Not Just A Fan

Chapter 1

Rolling out of bed at 6 am and creeping out of her room to access the toilet without the floors creaking, is not a problem she wants right now, but it pays the rent if she wants to stay here. Moving back in with her family will make her fall back into a comfortable situation before she entered the TV competition, Battle of the Rockstar. Something about it made her compete and wanted to try getting into the music scene again. In her teens, she was in a band going into pubs and clubs to perform. But they never pushed hard to pursued it further enough to be signed and faced reality, it was never meant to be. In the end, she decided to try out herself and got selected to be in the top 12. During her experience, her light coloured purple hair, with her techno-rock style gave her some fans. She never made it to the final, but her friend from England won and produced a close friendship with her. Out of all the girls that entered the competition, Ryleigh was something different.

In the shower, her frizzed hair-softening to her favourite smell of apple conditioner, the hot water waking herself and skin up for another day of a mind-numbing job. Ester rinses her coffee colour hair out and misses the bright purple hair, after the show ended, she decided to dye it darker brown, her hair started to become damaging of not being done professionally.

She squeezes into her dark skinny tight jeans and her bright graphic top with her hair in French plaits, applying her bright teal eyeshadow and a little bit of black eyeliner to pop her blue-greyish eyes. While changing in her room, she heard someone stirred in the hallway and the creak from the staircase. As she finishes her self up and goes downstairs, her roommate Katie with her fire-red hair high in a bun and wearing a smart suit, having a busy life working in the journalism industry.

'I'm making waffles, do you want some?' she asks.

'Yes please.' Ester replies and sits on the counter watching her cook.

'Have you heard back from your brother? Got some jobs from a record label yet?'

Eric, Esters twin brother, who appeared on the show as a guest, enjoyed watching his sister perform in the studio. He then decided to become her manager, getting her gigs have been great, but her heart is to be on tour playing the keyboard. It never bothered her to be a singer as long as she can play.

'No, not told me anything.'

'Something will pop up,' Katie places the waffles onto the plate and faces her, 'good things come to those who wait.'

'It's the waiting that makes the hardest part of it.' Ester starts to munch on the fluffy pastry of the waffles, 'maybe I should look for something like you do, a "real job"'.

Katie raises one eyebrow at her. 'Ok, saying what I do is a real job will not help you. I think what you are doing is great, doing something you want to do.'

'Is being a journalist something you wanted to do?'

Katie shrugs. 'If I remember rightly, we all wanted to be a girl rock band in high school,' they started a band with two other girls and tried hard to roll with it after finishing, but college was more important to others, so the band was just a hobby. Katie's family wanted her to do something realistic than sing in bars and clubs in the evening. While job-hopping from place to place, Ester continued with music, and has now settled into a job, being in the record shop pitching sales for people to buy keyboards.

'It was fun. Do you miss it?' She questions and gives Katie a little pain in her stomach, she did miss it but not as such that she loved journalism.

'It was something to pass the time because of all the boring lessons we had.' She replied, it hurt Esters feelings that she only saw the band as a distraction. 'Anyway, I am off. See you tonight. Takeaway?'

'Wouldn't miss it.' Ester says and watches Katie walk out the door.

Just about a 15-minute walk, with a dark cloud leading to believe this city is a gloomily place what she called home, Brooklyn. Until Los Angles when she competed, she never left the city before, but knew there were places out there and relied on the internet to see them. LA gave her a nudge to go forward with her music, the nights she performed on stage made her burst with pride. Ester is a strong performer, overall coming in 6th place.

Compared to everything in between, the shop Upfront Music store stood out like a sore thumb. The jet black painted brick walls and the steel bars covering the windows with the sign in bold letters above the door. Inside it kept the construction feel with the concrete pillars inside, her section of the keyboards are tucked away at the back by the floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the busy road and just about seeing the bridge.

There is one thing she has her eyes on, Brad, who makes sales in the guitar section. A few years younger, but not fretting Ester, his messy brown hair, brown eyes, hip denim jeans and a fitted grey t-shirt. He seems to get the attention and sometimes thinks, the only reason the girls come in so they can see him play. He looks good behind the guitar and is good with his fingers, Ester thinks to herself. She tries not to give away her crush to Brad, no matter how desperate she wants to have peep underneath.

Their manager Jason deals with the customer first and then passes them to each section the customer wants to try out. Customers Ester deals with are either very young or very old, not worrying, as long as they walk away as a happy customer. Running the shop for 15 years, Jason was surprised when Ester applied for the job, given her popularity on the show. It did bring more customers in with the keyboard sales increasing very high, after a few months it died down. But enough to be hitting big targets than before.

Her phones stay in her back pocket all day, even if there are not allowed phones on the shop floor, but she is waiting to hear from her brother, and started to get impatient. Not hearing from for a few days worried her, he would call and tells her about getting a gig in a bar or a club. She left him a message, replying everything is fine.

Ester watches Brad in the corner playing the guitar and helping a young lad getting his first one, a teaching lesson is not part of the service, but adding one of Brads strength to get them to buy.

'You might want to stop drooling, scaring my customers away,' someone muttered in her ear, she went red and pushed her lips together.

'Jason! I wish you didn't do that.'

He laughed at her and crossed his arms. 'You know for someone been on the TV show and performed, you don't seem to be all that confident when it comes to men.'

'I don't know what you are talking about.' She replied quickly and quietly.

'Ester, come on. I know you have an eye for him.'

'What if I did? I'm not allowed to date employees anyway, it's against policy.'

Jason places on hand on her shoulder. 'Not if you get caught.' He smiles and leaves her to it. For a boss, he is a pretty relaxed person with his employees, but if you do cross him, will know about it. She has seen Jason fired 2 employees 4 months ago as they were more than just making out in the staff room. Maybe Jason thinks that Ester is too much of a good girl to be wild like that.

She watches Brad lead the customer to the till and goes past the counter to take her break. As Brad finishes, he looked in the corner of his eye and glimpses at her.

'Ester, you going on break?' she looks at him and goes all shy and giggly, no words come out of her mouth, she just nods. 'Cool same, be out in a sec.'

As she sits in the back of the sheltered courtyard, relived the rain not falling on her, but feels the wind comes through and puts her zipped hoodie on. She checks her phone again and still nothing from Eric. The door opens, she sees Brad come through smiling happily to see her and her legs started to go jelly.