Song: The Civil Wars - Falling
~Forbearance~
By the time Sunday evening rolled around Rose Hathaway was dreading the up and coming write she was to attend. Her entire weekend had been tainted with promises of opportunity and fun from Lissa. She couldn't escape, whether it was text messages, Snapchats, tweets, or in person, she was constantly reminded of the activity. In fact, this morning she woke to Lissa's knock at the front door.
Groggily she had dragged herself out of the warm embrace of her covers and pulled the door open harder than necessary sending it to crashing against the wall behind it.
"Morning!" Lissa said excitedly, blatantly ignoring the grumpy look on her best friend face. "I brought coffee!" she stated, handing over the caffeine filled cup before she could be kicked out of the house.
"Lissa, I'm not sure if you're aware of the fact that it's a common courtesy to phone ahead of arriving. Or at the very least to send a text." Rose grumbled as she saved her cold feet from the hardwood floors with a fox-embellished slipper. She got on her hands and knees to find the other half of the pair, flipping her bed-messed hair back over her shoulder as she returned to standing. Her eyes were met with a bag filled with – if she wasn't mistaken, donuts.
"If I thought you'd agree to have me over to talk about tomorrow I would have done exactly that. Anyway! I brought donuts!" Donuts were Lissa's version of a white flag being waved, she hated the things, going as far as to refer to them as "Sugary wheels of death and diabetes."
"It hardly counts as a peace offering if the intention was to wreak havoc on my life." Rose continued to grumble as she stomped into her kitchen to deposit the bag of delicious dough on her bench and her ass on one of the uninviting plastic stools placed around the room.
"Havoc on your life? Seems like a bit of exaggeration Rose. I simply want to make sure you're not stressing about tomorrow." More like not moping, Rose thought to herself.
"I'm fine Liss, I've done this before and it's not like I can prepare. I just go in, give them a few catchy choruses and get out of there. Easy." Plus pointless small talk, awkward compliments and cringe worthy lyrics, she added silently.
Lissa just gave her a look that begged for a sincerity that she knew she wouldn't get. "Okay… well if you don't want to practise or anything…." She left the sentence open for Rose to change her mind before shrugging her shoulders in defeat and continuing on, "then we should discuss the quick exit you made on Friday. It's unlike you to avoid social situations. In fact, I would argue it's one of the most out of character thing you've done since you quit music."
"I didn't quit music! I told you I just needed a break." The brunette defended herself. "Besides, I just had a bit of a headache from the lights and sound system in Vlad's." She lied through her teeth. My bed wouldn't treat me this way, her inner monologue fired as she thought of its comforting nature as Lissa expressed her opinions on the matter at hand.
"It just came out of nowhere, it was your life and then it was like you transformed. You didn't want to go out anymore. You just wanted to stay in and accommodate for certain people in your life." Lissa stated softly.
"My bed wouldn't treat me this way." Was the reply to slip out of Rose's mouth. Oooops, she thought as the two shared a look of confusion and slight discomfort before breaking down into a fit of giggles. The smaller woman was never very good at filtering her inner and outer voices.
After a few minutes of uninterrupted laughter, Rose reached for the bag in front of her removing a donut and feasting away as she thought about Lissa's concerns. As much as she hated to admit it, the girl had a point.
Ever since kindergarten Rose Hathaway was known for three things. First, her extroverted personality. It didn't matter who it was, she could interact with them with no issue. Second, her passion. If she cared about something there was nothing that could distract her from ensuring things worked out for it or in some cases, them. And third, her musical abilities.
However, over the past five months, she had unintentionally shifted from the fun loving and attentive person she had once been to a more reserved and … lonely shell of her former self. Chewing on her donut and completely joining the waking world she thought about how it may have happened, and how she could reverse it.
"Rose?..." Lissa coaxed her out of her dream like state.
