dallas, texas, 2004
Rain pelts against the windshield, the wipers slashing rapidly, and the night sky made even darker by the presence of lingering storm clouds. Daphne Carmichael, her long, silky hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, averts her eyes from the road and to the rear view mirror, her son, Rio's, face is illuminated by a passing street light.
Rio hums along to a song on the radio, harmonizing perfectly with the singer, causing a smile to spread across his mother's lips. She's always known how talented he is, and soon the whole world will now.
She pulls into an empty parking lot, getting out, she and Rio running through the rain and up to a shop. Beauty & Grace Salon. She opens the door, the bell dinging as she and Rio step inside.
"I'm sorry, but we're closed." A woman says, sweeping a pile of hair into a dustpan and then looking up at them. "Try back tomorrow."
"I'm Daphne." Daphne says, her accent thick, trying not to sound too desperate, but she was in dyer need of help. "This is my son, Rio."
"Nice to meet y'all." The woman says. "I'm Ebony. Like I said, we're closed, try back tomorrow."
Ebony dumps the hair into a trash can.
"He's singing in a talent competition tomorrow morning, and I don't know what the hell to do with his hair." Daphne says, looking at the messy mop of hair on top of her son's head. "Please. I have just enough money to get his hair cut. Please."
Ebony looks from Daphne, to Rio, who offers her a small smile.
"How old are you?" Ebony asks him.
"I'm ten." Rio says softly, looking down at the scuffed toes of his almost too small shoes. They were his favorite pair—his only pair.
"So you can sing?" Ebony asks.
Daphne nods, "He's an amazing—"
"I wasn't asking you." Ebony says. "I was asking Rio."
Rio nods his head sheepishly.
"Sing something for me then." Ebony says.
Rio looks at Ebony, then up to his mother, seeking permission. Daphne nods her head. "Go on. Sing for her. It'll be good practice."
Rio nods slowly, takes a deep breath, and then opens his mouth. "Why you wanna fly, blackbird?"
Ebony stares in awe as Rio continues to sing, his voice having much more confidence than he does, and it's much bigger than his body. She feels chill bumps raise on her arms as he finishes, blinking slowly.
"That was...amazing." Ebony says, looking to Daphne, who smiles at her.
"Please." Daphne says. "I've never really known how to take care of his hair. He got his father's, not mine."
"Come. Have a seat." Ebony says, patting a chair, which Rio sits down in. "Consider this your first lesson, Daphne."
Daphne smiles, and walks over to the chair, all three of them smiling in the mirror.
•••
The next day, Rio stands side stage, Daphne stands next to him, rubbing his shoulders as the watch a child about Rio's age on stage, performing a strange interpretive dance that, quite frankly, is down right awful.
Daphne can't help but smile though, because so far, none of these children have matched up to her baby, he had talent that exceeded them all. She knew he was going to win.
As the girl on stage finishes, the audience applauds her, and she bows and runs off stage.
Daphne turns Rio to face her, crouching down to be eye level with him, she looks right into his eyes. "You're better than them. Remember that. Go out there and give it everything that you've got."
Rio nods his head.
"Next up, we have little Rio Carmichael!" The host says. Rio walks on stage and the crowd claps for him. He walks over to the mic stand, and everyone falls silent. He looks over to Daphne, and she gives him a nod.
"Why you wanna fly, blackbird?" Rio begins to sing. "You ain't ever gonna fly."
Daphne looks at him, then out to the crowd, who all look taken aback by his talent. She smiles triumphantly.
"Why you wanna fly, blackbird?" Rio continues, eyes closed as he gets into the song. "You ain't ever gonna fly."
Ebony walks in, standing in the back, and smiling as Rio is singing, his hair braided to his scalp.
"No place big enough for holding, all the tears you're gonna cry." Rio sings. "Cuz your mama's name was lonely, and your daddy's name was pain. So they call you little sorrow."
Rio finishes the song, and everyone claps for him, the loudest applause that anyone has received all day. He runs giddily offstage back to his mother, who embraces him in a hug.
"You did amazing, sweetie." She smiles at him. "You're a star."
•••
Later, all the talent lines up on stage, and Daphne stands in the crowd with Ebony. Rio smiles at them.
"In third place, we have..." The host says, reading off of a card. "Little Rio Carmichael!"
Rio smiles and walks over, letting the host hang a medal around his neck and stepping back into line. He looks out into the crowd, expecting to see his proud mother, but instead she wears a frown. Rio's smile fades.
"In second place, Timmy and his talking turtle!" The host says.
