Life, Love, & Lies

Eight

"I hear I'm with you two today?" Matt turns at the sound of her voice, shaking himself mentally as he sees LoLo. Her voice had done that thing again, the one he had caught it doing a few times in the last couple weeks, the one where it sounds like Lyss to his brain.

"Sorry if you wanted the free day like everyone else, but what we are doing is going to be a good thing for publicity and promo, so we need photos of it." Milo nods.

"Not a problem honestly, I've been to New York City before, and you are paying me to take pictures of you so I can't really be mad that I'm doing that. Plus, this will be a good trial run for doing promo event photography. What are we doing by the way?"

"One of our mentors invited us to shellshock his students." Matt grins, "We are revisiting high school to show those kids that if they follow their dreams and have a shit ton of luck, they might be able to do what we have done."

"You guys went to a high school for gifted musicians right?" She asks cooly, though her stomach seems to be doing a triple backflip as she thinks about being back in that school again.

"Ya, The New York Academy for Elite Young Musical Talent, a mouthful of a name if there ever was one." Matt chuckles, "And it isn't even good enough to have an acronym, no you have to say the whole thing every time it is ridiculous."

"So Milo has better memories from high school than you do, at least based on the stories he told me on the flight versus your comment just now."

"High school was a roller coaster, but it gave me the opportunities I needed to become what I have, to become great friends with Milo, create a band, learn so much that has helped us become what we are with Pier 6. But there are definitely parts I would like to not revisit, and parts that shaped me in not the best ways." He shrugs, pulling open the door to a black car sitting outside their hotel for her.

"A normal take on any high school I guess." She nods, finding herself sat between Milo and Matt as the car pulls away from the curb.

LoLo sit's quietly as Matt and Milo talk over her, discussing what their plan is for the day, learning that they will be helping with a three hour class for their former band teacher, Mr. Reynolds. She had met the man only a couple of times in high school, usually her ballet classes let out after the band classes and left them waiting for her instead of the other way around. She wasn't so concerned about him recognizing her, but more so worried about what her mental state will do while back within those walls. The memories made within them had been inherently good, but the way she had to leave the life that included the school behind was traumatizing. Returning anonymously with these two boys beside her seemed like asking for a mental meltdown, but it was her job and she refused to let this break her.

"Does it look smaller?" Milo asks rhetorically as the three of them file out of the car a short fifteen minutes later, two bodyguards standing close by.

"It looks like every other building in Manhattan always has Milo. And no, it doesn't look smaller, we are simply bigger, both physically and metaphorically." Matt laughs, throwing an arm over Milo's shoulders and making the first move towards the large solid wood doors into the building.

"Can we help you?" The same stiff spined woman that was there five years prior is sat behind the office desk as they enter, the only indication that she had aged at all in the years since LoLo had attended school here is the increase in grey streaks through her hair.

"Mr. Reynolds is expecting us. Milo Perry and Matthew Knight, along with three others." Milo smiles kindly.

The lady takes her sweet time, typing slowly before waiting for the outdated computer to load something, finally handing over a stack of passes. "Go left outside the office, follow the hallway until you reach the 1300 hallway, turn right and it will be your second door on the left." She instructs, "Keep your visitors passes on you." she adds with a bark as they head out the door.