Vocalization

Riddles Resolved

My eyelids were heavy, barely even obeying to my will to open up. I felt a soft blanket all over my body, a familiar warmth I had felt before. My head was buried in a pillow of light purple color. This was my bed. But how had I gotten here? My mind was numb, my head felt heavy. I had never felt this drowsy before. Just then, I heard an echoing voice in my head, speaking to me. "Evelynn...? Evelynn, are you okay...?"

Layne... No... Save me... What... is wrong with me?

A few hours later, I was sitting in the living room, a blanket wrapped around my body and a cup of tea in my hands. Geoff was walking up and down, lost in thought and anger, while the others had formed a circle, looking me in the eyes worriedly. "Evelynn, why didn't you tell us?", Geoff asked, his voice serious and scolding, but also with fear in his heart. I could sense all of it, but just couldn't get myself to talk. "Not talking to us and destroying your physical and mental health by not sleeping and bottling up emotions... But the fact that you were having nightmares that were this bad?!" My eyes were focused on the liquid in my teacup. Scared to look him in the eyes, I anchored myself to it. He sighed. "You don't even know what happened, right?" Slowly, I shook my head. Geoff sighed once more, his anger slowly melting away in place of pity. "We secretly gave you one of my sleeping pills", Eli told me, deep regret in his voice. "... It... It was my idea. You needed sleep and... And I thought since we're about the same height it'd be okay. But if I'd known what was really going on..."

"We only found out after you were fast asleep", Geoff sighed, sitting down on the armrest of a couch. "It was like you were unconscious", Layne continued. "You didn't even wake up from us looking through your desk.." My eyes lit up. They broke into my room! It's not like there was a lock on it, but still! "Yes, we were in your room", Eli confirmed hastily, trying to take the blame from Geoff. "It was my idea", Earl then claimed. "I saw you with a your diary one day and thought if we read it, we could find out what was going on." Layne sighed. "We're really sorry", J said. I'd never heard him be this serious. My heart warmed up a little, but also that seriousness from him made me sad. Slowly, I lifted my eyes and looked at him. "No, it's okay", I said, smiling a little. "I'm glad you invaded my privacy. Had you not found out.. I would have never been able to tell you, and... you deserve to know." Geoff smiled. "We know you wouldn't have. Just make sure to try next time." With this familiar warmth spreading all over my body from my heart, I nodded. "Promise", I mumbled, looking him in the eyes thankfully.

The next day, I sat down with the others to assist them in recording the newest video. It was a top ten of "bro country" songs. An idea like that could only come from those boys. It certainly wasn't mine. This choice also meant I wouldn't have many vocals. Almost none at all, to be exact. Just one almost non-audible line, one line in sync with Earl while blending in with the tenors and a few more in the finale, harmonized. Oh, and I whispered the number six. In the beginning, I didn't like the songs, but the more I listened to the boys singing them, I learned to love them. Their voices were just angelic. What was also fun was watching Geoff do the cup song rhythm to "Red Solo Cup", my favorite song in the arrangement, beaten only by the following ones. But it had its own charm to it. And who could forget the country voices they did at times. We started the next try. It all went really well. The choreography stuck, the notes were tight, everything how it needed to be. Even the props in Corn Star did our bidding this time around. Geoff's solo went smooth, as always. Now, it was time for Red Solo Cup. Geoff started his rhythm off as usual and Layne took the lead vocals. He seldomly got to sing, but if he did, he did it really well. I watched closely as Geoff clapped with the red utensil – and couldn't help but smile at his confusion as the cup ended up the wrong way around after the first round. He tried to continue the beat, but soon stopped, only motioning his hands around in the way the cup should go if it were placed right. Shrugging it off, he flung the cup off the screen and just continued his bassline as usual. Without the cup. Smiling through his disappointment. Adding insult to injury, Layne wagged the sign showing the song name next to his face encouragingly, to no avail. Geoff just nodded, telling him: "I know, I messed it up. Screw you." The arrangement continued without flaws however. The song ended on the boys striking a flexing pose. Geoff couldn't stay serious, started smiling and spluttered into laughter the next second. I fell into chuckling right with him and the microphones kept recording, as they always did. "You think that's funny, Evelynn?!", he jokingly attacked me, looking for the cup to possibly throw it at me. "Where's that cup?!" The other boys just smiled at us. "You better believe we're leaving that in", Eli remarked when we had calmed down. And leave it in was what we did. And another thing we put in the video was an idea of mine: From that day on, the credits of the video said: "Cupography: Sad Geoff". This was something we would quote on and on.

