Secrets // Zach Herron

Semi-Finals // C20

Word of the Day: Dalliance
Definition: a brief/causal romantic relationship

Penelope's POV:

The past few weeks have been kind of stressful, I've been barely making onto the next week. Not to mention that last week, I performed for the Instant Save. I barely made it into Semi-Finals, I believe the vote was 54% for me and 46% for the other person. My songs haven't been doing really well on the iTunes Charts and Alicia and I have been trying to figure out why. This week was H-U-G-E, considering that they are going from the Top 8 to the Top 4 for the finale.

Alicia decided that I wasn't putting enough emotion into my songs. She didn't know that I numbed myself to any feelings after the whole Zach thing. The love we had was something that you don't just walk away from, but I didn't have a choice. Regardless, Alicia said that if I wanted to go to Finals, I would have to put every ounce of emotion and skill into this performance. After all, even if you get Instant Save, you're likely to end up going home the week after.

This week, Alicia chose the song "I see you" by Leona Lewis for me to sing. "I see you" by Leona Lewis was technically hard to sing at the climax, but the emotional part was where I'm struggling. I was drawing from my childhood memory of watching Avatar for the first time, but Alicia said it wasn't enough. She said that this song was about love and I needed to bring that out. It was sort of hard considering that there was really no one in my life who loved me.

"I think that's enough for today", Alicia said.

I nodded and began to grab my things.

"I really think you have a shot at getting into the finale, but you need to put loads of emotion into this song. So go home, practice, and I'll see you on Sunday", she continued.

Alicia and I hugged before she left. I picked up my bag and looked at my phone. Hm, 46 messages? That's odd, I usually only get... well, none. Then I looked at the ID, it was Zach. I rolled my eyes and blocked his number.

"Thanks, guys", I said to the band.

They waved me goodbye as I walked backstage of the studio. I saw Tatianna giggling and laughing on the phone, that girl is relentless. Assuming she was talking to some new fling, I ignored her. I walked out of the studio and began walking towards Cameron, he was picking me up today. Surprisingly, someone grabbed my hand.

"Hey, you've been ignoring me. Can we talk?" Zach asked.

"No, Zach. You cheated on me and you expect me to forgive you? Just like that? I don't want to talk to you", I said as I picked up the pace.

"I just want to explain myself."

I arrived at Cameron's car and opened the door when Zach tried to get my attention once again. Zach peered inside the car and saw Cameron.

"So what? Are you two together again?" Zach asked.

"No, he's just my friend."

Zach sighed and for the first time, I saw how tired he looked. He had bags under his eyes, and he just looked tired.

"Please? Can we just talk?"

I pondered for a second, "are you still with her?"

He was silent for a second and I knew my answer.

"I have to go, just leave me alone."

I slammed the car door shut and Cameron drove off.

"I know you must hate him, but maybe you should let him explain?" Cameron suggested.

"No, I don't want him to get inside my head with such an important week coming up."

Just then, my mom called me. Reluctantly, I picked up the phone.