I grabbed the door handle and walked in.
"Miss Wilson, so glad you could make it. Mrs. Fryer is running a little late so you can have some time to practice your piece before the audition starts."
"Actually Mrs. Ramirez, there isn't going to be an audition."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm not auditioning."
"Miss Wilson-"
"I'm aware of the risks that come up by me not auditioning. That's why I'm here to tell you that I am removing myself from the dance program at AMDA."
"Miss Wilson, I don't understand. I thought you were looking for a second chance. You have stressed how much you have needed to dance-"
"Exactly, I thought I needed dance so that's why I loved it.. when I actually needed to find a reason why I loved it. This entire time I was stressing myself to go back to something when I didn't understand why I was doing it in the first place. Then when I tried to figure why I was doing it, I realized everything in my life depended on it so I thought I needed to depend on it too. I had to keep forcing myself to pick things in my life so dance would always be able to choice-"
I looked at Mrs. Ramirez and took a deep breath.
"Then I realized if I really loved it, it shouldn't feel like a choice.."
I looked down at the floor, and then back up at Mrs. Ramirez.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Ramirez for wasting your time."
Mrs. Ramirez paused and then took a deep breath.
"I respect your decision. I appreciate you letting me know."
I started walking to the door and opened it.
"Miss Wilson."
"Yes?"
"Whatever you choose next, I hope it goes well for you."
"Thank you."
I walked out the door and outside to my car. I got in and let out a deep breath. For once, I felt like the choice I made was right. I picked up my phone and called Zion.
"Hello?"
"Hey."
"I dropped out of the dance program."
"What?"
I explained when I talked to Kayla and meeting with Mrs. Ramirez.
"Wow."
"Yea."
"How do you feel?"
"I feel.. like for the first time in my life I made the right choice."
"Geez, you sure this is the only time you made the right choice?"
"Haha, besides you of course. I just feel good about it. It feels like a weight off my shoulders."
"I'm glad. Proud of you, Nessa."
"Thank you. Unfortunately, I don't think my mom is going to have the same reaction when I tell her that I dropped out of my program."
"Yea...well don't think about that right now. How about I take you out tonight."
"That doesn't sound too bad."
"Dress nice, Meet me at Maggiano's at 7."
"Okay."
"Hey, Nessa."
"Yea?"
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"I'll see you later."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye."
I hung up and looked at the time on my phone.
1:50
I started my car and drove to Yurth. I parked and walked inside. I saw a man in a Champion sweatshirt with a bomber jacket on. Mav gave me a brief description what he looked like and the guy looked similar so I walked over.
"You must be Vanessa. I'm Cade."
"Hi, nice to meet you, but you can call me Nessa."
I pulled out a chair and sat down.
"So you're friend of Mav's?"-Me
"Yea, him and I met a long time ago when I was still new here in LA. He helped me through some tough times."
"Oh, cool."
"Yea, he was doing his music thing and he introduced me into the whole game. He knew some friends with connections and then it all kind of flowed from there, and we've been good friends ever since."
"Wow, so how did I get mixed into this?"
"I visited him in the studio like last week and he played me some of the stuff y'all were messing around with, and I was like yo you gotta let me meet this girl."
I gave a slight smile. He looked at me and then his eyes dropped and came back up to meet mine.
"He ain't tell me you were as beautiful as your voice though."
I started to blush and let out a nervous laugh.
"Thank you, but I have a boyfriend."
"He's very lucky."
I gave another nervous laugh and he smirked at me.
"How about we talk about your music."
"Well, I wouldn't call it my music."
"If this goes well, soon enough you will."
We talked for awhile about where I wanted to go with my music and if I was serious. He asked me some questions about possibly meeting up in the studio next week to test some stuff out.
"How about we start on some stuff today?"
"Today?"
"Yea, I got some beats I've been working on that I think you would really like. How about you swing by the studio at like 5?"
"Uhm.."
"It won't take long. I promise."
"Okay, that sounds good."
"Good. Oh, here's my number by the way."
Cade and I exchanged numbers.
"Alright so I'll see you later then."
"Yea, I'll see you then."
I grabbed my keys and walked out the door. I got in my car and drove back to my apartment. I walked in and saw Kayla sitting on the couch once again eating my box of Oreos.
"Oreos again, Kayla?"
"Hey, don't judge."
I walked over and put my keys down.
"Is everything alright? You rushed outta here like the flash or something and then never called me."
"Oh, yea sorry I totally forgot, but everything's good... Actually everything is great."
"Do tell."
I told her everything about meeting with Mrs Ramirez, Zion and I's date tonight, and meeting with Cade.
"Nessa, that's great! I'm so proud of you."
"Thank you. It really feels like things are finally looking up."
"I'm glad. You deserve it."
"Well, I gotta get ready to meet Cade back at the studio."