Once the video was out, the commentators would know my name. But that's okay. At least they wouldn't call me "that woman" or those other names anymore. Names have a purpose, you know. With my name being public, the fans also caught onto other things. "Evelynn is the name of the female singer!", a comment said. "Geoff called the woman laughing behind the camera Evelynn! There's also a woman called Evelynn who they always give special thanks to in the end of each video. Now we finally know who that is." "Something tells me there's more to her than that", a comment on that comment said, followed by a 😉-smiley. Now they also started shipping the guys with me. Well, it's what I deserved for putting my name out there. And for laughing like a child.

The days went by and things started getting better. That recording session was just what I had needed to loosen up a bit. To get back in touch with them. From that day on, we were stronger than ever. And since I had gotten quite a lot of time off from work due to my current issues, I had all the time in the world to catch up on all the things I had passed up. We even went to a party. Who ever knew Geoff could dance ballroom dances? I knew that Jay could dance to anything and had a love for jive and that Layne knew Discofox. We danced through the night until my feet hurt so much I couldn't feel them anymore. It was already unbelievably late when we came back. I dropped onto the couch back home and didn't move for a few minutes. I had already long since taken off my heels (they werent't high at all - for Eli's sake), but my feet still felt messed up. Especially my right ankle. I sighed and crawled my way to the freezer, taking out a cool pack and wrapping it in a towel. There I sat on the couch resting, cooling my ankle and sighing. "Eve, are you okay?", I heard J calling down the hallway. "No!", I yelled back. "I'm not Cinderella!" He made a confused noise and came over to the living room. There, he pulled a chair and sat down opposite from me - the chair's backrest in front of his chest. "I danced too much", I explained quietly. "Don't tell me your foot injury got worse again", Geoff murmured with pity in his voice. He'd approached me from behind without me noticing. "Seems like it." He sighed. "You should've said something earlier. I'm sure Earl would've given you a piggyback ride all the way. If not, I would've." Geoff sat down on the couch next to me. He'd taken off his socks and shoes (which was rpobably how he'd gotten close to me without me noticing) and his shirt was only buttoned up halfway. That was something he liked to do, apparently. I'd never ever seen him with his shirt buttoned up all the way unless he was wearing a bowtie.  I smiled and shook my head. "I didn't even notice it while I was dancing. I thought it was just my heels. You know, since I haven't worn heels in months." "I couldn't walk in those", J chuckled. "Well, you're a man. You're not used to it at all." "There are men who-." "I know, Geoff, I know. Those are drag queens. But our dear fellow over here is not a drag queen." "God, no!" Quietly, I chuckled at J's reaction. "I'd look horrid in a dress." I rolled my eyes and looked at Geoff. He looked at me. We both looked at J. "Oh. Oh no! OH NO!" The baritone jumped off from his chair and ran away as Geoff followed right after him. I watched them run around the house for a while before falling over due to my laughter. The other guys caught on to J's panicked screaming and checked out what was happening. I yelled to them what was going on - out of breath from laughing too much - and they broke out into laughter too. J ran into the safety of his room and shut the door behind him, leaving J to come back to me, out of breath and grinning. Soon after, everybody calmed down again. Geoff, Layne and Earl went to their rooms upstairs. Eli stayed for just a bit longer to help my open my neckband. Then we walked back to our rooms together.