"Shhh… I'm having an epiphany over here!" Her statement caused another round of laughter from the two. Lissa smiled knowingly at the friend who was starting on her second donut. They had spent the rest of the morning discussing the life of newlyweds, interns, and the performance just passed.
Despite the day of easy conversation and the sugary goodness, as the friends said their goodbyes in the afternoon, Rose remained sceptical of the songwriting seminar. She was happy to slowly dip herself back into the world of music but as she walked around her house taking in the art on the walls she returned to a state of slight dread.
What if she wasn't ready to write with a bunch of people already signed to labels? What if she wasn't confident enough to get up in front of a small room with a clear view of all their expressions and perform something she barely knew? Her brain fired all of the possible 'What if' statements it could generate as she eased herself onto a couch and waited for the familiar sound of her front door opening.
~FORBEARANCE~
Easing his car into the near-empty car park, Dimitri reached for his cup of coffee before he had time to so much pull his handbrake. He had spent his entire weekend distracting himself from the task ahead of him.
Group songwriting seminars were the worst part of his job, uncomfortable silence when you couldn't agree on lyrics, or standing in front of a group performing a watered down version of what you're capable of. It didn't matter, they were always bad news as far as he was concerned.
Lost in thought, he analysed his recent writing endeavors. None of the songs had been great, he could acknowledge that. They could be bopped to, or repeated on radio 30 times a day when accompanied by a big name but none of them were content he could be proud to put his name on.
"Dimitri, we think it would be beneficial for you to go and experience music with others." As someone who preferred to work alone rather than in the constraints of someone else this felt like some sort of personal nightmare. Not to mention how insulting the condescending nature of the comments, even from the head of his label. He had been in the industry for years now and knew how it worked.
Ever since he had woken up he had been fantasising ways to get out of the event. He was sure he'd imagined someone smacking him over the head with his own guitar more times than he could count. Subsequently, Dimitri was certain that he'd prefer that activity. None-the-less the label he was contracted to insisted that he attend. So here he was.
Although the job 'opportunity' being forced upon him had been ebbing at his thoughts the past two and a bit days, most of his attention had been focused on the girl from St Vladimir's. Despite the promise for an explanation from Ivan, the man had remained missing in action since that evening. This was nothing new but it didn't stop Dimitri from harassing his inbox with questions and queries.
He grabbed his phone to check it again for some form of response, shaking his head at his own actions. "Get it together Dimitri." He murmured to himself. As he went to type another strongly worded message, he simultaneously took a sip of coffee. Letting the warm liquid spread through his body he closed his eyes and letter by letter, deleted the message. The infatuation had to end. She's just a girl with mutant vocal chords. You have other things to focus on. Grow up. He chastised himself for becoming a pathetic starry-eyed mess over a voice at the age of 28.
Looking away from the brightly lit phone the amount of cars now in the block overwhelmed the songwriter. Checking the time, he awkwardly pushed himself out of his car. There was no way to do it gracefully let alone smoothly. When purchasing his vehicle, he went for sheer size rather than economic value or speed, simply because he wanted to fit in it and at approximately 6'7" that was a difficult requirement for a car to meet.
Heading to the trunk of the car.. or rather truck, he jerked his guitar from the space it occupied and rolled his eyes at the music sheets and pages of lyrics stacked neatly in the corner. Reaching over and grabbing the piece on top, the newest piece, he scanned the melody he had begun creating on the morning of Saturday. After he had finally peeled himself from his bed and the dreams he had predicted.
The song already spoke of infatuation, of adoration, and admiration. The only response he had for his own actions was another violent eye roll. Real mature Belikov. As someone who prided himself of remaining level-headed and consistent in his actions, the way his brain had been veering lately had been troublesome.
This wasn't something he could just blame on the mystery girl, in fact, he couldn't blame it on anyone but himself. His spark was fading and he couldn't help but notice it. Around him everyone else was progressing, changing, adapting, while he remained stagnant. The Russian stared blankly at the pile of musical paraphernalia in front of him, waiting for an answer to pop out at him.
