With Love...

whatever he needed

BELLE

I feel more relaxed now than I have all tour. I think it's because I feel at home. Not so out of place. Georgia is where I belong. LA and all the other big and crowded cities make me feel clustered and out of place. It makes me feel like a small tiny fish drifting in the Pacific Ocean. Nothing of significance. Nothing that anyone will think to notice or cross their minds about. Simply because I'm so insignificant in the grand scheme of things

The platform that is supposed to bring me up on stage in precisely 3 and a half minutes us where I'm standing right now. My last show for probably a while. It doesn't go feel that way though. Not nearly as nostalgic as I imagined it would be. I don't feel any tears and I'm not expecting to any time soon. Sometimes I think the thrill of being an artist died out when people only began to see me as another photograph or a money bag.

"Belle!" I hear Haley call from the other end of the skinny hallway. She's beaming with delight. She's proud of me. I wish I could say I'm proud of myself too.

She stumbles down the small walkway trying to make her way towards me. Reaching me she grabs my face with both of her hands. "Just so you know, Nolan is here."

I stop smiling and my face drops. "What?"

"It's for publicity reasons and you know that," she tries to explain. "He's just going to be seen coming into the venue and backstage and take pictures and see fans with you. You guys can pretend to kiss and love each other. You know the deal."

I groan and close my eyes. "Haley, you know I hate doing this."

"I know, but it's what we agree boosts your music and popularity. Which are both very important for your career," she tells me.

Nolan Grahm. A very popular singer from a boy band. Also, my fake boyfriend who I am forced to encounter every so often. He's at red carpets, publicity events, interviews, and we're at each other's shows when needed. I can't stand the boy. SO arrogant and uptight and thinks the entire state of everyone's existence revolves around him all of the time. Out of all the people in the music industry they could have picked, it had to be him.

The fact that he had to be at this show, out of all the shows possible. Why the one I'm most excited about?

"Just go out there and give it your all," she tells me with a wide grin. One I don't return this time. She winces at my lack of response and drops her hands from my face with a sigh. "It's time."

Without any hesitation, I turn around and prepare for the last show. The one that means everything to me.

There one where I hope I get to see him again.

---

After the last guitar strums and the last beat drops, the lights go out on the stage and the cheering begins. I stand there for a few moments, just to soak the last bit of it in. The show was...well, how most shows are.  But I suppose it was a little bit different in a way. It reminds me of the first time I performed for someone other than my family. I performed for Theo and his mom. I run backstage so I can prepare to meet everyone as the memory floods back into my mind.

TEN YEARS AGO

I sat up straight in Mrs. Ringenest's rocking chair that she had placed in the sunroom at the house. She always sat there, especially more recently then. She was pregnant with Mia.

Theo's father died, just a few months before that. From what I remember, that was a blessing in disguise for them. Theo's father was never good to them. Mrs. Ringenest never even meant to get pregnant. In fact, she avoided Theodore's dad the most she could. I only saw him a handful of times. He was drunk all of those times, but I did see him.