"Oh yea, I gotta get ready too. Austin and I are going out tonight too. It's our six months tonight."
"Shut up! Really, it's been that long already?"
"I know, doesn't feel like it does it?"
"No, it feels like yesterday when we first met them at their party."
"I know, crazy how things work out."
"Glad they did though."
"Very true."
"Well, I'm gonna go change. Lock the door when you leave, okay?"
"Okay I'll call you later."
Kayla started walking toward the door.
"Okay, have fun tonight.... not too much fun though."
"We'll see..."
"Kayla!"
"Bye!!"
She laughed and shut the door. I walked to my room and changed for Zion and I's date so I wouldn't have to come back and change.
MY OUTFIT
I picked up my phone and called Z.
"Hello?"
"Hey."
"Hey."
"What's up."
"Nothing, I'm just going to the...studio."
"What?"
I explained the lunch meeting I had with Cade.
"Nessa, that's great!"
"I know I'm really excited."
"I'm glad. I'm so proud of you. I gotta go walk Simba, but I'll see you later tonight."
"Okay, I love you."
"Love you too."
"Bye."
"Bye."
I hung up and grabbed my keys and drove over to the studio. I parked and walked inside. I heard a slow R&B beat coming from outside a room and saw Cade sitting down at the mixing table. I opened the door and walked inside.
"Hey, Nessa."
"Hey."
"Well shit, if I knew you were gonna pull up looking like that I would have dressed nicer."
I smirked.
"I'm meeting my boyfriend after this."
"Damn, he really is lucky then."
I started to blush again so I nervously cleared my throat.
"Uhm... uh... so umm you wanted to show me some beats."
"Yea.. I've just been messing around with some stuff after I heard the tracks you and Mav were working on, and I came up with this."
Cade turned around and pressed the playback button and a slow sultry R&B beat started to play over the speakers. It had a little bit of Justin Bieber's Heartbreaker vibes with a mix of SZA's The Weekend.
"This is dope as hell, Cade."
"I thought you would think so."
I started humming some melodies quietly to myself and Cade looked over and noticed.
"If you're feeling inspired go lay down something in the booth."
"Oh no no, I was just umm singing some stuff to myself."
"Exactly and now you're going to sing it... in the booth."
I paused and looked at him nervously.
"Look, at this point you are well aware that you got a crazy good voice, but now you gotta figure out if you gonna do something with it. If you're not down for this, Nessa-"
"No no, I'm down... I'm just... I'm having a hard time trusting that this whole..singing thing is gonna work out."
"I mean I can't promise that this is going to work out and you're automatically gonna have a seat at the Grammy's, but I sure as hell can promise you it definitely won't work out by you sitting there and holding yourself back because you're scared of the what if's. So get your ass up and lay down some bomb ass vocals I know you have."
"Damn."
"Yea, now get in the booth."
"And what am I suppose to say? I can't just hum random melodies."
"You got any lyrics that you've written down the past?"
FLASHBACK
"Zion, be serious!"
"I am I am."
We both started uncontrollably laughing again, but then we got ourselves together.
"Okay, okay. I want to finish this."
"You tried to rhyme being with you to singing the blues."
"I told you I was tired."
"The best song writing work comes at night when you're exhausted. Everyone knows that."
"Oh, do they."
"Yes, they do."
We continued working on writing the song for another 30 minutes.
"Zion, can you at least tell me what this is for?"
"One day you'll need it."
"For what?"
"Just one day you'll need it."
"Oh, when I'm big and famous and need another hit single?"
"Exactly."
"Zion, I told you when I was helping you and the boys with that song in the studio that me singing was just all of us messing around. It wasn't anything serious."
"Okay, maybe the whole 'hit single' is a bit of an exaggeration, but when people have a voice like that other people need to hear it. So when you stop being so stubborn and realize I was right then you can come back to this song and use it."
"Oh, and when they ask should I just refer to the famous songwriter from the biggest boyband in the world Mr. Zion Kuwonu?"
"Of course."
I started laughing.
"Try not to forget me when you have all those screaming fans too."
"Oh, really?"
"Yea, they'll be like Vanessa! Vanessa! OMG, Vanessa! Please let me touch you! Vanessa, can I get an autograph!? OMG It's Vanessa! I have to touch her! OMG Vanessa!"
He turned over on the couch and started kissing me.
"Zion! We have to finish this!"
"OMG, Vanessa!"
We both started laughing again.
END OF FLASHBACK
"Uh.. Nessa?"
"Yea?"
"You kind of zoned out on me there."
"Sorry sorry, uh yea actually I do think I have some lyrics."
"Great, show me what you got."
I got up and walked inside the booth. I put on the headphones and looked at Cade.
"You ready?"
"Yea."