After standing there for what had to be at least five solid minutes he returned to the living world before crushing the paper in his hands he throwing it back in the car and pushing the hatch shut. Let's get this over with. He thought whilst kicking himself for not ordering a triple shot that morning.
~FORBEARANCE~
She stared out the window at her tiny car, covered in dents and scratches. It was surrounded by cars that screamed money and she couldn't help but draw a parallel from her car in the parking lot to her in this room.
People were streaming into the room at a steady rate and the variety was astounding, she couldn't squash the slight flutter of curiosity fueled excitement. She watched a petite woman with dark curly hair walk through the door straight towards a woman to the left of Rose who was the exact opposite – tall with a mountain of ginger hair piled on top of her head.
She continued her observations and the more she watched the quicker she realized that like her, many of the people were, seemingly, strangers. After accidentally making eye contact with a slender Asian man in the corner, Rose stared at her boot clad feet. Another thing she could take solace in; the fact that she was neither overdressed nor under.
She had spent a solid amount of time selecting an outfit for the day after waiting on her couch had become too much. She was slightly ashamed of how long it had taken her to choose. She had almost become desperate enough to call Lissa, but even thinking of how that conversation would have gone down was enough to discourage the idea before it could fully form.
At the sound of cymbals clanging against each other, the brunette peeled her eyes from the ground to face the noise. "Alright folks. My name is Abe and I'm the one in charge today…" Rose tried to pay attention. Really she did, but hearing about the day structure was not enough to keep her attention. "Blah blah meet and greet." "Blah 45 minutes with each person blah blah." Should have ordered an extra shot this morning. She thought to herself as she tried to bring her focus back to the man in the front.
"I'm giving you all a number between 1 and 15, there are stations through this door, obviously go to the one with your number and that's when you'll meet your first partner. It's not rocket science y'all." He stated with boredom aching through the entirety of his sentence.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5…."Abe pointed haphazardly around the room with no specific formation. Rose's brain kicked into gear as she waited for her number.
"12." He said pointing at her. She closed her eyes quickly committing it to memory. She had planned to open them before he got to her partner so she could gauge them before they had to meet but the man was speeding through the numbers like he had only minutes to live.
Okay, I can do this. I can do it. I think I can, I think I can. Taking steadying breaths, she waited for the next door to open. The people around her sauntered into the new room, all of them dragging their feet in a subtle act of defiance. She stumbled in after them trying to give an air of sophistication and failing miserably.
The room was not what she had expected. At the writes she had previously attended the hall was just split into tiny blocks with duct tape, and there was enough room for two seats and a music stand. This set up was something much more. The giant hall was still split by duct tape but only four times. Those areas were marked 2, 7, 12 and 15. Surrounding the room was doors all with numbers marked on the front.
She was slightly in awe of the space. Musically it made sense to her, when you're confined and close to each other it wasn't uncommon for your neighbour's music to bleed into yours. But knowing the logic behind it and actually seeing it was a whole different situation.
There was a stage directly at the end of the room, set up was two mic stands, two amps, and a single music stands. She didn't even want to think about the possibility of being called up there. Instead, she ran her eyes over the numbers once more and her eyes settled on the 12.
Slowly approaching it she could see someone already over there, crouched over a guitar case. She watched them ease the acoustic from its confinements, before grabbing their capo and pick. As the man stretched into standing she was floored by the sheer size of him. She tried desperately to keep her mouth from dropping open, he was attractive.
With brown hair to his shoulders, stubble decorated his face and brown eyes bore into hers with confusion seeping from them. As attractive as the man was though, he was still her first write of the day and this was going to be weird enough. She silenced her thoughts and forced a smile as she made her way into the taped section.
"Hello, I'm Dimitri." The thick Russian accent surprised her as she held out her hand to meet his. "Hi there, I'm Rose!" She replied a lot more enthusiastically than anticipated, but she kept the shake of his hand short and steady. Yes! Go me! She celebrated prematurely.
