Scattered in Song

Chapter 3 - Cheap Thrills

There were only two weeks left until school started, so I had plenty of time to waste.

I wasn't in the habit of wasting time. In New York I always had something to do and with deadlines I was always trying to find ways to make more time. It had always been insane. I would go days with no sleep so I could make the most of every second. I wouldn't even see the time go by.

Simon, the manager at the recording studio, had set up an automatic alarm that would ring obnoxiously loud every day at midnight so my eardrums would ring to remind me that a new day had started. It was painful and for a while I had avoided the place...but then I figured one entire minute of unbearable noise was worth enduring to continue with my work. Plus it would wake me back up.

Here though? I had nothing to do. No more music to produce. So I did my next favourite thing - I explored. I first went out of the town to Beverly Hills. It took three hours and I ignored the recording studio I had passed on the way. I'd been to that studio only three times before and I had always loved it there. It had great vegan food near to it and it was a lot quieter than the one in New York. There were also quite a lot of new artists who were trying to make a name. Some of them were bad, some had potential and a lot of work to get done before they could become great, and then there were the few rare ones who were amazing in the first go. That rarely happened though.

I ignored the studio, pretending it didn't exist. Amber didn't mention it in the car either, even though she knew about it since she had come with me when I had been invited to record there the second time.

"So what are we doing tomorrow?" Amber asked when we got back home.

I shrugged. "I don't know. What do you want to do?" I asked her, taking in her blonde hair that reminded me so much of our mom. I had always wished it would turn brown like mine but it hadn't. The only thing that we shared was the almond shape of our eyes and the moss green colour.

She looked a lot like our mother so my guess was that I looked a lot like my father. I was personally convinced that we had different fathers but it was insignificant whether or not that was true because she was still my sister through and through and nothing would change that.

I loved Johnny but my sister was the love of my life, my world. It would always be that way.

"Let's go check out the stores around here."

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, you bought a whole new wardrobe in Beverly Hills. You do not need to buy anything else. How about we do something that won't put a huge dent in my wallet?" I suggested.

She rolled her eyes and hunched her shoulders. "Ugh, that's so boring!" She complained, but I detected the slight humour in her eyes.

"We can play our favourite game?" I offered.

She let out a short disbelieving laugh as she asked, "Are you serious?"

That's how we ended up playing hide and seek the next day in the local park.

"Okay Am, don't use this as an opportunity to run away and hide in the mall because then I'll end up looking for you forever and I know you're fifteen but I'll still have a panic attack that you might have been kidnapped," I warned.

Amber raised one eyebrow at me as I spoke, showing me just how unamused she was by my worried thoughts.

"Are you finished?" She called back when she stopped running.