Celebrity Status
Chapter Nine
(Laura's p.o.v.)
I probably wouldn't have been in such a bitchy mood had I not been woken up at six-o-clock in the morning on a Sunday.
My phone is vibrating, making a horribly loud noise against the surface of my bedside table.
At first I just let it go. I don't have a lot of friends and odds are its not anyone important, probably a wrong number.
But then it goes off for a second time and I groggily roll over on my side so that I can answer it.
"Hello," I moan into the receiver, the annoyance ever-present in my voice.
"Well, good morning to you too," Ross's voice says from the other line. I roll my eyes. Of coarse.
"What do you want Lynch?" I deadpan and I can here him chuckle at me through the phone.
"What are you even doing up so early? It's Sunday. People sleep in late on Sundays."
"I couldn't sleep last night. I had a burst of musical inspiration and I came up with something that I must share with you," he doesn't even sound the slightest bit tired for someone who apparently stayed up the whole night to do some songwriting. I mentally wonder how many coffees he has consumed in the last several hours. I can practically hear him bouncing out of his seat.
"Couldn't it wait until a later hour?"
"There's no time!" He shouts. "You can get your beauty sleep later. Right now you must come an appreciate the musical genius I have crafted!"
I roll my eyes, even though he can't see it, but he probably figured I did at some point in our conversation by now.
"Meet me at my house in five minutes, and no later Marano! I swear if you stay in bed I will personally go next door and drag you to my house!"
"Gee," I say sarcastically, "you really know how to charm a girl."
"Charm doesn't work on intelligent woman, remember? You told me that." That's the last thing he says before he hangs up on me. I sigh and flop back against my bed.
That kid was gonna drive me insane. But his exuberant energy this morning was really a blessing in disguise. After what had happened the other day (me bringing up his family and L.A. and all that shit) this was not what I expected of him. Usually when Ross got in these moods he would mope around all lowly and depressed for a solid week or so. Though it was usually over something stupid, eventually he'd get over it and go back to being his ecstatic self.
You could tell when Ross was upset because he'd suddenly become a moody little bitch that you couldn't hardly stand to be around. He'd act like a girl going through the menstrual cycle. That's probably why Rocky and Riker bought him a pack of tampons one time to show him how ridiculous he was being.
I climb out of bed and change into some comfortable sweatpants and a random tee shirt. I throw my hair up into a messy bun and don't bother with make-up. It was just Ross. He'd seen me without make-up before and I'm sure this wasn't going to be the last time either.
I make my way downstairs and see my parents are sitting at the kitchen table; coffee mugs and newspapers in hand.
My mom peeks at me over her round-rim glasses. "What are you doing up so early."
I throw my grey messenger bag over my shoulder and slip into a pair of UGG boots. "Uh, I'm going over to Ross's house. He said he needed my help with something." Okay, that wasn't exactly what he said, but it wasn't that far off from the truth. I didn't really know how else to explain to my folks that I was leaving the house at a time I normally wouldn't even be up during the weekend.
"Mm hmm.." My dad says skeptically.
I give him a stern look, but ultimately ignore him. He's just being ridiculous. Like usual.
"Are you sure you should be going over there so early? His parents might still be asleep."
I just shrug, throwing a light jacket over my shoulders. "I dunno. He just told me to come over, so..."
My mom scoots her chair out to stand up, then she walks over toward me a thin lipped smile gracing her face.
She places her hands on my arms. "Laura, I think it's great that you and Ross are friends again, but just... be careful, alright? I know how devastated you were the last time he left. I'd hate for you to get hurt again."
I frown at my mother. How could she possibly think I was such a horrible judge of character? Besides, if she knew what I now knew about the Lynchs, she'd know there was a pretty good chance they weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
"Whatever mom, I'll be fine."
She stares back me, looking hurt. "Laura, don't get that attitude with me."
My gaze softens at the sight of the woman in front of me. I open my mouth to apologize, but no words come out of my mouth. She looks upset.
"Well, I'm sorry I care about you." Then she steps away.
I feel bad, but leave anyway. I don't have time to start this drama with my mother. Instead and exit my house and walk next door to Ross'. I can seem him standing at the big window in the front of his house waiting for me to arrive. But as soon as he sees I'm looking at him, he quickly pulls the curtains back in an attempt to hide.
I roll my eyes.
I rap my knuckles against his front door. He answers about two seconds later.
"Hello Laura, how are you this fine morning?"
"What the hell did I have to rush over here so quickly for, Ross?"
His lips form into a thin line as he sucks in a breath and rocks on the heels of his feet. "Someone's a bit testy today." Ross steps aside, letting me in and then leads me down to the basement. As we walk through his house, I recall that this is the first time (aside from the Ross's little emotional breakdown a week or so ago) that I'd been in his house since they'd moved back.
