∞∞∞
My body was held together by a couple of clothespins, some chewing gum, and a dream by the time Monday rolled around. I hadn’t taken a day off from my eighteen-hour shifts of running myself ragged all over the city, and I was starting to disassociate as I dumped another handful of trail mix into my mouth and checked myself in my phone camera before I headed into the studio, a more upscale venue than my regular one. Which, granted, wasn’t saying much, but still, nice place. My suit felt a little out of place at the other one, but here I felt right, especially telling the guy at the front that I was here to meet some people, and asking if either of Stephen Shale or Helena Warrick had come in yet.
“Mr. Shale is already in room 4, ma’am,” he said. “You’ll find it down the hall on the left. I can send Ms. Warrick in after you, if you like.”
“Thank you, that’d be awesome.” I’d meant to say something likelovelyorwonderful,but I was getting delirious. Whatever. Awesome it was. “Have an awesome day.” Shit, there was awesome again. I was slipping.
Stephen Shale lit up when I came in the room. He’d finally gotten over his terrified nerves, and he seemed to like hanging out and getting pumped up with me, so here we were. He was even starting to dress a little bit less like a prep school dork, with a new hoodie that had a shocking black-and-yellow industrialdesign and a beanie that was, admittedly, a little too neat and proper on his head.
“Stephen motherfucking Shale,” I said, raising a hand to dap him up, and he met the energy. I adjusted his hat for a more relaxed style, and I gave his shoulder a shove. “What’s this hoodie? You look badass, dude.”
“Ha, thanks. I got it from my momma’s friend.”
“Ugh, way to kill the vibe, man. Next time say you got it from a street vendor under an overpass in Queens.”
“Oh, yes, ma’am. Where’s the new girl?”
“Helena’s probably going to be on time. You and I are just early. And I’m glad you are, because we’ve gotta talk.” I pulled up a stool, dropping onto it with my hands between my legs, leaning forwards. “Listen, we’ve gotta get that hit.”
“Oh, uh, I’m trying.”
“No, you’ve been learning, rehearsing. Now it’s time to put that to good use. I think you’re ready to go for it, dude.”
He lit up. “You think so?”
Not even remotely. He was still green as hell, and all the learning I’d crammed in about music just gave me new ways to describe how he didn’t know what he was doing. But recruiting other talent turned out to be harder than I thought, and I wasn’t about to let Helena find out I was a talent agent representing a grand total of one talent. I’d gotten a handful of other people to sign up, spending the weekend in so many music venues that my ears were still ringing, talking to artists who were so shit that nobody else would stoop to the level of taking them up, and I only had to say a couple of things about my qualifications—things that were technically true, if a little misrepresented—to get them to sign up. But out of all of them, there was only this one girl who actually showed up to anything, a wannabe punk rocker who had probably had one shower in her life and spent all her money on amps in hopes she would get better at guitar ifshe had an expensive enough one, and she… wasn’t winning any Grammies any time soon.
At the very least, my lists in the app didn’t just have Stephen Shale anymore. And for the rest, well, I’d gotten pretty good at making shit up.
So I continued to make shit up, and I said, “Hell yeah, dude. You’ve felt it, haven’t you? You got the rhythm and flow inside your bones.”
“Yo, yo,” he said, apparently picking up my near-rhyme to turn it into a rap. “You’re goddamn right, I feel it really… right.” His face fell.
“Uh-huh, yeah, well, freestyle ain’t your beat, but that’s all right. You’ll learn.” I waved him off. “We’re going to have an event in June. You’ve gotta be ready to hit the stage for it.”
“I’m ready now, man.”
“Dude, you don’t have any songs written.”
“Uh, yeah. Well, I’ll just write ‘em real quick and then I’m ready.”
Thank god Sheila had been so good in my songwriting lessons. This kid wasn’t writing his own rhymes any time before hell froze over.
A knock came from the door, and I turned back to where my stomach fluttered at the sight of Helena coming into the room, the tech at the door behind her. “Let me know if you need anything,” he said, and he stepped out and shut the door behind him, but I really wasn’t listening.
Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker, every time I saw Helena, she was hotter. I think it was the casual look today, her hair back in a loose ponytail, wearing a chunky sweater and an oversized pendant with faded jeans, studded ankle boots that would look tacky on me but were drop-dead sexy on her. Next to me, I heard Stephen let out a quietwhoa,and I’d never related to the guy so hard.
“Hey,” I said, trying for casual. Luckily I was so sleep-deprived that everything I said was a bit carefree and laidback, like it was when I’d been drinking. “Like the look. I’m guessing this one isn’t Shiyun official apparel?”
She grinned. JesusChrist,that fuckingsmile.How the hell was she single? Was everyone too intimidated to ask her out? Because I sure as hell would be. “Shiyun doesn’t need to know anything about what’s going on here,” she said, a finger to her lips. “Keep it hush for me, Houdini.”
“I’ll pull a magic trick and make your secrets disappear. Glad you managed to pull one of your own to get away from it all, make some time to meet this sorry crew belting some half-assed rhymes.”
She laughed, her eyes sparkled, and briefly, I wondered if I got hit by a car on my way to the studio and this was just me seeing the light, an angel coming down to escort me into heaven. No, that wasn’t right. I wasn’t going to heaven. “No place in this city I’d rather be, Houdini.”
Well, that had to be a lie. But then again, I guess she’d chosen to be here. Which brought me back to my earlier point: holy shit. I remembered where I was long enough to nudge Stephen’s shoulder. “Well, this is Helena. Friend of mine who’s working with me on the promo biz around the upcoming Jewel event. Helena, the one, the only, Stephen Shale.”
“Wow, Miss, I, uh, hi,” Stephen said, putting a hand out for the clammiest, most nervous handshake I’d ever seen. Helena took it gracefully, pretending Stephen didn’t look like he was about to pass out in front of her. I hated this kid right now. Not because he’d done anything wrong, but because I was seeing myself from the outside, and god did I look like a fucking loser. “Thanks for c-coming to see us. And to work with Miss Boss.”
