Small Town Boy

"Bravo!" my mother exclaims from her perch on the white leather sofa. "Tony will love it!" Tony Starks. World-acclaimed music producer, also known as the current man my mom was pining for.

"Great. Just who we want to please this time, I suppose," I reply, rolling my eyes. I honestly couldn't stand my moms cougar ways. Who wants to see an older woman going around hooking up with younger men? Not me, that's for sure. I mean, Love is Love, but seriously? Not something a sixteen year old girl needs to see.

"Why don't you run along, Poppy? Get some sleep, we have an early day tomorrow. You're doing a charity concert at Elk Woods Elementary tomorrow," my mother says, interrupting my thoughts.

"Uhhhh..." I rack my brain for the answer before asking, "Where's Elk Woods?"

My mother pauses, and then answers, "I'm not quite sure... somewhere in California, I believe."

"California? Tomorrow? How is it even possible to get there from New York so fast?" I protest. My mother just smiles and shoos me away with her hand. Nothing new there, I guess.

I turn out of the office, closing the door behind me and trudge upstairs of the penthouse. I flop down on my bed and sigh. My mom had always been extra, and this was no different. A charity bash? In the middle-of-nowhere California? I wasn't trying to sound ungrateful, it's just, why can't I do something I wanted to do? Three days ago I had asked my mom if we could go to dinner, just us two, for my upcoming birthday. She had just laughed and promised me the new iPhone instead, which was great, but I just wanted to spend time with my mom, and not my mom-who-was-a-cougar-and-also-my-agent-who-made-me-do-ten-million-songs-a-day, ya feel? I just wanted a l i f e.

I was sixteen. And I'd never been on a date. Never to a dance. Heck, I didn't even get to school much. But don't worry, mother dear made sure I had the best tutors around to keep her daughter "well educated, but available for recording at any time!"

As I try to sleep, I think about the charity bash. I assume I'll be singing the normal set, but who knows? My mother loves a surprise, I think to myself bitterly.

The next thing I know, a voice is screaming at me to wake up. Which I do. Because I'm a good girl. But as I turn over groggily, I see two intense, blue and unfamiliar eyes staring down at me.

What the hell?