed my way back in the room.

Only a few songs later, we were ready to go. The nine of us, including Erik, pushed our way into the lobby.

"I think we should do another cover contest," Erik suggested as they chatted about our next concert.

I grinned. I knew of these from back in the day.

"It's kind of soon, don't you think? Like, the concert is next week." Meiko pointed out.

Erik grinned. "Better work fast, then."

I already knew exactly the song I was going to do.

This venue was another close to home, thankfully. It was indoors, and I could barely hear myself think as the cheers and screams bounced off of the walls.

This stage was much smaller than any other we had performed on. It was tiered, like a cake, and we returned to the platforms one by one when we were done with our intro songs. We were facing the crowd directly the entire show. It was a change from every previous place, and I enjoyed constantly seeing the singing, grinning, and laughing faces of the crowd the whole time. The platform was really high up for me, and I had to jump onto it every time I returned to it. I watched the others hop onto the stage with ease, and shot them annoyed glances. Everyone, including the crowd, was enjoying my struggle of being incredibly short.