Cherry Bomb [H.S.]

CHAPTER EIGHT

"Impressive, Marlowe," Dominick says through my phone that I have sitting on my kitchen counter on speaker. I'm leaning against the island with my arms crossed - bottom lip tucked between my teeth as I listen to him. "You know we already thoroughly enjoyed 'I Caught Myself', but this one...'Ignorance' really brings that fire that we've seen from you before - this is just extremely heightened. Is this the sound you think you're gearing most towards?"

I purse my lips to the side as I contemplate his question. The truth is, I'm not sure. I haven't really tried to narrow this album down to one particular sound. I've just been writing what comes to me and whatever music that comes along with that.

"I mean, it could end up being that way," I shrug, reaching out to grab my coffee mug that was in front of me on the counter top - cupping both of my hands around it. "I'm not trying to limit myself too much - just trying to put together what speaks to me at the moment."

"Well, keep up the good work. If you continue producing songs like these, you're sure to have a solid album."

"Thank you, Dominick," I feel such a sense of relief wash over me as I listen to his praise. "I have a couple of other songs in the wings that just need a bit of fine tuning, and then I should probably have another completed one for you in the next week or two."

"Sounds great. We'll connect again next Friday," Dominick says.

"Perfect. Have a good evening."

I hear the beep of the call ending echo through the quiet room, and I let out a small sigh as I pick my phone up. Pulling up the text thread between Lys and I, I shoot her a quick message to let her know the call with Dominick went well. She wasn't able to attend the call this evening as she was taking her little sister to a modeling gig back in her hometown. When I'm not touring, Lys always goes home to be with her family, and I have no arguments with that. Her family is extremely important to her, and I already keep her from them enough - I would never deny her time with them when I'm more than capable of handling things on my own for the time being.

As I go back to scroll through my texts to find Kailey and I's thread, I see the text I received from Rylan last week - the day after open mic. It was her address and the time that she would be holding the party tonight at her parent's house. I was extremely on the fence about going.

I hadn't talked to Harry since that night, and it's mostly because I knew my texts and phone calls would go ignored, so why bother? However, if I were to show up at that party, he would have very little room to escape. It would be the best setting to try to sit him down so we could talk about this whole thing.

I was still completely overwhelmed by his confession last week. It was almost to the point where I considered reaching out to my therapist to help me work through my emotions - something I haven't done in quite some time. The hardest part of it all is knowing that regardless of Harry admitting all of that to me, that doesn't mean anything is going to change. Part of me hopes that by him telling me all of that is because it was some sort of underlying cry for help, but with the way he just went about acting like nothing was wrong the minute I walked back into Jessie's, that theory is pretty much out the window.