Life Is A Risk

Booking A Gig

"Bell?" Jada knocked on the doorframe, poking her head through the open doorway. "Can I talk to you?"

Isabella is curled up on her bed, watching her laptop, headphones in. She's probably watching a movie, Jada thinks. Either that or talking to Carlos, and the lack of talking on Isabella's end points to the first option. A year ago, Jada would have assumed Isabella was listening to music. But not now. Not any more.

When Isabella didn't look up, Jada knocked again, more forceful this time. "Bell?"

"Hmm?" Isabella looked up from her laptop. She hit the spacebar and took out one headphone. "Hey, Jada. What do you want to talk about?"

Jada took a deep breath. They'd avoided this subject for the past few months, at Isabella's request, but the conversation couldn't be put off much longer.

"We need to talk about your music."

Isabella's face shut down. "Really, Jada? I thought we weren't going to talk about this." She put her headphones back in and turned back to her laptop.

"We weren't," Jada said, approaching Isabella and pulling out her phone, showing the screen to her. "But look. The situation's getting worse."

It was a screenshot of a gossip mag. Normally, Isabella and Jada paid no attention to the gossip mags. They were full of shit, and once you read one story about how you and your best friend are definitely dating, you've read them all. (It was exhausting, actually, all the stories. Just because Isabella was openly bi, and Jada was openly queer, it didn't mean they were secretly dating.)

IS ISABELLA MARTINEZ FINISHED?

Isabella looked up at Jada. "What is this?"

"Just keep reading," Jada sighed. "It gets worse."

The twenty-two-year-old pop star has been completely silent ever since her mother, Rose Martinez, died from cancer a year ago. Molina is usually active with the media, so her silence and lack of new music has left the public wondering. Will Isabella Martinez ever come back?

Lucy Williams, the lead singer and dancer for hit pop group Sweet 'n' Spicy, thinks the answer is no. When asked about the situation, Williams remarked that "Isabella has always been the sort of person to shut down when she's upset. You won't be getting any new music from her for a while." Williams then went on to talk about her own experience with her mother's death.

"Music is a way of coping," she said. "Isabella can't cope."

Sweet 'n' Spicy is performing at-

The first words out of Isabella's mouth are: "This is real?"

"This is real." Jada confirms. "I wish I could tell you it wasn't. Isabella, we can't put this conversation off anymore. The public is getting restless, and if you don't put out new music soon - make a statement, at least - you might not have a career much longer."

Isabella is silent for a long while. "I can't do it, Jada. I've tried." Isabella's eyes travel across the room to her dream box. Jada knows that Isabella puts her songs in there. She assumed Isabella hadn't touched it, but when she looks more carefully, she can see that, although the rest of the shelf is covered in a thin layer of dust, the box itself is clean, as though it's been frequently cleaned.

Or moved.

"For a whole year," Isabella continued, "I've been trying. I've tried for you, for the fans, for Dad, for me and I've tried for Mom. And I can't try anymore."