"Corbin, hey, let me help you with that!"

"Ivy?"

Corbin's confusion was enough for him to drop his keys and his lapse in attention allowed me to fix my hair and lipstick a bit so I didn't look like a deranged clown from what Caleb had just done to my makeup. 

The squeal of Caleb's tires as he peeled out of the neighborhood in the most obnoxious way possible caused a cringe to form on my face but Corbin was too busy picking his things up off the ground to notice too much.

"Your boyfriend dropping you off?"

And there was that cringe again.

"If you could call it that."

Corbin brushed off my cryptic comment as I helped him with his things into his home.

"Why are you so early?"

"Maybe I'm just ready to get this over with. Got bills to pay, my dad's house to move out of."

"Ah. Or maybe it's because you're already tired of Kade?"

"You could say that."

"He's really not that bad, you know."

I was about to respond when tiny feet pattered down the hall and an adorable five year old girl stumbled down the steps.

"Well, since you're so early, mind helping out? Lianna could use some piano practice before her recital tonight."

"Perfect. I love kids. Come on, Lianna. I'm Ivy, and lucky for you I love playing piano."

"I bet you're not as good as me."

Her missing front teeth caused her to have a lisp and if it weren't for her corkscrew curls and dark, smooth skin that matched her father, I probably wouldn't have oohed and ahed at her being a straight up brat to me.

But, who was I to judge? Maybe she actually was better than me at five years old.

"Then show me what you got, and we'll see about that."

She skipped past me with her chin held high and I followed behind her to the room adjacent to the studio where an ancient baby grand sat in the center, worn and well loved, but still glorious as ever. 

"I know I'm better than you.  I'm better than Uncle Kade, too."

Uncle Kade?  Since when was someone on family-name-basis with their producer's kid?

"Well that doesn't really mean much to me since I don't think Kade's very good at anything."

"He's good at singing."

She ambled up to the bench and swung her tiny legs around to position herself in front of the black and white keys in front of her. 

"He's alright."

"He's good at performing on the big stage in front of all those people."

"I could do that with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back."

"I don't think so.  Daddy says you write songs, so why don't you sing them too?"

Damn.  The kid had some solid points.

"Because I—"

"Because you're too scared to sing in front of other people?  I would be, too.  Mommy says I need to get used to playing piano in front of other people, so now you get to watch me."

Her fingers began descending down the keys at an unnatural pace and damn if she wasn't already better than me—at five years old. 

"Wow, you're really—"

"Shh.  I'm trying to conca-trate."

Corbin's pealing laughter could be heard reverberating down the hallway where it reached my ears.  

Lianna's pianist skills were unmatched, that was for sure. 

When she was finished, she turned to me, her little uplifted nose high in the air as pride rolled from her shoulders. 

"What...are you expecting a standing ovation?"

"Duh."

I stood and proceeded to clap and bow to Lianna, queen of the keyboard.  Corbin came into view with just as much pride shining in his eyes as were on his little girl's face, clapping just as loudly than the stranger he'd welcomed into his home and studio for whatever reasons I couldn't comprehend. 

He really must've trusted Kade's judgement.

"Well, now that you've done your babysitting duty for the time being for being so early without calling, the studio is unlocked and ready to go.  I've got some things to do for now, so it's all yours."

"Awesome.  Kade still running late?"

"As far as I know."

"Perfect."

"You know...Kade's really not a bad guy.  I think you're just seeing him through the worst thing he's ever done as an artist that you can't see everything else."

"Yeah, well.  Not everything is black and white—I know that.  That doesn't mean I'm going to be naive and let someone take advantage of me once they've proven to me what they're capable of."

Corbin thew his hands up in the air as he backed off the subject. 

"I understand, but it's really your loss then."

Corbin led the way to the studio and flicked the lights on before leaving me to it. 

"Holler if you need me."

The keyboard in the corner was calling my name. 

I ignored it, for obvious reasons. 

Caleb:  I don't see that pic on your profile anywhere yet.  Tick-tock.

I rolled my eyes at Caleb's text message so hard they almost fell out of my head. 

I decided to post it on something I hardly ever used anymore:  Snapchat. 

Fighting back the shudder that threatened to rip me in half at the memory of what that app had done to my reputation at school, I finished posting the photo and bit back tears before shoving it down. 

Shoved it down—just like I did when I found out he'd only used me for his own purposes. 

Shoved it down.  Shoved down the angst and pain that flowed through my veins like lava anytime I saw him on campus with his arm around another girl just days after he'd taken from me what I'd been oh so willing to give. 

Shoved it down—just like I shoved down my emotions and feelings anytime I would see Constance in Isaac's arms—the very arms I would've given the air in my lungs just to have wrapped around me. 