Cade played the track back and the intro slowly came in. The beat came in for the start of the verse and then I started singing the lyrics from the song Zion and I wrote awhile ago. I kept singing and then we stopped recording at the chorus.
"Hey, can I do that one again?"
"Yea, let's get a few takes in of the bridge just in case."
"Okay."
We went over the bridge a couple times and then continued into the chorus. We worked for what felt like only a few minutes. It was the most fun I had in awhile, and it felt so good. Correction, it felt amazing to be in the studio almost therapeutic even. We took a break when Cade postmated some food to the studio then we got back to work. We continued into the last verse and I was kind of stuck on how to end the last line.
"I don't like how that sounds."
"Then change it."
"I don't know how because I don't like when it's more of an in my head voice instead of more of a nasal voice."
"Try it again but try bringing it up in the middle of the third line then let it flow out for the last one."
"Okay."
Cade played the track back and I did what he said for the the third line but mellowed out the last one and then dragged out the high note for the last four words.
"There you go!"
I kept singing and continued to the last chorus and then Cade cut the playback and I came out of the booth.
"Yo, that was it!"
"Was it good?"
"Hell yea, I liked how you did a small run for the third line then drug it out for the last bit. That was dope."
"Thank you."
"We can probably lay down some background vocals later and then I think layering some melodies for the bridge would be dope."
"Oh yea, like near the ending of the second verse into the bridge."
"Yea."
Both of us smiled at each other and then my eyes glanced down at my phone next to me.
8:57
7 Missed Calls
Z💛
"Where are you?"
Z💛
"It's getting late, Nessa. Where are you?"
Z💛
"Yo, are you coming?"
Z💛
"Really, Nessa?"
Z💛
"I'm going home."
"OMG!"
I rushed and grabbed my phone and keys.
"Woah woah, where are you going?"
"I'm late, Cade!"
"For what?"
"To meet my boyfriend!"
"Oh man, I'm sorry I didn't even notice the time."
"Of course you didn't."
I rushed around the room trying to find my purse.
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"Look, I get it the little remarks were cute at first, but really? Keeping me here so I would be late to see him?"
"Yo, are you serious? Look, complementing you was suppose to be funny but I never wanted to keep you here so you would miss your stupid date."
I paused for a second and grabbed my purse and then I looked at him.
"We were working on music, Nessa. I wasn't plotting some diabolical plan to ruin your night with your boyfriend."
He turned around and grabbed his keys.
"I don't think this is going to work out."
"What? Look, Cade I'm so-"
"I don't mess with artists who don't trust me, Nessa. This wasn't some deal so Mav could hook me up with his friend. I did this cause your insanely talented. Your relationship has nothing to do with that, and it never did."
Cade grabbed his phone and stormed out. I stood there and let out a deep breath. I turned around and closed the door and walked outside. I got in my car and drove over to the boy's house. I got out and walked up and knocked on the door.
"Hey, Nessa."
"Hey Edwin..umm is Z here?"
"Yea... uh he's up in his room."
"By the look on your face I'm guessing you know I'm officially the worst girlfriend ever."
"Nah, he's just upset. He'll be alright though."
"Thanks, Edwin."
I walked upstairs and knocked on the door. He opened it and looked at me.
"I gotta get ready to go to the studio with Brandon. What do you want, Nessa?"
"Z, I'm sorry."
He walked out of the door frame and over to his dresser. I closed the door and walked in the middle of his room.
"Look, I know I completely screwed up and-"
"Why didn't you just call or even text?"
"I just got held up at the studio with Cade-"
"Cade?"
"Yea, We were playing around with a song, and I totally lost track of time-"
"You went to the studio to work on a song dressed like that?"
I paused for a second and looked at him. I felt my face get a little red because of his comment.
"Dressed like what? I'm wearing a turtleneck under a dress, Zion. The only reason was so I wouldn't have to go back to my apartment to change for our date-"
"That you showed up so promptly for, right?"
"What is going on with you?"
"I don't know maybe it has to do with the fact my girlfriend skipped on our date to spend the night in the studio with some other dude."
"I was working on music, Zion! I wasn't just with some other dude, and if I remember correctly just a couple hours earlier weren't you the same person who was so proud of me and happy for me for pursuing music-"
"Yea, also a couple hours earlier you were going to show up for our date on time so I guess things change."
I didn't say anything for a second.
"Zion, I'm sorry. I really am."
He stopped angrily shutting his dresser drawers and looked at me. I walked closer and grabbed his face.
"I'm really really sorry. Let me make it up to you."
He paused and looked at me and then grabbed my waist.
"I guess I could skip the studio with Brandon and we can just go grab something to eat."
"Uhm.."
"What's the problem?"
"I just uhm... I already um.. I already ate some food with Cade..uhm.. at the studio."
He just looked at me and took my hands off his face and stormed out the room.
"Zion, wait!"