A Thousand Lies

28 | Lost in the music

UNEDITED

"Why wouldn't I want to?" Avery shot back at him, seething with anger.

"What's going on, Avery?"

"You-"

"No, Avery," I cut her off. "He has nothing to do with this."

For a moment Alan looked surprised at my outburst

"But Liv, this is your one chance to prove yourself. You've worked yourself so hard. I can't believe this is happening. Or the fact that he-"

"No." I held onto her hand, silently pleading with my eyes. "He has nothing to do with this."

"But what are you going to do about the orchestra?"

"I'll play solo. I'll let Mrs. Richardson know."

"Orchestra?" Alan questioned. "Livi-"

"I'm sorry, I should be going."

I turned on my heels and walked away, away from him as fast as I could, not turning back even once for the fear that my heart would falter.

~~~~

Bloody hell.

Bloody hell. This is going to be terrible.

This composition wasn't made for a solo part so doing it would disrupt the whole rhythm of the orchestra.

"I can't believe this is happening," Mrs. Richardson grumbled. "After all the preparations."

"It's just how life is."

"Are you sure you still want to perform, Livia?"

"I'm sure. Thank you Mrs. Richardson."

"For what, dear?"

"For going along with this."

My teacher smiled, shaking her head. "I was the one who suggested it. Of course I would support you. You're my student."

We were second to last on the list of performances. We had only 15 minutes left to go up on stage.

In the past hour, I had searched everywhere for a suitable pianist. Most were busy and declined without a second thought. Those who gave it some thought were sure they couldn't perform such a complicated piece and so they declined as well.

I had run up the stairs and through the hallways in search, to no avail.

Is this really it?

Was there no other way?

All those practices, staying up late perfecting the notes, falling asleep from exhaustion on my desk, rehearsing every day every opportunity we got.... was it all for naught?

All of it was in vain?

This was just another punch to my face after visiting the hospital.

Life really isn't unicorns and rainbows.

We only had 15 minutes left. And in those 15 minutes, the hardest task lay. Doing nothing. I hated doing nothing and waiting for our doom. But right then and there, there wasn't a victorious option. There wasn't anything left to do but to wait.

I loathed every second of it.

15 minutes trickled down to 10.

10 minutes changed to 7.

7 minutes to 4.

To one.

Finally, there were only seconds left.