Jake called me early the next morning and we talked for hours. I told him how homesick I was and he told me that I could just come home. “No one‘s making you stay there Olivia. We‘re all just hoping you follow your dreams.”
“I don‘t want to come home and give up Jake! I want to make my dreams come true. I love it here, I just want you guys to be here with me.”
We hung up after I swore I wasn’t coming back. I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was seven in the morning and I wanted to go home. The problem was that I was already “home”. Austin had a meeting with Scott at the recording studio at nine and asked me to come along. I knew what that meant.
I wandered out of my room with my laptop to Austin’s mini recording studio down the hall where he used to do his Ustreams until I came along. I slumped down in the corner and started working on my story. It all seemed so out of place. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t just get used to being in San Antonio. I felt so uncomfortable when I looked around. I thought that after being here for a little while I’d be able to accept the fact that I wasn’t home, but I couldn’t.
I was typing for about a half hour when Austin came in, looking drunk with sleep. “Good morning,” he said and started stretching.
I looked up. “Hi.”
He leaned up against the wall. “How‘s your story coming?”
I shrugged. “Good.”
He sank down to the floor next to me. “You ready for the meeting with Scott?”
I shook my head. “I kind of just want to go home.”
Austin rubbed his eyes. “You‘re giving up this easy? You‘ve come so far already. Alex would be crushed if you left.”
“I don‘t want to leave,” I told him. “I just miss everyone so much. Nothing‘s the same here. I miss Dillon and Jake.”
Austin sighed. “You want a hug?”
I wrapped my arms around his waist, and he stroked his fingers through my knotted hair. “No one said this would be easy. We just said it‘d be worth it.”
I laughed. “Are you running out of your own wisdom and stealing from others? I’ve heard that before.”
He laughed with me. “Give me some credit. I just woke up. Now come on, we have to get ready so we don‘t miss our recording slot. Scott gets his panties in a bunch if he has to reschedule.”
I laughed again and smiled. He stood up and pointed. “I made you smile!”
I got dressed and straightened my hair, deciding to put some effort into my appearance that day. Alex sent me a good morning text. I smiled and met Austin at the front door where Scott was about to pick us up. Nothing is cuter than a good morning text from your boyfriend.
The studio was in a huge building in downtown San Antonio. The entire lobby was full of expensive, modern furniture. All the walls and floors were shades of orange and all of the furniture was perfect white. Needless to say, it was the classiest place I’d set foot in. Ever. Every square inch was spotless. I kind of wished I could buy some new white socks and slide around on the floor.
Austin took me by the wrist and guided me through an array of hallways as I looked around. “It‘s nice isn’t it?” I nodded. “Yeah. It‘s a good thing Scott has friends here. I record for free.”
My eyes popped slightly. What kind of people did Scott know? Next thing I knew he was going to be telling me a story about his vacation with Bill Gates and his date with Megan Fox. The studio itself seemed even nicer, not that I had anything to compare it to other than TV and music videos. Scott took a seat in front of the soundboard and Austin and I sat on a small sofa off to the side.
Scott spun the chair so he was facing us. “We have stuff to talk about?”
It seemed like a statement, but it sounded like a question. Austin replied to him. “Well two things specifically.”
Scott leaned back in his chair. “Alright. Let’s talk then. Communication gets things done.”
Austin fidgeted. “Well there‘s Olivia and Alex for one thing. Everything started dying down yesterday and I thought everything was going to go back to normal, but they went out and it got worse.”
Scott looked pointedly at me. “Olivia,” he said. “Can you tell me what happened? Things don‘t stir themselves up in a few hours.”
“Everything was going great,” I said. “He took me to the movies and we went to the diner to get ice cream. Then, there were these two girls that recognized him. He acted all nice and tried to get them to leave. He even offered to take pictures and all of that with them, but the one girl flipped out because he was on a date with me. She dumped ice cream in my hair.”
Scott sighed. “So the girls spread word about your date?”