Dimitri invited her to sit before he did so, gesturing with his hand to the seat on the right. She smiled again, this time more genuine and sat down. He pulled his guitar into his lap a checked the tuning. Plucking aimlessly, he faced her and they exchanged award stares. Then in perfect synchronisation, they moved to speak only to stop at the exact same time and look expectedly at each other. They both chuckled somewhat darkly.
This time it was Rose's turn to gesture that Dimitri had the floor to speak but before he could a voice came over the speaker system. "You all have 10 minutes left to get this meet and greet stuff under way, but if I were you I'd get it over quickly and start writing." The words of wisdom caused everyone in the room to shake their heads in unison.
"I was going to ask you, your thoughts about the weather but I guess now I don't need to bother." The Russian voice said as the day's narrator cut himself off. Rose snorted, before throwing her head back into a laugh at the awkward atmosphere.
"That's fair." She stated after her outburst, looking up again only to find her partner plucking away at strings as he tried to find a rhythm or a chord, she wasn't sure. She noticed a gold glint on the hand moving steadily over the fret board but she didn't have time to focus on the now blatantly obvious ring. From the mess of tempos and tunes being created one particular sounds caught her attention.
"Hold on." She stated, causing her first write to look at her once more with confusion. She gave him a look that just pleaded for him to bear with her. "Can you please play that again?" With concentration plastered to his face he plucked at the strings again.
He ran through the progression twice more before he looked up at her. She was biting her lip not sure whether or not it was appropriate to share feedback yet. He nodded his head at her, "Please just say it." He encouraged.
"Well.. the notes, they sounded haunted but the tempo feels off…" she tried to make her voice as neutral as possible but Rose Hathaway wasn't known for effectively concealing emotions. However, she was pleasantly surprised to see understanding melt over the guitar players face.
As he plucked out the pattern a few more times he confidently added new rhythm that wasn't there before. Rose felt inspiration hit her like a truck filled with bricks as she begun to hum to the rhythm, pulling her hair in a pile, she tied it into a knot on the top of her head so she could concentrate. In front of her was a music stand with blank sheet music and lined paper.
Snatching the paper and pen from the stand she lost all inhibition and wrote a few disorganised lyrics across the page before crossing them out and writing something else. She could feel Dimitri's stare burning into the side of her, he stopped playing as she continued to scrawl words across the page.
"No!" She blurted and he looked at her with one eyebrow raised and amusement dancing across his eyes. "I mean; can you please keep playing..." she attempted with a sheepish grin. He did so with no questions but with the request to see the lyrics. She confirmed with a nod as she added one last line.
"Okay, this is rough but it's just an idea," she said whilst pushing the paper back onto the stand and angling it so they could both see. Dimitri's eyes scanned the page as he took in the lyrics before staring at it as though he was waiting for something to jump out at him.
"These are wonderful… kind of like poetry. But I'm going to be honest, I don't know how it fits with the music in terms of tempo." He stated calmly. Rose let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding.
"Oh well, umm." She pointed from the lyrics to the guitar a dozen times with her mouth opening and closing with no sound whilst Dimitri stared at her just waiting to understand. "I think I'm just going to have to show you." she sighed in defeat. Dimitri nodded as though agreeing that was probably the best course of action.
He began plucking the melodic tune again, and Rose counted her way in.
Haven't you seen me sleep walking? 'Cause I've been holding your hand.
Haven't you noticed me drifting? Oh, let me tell you, I am.
Tell me it's nothing. Try to convince me…
She stopped singing for two reasons one of which was her lack of more lyrics and the second was the look on Dimitri's face that flicked from wide eyes surprise to admiration, to horror, and was now steady on concentration. She could practically see the gears moving in his head. What he was analysing she wasn't exactly sure but boy was she anxious to find out.
