Dane and Zion

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

~Dane~

       "I'm surprised to see you here," Carrie suddenly said from behind me as I was waiting for my order at the counter at Hummingbird. "Change your mind?"

       "About what?" I asked, though I didn't even turn around to look at her.

       "About being my songwriter," Carrie said. "We all do things we regret."

       The person working behind the counter handed me my drink and bowl of boneless chicken wings. I thanked him before stepping away from the counter so I wasn't occupying any space for someone who might want to order from there.

       Eventually, I turned around to look at Carrie. "What makes you so certain that I regret quitting?"

       "Because you love songwriting," Carrie said. "Anyone would regret quitting a job that they love."

       "I'm didn't quit songwriting," I said. "I just quit writing for you. There's a difference."

       "Yeah, and the difference is that you're not going to get anywhere," Carrie said. "I'm the one that took you far. Do you really expect to make it in the music industry without me?"

       I didn't reply to her. There was no point of arguing with her, so I just walked away and went to the table Zion and his friends were sitting at. Carrie didn't even get me anywhere in the music industry. Nobody knew my name, simply because she never told anyone I was the one writing song for her.

       "What was Carrie talking to you about?" Zion asked as he grabbed one of the boneless chicken wings and popped it into his mouth.

       "Oh, you know, just trying to see if I regretted quitting on her," I said. "But I do not, especially because I found someone even better to work with."

       "What?" Zion asked. "You did? Who? And should I be jealous?"

       "I think he's talking about you, idiot," Miguel said.

       "Oh, thank goodness," Zion said. "I was worried there for a second."

       After being coworkers with Zion for so long, I have picked up the ability to tell when he was joking or not, which definitely came in handy because he was the type of person that joked around a lot. So it really wasn't a surprise that I could tell he was joking right now.

       I didn't mind. I loved his jokes.

       "I can't wait to see your performance," Divya said. "Sorry I couldn't make it last time, by the way."

       "Don't worry about it," Zion said. "You had plans before I even thought of performing. And you're all here tonight, now that Dane and I are officially partners."

       "So are you excited to perform?" I asked.

       "Of course," Zion said. "I'm always excited to perform. I used to perform all the time when I was younger, but I stopped because... Well, I didn't want to do just covers. But, you know, I suck at writing songs. Oh, and before you ask, no, you will never read any of the songs I wrote."

       "What if I snoop at your songs, just like you did to mine?"

       Zion opened his mouth to object, but then he realized there wasn't really anything he could say to argue against it since he really did snoop at my song. So, the only reply he gave me was eating another chicken wing.

       "Don't worry," I assured. "I won't look at your songs unless you willingly let me."

       "Which won't ever happen, so don't get your hopes up."

       Honestly, my hopes were a bit up. I was a bit curious as to what Zion's songs were truly like if he and his friends were constantly saying how much it sucked. They could be overreacting, for all I knew.

       However, I really wasn't going to look at Zion's songs unless he let me. We were a partnership now, so we were going to have to trust and respect the other.

       Open mic night soon began, and it started off with Carrie singing a brand new song. Once again, it was a song about her being more rich and more famous than everyone else.

       What amazing lyrics.

       But she was an amazing singer and performer, so it was no surprise people cheered her on. 

       It took some time for Zion to be called onto the stage, probably because he arrived later than he wanted to first arrive, so he signed up pretty late. I wasn't even surprised when he showed up late. He didn't have the best sense of time.

       I definitely had to help him change that if he was serious about making it in the music industry. Tardiness was a big no-no.

       As Zion got onto the stage, he looked at me and smiled, so I smiled back and gave him a thumbs up.

       "Hello, everyone," Zion said into the microphone. "So I will be singing another original song, written by my amazing songwriter, Dane Einstein. I hope you like it."

       I wasn't going to lie, I wanted to sneak a peek at Carrie to see what he reaction would be to me being Zion's songwriter, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was Zion's performance, and I wanted to watch every last second. I've been at every single one of his rehearsals since I was the one with the music, and I just loved watching him sing.

       Watching him actually perform the song on stage was going to be even more amazing.

       He just had such a song stage presence. It looked like he had been performing forever. Like he was born to do this.

       I couldn't help but lip sync during the chorus, because it was my favourite part of the song and because Zion just had so much energy singing that part. I mean, he had energy for the whole song but it was just the chorus I loved watching the most.

       When Zion finished the song, everyone that was watching him applauded, and his friends cheered loudly. Zion did a little bow before getting off the stage and sitting back at the table. "That was amazing," Marjani said. "Breathtaking. You really were made to perform."

       Zion smiled brightly. "Thanks. I just can't wait until next week to sing the other song."

       "The other song?" Marjani asked.

       "Yeah, Dane already wrote another song," Zion said.

       "Well, sort of," I said. "I have most of the lyrics written, and Zion actually did a pretty good job at helping me."

       "That's not true," Zion said. "I suck."

       "No, you don't," I said. "You really did have good ideas. Maybe all you needed was someone to bounce ideas off of or to have someone tell you when a part isn't working."

       "No, really, I do suck," Zion said. "Seriously, ask anyone here."

       "It's true," Miguel said. "He sucks at writing songs. He made my ears bleed once."

       "I'm sure that's not true," I said.

       "You know, it's nice that you're not doubting me, but trust me, you would cringe if you read them," Zion said. "And I know I just said you would never read the songs, but I am going to let you read them tomorrow when we're working on the other song."

       "You really don't have to if you don't want to," I said.

       "I know, but I will show you how horrible I am at writing my own songs," Zion said. 

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here is a quick excerpt from one of zion's songs "i love spaghetti yum"

me but change spaghetti with panini