Just for a Moment

95 | First Draft

Not necessarily a filler but still shorter than I had imagined.

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While she felt like she was about to fall over dead, Olivia still wanted to show Tim her song. She was hoping for nothing too hard and some constructive criticism, knowing good and well that this was definitely not her best.

When they arrived at East High, she went straight to the school first, much to the confusion of everyone else. She didn't want to tell them that she was going to show Tim the song in case they wanted to hear it too or see the lyrics, and she wasn't quite ready to share it yet; ok, yes, she had technically already shown Joshua that morning, but that's not what's important.

She walked through the halls of East High, finding Tim quickly as he was working in the gym that was designed to be a cafeteria too. "Hey, Tim!" she called, going up to him.

"Hey, Liv," he greeted. "Are you ready to film?" he asked, taking note of the fact that she wasn't wearing any of her outfits for the episode.

"Um, almost. I have just finished the first version of the song and was wondering if you wanted to hear it now."

"Oh my god, of course! Here, there's a chorus room just down the hall; you can play it in there."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah. I can't judge a song strictly based on lyrics; there has to be some sort of sound behind it to fully grasp it. If you're ready, you can do it now."

She wasn't actually expecting him to want to hear it now; it's not like she could say no though. "Oh, um... sure. If you have the time, of course."

"Always." He turned and shouted, "Kabir! I'm heading out for a few." Kabir responded with a thumbs up. "Let's head out." Tim led the way, Olivia trailing behind and twisting her fingers into pretzels.

They made it to the chorus room, which Olivia had never seen before, and there was a large grand piano inside. "Yes, I know there's a piano in the bomb shelter too," he said, "but I just think it'll sound better in here."

"O- Ok, yeah" Olivia stammered. What's wrong with me? She sat at the piano, her body shaking a little as she brought her hands to rest on the keys. I can do this; I can do this.

"Whenever you're ready," Tim said, sitting on the side. She couldn't directly see him, which helped the jitters.

She was way less nervous about performing Just for a Moment than this; maybe that was just because she had Joshua with her, someone else to experience it too. Now, it was just her, and whatever the outcome was would only affect her.

She took a deep breath and tried to think of anything that could help her nerves. After a moment of awkward yet semi-relaxing silence, she began playing... then singing.

Found a boy; he told me that I was a star
He held the door; he held my hand in the dark
And he's perfect on paper, but he's lying to my face
Does he think that I'm the kinda girl who needs to be saved?

And there's one more boy; he's from my past
We fell in love, but it didn't last
The second I get close, he pushes me away
And I won't fight for love if you won't meet me halfway

All I want is love that lasts
Is all I've seen all I'll ever have?
Seems like I always get this close
Expectations far too high
Are the good guys just hard to find?
Try my best, but what can I say?
I'm by myself at the end of the day
At least I got myself at the end of the day

Olivia left her hands on the keys, still feeling rather frightened by this situation. She knew the only reason she wasn't shaking as much was because she was touching something, and it was keeping her hands from moving.

She didn't hear Tim do or say anything at first, so she assumed that that meant she had done something completely awful. Oh god, was it that bad?

After another few seconds of this deafening silence, she heard clapping. She turned around and saw Tim on his feet clapping with a smile on his face. "Liv, that was incredible!" She nearly burst into tears. Her hands came up to her face to cover the redness.

The two hugged, and then he said, "Oh my god, I can't wait to show this at the next meeting."

Olivia immediately panicked and said, "No, no, no, no, no. You can't show this."

"What do you mean? It was great."

"It's only the first draft and not even long enough to be considered an actual song." There are so many problems and places that need to be looked over again. I wrote this at around four and five in the morning; I know something better can happen if I were to actually focus on it. "I'm glad that you like it, truly, but... is there any way I can have a little more time? Just to fine-tune some areas and finish it."

The producer pondered for a moment. "I think that I can arrange that. But you'll only have like... three-ish days maybe."

"Ok," she nodded eagerly. "Ok, I can work with that." Maybe... probably not. She was going to take whatever time she could get. Begging for more time was way less embarrassing compared to turning in something that she wasn't proud of or was just absolute trash. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much."

"No problem. I have full confidence that whatever you come up with is going to be magnificent."

Yeah, well, that makes one of us.

"Now, if you're ready, let's head back out there and get back to filming!" he said enthusiastically. Olivia nodded with a small smile, and he quickly left while she gathered her bearings.

Oh god... I hope I can do this. Am I going to be able to do this?

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If you're curious where the lyrics came from, you can find them in the Nonsense chapter called "All I Want pt 2" (external link too).

One of the videos has been taken down since and is not anywhere else that I've seen, but the second is still there.