disconnected | c.r [1]

54.

Sydney was exhausted. She'd been up for over twelve hours- given her nerves, she hadn't been able to sleep. The album had just gone up on iTunes and her fans were already trending hashtags. She'd been answering some tweets until the release party whilst trying not to freak out.

Most of the TWD cast was there to support her, and so were Jax and Thea. Poppy had been invited as well, and so some other familiar faces from Sydney's Disney days. Her management had invited a lot of other musicians, producers, some journalists, and bloggers- basically, they were trying to reinforce her brand. They'd gone over this with the blonde, but she couldn't care less. She just smiled and introduced herself to whoever they dragged her to that time, and made small talk with professional looking people until she was whisked away to somewhere else.

Then, came her performance. She got to sing a few of her songs and finally breathe for a few moments, feel the lights hitting her face. She couldn't wait until she got to sing to crowds who chanted her songs back at her. But she didn't have much time to dwell on the idea before in came the clusterfuck again.

She hadn't even had time to properly sit down and talk to her friends, really feel the emotions of everything, until her manager's hand left her arm. "Okay, honey, I think you're done." He'd muttered to her, knowing how much she'd hated the corporate part of everything. "Now, you get to have fun- Not too much fun, remember the cameras. We don't want E! News all up in your business again." Sydney rolled her eyes at the mention of the network but a smile graced her lips as she threw her arms around her manager.

"Thank you, Josh." She muttered in a singsong voice as she giggled. She felt a bit like a kid at a house party in that moment- her parents had made her introduce herself to everyone before they'd let her go back on her phone.

From then on, she was free. She still had to talk to a few unfamiliar people, but she finally found her friends. Poppy was the first person to hug her, screaming in her ear about how proud she was. She was talking to Thea and Lauren at the time, and the three became a shrieking fest. Only then did Syd really feel it.

It was out. Holy fuck, it was out. Her debut album was out in the world for people to listen to. She was feeling a mixture of pride and a slight dread, all of it clouded in haziness as she let it wash over her. The physical representation of her heart was out there in the world, and people were listening to it. People were loving it.

For the first time throughout the whole day, Sydney's eyes welled up with tears. Her day had consisted of smiling so hard it hurt and trying not to start jumping up and down as she went through her Twitter mentions. Tears had not been in the picture. But now, her vision of Thea started to blur slightly, barely smiling her best friend wrapped her arms around her once again.

Eventually, the brunette her her friend go and Jax came over. Then Katelyn, then Alanna, then Lauren. She hugged so many of her friends yet none of them really seemed to notice the way her hands shook when she held them. No one noticed the dazed look that fell over her vision.