A Fiend as a Friend

Chapter 44

"Miss Adams?"

I smiled. "Yes, Madam Bailey."

She scoffed and shifted her weight to her other leg. "Good morning."

"To you too, ma'am."

She scoffed again, this time loudly. "I understand that you have no interest in cooking and other related stuff, but I'm sure I told you to come for lessons once in a time."

"I'm really sorry about that. I have been very busy lately. Now that you have reminded me again, I'll make it a point to come over."

She nodded. "I hope so."

"Yeah, I will."

She nodded again and walked off, her heels making clicking noises on the tiled floor. I sighed and walked towards the practice room hastily. As soon as I got there, I saw Mike going through some things on the table close to the wall.

I closed the door silently and observed him. Some rays from the rising sun made their way through the window, falling on his hair. It looked golden and his forehead shone a little bit. I noticed the way his lips slowly moved as he read something from a paper. I--

"Why not come over here and quit staring?"

I jumped. Did I just stare? I slapped myself mentally. I was supposed to concentrate on my career, not this. "Hello."

"I was going through some lines just now and I wondered if I needed to make some adjustments."

Rude jerk. I said hello and he just went on with what he wanted to say?

"Elf?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you paying attention to me at all?"

"Yes, I am, why?"

He stared at me for a while and shook his head. "Get over here."

I moved closer to him and folded my arms. "Okay, go on."

"I was thinking of making some adjustments to some lines. I said that earlier but you obviously weren't paying attention."

"I was."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah."

He dropped the paper in his hand and nodded. "If you want to succeed here, you need to avoid distractions. Now, tell me, am I a distraction?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Am I a distraction? You know, do I get you distracted?"

I forced out a laugh and scoffed. "Of course not. Ah ah ah, very funny."

"I don't find that funny in any way, but I'll just go on. You need to stop spacing out in front of me."

"What?"

"Point driven home, now, grab your manuscript and sing the third stanza. Remember, put in more emotion, I'm not saying you should cry or do any cliché thing. Instead of you crying, make the audience cry just by hearing you sing. Right now, I'll act as the audience. You have not made me cry once, so, you're not doing your best."

"Obviously, men don't cry. What are you even trying to say?"

"On the fifth of November, six years ago, I made people cry, men included. That was my third performance after my debut. What I'm trying to tell you is this. If you don't make me cry, you wont really make the audience cry."

"What?"

"Stop the questions already. Your songs don't even put me in a sober mood, not to talk of making me cry. Most times, I laugh. That means, I'm not touched. The main idea of singing is to make people reflect. To understand the lines."