Fame's Revenge

Chapter 9: Now

Shay

Her heart was pounding as she waited in the living room for the house manager. She knew she'd be getting away with something huge if she could just keep her face straight. This was make or break, do or die. She glanced around, taking in the room's decor.

After what felt like an eternity the house manager came back. "Okay, sorry about that," she said, getting back to business.

Shay smiled and stood. "Oh, that's fine. I didn't mind waiting."

"Still, sorry," she said with a smile. She was safe. No one knew.

Yet.

Liz

I hadn't ever given anyone a tour of my studio. It felt like something that was mine, something that was personal. Kind of like how Gavin didn't want to share his bedroom with the world. I'd never seen it, and he'd never filmed in there or even posted any pictures from in there. Well, he did post one, but it was a morning selfie and you could only really see his head and part of his bed.

My bedroom, my office, my kitchen, my  living room - those were all spaces I didn't care if half the world saw in a video, but my music room? That was mine.

Still, even though that's how I felt, I knew I wanted to do another video with Gavin and that's a thing a lot of my fans would like to see. Besides, I knew Gavin wouldn't post it straight away or even at all if I changed my mind. It was trust in him that made me want him to be in there, even if for no other reason than to show him.

I led Gavin into my apartment and to my music room. My technicians had been there earlier, so I knew my equipment was good to go for the video. Gavin put his camera bag just outside the door. He dug around for a moment before following me into the room and closing the door. "You ready?" he asked, eyes roaming around the room.

I nodded and sat up straighter in the chair by my mixer. He gave me a real smile and nodded as he turned on the camera. "Hey gamers," he said into the lens. "Welcome back to my channel! As you can see, I'm somewhere else today. I got something special for you guys."

He turned the camera to me and I waved, grinning. "Hey," I said. It felt weird to be talking to a camera. "He's going to let me take you on a tour of my home recording studio, let you see where the magic happens."

"Ready?" he asked, shifting the camera to include both of us.

"Ready."

I gave him a general tour, telling him about the mixer, what kinds of equipment I had, like the microphones and stands and speakers and headphones. I showed him the computer I had it all connected to. Sylvie stayed out of shot - I made sure of that. He did get one of my other guitars in frame and my keyboard, but that was it.

Near the end, he asked to see the place I wrote most of my songs. I grinned at him and gestured for him - and the camera - to follow me. We went through the lace curtain that separated the office and music room and I sat in my desk chair. "This is where I write out my lyrics and put it all to music," I said, running my hand along my desk. I frowned. "Wait. I had a song sitting up here." I began pulling open drawers on the top, but there wasn't anything besides some Sharpies, extra paper, and some pens. As there should be.

I pulled open a couple of other drawers but there wasn't anything besides what should be there. I opened the last drawer and froze. "Liz?" Gavin asked.

"Cut. Cut cut cut," I said, slipping into a slight panic. I felt tears try to push their way out of my eyes and blinked furiously to keep them at bay.

"Why? What's wrong?" He lowered the camera and all but tossed it aside.

I pulled the pieces out of the drawer and tried to make sure that was the song I thought it was. One of the pieces had Stars written on it. The rest of them all had THIEF written in Sharpie.