Page 51 of Sing Your Heart Out

It doesn’t even remotely lessen the pain of the rift between me and Smith…

But at least I have somewhere to go now. Somewhere I’m wanted. Somewhere I’m loved.

I try to tell myself to focus on that and not the heartache that occupies my every thought.

It’s harder done than said, though…

19

Smith

Smith, you are in second place.

Dwayne’s voice rings through my head.

Second place.

Second place.

You aren’t good enough to win.

I can feel everyone’s eyes on me, especially Sarah’s.

We broke up for literally no reason other than the fact that my fear won out over rationality. Now that it’s been a few hours since I walked like a zombie up to my room, I lay across my bed.

God, I feel stupid. Should I just beg for Sarah to forgive me? Should I even try talking to her?

I said some pretty vicious things. Is there even a pathway back from that peak I pushed her off of?

A knock sounds on my door. I sit up fast, the blood rushing to my head. My heart pounds as I get up.

Is that Sarah knocking? Does she want to make up with me too?

Pulling the door open, I look into the expectant face of Dwayne. He smiles brightly at me.

“I wanted to check and make sure you were okay,” he says. “You were pretty quiet when we announced the finalists places.”

I puff out my cheeks, leaning against the door frame. “Yeah. I mean… it was pretty rough. I just need some time to relax and rest, I guess.”

Dwayne cocks his hip. “Well I hope you don’t need too much time, because I want to offer you a contract. Live in LA, write songs for us for six months. We’ll pay you a stipend and get the first option on any song you bring to us in that time.”

My eyebrows raise. “Oh yeah?”

“Mhmm. The offer extends to all four of you finalists. Although I actually just saw Buckeye leaving…” He shakes his head. “He said he’s call us, so we’ll see about that one.”

Swallowing, I look down. “What about the others?”

Dwayne narrows his eyes at me. “You mean Sarah and Mellie?”

I dip my head. “Yeah. Are they writing for you too?”

“They will be, yes.” He nods his head slowly. “Actually, Mellie asked Sarah to be her writing partner on a project back in LA.”

That shocks me. “Really? They’ve already got a job lined up?”

He sighs. “Yeah. Not with us, unfortunately. I guess Mellie had this project waiting on the back burner. They’re actually both leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning…”

A pang shoots through me, hollowing me out. “Tomorrow?” I exhale everything inside my lungs. “That’s really soon.”

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