A/N: I like this drabble-y ficlet. It's a future fic, not sure where it came from but here it is. Vote in my poll if you haven't! Enjoy! R&R! Thanks! –Mac
Disclaimer: I don't own CR.
Quit
Tess Tyler smoked her first cigarette on her eighteenth birthday—as one of those silly traditions where the birthday girl does everything she was then legally allowed to do. She bought a lottery ticket and an X-rated movie too (she lost on the lotto and she hasn't watched the movie, but she's picked up a nasty nicotine addiction).
If one asked Tess, she would deny any addiction. In fact, she didn't smoke that many cigarettes at all.
She only smoked one every time her mother got on her about her progressing career; or criticized her appearance, music or poor choice in boyfriends; or completely ignored her existence.
She only smoked a couple every time her producer stopped her in the middle of recording a track and suggested a change in the song (which was so often that she didn't believe her name should be listed as a writer on any of her songs anymore).
She only smoked a pack every time her latest beau decided she was strung too tight and left her for one of the other girls he had been sleeping with while they were together.
And that couldn't add up to much. Besides, she only smoked to relieve stress from a hectic schedule, pressure to be perfect from all sides, and a career she wasn't completely happy with (because it wasn't hers anymore, it was her mother's).
She was currently recording her new album. She had spent most of the day at the studio. But Tess wasn't the only one in the studio that day. Connect 3 had been in and out for the last week, as had Mitchie Torres. And of course, these larger acts got priority over the girl many thought was riding her mother's coattails into stardom. Tess got along well enough with Mitchie and the three boys, she would even call them friends, but she didn't enjoy the lack of attention focused on her when they were around. Rather than throw a temper tantrum, which she was prone to do, she had stepped outside for a cigarette. She felt her tense muscles relax as she puffed away.
"That's a nasty habit," a voice broke into her thoughts. She turned around to Shane Gray walking past her.
She dropped her finished cigarette on the ground and stamped it out, "I know. I should quit."
Sad thing was, she wasn't so sure she was talking about smoking when she said that.