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The bell over the door chimed as Skylar let herself into the shop. The smell of older vinyl albums mixed with the fresh lavender Skylar had placed around the shop. While the front wall was entirely windows, the other three walls were covered with albums throughout the decades. There were also photos of patrons in the shops throughout its long history. Steven had even dedicated a mini section to Maine Event, Skylar’s old band.
Skylar tried to avoid that corner of the shop as much as possible. She didn’t want to be reminded of what she once had. Maine Event had been a top band many years ago. They were top of the charts and selling out venues within minutes of tickets going on sale. Deep down, Skylar knew they could still be big if her own emotions hadn’t gotten in the way.
Gritting her teeth, Skylar kept her eyes away from the picture of her and Elena under their first album—Moonstone—at the release party. Steven had taken it, but Skylar knew even he didn’t know the whole history behind their smiling faces.
“Hey, Peanut,” Steven’s husky voice startled Skylar as she meandered through the store to the counter. He was wearing his usual attire of pressed khaki pants and a button-up shirt, along with a pair of tennis shoes. As he always did, Steven pulled her into a quick side hug and kissed the top of her head.
“Hey, Dad. How are you?”
“Same as always. You?”
“Same, same.”
They had the same interaction every day, and Skylar found herself looking forward to it.
After her mother left when Skylar was four, Steven stepped up and became the best dad a girl could ever have. He learned how to fix her hair, how to paint nails, and read all the Nancy Drew books so he could talk with her about them. All her friends loved him and were always fighting to spend the night at Skylar’s house because they knew Steven would build an epic blanket fort for them. Skylar was blessed to have such a great relationship with her dad, that much she knew for sure.
“That agent man called again.”
Skylar grit her teeth again.
“Why don’t you take his calls?”
“Because I don’t want to talk to him.”
Sitting in the unsteady office chair behind the computer, Skylar turned it on as she avoided her father’s gaze. She knew him well enough to know he was giving her an I-raised-you-better-than-this look. And it was true. Steven had raised her better than to ignore the phone call from an agent.
But Skylar had been avoiding his call for weeks. She’d only listened to his first voicemail, while the rest remained unheard with antagonizing red exclamation marks beside them. Skylar had told the agent, Johnny Lundy, that she had no interest in going on tour with Maine Event again. She told him she had responsibilities and a life in the Cove that she couldn’t up and leave.
While that wasn’t a lie, Skylar would never dare tell him the real truth. There was no way Skylar could handle singing love songs with Elena again. Let alone be in the same room as her. Her love for Elena never died over the years. In fact, it stayed like a warm fire that kept her company on long winter nights.
Elena had been Skylar’s best friend from the moment she showed up at Moonflower Cove High School during their freshman year. She was a transplant from Malibu, which seemed to be a world away for Skylar. Skylar was smitten with Elena immediately, but Elena made it clear she was straight. So Skylar respected their boundaries, and the two quickly became best friends.
By the time they teamed up with a garage boy band featuring four of their classmates, they both knew they wanted to perform for the rest of their life. Maine Event grew from a garage band singing cover songs to a small-town band singing their few handwritten songs at the local bar. After graduation, they hit the road in a beat-up van and played bars all over the northeast.
It was four long years of playing bars, small venues, and opening for the opening acts on tours before they finally hit it big. Their second album, Gold Rush, hit number one on the charts, and the rest was history. Before any of them had time to process, they were selling out venues all over the US and Canada, and even Europe. They’d been called “a new Fleetwood Mac,” and they all thought they’d live on that high forever.
But life always has different ways of playing out.
Because when Elena came into Skylar’s bed and confessed that she loved her, it was all over for Skylar. She fell head over heels for Elena, who had accepted her bisexuality. Elena and Skylar’s song writing excelled as they wrote love songs about each other. When their third album—Moonlight—came out, Skylar knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Elena.
That was until she realized Elena wanted to keep their relationship a secret. Skylar knew, on some level, Elena had a point. Back then, it felt harder to be gay and in the spotlight. But it was harder with Elena constantly pulling Skylar back into the closet with her. They would sing their love songs to sold-out crowds before falling asleep in each other’s arms.
Then the morning would come, and Elena went back to acting like she and Skylar were nothing but friends and bandmates. Skylar tried not to let it bother her; she truly loved Elena after all. But after two years of being Elena’s secret lover, Skylar wanted more.
No.
She needed more. Skylar needed Elena to show her that she wanted more than just stolen glances across the stage. But in the end, that had been more than Elena had been willing to give.
The memory of leaving Elena still broke Skylar’s heart. She forced the memory back into its cage in the dungeons of her memories as she turned to face her dad.
“You can give me that look all you want, but I’m not calling him back.”
Steven held up his hands. “I didn’t say a word.”
“Yeah, but your face did.”
“I can’t control my face,” he chuckled. He was shifting through a box of donated records, weeding out the ones they could resell versus the ones that would get put into their free bin. “I just know you’re destined for more than working here with me.”
