petrichor

That's What Friends are For, Right?

"Alright, that's good." her vocal coach said to her after she finished singing. "How was I?" Talia asked, regarding her performance. Raven stroked his chin and looked deep in thought.

"The lyrics are okay, but I believe the melody could use a little bit of a fixer upper." he thought about what to say again. "Also, I think your voice could a little bit lower." besides being Talia's vocal coach, Raven was also the person who gave advice about how her songs sounded.

Today was one of the days she had to practice singing. First, she woke up at seven, took a shower, ate breakfast, then she had Mr Bright, her personal tutor to teach her school stuffs at eight until eleven. After that, she'd go to Raven's apartment for vocal practice, from twelve until two. Raven, as Talia called him, acted as her music producer/vocal teacher.

Talia nodded, appreciating the advice. "Yea, I guess I can try." she said as she packed up her stuff. She wanted to go somewhere today, she didn't want to be at home because she had nothing to do. When she was picking up her drawstring bag from the floor where she put it earlier, her pack of cigarettes fell out. Oh shit. she thought. Quickly, she dove down and grabbed it, and stealthily stashed it in her jacket pocket.

If Raven saw that she was smoking, she'd be yelled at for sure. Her teacher hated smokers, whenever he was outside and he saw someone puffing, he would scowl and wave his hand in front of his face as if clearing away the smoke.

Talia looked at Raven's direction, he was on sitting down on an office chair in the corner of the room, talking on his phone with somebody, paying no attention to his student. Phew. Talia sighed in relief.

Once the cigarette pack was safely stored, she bid goodbye to Raven "See you tomorrow." Talia said as she waved at him who was already finished with his call. "Huh? What?" he said absentmindedly. "I said, see you tomorrow." Talia repeated. "Ah, yes, yes." he nodded. She was about to open the door for her to exit, when Raven called. "Talia, come here." he said.

Talia turned her body from the door to his direction. "Yeah, what?" she asked, her hand still on the doorknob. "Just come here." Raven said again, not explaining why. Confused, Talia let go of the knob and walked to his direction. "Yeah, what's up?" she demanded an answer.

Raven looked deeply into her eyes and cleared his throat. "Talia," he started. "Yeah, what?" "You seem, you send pretty tired lately, is everything okay?" he asked suspiciously. Upon hearing that, Talia made a face, a mix between opening her eyes really wide and furrowing her brows. "What? Me? Why? Is there something wrong?" she fired back.

Raven rested his elbow against his knee and placed a a hand on his chin and stroked it gingerly. "Well it's just that, I see your performance isn't really as good as usual." he stated. Talia was taken aback, "My performance? You mean my voice?" "Yes, your voice." Raven restated. "It's... changing, and your breath, it's becoming shorter...and the coughs, ugh, how many times have you choked and spluttered these past few weeks?" he asked interrogatively.

Instantly, Talia's heartbeat increased by a few BPM. My voice, she thought, alarmed. What if he knew?! she quickly dismissed the thought, she never lit her smokes near the building where Raven lived, it was too much of a risk, what if he suddenly caught her? No, no. Talia tried to calm herself. He don't know about this.

Talia clicked her tongue, "Ehm, my voice, you say?" she said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Ya well, that's because it's cracking, Raven. I'm growing, remember?" after a few seconds of racking her brain for an excuse, that was what she came up with, her growth. Damn, I really need to practice lying. she thought.

Too bad, her teacher didn't seem to really buy that excuse. "Really?" he asked back. "Or have you been smoking?"

DUM DUM DUM! Talia felt as if she had been hit by a lightning. "What?! Me?!" she exclaimed with her voice going up one octave."Smoking?! Bro, you must be crazy! I would never!" she stared directly at Raven's eye when she said that. Talia read somewhere that liars usually avoided eye contact when confronted, so now she was trying to act "honest".