Rhythm of Love

Nora’s Point of View

Warm light seeped through the curtained windows of Mitchell’s trailer as I rolled around on what I suspected was the one of the beds on the bunk. I collided with something and my eyes flew open to reveal someone’s arm; someone was in crawl-position over me. A few names popped into my head until a flash of long brown hair caught my vision and I saw the person I least expected to be there: Nicolette. When I turned so I was on my back, I was met with her grinning perfect face. Her hair fell over both of her shoulders when she backed up in a kneeling position so she sat on the other end of the bed. Neither of us spoke for awhile, I was too much in shock and she was allowing me to silently take it all in. Then, a thought came into my head: what happened last night? I remembered being on stage and then… Oh yeah, I fainted… I thought with a groan. I don’t even know if we’re still in the competition.

“I’m your first duet for today.” She whispered, a smile playing with her lips. My expression must have given away my confusion because while she laughed, she explained, “Behind the Unknown has made it to the second day of competitions – the doubles round. I heard about what happened last night from Dammy-Bear and I was able to convince the band that you were going to sing with to let me momentarily join their band so you and I could sing together! Isn’t that great?” Great, sure, but I would have thought that was against the rules. Not that, of course, we haven’t been breaking some of them ourselves. Nicolette added, “Dammy-Bear said it’s okay.” And what was with this new nickname? Damien never let me call him anything cute!

I stretched out my arms, only to hit my hands against the top bunk. Nicolette giggled as I questioned, “And the judges are okay with this?” Nicolette paused and placed a finger to her lips.

She shrugged. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them! And anyway, they’ll get a stellar performance by doing this, you know?”

Back when I was living in Paris, I had sworn to stay away from anything music related until I returned back home to my band. It would be like cheating on them if I decided to momentarily join another band, and where they were waiting for me I felt it was the right thing to do. That is, until I’d met Nicolette. She was the lead in the chorus at her school, and second best at dancing; second, though she would never admit it, to Adele. When I first laid eyes on her, I thought she was a tad weird and I couldn’t imagine myself hanging out with her until I heard her singing at a school pep rally. After that, I sought out to meet that girl and when I did, that’s when everything got strange. We didn’t become fast friends; actually, she proclaimed the first time she saw me that if I couldn’t sing, we would never be friends. I don’t know what possessed me to go against the promise I’d made, but I sang a song for her that day. Since then, the two of us were nearly inseparable and I learned how picky she was about who she hung out with. Even her ex-boyfriend was in the musical field.

After I changed out of the clothes I’d been wearing for two days, Nicolette and I waltzed out to see both Behind the Unknown and Welcome to Paradise chatting with their first duet partner bands. I scanned the area, catching sight of a grinning Damien, a waving Eli, Alex with some girl on his lap, Conner was hitting the ground with his drum sticks… My eyes shot back to Alex or, more accurately, the girl who was on his lap. I didn’t have time to say anything, because I was instantly grabbed by the back of my shirt and thrown back into the trailer by Nicolette. I shouted in pain and as the door shut behind us, I caw a few people stand up and look at us. While I was planning on yelling at Nicolette, I knew looking in her eyes that she’d seen that girl with Alex. Her eyes were dark and she looked at nothing in particular for a long moment. Finally, she looked at me, “That’s Adele. The girl with your boyfriend.”

I raised a brow and in a shaky voice denied, “He’s not my…!”

“Fine,” she shot back. “Your hook-up partner.” My cheeks went ablaze at her wording and I looked away from her in anger. Above me, she chuckled a dry laugh. “But that’s her. The boyfriend stealing daughter-of-a-bitch.” We stayed there in silence for a long moment, not knowing what to do next. Especially after that moment, Adele was probably doing some victory dance. And what about Eli? He was probably so confused and worried. I can’t believe I’m doing this to him.

A sigh came out of her mouth as she took a seat next to me. “Well,” she said, leaning back against the wall. “At least we now know our song.”



I stood at the door where watchers and spectators entered the theater to see the performances, wearing a ghostly white dress and no shoes. Taking in a gulp, I tried to distract myself from my obvious issues. The issues being that I was scared because for a bit of the song, I was all alone; Nervous, because I couldn’t mess up on this song, the song that had started Nicolette’s and my friendship; and sadness because Alex was with Adele. I shouldn’t be sad; I had no right to be. He wasn’t mine, but the thought of him with Adele made my chest ache. From behind the wooden doors, I could hear the guys and the other band begin playing the song. Next to me, a man who worked there was counting the measures to tell me when to go on. On the fourth message, he pointed to the door and I took in a shaky breath before walking through the door.

“Turn around, there’s those eyes again,” I sang, hearing the shakiness in my voice. Everyone had spun around upon hearing my entrance and I saw Damien curse under his breath as he played his guitar. “Turn around, fake indifference and I watch their cold, dark silhouettes disappear. A hundred bodies fill this room and all their faces overdone. Pain is foreign, foreign to us.” Now at the stage, I gulped down saliva and turned to the crowd. My eyes fell on Eli and I smiled as he sent me a thumbs up.

“I don’t even know you,” a voice sang behind me, and that’s when I noticed Nicolette appearing from the left of the stage. She held a smirk and I could hear her thoughts: You dare mess up this song, of all things? I thought you were better than that, Nora-Bear. Maybe it was this thought, displeasing the one I had to work at becoming friends with, but I felt my nerves melt. Joining her, we sang out, “You won’t even know I’m gone. Was it something I did wrong?”

“Roses, roses cold,” I sung barely above a whisper.

“Roses, roses sold out,” Nicolette sang, and I felt a smile reach my lips.

We continued singing the song, and I felt my troubles leave me as I immersed myself with the song. We would make Meg and Dia proud. Finally, we reached the final chorus and it was only until I started singing that I realized I was alone again; Nicolette listening and watching from backstage.

“I don’t even know you,” I sang, my voice quiet. My eyes bore into everyone’s, letting them see what I was seeing, and feel what I was feeling if only for a minute. “You don’t even know I’m gone. Was it something I did wrong?

“Was it something I did wrong?” I lowered the mike, and closed my eyes as the theater went black and there were rounds of applause and people cheering. I peeked one eye open to look at Nicolette’s face.

She smiled, and mouthed to me, “That’s the Nora I know.”