After her father's tragic passing, Nora Davis is forced behind the scenes, nothing more than a stepping stone for others in their journey to stardom. When an opportunity presents itself, Nora, trapped under her stepmother's heel, takes it as her cha...
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Felicity stepped into their home studio later that night and said something.
Focused deeply in her task, Nora made a noise acknowledging she knew Felicity'd spoken, but the majority of her mind was on the song in front of her. Her laptop was open and connected to the soundboard, her mixing software up and running. Seven different instrumental layers lined up along her screen, each its own strand of color.
She bit the side of her thumb and cut the first 15 seconds of the third strand down.
"—ven listening?" Felicity slammed her laptop closed.
Nora jolted as if her stepsister slapped her. "What? Why would you do that?" She asked, outraged.
"Oh, now I have your attention?" Felicity crossed her arms and rested a hip against the table holding the soundboard.
Blearily, she noted time—12:34 a.m.—and rubbed under her glasses at the bridge of her nose. If it were any other time, she might've considered putting up a fight. Right now the only thing she wanted was a completed song and a solid 4 hours of sleep.
"What are you working on?" Felicity asked.
Nora frowned. Since when did Felicity care? Unless it was her own work, she didn't often think about what else Nora worked on. Knowing Felicity, she didn't care. Not unless it benefitted her.
"It's for Garth," Nora said. "Not that he'll be awake enough to sing it."
"I thought he was still on vacation."
"That was last week," Nora said. This week he was back and looking for new music to release. Or rather, his parents were looking for him to release new music.
Felicity gazed at the soundboard and all the different knobs and dials Nora had carefully arranged as if she had no idea what they were, what they did and, regardless, did not care. "How did it go with Eli today?"
Ah.
Eli had played the game smartly. Once they finished the first stages of their project, he'd dawdled a little bit. Despite their social status differences, Nora and he fell into an easy conversation about food and music. Everything and nothing.
Nora loved it.
She couldn't remember the last time she was able to sit around and laugh with someone else. Not since the start of her high school career. Even Tessa, despite being her closest friend, was often busy running around, working on her art projects for her major, and attending to her after-school projects.
But with Eli it was just...easy. She didn't have to write a song for him, didn't have to worry about making friends with him or playing any sort of game. He was Eli Leonger. She was Nora Davis. She was out of his realm—exactly where she needed to be—and after this project, the two of them would retreat back to their corners and pretend nothing happened.