The tears didn't fall, but the pain didn't stop, either. 

Twenty minutes later, and I had a rough drafted outline of a poem that I should've tried to turn into lyrics but I couldn't focus on the piece enough to make it anything more than raw emotion. 

Is it too much to ask for some empathy

A kiss on the cheek

A brush of my hair off my neck

Is it too much to ask for some affection

A hand on my waist and skipping breath

A burst of passion for the love we once had

It's like you forgot I was even there

Am I just some ghost in the mirror

You see me but unaware

I just want to touch and hold

Someone to know there's a brick on my heart

Holding me down

Drowning me out

Unallowed to speak,

To say the things I mean

To show the things I want to say because even in the darkness somehow there's still not a light

Didn't they say there'd be some light

What about a tunnel

This feels like a cave-in

A never-ending darkness with no way out

But there it is

Your hand bathed in golden light

Shining down at me from a hole in the ceiling

You lean down and I reach up to grab hold, but instead

You pull up the rope

That was supposed to be

My

Lifeline

Constance and Isaac were blowing up my phone with questions about the picture already, but I didn't have words to answer them.  What could I say, anyway? 

No, they couldn't know.  So then, I needed to come up with some other kind of reason, right? 

Maybe he was holding other pictures of me and threatened to release them if I didn't comply? 

Or maybe I didn't deserve them as my friends, anyway, especially considering how being around Isaac made me feel.

Once more, my eyes drifted to the keyboard.  

There was still plenty of time until Kade was supposed to arrive at the studio.  Maybe just one song...

The song that I'd saved until I knew I wanted to submit my lyrics to an artist for their consideration. 

I never knew it would be the song that would catapult my career...not before being stolen, though. 

Kade could steal my lyrics and pass them off as his, but he couldn't have any idea what the real meaning behind them would be. 

He'd have no idea the things that had happened in my life to me and to my mother...he had no idea the pain that wrote those lyrics. 

And I didn't ever want him to. 

One song turned to two, then three, and then I was writing song lyrics while trying to match them with a melody and chords.

Maybe even after what Caleb had done to me after he set out on a path to derail my entire life, I would finally be able to sing in front of other people as my own decision and not some kind of rebellious revenge plot against my father and step-mother at one of his irritatingly polite campaign parties. 

Maybe one day.  That's all it took, wasn't it?  Just one time for it to happen and for me to finally get over the aversion to the fact that I actually enjoyed performing and not because it was different than pretentious poetry slams and coffee house recitings.

When the final note resonated through the studio from the keyboard, my reprieve was over, however, and my eyes widened as Kade Hendrix swept into the room, dark and rugged and able to tear the breath directly from my lungs. 

I had always known how handsome he was.  You would have to be blind not to...but I had always appreciated him in a sense that pertained to his talent, not his looks.  

But today...

Today there was some kind of dangerous aura to him that hadn't been there before. 

Before, he'd been apologetic, wary, closed off. 

Today, he was glaring and filled with dark clouds and ominous storms just on the horizon. 

His dark hair was disheveled, cheekbones sharp and dotted with a shadow of facial hair that hadn't been there the day before. 

His eyes were a tempest filled with secrets and mysteries that I wanted to unravel one by one. 

I could imagine the sweet secrets he'd whisper to me in his bed as he ran his raspy fingers down my arms; his guitar string callouses playing me like his favorite instrument. 

My teeth bit into the soft skin of my bottom lip before I realized I was openly ogling him, but by then it was too late.  He had seen. 

And...he didn't seem to care. 

"You're early."

I gulped back the nerves gathering in my stomach—butterflies with Isaac...but with Kade?  They were a damn atrium filled with bird flapping their mighty wings in my large intestine. 

"Yeah...I w-wanted to get a jump on finishing the songs."

"Right.  What do you have so far then?"

Straight to business...?

"Uh...well, I—"

"You don't have anything yet?  Were you just messing around on Corbin's equipment?  You know, he has other clients, right?  His studio time is three-fifty an hour."

"Three-fifty?!"

"Yeah.  So, do you have anything?"

"Um.  Well, it's just this poem.  I don't know if I can turn it into a rhyme scheme since I wrote it free verse, but—"

"So you just wasted everyone's time?  Great.  Let's just get to work."

"Who peed in your Cheerios today?"

"What?"

His voice dropped several octaves when he spit that one single word out, and I must've been a deranged fool for secretly loving it. 

"You're in a terrible mood.  What happened?"

"None of your business."

Kade moved from his spot in the doorway and further into the room.  I couldn't stop him before he walked over to where my poem had sat discarded with the paper I'd found in a random drawer. 