~FORBEARANCE~
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK! The word rolled through his head in a mix of languages and emotions. Okay, so mystery girl is most definitely sitting across from you Dimitri! How does that voice come from that body?! Wait you were supposed to be over this infatuation.. But that was before the chances of meeting her were even remote! You have a wife pull it together.
He shouldn't have been as shocked as he was. When he had turned, guitar in hand to meet the partner he had been dreading all morning; he had made eye contact with a woman much shorter than himself. Which really wasn't hard to be, but despite her common stature she had a familiarity about her.
He had experienced confusion immediately, he quickly analysed her from head to toe. He didn't know her eyes that much was certain, but her hair shone brightly despite it's dark hue. He had brushed his eyes quickly over her nose and mouth choosing not to start intently at them, that could never end well with a complete stranger.
Her clothes didn't ring a bell for him either, a leather jacket over a low-cut top in a colour resembling the darkest pits of the ocean. Her pants were black and tight and combat boots finished her look. Yet there was no specific recognition. Now he had wished he had taken the time to look at her lips, they were already etched into his memory.
Realising the woman across from him was going slightly red after having no feedback AND a giant Russian man just staring intently at her. He diverted his gaze to the sheet music, muttering something he hoped was a compliment as he grabbed the spare pen and jotted down another line.
That I'm not drowning, Oh let me tell you I am.
He turned to her and she nodded in encouragement as he added a few more, trying to keep a similar theme throughout his lyrics to match with hers. He placed the pen back on the stand and grabbed his guitar again. "I understand completely now and I think you're onto something. Let's just play around with it and see what happens." He was met with words of agreeance as he started the melody again.
This time they added the new lines and already a harmony had begun to flow. Needing a change of pace he played a series of different chords and patterns trying to make something out of nothing. It came to him quicker than he expected and he enjoyed the admiration shining from Rose's eyes. He sang a few bars and reached to write them up. Rose followed suit and instructed her idea for the pattern behind her fresh words.
She sped up the tempo to get to the part of the song she wanted, providing him with an immediate understanding of where she was going but the funny part was somehow, he already knew. Her voice was still sending shock waves through his body with a similar effect it had over him on the Friday night just passed.
The difference was now the girl wasn't a mystery, she was really here, and she had real talent. Both in singing and writing. He was torn between wanting to push her away from him immediately and staying to explore the musical connection they somehow possessed despite knowing nothing about each other.
They played through the first minute of the song, both singing and tapping their feet to the rhythm. As Rose reached up to alter a few words she held the paper down with her left hand. Trying to see the alterations, Dimitri was distracted by the silver ring decorated with diamonds weighing down her hand. But all thoughts on the matter were disrupted by the waving of her right hand in his face.
"Hey there Comrade! Don't fall asleep on me now." The sarcasm and humor dripping from her voice caused a genuine smile to split across his face as he laughed at the tactless nickname.
"Wouldn't dream of it!" He retorted picking up where he had left off in the tune. For the next 20 minutes they spring boarded ideas from each other, changing tempos, lyrics and harmonies. By the end of the session they had a finished song. It was rough and needed some reworking but with only 45 minutes it was a miracle to have this much done.
The call for a 15 minute break was announced as everyone began to pack up their instruments. Dimitri froze knowing that after that break it would be time to partner up with someone new and he knew without a doubt that nothing could top the experience he had just had. And to think you didn't want to come here today. Even his thoughts were dripping in sarcasm.
Rose turned to him, "So we avoided the small talk before but I think after that," she said pointing at their work, "I think it's necessary." He gave a small, closed mouth smile, followed by a nod, before standing. The two of them exited the hall together returning to the lobby which now had beverages and snacks set up in one corner.
"Coffee!" Rose exclaimed, Dimitri was sure he had never before heard those two syllables sound more hypnotising.. and he loved coffee.
~FORBEARANCE~
Sorry to be that person but I'm begging for y'all to review!
I'm like Tinkerbell, I need applause to live.
(Basically I'm a slut for praise so help me out.)