Savannah // Michael Clifford

0.1 - Because of Him

Savannah

I was never the shy girl when growing up; not having siblings or having parents that barely paid attention to you did that. Someway I had to make people take notice to me and my voice was the key to it all. Any time I had people around me I would burst out into song. It didn't matter where or when, I was always singing loudly to get people to notice me. Most of them thought I had gone off the deep end but some would stop and listen. I was told many of times that I had a lovely voice and that always made me want to do more with it.

During my time in high school I decided to make some videos and put them online. No one really paid attention to them, or they simply didn't care. At first it was slow and each video would only get so many views and comments.

I actually didn't expect much from them either. I mean, everyone was doing this and I knew there were people who definitely sang better than I do. But one day I came home from a day of exams to see that my cover of 'Who You Are' by Jessie J  had gone up with views by more than a thousand and people actually wanted me to sing more. That was a pretty surreal moment in my life. I had never thought that anyone would actually want to hear me sing and it made me feel special. Through my senior year I kept making videos and continued on with my schoolwork. I didn't actually have a particular genre that I sang but I mostly said within country and pop.  The views for each video would go up by the thousands, astonishing me more.

Not for sure what I wanted to do anymore in life, I was stuck.  Graduating and then going into college was a big shock to me, much more difficult than I thought it would be. So during that first year I had to make the tough decision to stop making videos. I hated that I had to give it up but between lessons, homework, and working part time it seemed like I couldn't keep up.

One thing had to go and unfortunately it had to be the videos.

Although things changed once I met Mason. He was the first guy, or person for the matter, to come up to me and tell me he liked my videos.  Turns out he was actually a year ahead of me at the university we were going to.

After meeting, we hung out a lot and after passing my finals in the spring and going back home we decided to get into a relationship. That's also the time I went back to doing videos. I guess in a way Mason is the reason I started them again and I owed him big for that. While we were out of school Mason and I learned about each other and we got pretty close.  He was supportive of my videos and loved helping me pick the songs to sing.

When the summer ended and we had to go back for the next year, I made the effort to keep up the videos and it's a good thing I did too as a big shot had saw them.

I didn't really know what to feel when I walked into the office of Marshall Ray. He was big for starting careers- and breaking them too. But he was actually pretty cool and even though the interview went horrible he had still signed me.

After I signed my name on the dotted line I was thrust into a different life. I had to put schooling on hold while I traveled and worked with writers from around the world for my first album. Strange that it was almost a year ago that my life changed and I had released my first single. All through the performances, made up stories, and shift in social status, I was able to maintain the relationship with Mason.

As for my parents, they still weren't interested in my life, or cared much about what I did, not like really expected them to suddenly become interested in what I did. Mason was all I needed- well him and my fans- but even then I picked wrong.

When my life changed for the better, Mason's changed for the worst. The brown eyed guy I thought I loved, changed. The color was gone in his eyes, except for the black and darkness and it felt like those cold eyes were the only thing I saw.  The loving Mason I had grown accustomed to was gone and in his place was a monster. But I couldn't tell anyone about what he was doing. Not because he had threatened me not too but because I felt like no one would believe me. I was a new comer to the business and didn't want the media having this story and only saying I came out to make my career go up.

So here I was figuring out a tour and feeling the lowest I've ever felt. I had lost my voice that got me attention. I was a shell walking around.

Mason wouldn't let me be loud or bubbly anymore unless I had too and even then it felt like I was being forced to be something I couldn't be anymore.  Mason stole my voice, my right and my love of music and for that I would always hate him.

This story is going to have really slow updates, maybe? I don't even know. I was going to just write the whole thing out before posting it but that didn't work. But, leave your feedback? I'd love to hear what you think. 

-Stay Beautiful

Courtney