Disharmony

Circles

She hummed to herself as she strummed her guitar. This was her favorite time of the day. The few weeks before the tour began were generally a crazy mess of rehearsals and interviews and promo, which meant she was allotted about twenty-seven minutes a day to herself. As always, she planned on making the most of that time.

Usually, she would curl up on a comfy couch with a cup of tea and just enjoy the quiet, but she was feeling particularly inspired today.

So she'd spent her few moments of solitude working on a new song. The idea had come to her as a result of a recurring dream she'd been having about the life of a popstar. The one where the idealistic girl came to the big city with dreams of fame only to realize that perhaps it was overrated and she wasn't so lucky after all.

It was a tale as old as time, really. It seemed that now days, more often than not, starlets would arise only to realize that fame and fortune were not as glamorous as they thought. Kasia's biggest fear was that, one day, she'd realize that as well.

For her, it was never about being famous. She just wanted to write and sing and perform. But it seemed she couldn't do what she loved without constantly being the center of media speculation. They followed her everywhere.

To be fair, she did give them an awful lot to write about. Not that she did it purposefully. She just wanted to have fun and live her life. Why should it matter what the tabloids make up about her? She knew who she was that was most important.

Chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip, she played the chord she's working on over and over. It didn't sound quite right in the context of the rest of the song, but she can't figure out how to replace it. Sighing, she put down her guitar, tucking it away safely in its case and turned to find Xavier watching her quietly, arms crossed over his chest, gray beanie pulled over his hair as he chewed contemplatively on his lower lip.

"You should really start wearing a bell," she said, her voice breathy from surprise. "One of these days you're going to give me a heart attack."

"We wouldn't want that, would we?" he said in a low voice, shoving his hands into the pockets of his black sweatpants and rocking back and forth on his sock covered toes.

She pursed her lips and studied him for a moment. Xavier Spiers was hard to read and it annoyed her beyond belief because she generally enjoyed being the unpredictable one in any given situation. She couldn't tell whether he liked her or utterly despised her.

Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't care. But under normal circumstances, the other person also tended to make it abundantly clear where she stood. Sometimes Xavier was kind and sincere and other times he acted as though she could get run over by a bus and he wouldn't shed a tear.

The uncertainty was frustrating.

Determined to figure out what lay behind that cool sky blue stare, she raised her chin defiantly. "What's your secret, Xavier?"

"Excuse me?" he asked, his eyes twinkling. The bastard was amused at her irritation.

"You must have one," she prodded.

He shrugged. "Maybe. But weren't you the one who said it wouldn't be any fun if everyone knew?"

She rolled her eyes. Of course he would use her own words against her. What she had failed to mention in their previous conversation was that said fun only applied when she was the one with the secret.

Huffing, she tugged the hair tie off her risk and raked her locks back from her forehead, tying them into a loose bun atop her head as she sent him a glare.