"In first place, Cindy!" The girl that did the strange dance jumps up and down as she receives the trophy.
Daphne, outraged that two white children beat her son, who was obviously much better than them, just because he was someone of color, walks up to the stage. "Come on. Let's go."
Rio, not wanting to disappoint his mother anymore, takes her hand as she drags him off stage and out of the room. Ebony stands there dumbfounded as Daphne drags him out of the room.
"They're all idiots!" Daphne exclaims as she and Rio walk to the car. "Idiots! They wouldn't know real talent if it slapped them in their faces. It's bullshit!"
She yanks the car door open. "Bullshit!"
Rio stands there, looking at her, and feeling like this was completely his fault. Like he wasn't good enough. Hot tears spill down his cheeks, and his mother finally looks at him, her rage dwindling. She crouches down in front of him.
"Chuck it. The medal." Daphne says. "You've got to throw it away."
"Why?" Rio asks.
"That's why." She points to the 3rd Place emblazoned on the medal. "You're not third place. Never accept anything less than first. You're a winner."
Rio looks at the medal around his neck, slowly takes it off, and drops it to the ground. It clatters against the pavement.
"Good." Daphne says. "Now get in the car. It's time to go."
Daphne opens the door for him. He looks down at the medal on the ground, and then gets in the car.
Daphne closes the door and walks around to get in the other side. Rio stares out of the window, eyes falling on Ebony as they speed out of the parking lot.
Present
"I got that bomb, I know what them girls want. When I put it on her right we be at it til dawn." Rio sings, his blazer open, showing his bare chest. The thousands of people in the arena scream, the ones up close reaching up towards him, desperate to touch him.
"Yeah I put this mouth to work. I love the way you twerk." Rio says, walking over to center stage, where the artist that features on this track rises from the stage, barely dressed and ready to put on a show.
"He say I'm a masterpiece." Gia starts to sing, just as Rio drapes himself around her, and the two start to grind—just like they practiced. "Call me Master P."
The crowd goes crazy as the two of them work the stage, and work their bodies, and by the end of the performance, they're both sweaty and out of breath, but the crowd has eaten it right up.
The lights go down, and they walk back off stage.
"You were amazing." Gia says with a smile, squeezing his arm. "And I liked that you lost the braids. The fro works for you."
She kisses his cheek as she's whisked away by her people for a quick wardrobe change. Daphne, now Rio's manager, walks over to him, typing away on her phone.
"There was one flashy light that didn't flash." She says angrily, typing furiously on her phone screen. "I'm going to make sure they hear from me."
"It's an award show. They have a lot going on." Rio says, feeling someone come up and start dabbing his sweat away, and powdering his face. They take his blazer off of him, and then pull another shirt over his head. He stands there and lets them do it.
"So? That performance has been the biggest of your career so far and they want to jeopardize it." Daphne snaps. "They're going to hear from me."
Rio sighs but he doesn't say anything else in protest.
"Now, they're about to announce the winner of Best New Song." She says.
Rio reaches into his pants to take out the balled up socks that his mother had stuffed there earlier. She reaches forward and grabs his hand to stand him.
"Leave it sweetie." She says. "We don't need any continuity errors."
Rio sighs, pulling his hand out of his pocket, just as Gia walks back over, squeezing his arm again.
"This is it." She says, smiling as the nominees are played, and the clip of their song is played too, to a thousand screams.
"And the winner of Best New Song is..." The presenters say, pulling a card out of an envelope and smiling. "Rio and Gia! Masterpiece!"
The people are them cheer as the crowd down. Arm in arm, the two of them walk out on stage, Rio putting on his celebrity smile, even though on the inside he'd rather be anywhere else, dressed in anything else, and feeling less like an object and more like a person.
•••
Meanwhile, Aiden Sawyer sits on the couch in the home that he shares with his father. He drinks a soda as he flips through the tv channels. He passes news, some terribly written sitcom, and then finally he stops on the American Music Awards.
"We would like to thank Mackie, the producer of this song." A guy says, his hair large and curly, his shirt hanging open to expose his toned chest and abdomen, and a chain hanging around his neck that looks like it weighs a ton. A pretty, half dressed girl stands at his side, holding a trophy. In the corner of the screen are their names: Rio and Gia.
Although he tries to make his eyes focus on Gia, the immediately switch to Rio, drinking in the delicious appearance of the other male. He knows how his father would feel if he knew he had these urges, and seeing Diggy and Simon together only made him want something like they had even more.
He knows that these celebrities sex themselves up to appeal to the audience, which has always been a sort of turn off for Aiden.
