Page 30 of Safety Net
“What?”
“The music.” He gestured to my headphones. “Let me hear it?”
I tightened my grip on the headphones. “It’s not ready.”
“It never is,” he sang.
“You really need to start rehearsing,” I said deadpan. “You’re flat.”
He chuckled. “Shut up. I can’t rehearse without content.”
“You can rehearse with anything.”
“Come on, give them here. I’ll give you notes. We need to have this ready by next week. Halle wants to start practicing. It’s her first musical. You know the woman is a perfectionist.”
I took a deep breath and looked down at the MP3 file I’d been tweaking all day in my editing software. “Don’t laugh. It’s a demo.”
“I never laugh.”
My nose wrinkled at the blatant lie.
“I laughed one time.” He held up a finger. “But it was a good laugh. The kind of laugh you want from an audience.”
“It was a break-up ballad.”
“I happened to find break-ups funny, I’m sorry.”
I sighed, knowing I had to rip this band-aid off sooner or later. Besides, Ellis was the best person to share this with–despite his strange sense of humor. He'd known me since birth and had been familiar with music since birth.
I handed him the headphones. Once he had them in place and gave me a thumbs-up, I clicked play. Ellis closed his eyes as he listened, trying to immerse himself and escape my nervous energy. I chewed on my nail, watching the track play. As soon as it finished, Ellis tugged the headphones off. He kept his eyes closed. I covered my mouth, stomach turning as I considered maybe it was truly horrible. A small part of me had some hope, but now, I had to consider it could be a delusion.
Holy crap. I’ve assembled a team of talented people to waste their summer feeding my delusion.
“It’s so good, I can’t believe it hasn't been made yet.” Ellis opened his eyes. “You know? Like you hear the song of the summer and don’t remember a time when it wasn’t on your go-to road trip playlist.”
I gasped. “Shut up.”
“See, I knew being your cousin would get me somewhere.”
“Shut up.” I fell back on the pillow next to him, laughing. “Ellis, are you for real?”
He was, because here’s the thing about my cousin: he loved poking holes in things. He was the kind of person who would critique movies while watching and had notes on the decor of every room he entered. He was ninety percent cold, brutal critique thanks to his unrelenting experience with a skating coach who barely let him breathe without commenting on the slightest finger out of place or unsteady landing.
“You could kill this.” He held up his pinky. “Like, blow it out of the park, if the rest of the music is like this.”
I squealed, so giddy I could barely breathe. I hooked my pinky around his. “This one’s the worst, El. I just finished fixing it.”
“Oh, shit.” Ellis laughed, eyes wide in awe. “That’s your worst? You’re going to kill this, Celeste.”
I smiled so hard I wanted to cry. Because he was being honest, and for the first time in forever, I felt ready.
CHAPTER TEN
LINCOLN
“We’re not on the ice today,” Anthony said… as soon as I stepped onto the ice.
He sat on the sidelines with his notebook open and pen in hand, already writing something down.
