Page 3 of Siren's Heart

"Oh my God, a whirlpool!" I step closer and let my fingers run over the smooth surface of the jetted bathtub. "I'm going to spend a lot of time with you." Giving it a pat, I return to the living room and sink on the couch, laying my head on the backrest and staring at the ceiling.

So this is going to be my home for the next few weeks. That won’t do. It feels lifeless and uninspiring here, definitely not like an apartment I’m looking forward to going home to at the end of the day.

However, one of the advantages of being famous means I have enough money to fix it. Yawning, I pull up the app of my favorite furniture and home décor store and put some items into my cart until it’s completely dark outside, and my eyes threaten to fall shut.

I'll sleep over it and decide tomorrow what of it I'm going to get.

Millie

"We're going to perform in this…thing?" Kayla asks, her voice full of awe as Naroa turns on an intersection, and the buildings make space to reveal the stadium through her car window. Without hesitation, I unbuckle my seatbelt and scoot over to her side, earning a chastising glance from Naroa through her rear-view mirror. But I want to see it too.

"Oh holy–" The words get stuck in my throat along with my breath, my heart beating in my throat. I don't even know what to say. We've played in stadiums before, sure. But there is just no way they were this huge. I’m in fucking awe.

"Almost seventy-thousand people fit in there," Naroa explains, merging into the parking lot lane. "Plus, there will be a live stream that people can buy tickets for worldwide. I wasn't kidding when I told you this would be huge. You’re going to have a massive audience."

"You really weren't kidding," I mumble, exchanging a quick glance with Kayla. I don’t know what to feel, and judging from her expression, neither does she. Her blue eyes are as wide as mine are, and I'm sure her heart is beating just as loudly, her stomach full of the same bumblebees buzzing with anxiety and excitement. "We're going to kill it," I whisper reassuringly, nudging her shoulder with mine.

"Of course we will," she answers with a grin, but the slight twitching of the corner of her mouth is a tell-tale sign of her nervousness.

Naroa stops at some kind of special entrance for the stadium and ushers us out of the car. I shudder when we step into the cold shadow the building casts upon us.

"Holy shit, the building looks even bigger up close," Kayla curses, her eyes moving up the building, and I nod, still unable to form words. My hand hovers through the air until I find her arm, clutching onto the fabric of her sweatshirt. We remain right in front of a tall gate as we wait for Naroa to park the car, looking up the walls of the stadium, laying our heads way back, and still not seeing the roof.

"This was a good idea, this was a good idea," I mumble to myself over and over, and feel her chuckle beneath my touch. I couldn’t say which of the two of us I’m trying to convince.

"Alright, let's go." I jump when Naroa’s voice comes from right beside my ear. She sounds way too enthusiastic about this.

My fingers remain clinging firmly to Kayla's arm as the two of us follow her inside. Naroa holds up a card to one of the security guards and is handed three lanyards, passing two to us without looking away from the person she's talking to. Finally, I let go of Kayla to accept one, slinging the thin blue band over my head without it catching in my hair, lifting it so I can actually see what it says.

"Millie. Talent," I read aloud and grimace as I flip it. "Couldn't they have used a prettier picture, though?"

"Show me," Kayla demands amusedly and leans over my shoulder, cackling as soon as she sees it. "Oh my God. It looks like a mugshot."

It really does. My stern eyes look right at the camera, my mouth is almost pointing downwards, and I have a frown on my forehead as I look at the camera through my lashes. I don't even know when this was taken, but it was probably when we started at Starlet Sound, our label. The lack of knowledge about posing and general anxiety with the new situation caused a lot of weird pictures.

"Show me yours!" I reach for hers, but she quickly grabs the laminated piece of paper and evades my grabby hands. Narrowing my eyes at her, I pout and step closer. Oh, I’m so going to look at it.

"Hey, hey. Behave," Naroa scolds us like we’re five-year-olds. A group of people gathered around her, finalizing the organizational stuff, but after a few more moments, she ends her conversation with them and turns around to scrutinize us with a strict look. When I let go of Kayla, she shakes her head and points at one of the women she had been talking to.

"This is Lila. She’ll show you around the stadium. You'll have the chance to familiarize yourself with the backstage labyrinth today so you know where you can find what and who. Training with Mike starts tomorrow." She checks her watch, then straightens her spine, her eyes darting around the area nervously. "I actually have to go. There's a meeting I need to join online that started five minutes ago. I'll be in the car, have fun." She gives us a quick wave with her fingers, then she darts away, clutching papers to her chest and already dialing into the meeting.

"Uhhh–" A soft voice stutters, and Kayla and I turn to the woman Naroa left us with.

Lila doesn't look a day older than twenty-two. Ginger hair, falling down to her hip in two braids, and the very prominent freckles in her round face make her look even younger, though. The poor thing seems super nervous, her eyes jumping from Kayla to me, the pamphlet in her hands already torn on the sides as she nervously rubs the paper between her fingers.

"Hi, I'm Millie," I say, plastering a smile on my face, trying to sound reassuring as I hold out my hand for her to shake. I'm really damn nervous when I meet a bunch of strangers too, but for some reason, I find it easier to contain it if I put my focus on making another person feel less nervous. Her hand is clammy in mine, but once our eyes meet, she seems to relax a bit.

"Kayla." My friend steps forward and extends her hand as well, the smile on her face just as subtly strained as mine. "Lovely to meet you."

"I–" Lila’s eyes grow wide, and she gulps before nervously shaking her hand. "I'm Lila. I’m sorry, would you mind–" She doesn't finish the sentence, but Kayla and I are pros at this point.

"A picture?" I ask, and she nods fervently, her shoulders slowly sagging in relief as she realizes that we’re not about to bite off her head. "Of course. With the two of us or individually?"

Her eyes dart to Kayla, and I swallow down the sting. It's by far not the first time someone's asked to take a picture with her and not me. At least Lila is nice about it. There have been other, far less pleasant, fan interactions over the years that made me cry myself to sleep on more than one occasion.

I take Lila’s phone with the camera app open, and step a bit back until the two of them appear on the screen. "One second," I mumble and adjust the camera settings so both are better visible. The light out here is horrid. I count down, and both smile widely as I shoot several pictures for her. "Here you go!"

I hand her back the phone, forcing a smile onto my face. She takes a quick look at the picture and swipes through them before pushing it back into her pocket, mumbling a soft "Thanks."

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