It was weird being back in the house again after so long. As kids, me and my sister spent a lot of time in this house and then after they left, we'd never sent foot in it again. Until this day.
The house was pretty much the same, except for the underlying smell of cat litter and cigarettes from the old lady who moved into the house about three months after the Lynch's departure. I'd never liked that old lady very much. She always called me Maura and constantly insisted I was thieving the mail out of her mailbox. She didn't live there for very long though. Due to several medical complications she was relocated to a nursing home. That's the last I've heard of old Mrs. Graver.
But even so, it was as if that period of time had never happened. It was as if the Lynch's had never left, because the house looked exactly like it did four years ago. Especially the basement.
It still held the same charm that only a place where music was created could do. One step into the basement, and time reversed itself. I felt like a twelve year old girl again, hanging out with Ross in the basement and all his brothers teasing him for it.
Truth was, Ross tried to bring a lot of girls down into the basement with him, but I was the only girl his mom ever allowed.
When I was younger I took it as a compliment, but looking back on that, I felt kind of pathetic because of it.
"After hearing your song the other day, I couldn't get it out of my head," Ross says. "I really liked it."
"Thanks." I smile genuinely. I'm usually very awkward when accepting compliments, but I was feeling pretty good about my song.
Ross nods his head. "It just... It inspired me! So I wrote this." He grabs a guitar off the rack and sits down in a chair. I sit down in one of the other chairs and wait for him to play me a song he'd written himself.
But that's not what happens
Ross begins a guitar introduction that sounds incredibly familiar to mine, only faster and tweaked a little.
Feeling my way through the darkness
Guided by a beating heart
I can't tell where the journey will end, but I know where to start
They tell me I am too young to understand
They say I'm caught up in a dream
Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes
Well that's fine by me
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and in older
All this time I was finding myself and I didn't know I was lost
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself and I didn't know I was lost.
Ross presses a button on the sound board. Suddenly an electronic remix of the original piano melody blasts through the speakers.
"That's my song!" I yell at him.
"I know." He smirks and starts playing the guitar again.
I tried carrying the weight of the world
But I only have two hands
Hope I get the chance to travel the world
But I don't have any plans
Wish that I could stay forever this young
Not afraid to close my eyes
Life's a game made for everyone
And love is the prize
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself and I didn't know I was lost.
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself and I didn't know I was lost.
He hits the button and the remix audio plays again. Ross looks pretty smug with his "musical genius" but all I can do is stand with my hands on my hips and glare at him.
When the song is over, Ross looks at me expectantly. "Well, whadd'ya think? Pretty awesome huh? Took me all night to work the melody out, but it ended up pretty kick-ass." He slumps back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest feeling like one of the greatest composers that has ever lived on the face of the earth.
"I hate it!" I spit out dryly.
Ross's eyes bug out of his head and he nearly falls over in his seat. "You what?"
"I hate it, Ross!"
"Why do you hate it?!"
I pinch the bridge of my nose in complete anger. I may be keeping it together on the outside, but inside I'm fuming. It's taking all my self control not to grab him by the neck and scream in his face.
"I spent a really long time on that and you have the nerve to tell me you hate it? How does that work?"
"You spent a really long time on that?! You?! That fucking song took me a whole week of hard work and nonstop songwriting to compose and you just take it and contort it into some shitty poppy, dance music?! What the hell?!" Just like that, the damn burst. My anger all floods out of my in one instant, leaving me even angrier and my throat sore.
"No offense Laura, but your song was boring. I mean piano melodies are nice and all, but this is the twenty-first century. Did you really expect to win the Show Choir by just sitting at the piano and playing your song?"
I gape at him. Did he really think that's what this was about. "Who said I thought I was gonna win? I didn't expect my song to win."
"You told me you didn't want to get up on stage and look like a fool. If you perform this, people won't think that about you. You'll go on stage and rock it. I was just trying to help," Ross defends.
"I didn't show you my song in hopes that you would "fix" it. I liked my song. I didn't think it needed fixing," I tell him matter-of-factly, my anger slowly turning into defiance. "This is exactly why
I don't show my music to other people. Because its something for me to enjoy and not be judged and critiqued by other people. I've gotten pretty use to being by myself since you left, Ross, and in that time I've learned what kind of music I want to write for me and no one else. Maybe no one else likes or appreciates my music, but I do and that's good enough for me."
"I thought you were scared remember? You were scared of what people thought?" Ross asks, referring to our conversation the other day. " If you want people to think positive things about you, you have to do something that gets their attention and entertains them. That's what being a performer is about. If you do your song your way, people will think exactly what they always thought about you; Laura's ordinary. Laura's plain vanilla. Why would we waste out time with her music when she's so insecure about it herself she doesn't let anyone ever listen to it. You'll prove them right." He looks me in the eye, as if he's trying to get inside my head and manipulate my thoughts. "But if you perform the song my way, people will talk about you Laura, and it'll be good talk," he informs me.
