Love is Ours {See Final Author's Note}

Chapter Twelve

[Sierra]

Sierra passed that weekend lying in bed, not eating and avoiding Tam's calls.  She never wanted to see him again.

Unfortunately, she had rehearsals on Monday at 9am sharp, and Tam would be there.  As she dragged herself out of bed and half heartedly got ready, she mentally swore to herself that she would avoid him at all costs.

She took a cab to the studio and was immediately greeted by Andrew.

"Sierra, your fitting for the photo shoot is tomorrow," he reminded her, shoving a schedule into her hands.

Photo shoot?  Oh, right; that one for the theatre magazine.

"Of course," she nodded. 

"All the details are there, and the actual photo shoot will be on Thursday." Andrew told her before he rushed off to do something else.

Sierra absentmindedly wandered to her seat as she looked over the schedule.

She was scheduled to rehearse the title song and Look With Your Heart that day.  She would also be practicing Dear Old Friends with Summer's understudy.  Other than that she had a free day.

Someone sat down next to her.  She tensed up as soon as she realized who it was.

"Sierra, can we talk?" Tam's low voice asked.  Tears threatened to spill over Sierra's eyelids.

Tam sighed.  "Look, S, I'm sorry." Sierra liked the nickname Sie better than "S".  "S" wasn't even clever.  "I don't know what came over me.  Just please forgive me?" Tam tried to take Sierra's hand, and she let him.

It was hard for her, but Sierra couldn't let Tam know anything was wrong.  He'd proven he could be dangerous, and she couldn't threaten Ramin.  She'd have to act like nothing had ever happened.

"I forgive you," she breathed.  Tam squeezed her hand.

"Sierra!  Uh, you need to come run through, uh...Dear Old Friends!" Ramin hurried over.  He glanced at Tam.  "Like right now."

Sierra quickly stood and smiled at Tam.  It probably looked like a grimace, but hopefully it was convincing enough. 

She rushed to the other side of the studio with Ramin.  Her eyes felt glassy and her vision blurry.

"You okay?" Ramin asked her quietly.

He didn't try to hold her hand or put an arm around her, and Sierra was somewhat grateful.  She didn't want Tam to notice.  The only thing that she really wanted to do was burrow up in his arms forever.

"I'm alright," she whispered hoarsely.

"Good," he replied.

"Did Andrew really need me to rehearse or was that just an excuse?" She asked him.

"Well, you looked about ready to die..." Ramin trailed off.

Sierra smiled a bit.  "Thank you," she whispered.

Luckily, Andrew called for her.  "Sierra!  Let's run through the title song!"

"Talk to you later?" She checked with Ramin, who nodded.

Sierra walked to the piano and spoke with Jack for a moment, then took her place.  The piano began playing the long intro, and she looked forlornly into the mirrors covering the walls, pretending her cast mates talking quietly on the opposite walls were her audience.

She heard her cue and began to sing.

"Who knows when love begins, who knows what makes it start?" She sang softly.

Sierra moved through the song slowly, feeling an overwhelming sense of peace as she pretended she was Christine Daaé, who didn't have an abusive boyfriend or was emotionally unstable.  At least not in the way Sierra was.

"Love lives on!" Sierra held the last note as she lifted her arm in the air and smiled as best she could. 

The entire cast and crew who were there applauded.  Sierra felt a pink blush rise in her cheeks, but she was proud of herself.  That'd definitely been the best she'd ever sung that song.

"Very nice, Sierra!" Andrew smiled at her.

She nodded politely and returned to her seat, still smiling.  Luckily, Tam didn't come try and talk to her and break her good mood.

Instead, Summer bounced over.

"You were amazing!" She gushed.  Sierra shyly looked down.

"Thanks, Summer," she giggled.

"So I was thinking we should go to our fitting together tomorrow," Summer offered, stretching as she spoke.

"Oh, sure." Sierra agreed.  Summer was in the middle of trying to get her foot behind her head.

Sierra laughed as Summer tumbled to the ground, her brown hair falling in her eyes.  Summer scowled at Sierra as she picked herself up.

"I'd like to see you try to do that," Summer scoffed.

Sierra stood and did the same thing, only more gracefully.

Suddenly she felt a burning pain in her arm where the bruise was and she crashed to the floor.  She gripped her arm and bit her lip to keep herself from crying out.

"Not so easy, huh?" Summer chuckled as Sierra stood, trying to act like nothing was wrong.

Luckily, she was called to go and actually rehearse Dear Old Friends, so she left Summer and did as she was told.

Her arm stung and burned for the rest of rehearsal.