Sweetest Thing (gxg)

1. Fake ID's ఌ

Tuesday Morning: 9 January 2018
***

"You look nervous," Sofia looked over to her daughter, Yoaly, who had said nothing the whole drive and was just staring out of the window.

"I'm not nervous," she whispered, twisting the gold ring around on the ring finger of her right hand.

It was a purity ring that her parents had gotten her on her thirteenth birthday. It was basically a promise that she won't have sex with a man before marriage that she made in front of the entire church before she even fully understood what that all meant. But so far, now 18 years old, she's been doing great at keeping up that promise, for no other reason than she has no intentions on having sex anyway. Well, at least not with a man that is.

And coming from a very strict catholic family, Yoaly isn't quite sure she wants to reveal that part of herself or her sexuality quite yet. Not when she already knows how they'll react. She'll tell them eventually, just on her own time. Both when she's ready and also when she has her own to support her and she no longer needs to depend on her parents.

Why? Well, because her parents are extremely strict, and always have been. Yoaly isn't allowed to drink, smoke, party, swear, wear certain clothes, style her hair in certain ways— basically anything pertaining to fun or freedom? She's not allowed to do it.

She doesn't even go to a real school for that same reason. She went to an all-girls catholic school up until the very start of high school, but when her parents caught Yoaly kissing one of her friends at a sleepover when she was 14 years old, they immediately withdrew her from the school and switched her to online homeschooling. They basically barred any access she had to the outside world as if that would, in their words, 'turn her back straight'. And after that, the only real connection she had to people was from constantly being at her father's church.

Spending so much time with herself and singing in the church choir is how she really got into music. She taught herself how to play the guitar, how to read sheet music, and how to write songs. She would post covers and some of her original music online until one day she randomly blew up on Instagram for a video of her singing 'Emotions' where she hit Mariah Carey's exact same whistle note— a very hard note to hit for even the most talented and trained singers.

So for some random 16 year old to be able to do that with absolutely zero vocal coaching? It definitely brought attention to her. And quickly too.

When a talent recruiter from El West Lado Records reached out to her about a possible record deal, she immediately thought her parents would decline it. But there's only one thing Mr. and Mrs. Vega love more than their faith and religion. And that one thing happens to be money.

"Well you look nervous," Sofia repeated again, seeing if Yoaly would admit it this time.

"Mom, I'm not nervous," she sighed, turning her head to look back out of the window.

The two were currently on their way to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport where they would be headed to Los Angeles for a meeting with the same people offering her a record deal.

Yoaly wasn't at all nervous, that part was true. She doesn't really get nervous about things like that. She was just missing her best friend who had unfortunately passed nine months prior. And even though it's January now, that doesn't make it hurt any less. All these good things are happening in her life and the one person she loves the most in this world wasn't even there to share it with her.

She was still stuck on that fourth step of the grieving process— depression. All these amazing things are happening around her and she can't even focus on any of it because she wakes up every single morning wishing that she hadn't. And feeling ungratefulness for everything the universe has blessed her with just makes her feel that much worse.