Aiden just shakes his thoughts away and continues to flip through the channels. The front door opens.
"Aiden? You home?" He hears his father call.
"In the living room." He calls back.
His father, James Sawyer, walks in, still wearing his police uniform.
"I have a job for you to do." James says.
"I don't get a hello?" Aiden asks.
"Hello." James sighs. "I have a job for you to do."
"It's my only day off this week, dad." Aiden says. "I'm just trying to enjoy myself."
"I don't care about it being you're only day off." James says. "I need you to stand in for Kevin. He was supposed to be doing some security for a celebrity tonight, but his wife went into early labor, so I need you to do it."
Aiden sighs. "Okay."
"Thanks." James says, taking off his gun belt. "It's only for tonight, I promise, then you'll be back on your regular schedule."
"I hope so." Aiden says, because he hadn't been on his regular schedule in months, not since they finished up the Simmons job.
"You better get going." James says. "His manager wants you at the hotel before he gets back from work after party."
"Who is it?" Aiden asks.
James shrugs. "I don't know. Somebody named Rio."
Rio.
•••
"I told you, sweetie. You're a winner." Daphne says as they walk to the underground garage. "There's a swarm of paparazzi out here. Smile. Remember—everyone is watching your every move. I'll see you after the after party."
"I didn't plan on going to that." Rio say.
Daphne laughs. "Of course you're going, and you're taking that trophy with you. By the way,
Daphne kisses his cheek and then walks away.
"Are you ready?" A guard asks.
Rio nods his head, the guard opens his door, and Rio walks out, putting on that same fake smile as the cameras flash and he's bombarded with questions.
"Are you dating Gia?"
"Why did you decide to switch your hair up?"
"When will you release your debut album?"
"Are you currently seeing anyone right now?"
His bodyguard stands around him, leading him through the sea of paparazzi, and to the car, which he gets in to. But not before turning and waving once again. Always put on a show. That's what his mother has told him.
When they're safely in the car, the dark tinted windows protecting them from the prying eyes of the world, Rio's smile finally fades off of his face.
"This party is about to be so lit." Rey, one of Rio's entourage members, exclaims. "I heard Auntie Yoncé is going to be there."
"Bitch Beyoncé?!" Anika, another entourage member says. "Oh hell yes. We most definitely have to drink to that."
Anika pulls a bottle of vodka out of her bag and a shot glass. She pours one and passes it Rio. "Winners first, baby!"
Rio puts on his smile, takes the shot, and squeezes his eyes shut as the liquor burns its way down his throat. Maybe drinking would be a good idea. Maybe it would make this night go by even faster.
"Pour me another." He says.
The people in the car scream in excitement.
•••
"My son is my most prized possession." Daphne says, standing in front of Aiden, who is now dressed in his police uniform and standing outside of the hotel room. "You are to do anything he says. He's a star. You work for him."
Aiden nods his head, even though he really just wants to tell this woman off.
"When he gets here, tell him I'll be a few minutes late." Daphne says, looking back down at her phone. "Ciao for now."
She answers the phone as she walks away, practically snapping at someone on the other line.
Aiden crosses his arms across his chest and takes his stance next to do the door. He licks his lips, his thoughts drifting back to the last time he was in a hotel...
BANG!
He winces, squeezes his eyes shut, and shakes the memory away. Not now. Not tonight. He's got a job to do.
•••
"I tell all my hoes: rake it up, break it down, bag it up."
The music pounds through the club, across the wave of dancing bodies, grinding and sweating and practically fucking on the dance floor.
Amid the crowd is Rio and his entourage, all dancing wildly, Rio downs another bottle, completely out of it by now, and his so-called-friends just pass him another.
By now, he doesn't have the slightest clue what's going on around him, he's just trying to get through this night, trying to make his mother proud, trying to be a star.
Gia is there with him, he doesn't even know when she showed up, but before long she's throwing her ass on him and he's catching it. Rey, who is always logged in to his Snapchat, posts the entire night on his story.
After a few pictures, the night is over, and Gia kisses him goodbye to a scream from the paparazzi, and then Rio is being whisked away back to his car.
The entire ride home, he stares out of the window into the night, the smile is gone again, and now he can't ignore the empty feeling inside of him. It's like it never goes away, he can ignore it for a while, until it creeps back up again.
They walk down the hallway, Rio, Rey, and Anika, and Rio is stumbling as he makes his way down the hall, pulling his key card out of his pocket.
"You good, Rio?" Rey asks, chuckling as he stumbles again.
Rio nods, though he's not really, he's never been okay.
