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“Did you not just hear what I said?”
“Bull!” he shouts at me, with a mouthful of pizza. “Yeah, you’re a college freshman, but you’re not even gonna try and act like you’re not who you are. You’re Austin Richards. Heir to Rich Records. You’re gonna tell me you don’t have a chance? You’re almost like a socialite or something. Regular people don’t recognize you, but get you in a room full of certain industry people and you know as well as I do people pay attention.”
“You know as well as I do that they only pay attention to me because of my name,” I retort. “But …” Cringing, I reach over the table we’re sitting at and grab my bottle of soda. “There is one little problem with that.” He shakes his head at me, confused. “She doesn’t know who I am.”
“What do you mean?”
I let out a pathetic laugh. “I mean, she was kind of pissed off when she arrived. She wanted to be listed as Kristen King as an alias, just in case paparazzi or something found out she was coming in. She was all disguised and stuff. When I found out who she was, she basically tore my dad a new one and felt sorry that I had to work for him. She thought I was just a guy who works in the building.”
“You didn’t tell her?”
“How could I? What? Was I gonna be all, ‘Hey, you know the guy you degraded and called a conniving snake? Yeah, that’s my pops. It’s cool, though’? No way. And then, I told her my last name was Hernandez.”
“Hernandez?”
“It’s my mom’s maiden name. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want her thinking I was like my dad.”
He starts laughing, picking up a new slice of pizza, taking a bite. “Yeah, I guess that would make it awkward. What are you gonna do?”
“What do you mean, ‘what am I gonna do?’ I’m not gonna do anything.”
“Austin! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Jade Barkley is recording at your record studio. You have direct access to her.”
“You’re insane, you know that? First of all, it’s not my record studio.”
“Semantics.”
“Secondly, I don’t have direct access. It’s not like I can just show up whenever I want. She’s working on stuff. I’ve been around enough artists to realize when they are working on their craft, they do not like to be interrupted. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I’m not gonna do anything because she has a boyfriend.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
“You should’ve led with that. But, you know, you can at least make yourself seen a little when she’s there. Do you know when she’s coming in next?”
“No. I’m not gonna stalk her, man.”
“I’ll hook you up,” he says. “If I see her, I’ll let you know she’s in the building. You better get out of whatever class you’re in if I do.”
I start laughing, taking another drink. “You’re crazy.”
He chuckles again, and I return to eating a new slice. It’s not like I haven’t thought about it since I met her. Not about asking her out or anything like that, but just being around her more. Not because she’s famous and beautiful, but I haven’t gotten her lyrics out of my head yet.
Ever since I decided I wanted to be a music teacher, I’ve dove into some of the most well-known songs in the world. The pop hits, Grammy award winners, and classics that people don’t know but are revered by those in the industry. There are different aspects to lyrics in various songs that don’t only apply to their genres. A rap song could have an earth-shattering motivational lyric, or a pop song could have a touching line about love or death.
I think rhythm gets a person hooked, but the lyrics are truly what can move and inspire people. Jade’s words did that for me that day. I would love to be around that more.
