Rise To Stardom

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Happiness and grief can co-exist, they say, but the frowns tainting our faces and the mountain of tear-stained tissues constantly accumulating in the trash said otherwise.

His death was earlier this week, but it remained in the forefront of my mind. The first time mom went to the store for groceries, tears clouded her vision and she almost got in a wreck before she came close to the market.

It wasn't fair. The sky had the audacity to be happy, mostly clear of clouds and the birds luring everyone awake with their melodious songs. While the metaphorical dark clouds looked over our house, brutally pouring rain over the King residence as we mourned our patriarch.

I stepped downstairs as slowly as a geriatric to see the garden in the living room and kitchen. Vases and bouquets of flowers sent by relatives — mostly from his side — left little to no space to sit.

My weight had gone down courtesy of my lack of appetite. I would only eat a protein bar in the morning and that was only to pacify the growling in my stomach. We couldn't have a service because of the crunched time I had before going back to the contestant house.

I didn't have the emotional strength to see his coffin and know that his corpse was resting inside. That he was never going to wake up again. An influx of sympathetic DMs from old acquaintances I hadn't seen since high school greeted me each morning.

How they found out wasn't something I dwelled on. Confronting paparazzi or reporters wasn't high on my priority list. I just wanted my mom, Aubrey and I to have the chance to grieve in peace.

Another negative thing about my father's death being known to the public were the texts Elliot sent me, apologizing for my loss.

He could fake sympathy all he wanted, but I wasn't about to fall for his charms again. I blocked his number and his account on Instagram. I sat down at the counter with a cup of honey tea. Tea wasn't my favorite.

I only made some when I was sick or felt a cold coming along, but I was comforted by the warmth that permeated my body at the first sip. The hush of the room suggested that mom was still asleep. She remained in the guest room, even with the option to bring her old bed back. The memories of cuddling with her husband were too much for her.

It was getting to that point where I couldn't remember the last time I was happy or the last time the edges of my lips pulled upward in a genuine smile. However, I felt my lips do just that as I read a text sent from Carson. Even a scoff managed to escape my lips despite the lack of humor the text held.

Carson:

Hey, beautiful.
Don't know if this is the right time to tell you this, but I'm here if you wanna talk.

A part of me couldn't wait to see him again. Whether he came to the house again to check up on me or seeing him as I performed the next song. Better yet, I hoped we would find ourselves spending alone time together.

Aubrey had been a great help in this process; spending a few nights with me, helping out with cleaning the house and ordering us Uber Eats. Both of her parents were still alive though. It was only a matter of time before a fatty liver scared her father into sobriety, but in the meantime, he was still somewhat healthy.

Carson, on the other hand, had experience in this kind of situation. Mom got up and, in a last-ditch effort to get me to eat before I returned to the house later today, made me French toast.

I had to cave in to the growling of my stomach and also, make my mom happy so I obliged. Few words had been exchanged between her and I. Only when she begged me to eat something and I insisted that I wasn't hungry did we interact.