I shrugged. “I guess. I don‘t bother going online anymore. I don‘t need to see all of the names they‘re calling me. It‘s better to ignore it.”
“We can‘t keep letting this happen,” Austin said. “She‘s not safe going out in public with him.”
Scott stared between Austin and I. “Then you‘re going to have to either suck it up or lie to your fans.”
“I don‘t want to lie. I called Alex and talked to him about it last night. I already thought of that. Alex said he‘s never going to lie to our fans and say he‘s single when he’s not," Austin said. "I don‘t want to restrict them from their relationship and tell them they can‘t go out in public. We want you to tell us how to fix this. Alex wants to have a normal relationship with Liv. What do I say and what do they say to make everyone just accept it? Come on Scott. There has to be something you can tell us.”
“Austin. You guys have to stop hiding. I admire you for trying to stand up for her. Telling your fans you weren‘t going to do Ustreams until they apologized made you look like her best friend, but it didn‘t help the situation or your careers. Come out of this with no shame. If you‘re not afraid, the fans aren‘t going to have any choice than to respect it. And Olivia?” I looked up at Scott after letting my eyes wander. “Get your butt back on the Internet and tell them all about the beautiful things you and Alex do and say. If you stake claim, they‘ll have to back off. If that doesn‘t get you anywhere we can figure something else out. Now. Your second question?”
Austin grinned and stood up. “Olivia should duet with me.”
Scott stood up. “She should!”
I stood up. “No she shouldn‘t!”
Austin whipped out his phone and played the recording from last night. Scott nodded, smiling, “She should.”
“What if that makes it all worse?”
Scott took me by my shoulders. “Do you like singing?”
“Not in front of people.”
“But do you like doing it?” I nodded. “Then don‘t let them stop you.”
I stepped back. “I don‘t sing in front of people.”
Scott raised his eyebrows. “You sang for Austin.”
“That‘s different. He made me.”
Scott pushed me back into my seat. “Get in there and start recording, Austin. We‘ll deal with her later.”
********
Watching Austin record his song was almost magical. His face was so peaceful when he closed his eyes and held out the notes. He looked so much younger. I envied the peace I saw in his eyes, but I also fell in love with his voice even more. Hearing it online was amazing. Hearing it in person was magical. But hearing him in the studio where he was most at peace was inspiring. It made me want to find that peace and forget all of my stress and worries for a few seconds.
Scott pointed to me after awhile. “Take a picture and post on Twitter. Even though it‘s all been hate, a lot of the girls started following you.”
I took a picture of Austin while he was singing and posted it. “Hanging with my best friend in the studio. Amazing cover coming soon!” Austin looked up when I was taking the picture, but it didn’t break his focus.
Recording took a little while. There was a lot of cutting and editing and redoing. When they did finish, Austin came back out and Scott replayed what could’ve been the finished product. “I like it,” Scott said. “You‘re getting better.”
Austin nodded and took a sip of water. “Thanks. I think it needs a higher voice in the third verse and the chorus.” He looked in my direction.
Scott shrugged. “I guess we can have Olivia experiment with it. Get in there girlie.”
I stared at Austin. “Remember what you promised?”
He sighed. “Scott I promised her that if she‘d do it I‘d be the only one here when she recorded. She‘s shy.”
Scott stood up and headed for the door. “Don‘t break anything you two. I‘ll be down in the lounge. Come get me when you have it.”
He left and suddenly I was standing face to face with only Austin. He smiled. “How‘s our picture doing on Twitter?”
I shrugged. “I turned my phone off because I was getting too many replies and didn’t have time to read them all. It started some kind of talk.”
“That‘s good. Ready?”
“Nope.”
He pulled me by the wrist into the recording booth and showed me the basics. “Now,” he said. “Put on these headphones and sing along like you did last night. That‘ll give us the basic outline and then I‘ll help you clean it up anywhere that it gets messy.”