"I don't want people to all about me, good or bad talk," I reply. "And I don't need people's respect to feel better about myself either. I'm not you, Ross."
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"You always think you have to show off and make some big production out of everything you do. You can't stand when people aren't impressed by you. Face it Ross, this is how you've been since you were a kid. You feel like you need everyone's approval to feel accomplished," I say.
Ross folds his arms over his chest. "You may be some kind of writing prodigy, sent down by the heavens to make the rest of us feel inferior to you when it comes to songwriting," I roll my eyes at him for that comment, "but I know a lot more about music than you do. I mean I can play, like, seven instruments. What can you play? Oh, that's right, the piano. That's it. That's all."
"What your point?" I hiss at him.
"My point is, I know about music. I know about notes and chords and sounds. I know what sounds good and what doesn't sound good."
"And so what? My song sounded bad?" I spat, offended and pissed off.
"I'll give you credit. You're song was amazing when it came to the lyrics. There's a reason your teacher wanted you to share it with other people. But your musical deliverance was lacking. It was weak. So, I took it upon myself to turn a good song into a great one."
I step up to him so that were barely two inches apart, staring him down.
"Read my lips, Lynch. It's my song, not yours! I don't care how much you know about music or how great you think you are when it comes to "notes, and chords, and sounds", it wasn't your song to change. That... That thing that you just performed for me, was not my song. It wasn't even close! You completely changed it! You turned it into something it wasn't and that's exactly what you're trying to do to me!" My throat is now very sore. Every word of my little rant was drowned in venom that I directed completely and totally toward Ross.
He just stands there, staring. He says no words and his eyes are void of any emotion.
For a second, and only a second, I'm concerned. I think I've broken him.
And then he turns around and runs up the stairs, slamming the door behind him.
I just stand there in his basement, a new feeling of guilt erupt in the pit of my stomach. I sigh and run my hand through my hair.
I know he had only been trying to help, and maybe I overreacted, but I couldn't help but feel very passionate about my opinions. Was I wrong to be defensive about my song? It was mine after all.
Ultimately, I knew he was right. It i went on stage and performed the song the way I was planning on performing it, it would be the waste of an opportunity, but I couldn't help it.
I wasn't Ross. I wasn't a performer.
I was a songwriter, and that was all.
I left his house, quiet and careful not to attract any attention, just in case any of his family had woken up.
But I didn't go back home. Instead I walk down the cracked and ill shoveled sidewalk. No destination in mind, just trying to avoid the incessant questioning of my mother when I return home.
I kick a rock across the paved pathway and sigh dejectedly.
I messed with the scab yet again. The wound it open.
A/N
UGHHHH! May I just say how completely FRUSTRATING it is to be a high school student. I have three different assignments due when I go back to school on Monday and I still have yet to finish them up which means ill have to do that this weekend. AND I have to get up early tomorrow and go visit some family which I'm not looking forward to. 1) I absolutely detest getting up early and 2) visiting my family is us leaky very stressful. ( I love my family, but they tend to be too much to deal with sometimes)
Anyways, I don't know when my next update will be so I thought I better do it as soon as possible. I know I promised I'd do better with updating and I feel like I'm still slacking off a bit. This chapter might be a little shitty, I wrote it in about an hour just to hurry up and get it done. I know it's short, I apologize. Not much was planned for this chapter and the next one will probably be on the shorter side to.
For the song, just imagine Ross's version as the actual song. Like the melodies and everything, and Laura's version as just a piano cover. I'm not very good at describing it, so if you want to I would just look it up on YouTube or something. Look up Wake Me Up by Avicii (Ross's version) and then Wake Me Up Piano Cover (I would suggest the one by little transcriber, because that's the one I listened to and is the best in my opinion.) and that one would be Laura's version.
Guys, I try not to bitch about this too much because I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I really would appreciate if everyone would review. You don't even have to write very much just tell me if you liked it or not or something like that. You don't even have to login if your feeling lazy. Seriously guys, it doesn't take that much time and it makes me feel better about myself and not like I'm just wasting my time. Sharing my writing with other people is something thats not always easy for me. I have shitty self esteem and I'm really insecure about myself so when I don't get a lot of reviews on a chapter it makes me feel like I did a bad job. I'm not trying to nag, I'm just saying. This goes for all writers, seriously guys, if you read someone's story and you enjoy it, you should let them know that in a review. People on this site ( and others like it) do their best to offer you guys quality reading material within an adequate amount of waiting time and all they ask for in return is some reviews.
With that being said, thank you guys so much for reviewing, and following, and favoriting my stories. I love you all! :)
Kthanxbai!
Morgan :)