Hollywood Bleeds

nineteen

NOTHING WAS COMING to them. No words, no music, no meaning-absolutely nothing. It'd been four days since their first meeting, and the trio still hadn't come up with even a title for Luca's and Amina's duet.

It was bad enough Luca was mentally drained and was more worried about ruining Amina's career or embarrassing her if anything went bad on stage than writing their song together. Jacob and Amina tried different pianos and guitars and lyrics but every time brandy turned them down without a second glance. He wanted something romantic and false-something Amina and Luca weren't willing to write for him.

Luca was used to being forced to write music he wasn't passionate about-especially after his last four albums. Every word he sang after his debut album weren't his own. He didn't understand the point of Brandy forcing him to write while the was under house arrest if he wasn't even going to let Luca perform the music.

Amina wanted to write a song about the feeling of wanting someone, but Brandy wanted to turn it into something sexual. Luca knew Brandy wasn't going to let the single go through mainstream if it was to his satisfaction-so Luca and Jacob were going to have to sugarcoat brandy if they wanted the single to go their way.

Luca sat in front of the large black piano with frozen fingers on the keys. Nothing was coming to hints his mind was running but no words were coming to him. He kept on getting distracted every second that he didn't have enough time to get into the feeling of the tone for the song.

His eyes caught Amina's amused one from across the studio. She sat beside Jacob who leaned back against the couch with closed eyes and furrowed eyebrows. He was just as stressed out at Amina and Luca were with their writers block. It was most likely because if Luca and Amina didn't come up with something soon, Brandy's kindness would run short and Jacob would quickly replace him in a heartbeat.

Standing up slowly, Amina grabbed her phone as she smirked down at the napping Jacob amused. Luca cleared his throat softly, quickly looking away from Amina and to his empty piano sheet and voice recording phone.

He felt her before he saw her.

He felt the change of air when she walked towards the piano and closer to his rigid body. He could sense her calm aura through his nervous one. He felt her trail her fingertips across his shoulder before she sat closely beside him on the piano bench. The smell of strawberry filled his nostrils as he turned his head to look at her.

"Hey stranger," she greeted softly.

"Hi," he muttered back.

Amina's eyebrows furrowed, causing Luca to quickly look away from her bad back to the piano keys. His feelings for Amina were growing at a rapid place, and for the first time he didn't know what to say or do. He didn't want to make her feel more uncomfortable knowing she'll be singing a love song with someone who had feelings for her-Luca didn't want to do anything that'd make her resent him or make her uncomfortable around him.

She bumped her shoulder against his playfully. "Are you okay?"

He was never okay-and he never would be until he got the help he needed.

"I'm fine," he lied.

"You can tell me if you're not, you know that, right?"

Luca sighed, turning to her with a nod. "Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah."

He knew he could, and that was what terrified him the most. His entire life in Hollywood all he did was trust the wrong people until they broke him. After so many years of going through what he did, he didn't believe he'd be so open trusting with someone in Hollywood. It was scary to him that he was willing to trust someone as much as did in Amina-a singer in Hollywood.