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I guess that’s why you’re paying him.
That was why I was paying him, and he kept his mouth shut when my mom came over and asked him if he saw anything out of the ordinary outside. He probably wasn’t seeing much, which was the point, of course. Queenstown Village was a college town, and that was what was down there on Pembroke University’s quad. People were studying and listening to music below down on the grass while others played Frisbee nearby. It was a typical fall semester in the Midwest. At least, I believed it was typical. I’d only seen college on TV before this.
One thing the TV got right was how quiet things were, how normal. It all was the complete opposite of the busy and often frantic lifestyle I normally led in the music industry. I literally felt my body seep free of stress when I’d gotten here, and it’d been nice.
So nice.
This was another comment I kept to myself, and when Franklin gave my mother canned answers about the lay of the land outside, I breathed another sigh of relief. He was doing his job very well.
“Everything looks on the up-and-up, ma’am,” Franklin said before dismissing himself. My mom had worked out a two-bedroom dorm so my hired security could have a room nearby. He was to stay with me all semester while I was here.
Little did my mother know that room wouldn’t be needed. She needed to believe I needed it, though.
Mom allowed Franklin to leave. He stated he was going to analyze the perimeter again. It felt like he’d said he had already done that a few times, but I wasn’t going to out his lies.
Play it cool.
Mom joined me on the couch. “So I’ve spoken to the chancellor personally,” she said, her tone serious. She was serious, and I knew she was. She frowned. “He’s kept the details of you being here on the low. Not even any of the professors know. You’ll be able to attend classes like everyone else as long as you remain discreet.”
I’d already been told about that. I was to keep to myself and not draw attention. No one was supposed to know I was here. I was to blend in.
Mom touched my shoulder, her fingers twisting one of my locs. “You’ll be safe, Aspen, and we will get to the bottom of those threats.”
A pang of tightness hit my stomach, the threats the reason I was actually here and blending in as a student this term. I was at Pembroke-U to go to school, but I wouldn’t be going to school if what happened at Carnegie Hall hadn’t occurred. I’d been playing the biggest concert of my life, my literal dream. I’d done a lot in my career, but the opportunity to play Carnegie Hall hadn’t come right away. It eventually had, and it proved to be the worst night of my life.
My mouth dried as my mother studied my face, actual concern there, and I knew she had it. I mean, if my daughter’s life had been threatened on the biggest night of her career, I’d be unnerved too, and this wasn’t the first time I’d put her through the wringer. I’d been kidnapped once. She almost lost me once.
Of course, that was a long time ago, but neither of us forgot. I mean, how could we, how could I? My mother and her overbearing nature kicked into overdrive after the summer I turned twelve. She’d already been that way since it had just been us for so long. I was my mom’s life, and I knew that.
She moved a few of my lengthy locs over my shoulder. “Now, mind Franklin. You can have fun but be responsible about it.”
Be responsible meant blending in. I was to wear a disguise at all times. Again, no one was supposed to know I was here. I nodded. “I will.”
“And of course, stay militant about your practice schedule. Your music isn’t your focus here, but we don’t want you getting loosey goosey and obliterating everything you’ve worked for,” she continued.
No, we wouldn’t want me getting loosey goosey, which was why she’d arranged for my teacher, Deborah Hays, to send me weekly emails of all the rigorous sheet music she wanted me to perfect while I was here. They ranged in difficulty, but knowing Deborah, they’d be challenging. I was also to keep up on my workout schedule and various appointments with my trainer, which would be conducted via Zoom now that I was here instead of in LA.
“The Peloton is in your room,” Mom informed, the perfect place for it to stare me down when I didn’t feel like doing it. She studied me in my jeans and tube top. “We wouldn’t want you gaining the freshman fifteen while you’re here, and dear God, don’t eat anything you can’t pronounce or that has additives. Basically, stay out of that cafeteria. That’s why we got you a meal delivery service. You don’t need to get fat just because you’re here.”
Franklin came back in right around the time Mom said that, and though his attention averted to the room, that didn’t mean he failed to hear Mom’s comment.
God.
“Then there’s your medications, Aspen. You have a lot of responsibility being here on your own, and we don’t want you having a?—”
“I’ll be fine.” I stood, adjusting my shirt, adjusting everything. She made me feel so fucking self-conscious sometimes and like a child more often than not. Between the schedules and the appointments, it was just too fucking much.
Calm down.
I focused on the positive thoughts that soon my mother and her habits would be gone. She’d leave me alone, and she’d look into those threats.
She’d leave.
That was when the guilt hit, sharp, and it always did when I got frustrated with her. I knew she was only this way because she cared.
Because of that, I didn’t fight her hug before she finally left. She told me she loved me, and I truly believed she wanted me to have fun. Her delivery was just crap sometimes, and she mentioned for me to have a good time again before she left. She told me not to worry about anything and that she would find out who’d threatened me that night at Carnegie Hall. There’d been letters. Ones she’d found…
“Your fee as promise,” I said to Franklin, who’d waited after my mom departed. We made sure she had before I got my purse. I nodded at the check. “And there’s extra there. For your discretion?”
