Point of View: Kayla
The rehearsal went well. We only had two days left to go before the opening night. I was getting excited. When we broke apart from the stage and I was getting my stuff together, Lauren and the other girls came over, excited to talk. "So you and Nick?" Lauren asked, her eyes glowing.
I smiled, "Yeah," I said.
"He's fine," mumbled Jess, and Claudia nodded.
"He's gentle," I answered, "And that's more than I got with Leon."
Lauren shook her head, "Leon was a prick, honey," she answered, "Seriously, you deserve way better than that anyways." I lifted my bag and slung it over my shoulder. "I can't believe they let him out."
I looked up at Lauren as she rolled her eyes. "They let him go?" I asked. My mind reeled.
"Yeah," Lauren said, shrugging, "He's paying fines, I heard. I don't know. Bail, whatever. I don't understand that legal crap. I mean he's staying with his mom."
I frowned, "I was hoping they'd keep his ass in jail."
"Please, he didn't actually do anything other than key the car," Lauren muttered, "I mean yeah, he was an asshole, and I'm sure he has to stay far away from you, but I mean he basically just yelled a lot." She shrugged. After a pause, in which my stomach was turning, she said, "What does Nick think about him?"
"Nick would kill him if I let him," I said, my voice sounded funny.
Lauren raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
"I gotta go, speaking of Nick," I muttered, and I hurried out the theater door to my Aveo, which I locked the moment I'd gotten into it. I didn't want to take any chances of the doors opening up and having Leon be standing there, like a haunting nightmare.
When I got to Nick's house, I was going to tell him about what Lauren had said about Leon, but he grabbed my hands and pulled me upstairs, "I have a surprise for you," he said, as he led me into his studio. "Here." He handed me a page of sheet music, with the title "Safe - Kayla Sinclaire" across the top, "Music & Lyrics by Nickolas G. Carter, 2010" in the corner in small letters.
I stared up at him. "You did this?" I asked.
"Last night," he answered, and he leaned over and kissed me, "Hurry, it's great. I taped the music today. It's not perfect, but we'll work on it. It'll probably take a few takes anyways. Then we'll do it with the soundboard to perfect it..." He dropped into the office chair in front of the laptop as I dropped my bag and hurried into the studio, closing the door and pulling on the headset. He had never moved the microphone, so it was already adjusted to my height.
"Here, I'll do a play through of the music for you, so you can get the idea before we tape," he said. The next thing I knew, the piano was in my ear in a unique melody that carried clear, ringing notes. My eyes travelled across the lyrics, and when the song had ended, I could feel him looking at me. "Well?" he asked.
"I love it," I whispered.
"Ready to sing it?" he asked.
"Yes," I answered.
Nick grinned. "Okay... Kayla Sinclaire, debut single in the works, let's do this." He punched a few buttons around him and hit the computer key that started the music going through my ears again. I felt my nerves tingling with excitement as I started singing, on cue, the lyrics that he'd written for me... like he'd extracted them from my diary or my heart somehow.
While I keep trying to lose the words you said...
Can't you see I'm hanging by a thread...
To my life...
What I know, I'm losing control and
Oh no, my walls are gonna break
So close, its more than I can take
I'm so tired of turning
And running
Away
When love just.... isn't safe
You aren't safe... yeah"
I looked up at Nick, who was smiling at me and giving me the thumbs up, a pair of headphones on his head as he listened to my voice traveling over the notes he'd prepared on the paper for me to follow. Little scribbles with things like "maybe a mm-hmm" here or "hold the 'u' in 'just'" were in the margins of the page.
I never want to need somebody else...
But I've already fallen from that hill
So I'm dropping that guard...
Here's your chance at my heart
And oh no, my walls are gonna break
So close, its more than I can take..."
Nick was standing up now, his eyes focused on me, his lips clenched between his teeth, a look of longing and passionate excitement on his face.
It was like he was super charging me for the next part, in the margin of which he'd written "emotional swell"... The music rose in my ear and I felt my heart rate climb with it.
And running
Away
When love just.... isn't...
Everything you want, but it's everything you need
It's not always happy ending but it's happy in between
It's taken so long, so long to finally see...
That love is worth the risk..."
Nick's arms went up over his head after the long 'i' in risk hung in the air, echoing through the studio. He was beaming. He sat down again, shaking his head. He looked so happy.
So close, it's more than I can take
So tired of turning and running away
Because love just... isn't safe...
You're not safe... but it's okay...
Love is worth the risk
It's worth the risk
You're not safe
And that's okay"
The music ended and Nick hit the button on the computer, a grin on his face. He leaned into the microphone, "You are so fucking amazing," he said into my ear from across the room. I smiled and laid a hand across the ear piece of the headset.
"I can't believe you wrote that beautiful song for me," I said into my own microphone.
"You rocked it," he said, smiling. "Kayla, that could so be on the radio... I'm serious..." he shook his head, "Let be your producer on this. Please. Work on it with me, and we'll tape it and get it out there."
I looked up at him, my heart pounding in my chest and tears threatening my eyes. I nodded. He crowed and jumped out of the seat, running to come into the studio, forgetting he had the headset on, and getting stopped short halfway. He fell backwards, disappearing under the broken sound board.
"Oh my God, Nick?" I cried, jumping off my stool.
"I'm okay," he called, getting back up and shedding the headset, "Damn things," he muttered as he opened the door to the studio and came in, scooping me up in a hug and laying a kiss on my forehead.