They make it to the door. Rio notices someone standing next to the door, but he doesn't pay them much attention, he's got something he has to do.
"Hey," Anika says to the man, and she's flirting, as always.
The man doesn't say anything, instead he turns to look at Rio.
"You need some help with that?" He asks, his voice low.
Rio shoots him a look, still struggling to put the card into the slot. "Fuck you. I can open my own damn door."
Aiden looks taken aback by his rudeness, but he doesn't say anything. He just clears his throat and turns to face forward again.
Finally, after a lot of struggling, Rio gets the key into the door and the light flashes green. He opens the door. Anika and Rey are about to follow.
"Don't let anyone in here." Rio says, then he slips in and closes the door before Anika and Rey can come in.
"We're his friends." Anika says. "He's obviously drunk he needs somebody to take care of him."
Aiden doesn't say anything. He just stays silent, taking his orders, like he's always done best.
"What's going on here?" Daphne asks as she walks over to them.
"This asshole cop doesn't want to let us in." Rey says.
"They're Rio's friends." Daphne says. "Let them in."
"He requested that I don't let anyone in." Aiden explains calmly.
"That's bullshit. Come on." Daphne says, pushing past Aiden and to the door. She uses her own keycard and walks in, Rey and Anika following behind her, giving Aiden rude looks.
A few seconds later, Aiden hears a scream from inside.
"Rio!"
Aiden snaps into action, using his own keycard to open the door, and then rushing in. He stops when he sees Rey and Anika standing with their hands over their mouths, and Daphne standing in the open doors that lead out onto the balcony. On the balcony, Rio stands on the other side of the railing, and it looks like he's about to jump.
Aiden rushed out onto the balcony. "Stay here." He tells Daphne.
He walks out into the warm breeze of the night, stoping in the middle of the balcony, not wanting to get too close to soon.
"Rio," Aiden says softly, looking at the other's back.
Rio doesn't turn around, he just stares out into the distance, his toes hanging off the edge, the only thing keeping him from tumbling over is his grip on the railing. They weren't supposed to be back so soon.
"You don't want to do this." Aiden says softly. "I know it might seem like the only way out right now, and thinks might be bad, but I promise you, things will get better."
Rio doesn't say anything. He looks down at the ground, where paparazzi are starting to gather, taking pictures of him standing over the railing. A crowd starts to form as well, all pointing up at him, like he's some kind of zoo animal. He feels like a zoo animal. Trapped in a cage. Every single one of his days are out of his control, controlled by someone else.
"Please," Aiden says softly.
Rio turns his head to look back at Aiden, standing there and looking at him. He wears the same pleading eyes that Daphne has, but there's something different about them. Daphne's plead is related to his career, to her career. Aiden's plead...it looks genuine.
With a shaky breath, Rio goes to turn, but paired with the wind and his intoxication, he slips, his foot sliding off the balcony. With a gasp he starts to fall, Daphne screams, and just when he thinks he's going to die he feels a large, calloused hand grab his arm.
Aiden hangs over the railing, a death grip on Rio's arm, staring down at him. People from below are shouting and crying, and still taking pictures. Daphne is screaming.
"Don't let go." Aiden says. "Don't let go."
Rio still doesn't grab on to him, thinking that this might be it, that this could be his moment. He looks down at the ground, then back up at Aiden, and their eyes meet.
"I see you." Aiden says.
Rio stares up at him, and he knows he's telling the truth, he knows that this isn't a lie. He closes his hand around Aiden's arm, and then he reaches up, taking Aiden's other hand.
Aiden pulls him up and then over the railing, they fall to the floor of the balcony, Rio on top of Aiden, looking down at him.
He hadn't noticed how handsome Aiden was until now. He stares down into his eyes, knowing that this man sees him, sees him for who he really in, and not who he has become. Aiden doesn't see Rio for who he is, not the person he saw on his television screen earlier tonight, but a human being, someone who, beneath all of this, is crying out to be who he truly wants to be. Up close, he can see all of Rio's beauty.
Daphne rushes over to them. She pulls Rio up to his feet. "Come on." She growls, looking down at the swarm of paparazzi and onlookers. "Look at this mess you've created."
She drags Rio back into the room. Aiden stands up, watching them walk away, and Rio casts one last longing look over his shoulder before leave Aiden standing alone.
If there's one thing that Aiden knows, it's that he's going to save Rio.
No matter what it takes.
✨Beyond the Lights✨
{A/N: I wrote the first chapter to this a while ago, and I know I've been MIA recently with Summertime, so I wanted to give you guys a little something. So I hope you enjoy this, and let me know if you guys want more!}