I nodded and he went back out to the sound board. After playing with some knobs and switches he gave me a thumbs up and the music started playing in my headphones. A wave of nervousness crashed over me and I missed the intro.
Austin’s track stopped and he pulled up a microphone. “You okay?” I nodded again. “Alright. Let‘s try it again. Remember; just relax.”
He pushed the microphone back and the track started over again from the beginning. I closed my eyes like he had and sang along. Suddenly I felt safer. I didn’t seem as vulnerable as I had been in the beginning. I opened my eyes and saw him taking a picture of me like I did to him. I smiled. No reason to hide myself I guess. I finished out the song and Austin came back into the recording booth. “That was good,” he told me.
I grinned. “But?”
“Well… some of your notes could use a tune up.” He laughed. “I should‘ve warmed up your voice before we started.”
He guided me towards the keyboard in the corner and helped me warm up my voice. I was stubborn in the beginning, so he ended up singing with me. I felt even more stupid when he played back parts of his recording and made me sing it back to him. After awhile we were back at the microphone. “Don‘t feel bad,” he told me. “Studio work takes some getting used to. Especially when you‘ve never really sang before.”
I sang the whole song again, and after redoing the same part of the chorus at least nine times, Austin announced that we’d finally gotten it right. I went back out to the soundboard and listened to the full thing. He faded my voice out in a lot of places so I sounded like a muted back up singer, but he made it sound like a duet at the chorus and third verse. My lack of musical ability created a natural harmony because I couldn’t hit the melody right. What shocked me the most was the one line in which he’d taken his own voice out entirely and only left mine. That wasn’t the original plan, but that’s how it was in the original song.
“I think it sounds great Olivia. I‘m going to get Scott.”
He left me there alone and I replayed the track. I couldn’t decide what I thought. He’d done a good job of piecing it together and it’s not like either of us sounded off-key. I just wasn’t sure I liked hearing my own voice through a set of speakers.
Scott and Austin walked back in right before the third verse; just in time to hear my one line solo. I watched the computer monitor even though there was nothing to see. My part passed and I felt someone wrap their arms around my shoulders from behind. I looked up and saw Scott smiling down at me. “You sound fantastic. Austin?”
Austin moved around so I could see him too. “Yeah?”
“Put her in the video.”
Three days later Austin finished editing the video we’d worked hard to film after we got out of the studio. The whole thing was simple, just the two of us singing together at the local park. Austin clicked to upload the video and I felt like I needed to hold my breath.
A box popped up. It would be three hours before it totally uploaded. It was only a little after lunch, so that meant it’d be up a little after most kids were getting home from school. That meant it’d be up by the time some of Austin’s friends got here after they got out of school. Alex was coming too. They were all going out to the mall, but being myself I wasn’t quite sure whether or not I was invited. I didn’t care though. I’d get to see Alex for a little.
I worked as hard as I could to get all of my algebra work for the month out of the way before the guys got here. So far the only one of them I’d officially met was Alex, but I had talked to Tyler on the phone. Zach, Robert, and Alex’s younger brother Drew were coming too. Austin had told me a little about Drew. He was my age, looked almost exactly like Alex, but was real shy. I wondered why he was hanging out with the guys tonight and Austin explained. “Alex‘s mom‘s out of town for a few days. That‘s why he was at his dad‘s over the weekend. They had to come back for the school week though and Drew doesn‘t really like staying home alone. He‘s cool though.”
Austin helped me with my math and kept an eye on the computer to make sure the video kept uploading. He was a lot better math teacher than my real teacher back home. He probably could’ve been a teacher if he wasn’t such a good singer. I was an honor roll student, but math was my weak point. Reading how to do problems out of a book wasn’t that helpful. Austin spent the better part of the afternoon explaining factoring, graphing, and multi-step equations. I had to give him props for being patient. I probably would’ve smacked myself if I were him. I felt so out of step with the school thing.
The computer made a noise behind us. The video finished uploading. The doorbell rang downstairs. Everyone was going to get to see it.