Rhythm of Love

Nora’s Point of View

Motionless, I laid on my bed as Nicolette took her turn in the shower. My mind raced at the events that had occurred not too long ago, about the news of Eli’s death sentence. The breaths that escaped my lips were shaky as I cuddled under the wet towel I’d taken after my own shower. How could I have not seen this? How hadn’t I noticed Eli acting strange? My bottom lip trembled and hid my face in the sopping towel. Just as I did, something wet whipped my exposed butt and I screeched out in pain. Above me, a female giggled and I glared at Nicolette, who wore only a baggy sweatshirt and her lacey underwear. Before she could even think of a crude remark, I hissed, “You couldn’t have clued me in on Eli?!” She bit her lip as I slowly rose, covering myself with the towel and grabbing a Disney sweatshirt, shorts, and underwear.

“You see…” she murmured, as I disappeared into the bathroom to change and put on new makeup. Her voice rose a bit so I could hear her. “I was thinking about telling you but you seemed so set on telling him that I didn’t think it’d be right…!” I glared at my reflection as I contemplated her words. She was right, in a sense. I would have had to tell him anyway; it was only right for him to know, even if it wasn’t something he should have heard. It was now or never. Telling him any later would have been too difficult.

After I got changed, I explained to Nicolette to meet me at our rental car while I stopped by the petite gift shop inside the hotel. I grabbed two sodas – an Fanta orange and a Sprite – and a bag of pretzels. It was only until the cashier rang up the items did I realize how overpriced everything was. I inwardly groaned, but stayed visibly content until I spotted Xavier and Conner just outside the hotel from the window. Squealing, I ducked behind people and tried to stay in the crowds as I maneuvered to the front entrance and made a beeline to the car. Nicolette sat in the passenger side with her feet propped and hanging out the window while blaring the radio. When I bounced in, she immediately stole the Fanta orange and the pretzels. She downed a few gulps of soda and tore open the bag ravenously. I chuckled a bit before thrusting the key into the ignition and speeding out of the parking lot, and out of Disney.

To tell the truth, I had no where I needed to go, not did the little frenchie next to me. After Alex had left our group to go to who-knows-where, Welcome to Paradise awkwardly had stumbled over to check on Eli, while Behind the Unknown disappeared to one of the pools. Damien was still dumbstruck when he returned to sit with us, and Nicolette had nervously looked between the two of us. By the look on her face, I could tell mine was no less than a few emotions: confused, distressed, hurt. Once Xavier, Ivan, and Conner had left to go find Damien’s bandmates, Nicolette and I snuck off to our room just as Beech and Cyn had come down to the pools. Cynthia stared at me as we walked by each other, but she dared not comment.

“Oh!” Nicolette squealed now, as I drove smoothly around a slow-moving vehicle. “Did you see that sign? Let’s go there!” I spared her a quick glance before looking back at the road.

“Go where exactly?” I asked, curious. She sent me a huge grin.

“Cocoa Beach!” She squealed again, her hair whipping around her face from the wind blowing through our windows. “It’s only about an hour away, so said the sign. I think it’d be fun to go there! It sounds so cute!” I mirrored her grin and nodded my answer; I had to admit, the name was cute.

After about an hour, the two of us drove up to what we guessed was Cocoa beach. Our estimation was proven correct when I spotted a blue sign reading “Welcome to Cocoa Beach!” with a totem pole standing next to it. Before the rental car was even parked, Nicolette was already flying out of the passenger seat, spilling out some pretzels and a bit of soda in the process. Even though I knew I would be the one cleaning it up, I heard myself yell out to her, “You better clean that up, missy!” However, even if she would have, she was already too far to have heard me.

The two of us mindlessly walked the shore of the beach. There weren’t as many people as expected, probably because it was nearing dinnertime and the tide was getting quite high. Next to me, Nicolette hummed out the tune to whatever songs she listened to and at some point, I heard myself join her. It was only until she stared singing did I halt my trip down memory lane, even pausing my stride. This caused her to pause as well, and look up to me with a soft smile. She whispered, “It’s not a crime to sing a little, Nora. You act like CSI is going to drag you away at even the slightest music that comes out of your mouth.”

I snorted, and continued on. “Stupid. CSI is in Miami.” At this, Nicolette burst out laughing. I continued, “And anyways, I don’t treat it like it’s a crime!”

“Then why don’t you sing anymore?” She stared at me with eyes wide like saucers. Before I could think up a plausible excuse, she muttered, “And even so, there’s barely anyone here so couldn’t you just sing a few chords or something? I won’t even tell Damien or the others.” I snorted again; she was the one making it sound like singing was illegal. My eyes watched her carefully as she flew through her songs and removed the earbuds that had been plugged in. Finally, she decided on a song, the karaoke version, that she knew we both knew. She sent me a grin as the music began, daring me to sing it. Challenging me.

I grinned, listening to the guitar play roughly before singing, “Perfect by nature, icons of self indulgence.” My voice was a little shaky and cracked in the beginning from lack of use in this matter. But I felt myself get into the song slowly, “Just what we all need! More lies about a world that –”

“Never was and never will be!” Nicolette joined in, our voices harmonizing due to her more soprano, childlike voice with my alto voice. “Have you no shame? Don’t you see me? You know you’ve got everybody fooled.”

We continued like this, occasionally singing solo parts but for the most part sang in a duet. I tried ignoring the stares we got, and for awhile it worked until I heard a voice shouting behind us. At first, I thought it was my imagination and later I tried convincing myself that the person was calling to someone else. However, the male voice pulled me suddenly from the song after he shouted, “You two! The singers! Please stop for a moment!” And I was gone.

However, Nicolette must have seen this coming because a hand gripped the back of my sweatshirt, choking me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t escape her grasp and at some point, I stopped trying. Our focus was on the male, probably old enough to be my dad and fear slithered up my spine. Nicolette on the other hand grinned like nothing about this was wrong. In fact, she gladly greeted the man with a handshake. When he offered to shake mine, I stood my ground and crossed my arms. He awkwardly removed his hand and said, “You two have quite beautiful, refined voices! Such like that of The Veronicas! Meg and Dia! Amy Lee!” Nicolette’s eyes sparkled.

“That is so sweet!” she chirped and the man grinned at this, bowing to her. However, I glared at the man, not trusting him at all. What the hell did he want?

He must have felt my glare bore into him, because he faced me and immediately stopped smiling, “I apologize; I didn’t even introduce myself! Please forgive me, my name is Howard McGee, and I’m the owner of a newer record label called Cocoa City Records. I’ve been searching for some high quality singers, and so far there are only two males and a female that work under us. However, the two of you are quite good I must say and I’d love it if you were to consider joining?” Nicolette was bouncing in her spot as he handed us each cards. While I had still been skeptical, I stared noticing the little bits that proved him legit from his official business cards to the overpriced jacket her wore, to his shoes.

So not to embarrass us in front of Mr. McGee, I spoke for us in saying, “Thank you, Mr. McGee. We’ll think about your offer.” The man nodded hopefully, and we parted ways. All the way back to the car and even after we were on the road again, Nicolette was bouncing around uncontrollably. In an aggravated voice, I murmured, “Who the hell says I even want to do this?” She paused and watched me carefully as I glared at the dark road ahead.

However, a smile grew on her lips. “I know you. You miss it; I can see it in your eyes. Don’t lie to me, babe!” She yelled out the last bit dramatically out the window and we both laughed.

She was right, of course. She always was. And when we snuck back in our room, without anyone else knowing, we called.