"Um, that's—"

"Just trying to see if we can turn it into lyrics, like you said."

"Right.  But—"

"You wrote this today?  Seems like you're the one in a bad mood."

I rolled my eyes and huffed out an agitated breath.  He really wasn't giving me anything. 

"Who is this about?  Your boyfriend being mean to you today?"

"Excuse me?"

"Seems pretty depressing.  Might wanna go see someone for that."

"What the fuck is your problem?"

"Nothing."

The growling anger with which he spat that word out told me that no, it definitely was not nothing. 

"Come on, spit it out.  What, you're mad I'm going to basically have to hold your hand through writing your entire album for you?"

"There's a difference between being blocked and not having actual talent."

"Yeah, except you're so blocked you were willing to resort to stealing my music than just put out something mediocre as a placeholder."

"You're giving yourself way too much credit here, you know that?"

"Oh yeah?  Then why did you agree to my terms so quickly?  Was it that you were so scared a little girl like me would expose you on social media for what you really are?  Or were you just that desperate?"

"I think the desperate one here is you.  You jumped at the chance to help me record my album.  You somehow got tickets to one of my most exclusive concerts ever.  You've been a fan of mine since the beginning, right?  You couldn't believe your luck when I took your song, could you?  I bet you're not even mad I did it, either, are you?  So long as it gave you my attention."

His chest bumped into mine and suddenly I realized just how closely we'd gravitated towards each other during our argument, like he was the sun and I was the earth—a deadly dance where if one got too close the other would burn.

And I was already in flames. 

"Desperate, huh?  Well, let's see where you end up without my help.  We've already finished two, almost three songs in less than a week.  What would your count be without me?  Without my help?  You forget who really needs the other one here.  I would do fine financially without you—but luckily for me, an asshole decided to steal from me, so that just jumpstarts my future career plans five years ahead of schedule.  You call me desperate?  No, I'm just an opportunist.  You forget, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for your actions."

Kade was so close the heat from his body melted into mine.  

His cologne was spicy and smooth and nearly made my knees falter.  Why did he have to be so damn irresistible when I was trying to be pissed at him?

His eyes glared laser beams into me, but what could he argue?  That I forced him to steal my songs in the first place?

And if he thought a few harsh words were going to scare me away, then he had another thing coming.  He had no idea who I dealt with on a daily basis. 

The man who tormented me and—was currently calling me.  

Ugh. 

"You wanna get that?"

I ignored the incessant chirping of my phone in my pocket. 

"Not really."

"Allow me, then."

Kade's hand reached around my front and was in my back pocket before I had the chance to react. 

"Ivy's phone," he answered.  When had his hand left my side?  When did the phone go up to his ear?

"This is her...business partner.  No, she's...busy right now.  I'll let her know.  Thanks."

"Why did you do that?"

"Your boyfriend wants you to call him."

Kade turned and his demeanor immediately shifted.  He stepped back and the loss of his warmth was felt instantaneously. 

How could his proximity spin my head around so effectively?  How could his nearness do this to me?

"He's—"

"I don't need an explanation, Ivy.  It's not like I'd ever see you in that way anyway.  You're just a fan."

A fan.  

Wow. 

"Whatever, Kade.  Here's the notes I made on the third song so you can finish it.  I actually did do a little bit of work last night ahead of time.  I have a few ideas for a new song that's more upbeat.  I'll send it to you.  I have to go."

"What, you're just going to leave now that—"

"Yes, I'm going to leave because you're not in any kind of headspace to write, and I don't have to take someone insulting me.  Text me when you're ready to work and act like an adult."

And with finally having the last word, I grabbed my things and left, making sure not to slam the door on the way out.  It wasn't like it was Corbin's fault his friend was a major asshole. 

Now I just had to figure out how to get back to my car and—

I answered my phone on the fifth ring. 

"Ivy Bennett!  What the fuck is Caleb doing on your Snapchat story?!"

Somehow, being with Kade had allowed me to dissociate and pretend my whole life wasn't crumbling down around me at any given moment. 

How sweet.  The one person who couldn't stand me even more than my step-mother was the only one who could make me forget Isaac, Constance, Caleb, my family...

If only his personality were as stellar as his outward appearance, we wouldn't have any problems at all. 

And the worst of it all was...even if he didn't apologize, which I knew he wouldn't, I'd still be back the next day at the normal time ready to work. 

Because what else did I have anyway?

***

A/N:

What did you think of this chapter?

What do you think is going on with Kade?

Guess you'll find out in his POV next update!

What do you think will happen next?

What do you want to happen next?

Do you have once a week updates, or are they bearable?  I might try to do a few sporadic updates in between once I'm back from vacation!  

Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)