Chasing Sevens

Chapter Nine

9

The next two days passed by quickly. Working a double at the Inn meant I came home and flopped straight onto the couch for bed. Seven hadn't texted me or returned home yet, and I hadn't seen much of Candice either as she was staying at a friend's house.

During the moments I was awake, I couldn't stop smiling. I had to remind myself I hadn't just dreamt it this time. That something very real had happened between Seven and I, and I wondered if the last couple days she'd been unable to stop thinking about it. She'd return to school Monday and tell me she'd felt it too.

I awoke on a rainy Monday morning to another quite rare day off. A feeling of dread crept over me. I'd be having many more days like this soon with the upcoming closure of the Inn. I staked claim to my usual seat at the kitchen table, listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops on the roof. The wind blew the branches on the trees and one rustled against the window. The drummer in me matched its rhythm, tapping my foot against the leg of the table.

"How was the performance? Didya guys win?" Candice emerged from her room, a smile sweeping across her face. "Please tell me we're gonna be famous. I already picked out my red-carpet look." I figured that talk of the performance would've gotten around to her circle of friends by now, but with her being in a charter school, they must have been kept far enough out of the loop.

"An absolute catastrophe." I rested my head on my palms, staring blankly out the window.

"Oh, really? What happened this time?" She grabbed a half-full cup of water from the counter and took a seat beside me. No doubt she was drawn to the gossip like a magnet. "I read pieces of the songs you wrote an' I thought they were all really well-done. You couldn't have gone wrong with any of them."

I debated how much of the story to tell her—of the stolen photograph. It wasn't my story to tell any more than it was Liz and Lola's. I didn't know the Seven in the picture. I wished I did. I wished it hadn't been a stranger staring back at me—that she'd smile at me with that same swelling of adoration, but this wasn't a side of her that she'd crafted for me. I decided I'd keep it vague—that I wouldn't paint it as vividly in Candice's mind as it had been on the screen.

"Someone went an' sabotaged our performance. Put a racy photo of her on the screen in the middle of our set."

"What the hell?" Her hand clenched into a fist against the hardwood, sloshing a bit of her water onto the table. "How is that even allowed? Isn't that blackmail? Didn't ya try to fight it?" She took a deep inhale before wiping it away with a dishrag.

"They kicked them out, but they didn't really do anything about it. Seven ran out afterwards, and I chased after 'er." I sighed, my fingers dancing on the table. "You know, there's gotta be some other way to get in front of a rep, right? I'll find it, but in the meantime, I'll get myself another job. Don't worry about us, Candice." I flashed her a confident grin.

"I'm not worried about money. We'll make it work like we always do. I'm concerned about you, with knowing how much this contest meant to you guys an' all. And how are you still smiling so big after all this? Are we hearin' the same story you're spitting out? Not really somethin' to phone home about." She took another sip of her water, clinking the glass against the table.