Take A Breath, Let the Rest Come Easy

“I’m BACK!” Lauren yelled into Grace’s apartment. She searched each room looking for Grace. She was nowhere to be found. She gave up and went to her fridge to find something to eat. She knew Grace wouldn’t have minded, they practically lived in each other’s apartments. She glanced down at her phone, looks like Grace was going to be home late from work then.

She picked it up and texted Jack. Jack and her had been seeing each other, but they hadn’t told anyone yet. She had the feeling that no one would be shocked. It was kind of hard to miss their personal displays of affection. But she was still excited to tell Grace that they had made it official. She glanced down at her phone again. It was 10 o’clock. She pulled out a plate of left over chinese food and began to eat.

Grace came home at around twelve. Lauren frowned at her appearance. She looked tired as hell, and like she hadn’t eaten in several days. Her hair was in a sloppy ponytail, and she was wearing a nice shirt in skirt, but the shirt was wrinkled and not tucked in, and her shoes were in her hands, instead of on her feet. “You’re back!” Grace squeaked, smiling tiredly and hugging her best friend who greeted her at the door.

“YUP!” Lauren grinned with her hands on her hips. “You’re looking at the cover of the new American Vogue magazine.” She struck a pose.

“Lauren! I’m so happy for you!” Grace hugged her again, and then dropped her shoes to the ground.

“Yeah, so how have you been? Sorry I left you here all alone. It only occurred to me that you could have gone with me like the second day I was there.” Lauren said. Grace grimaced, that would have been a lot more fun- but she needed to get her EP together, so she was glad she had stayed.

“I’ve been good.” Grace swallowed, “working a lot. But you know, I gotta get that EP going.” She chuckled, trying to keep the conversation light.

“Have you heard from the guys?” Lauren asked.

“Just Jack. Every once in a while he would call.” Grace shrugged. Lauren bit her lips, and blushed. “What?” Grace asked. “What’s with the face?” Her voice cracked.

“Jack and I are sort of together.” She said.

“I know.” Grace replied, unimpressed by the latest gossip.

“No like…officially.” Lauren pressed on.

“Okay….” Grace squinted at her.

“Oh my God! Well don’t get too excited!” She threw her hands up in the air and scoffed. “I thought you would like jump for joy like I did!”

Grace snickered. “Well, you guys made it pretty obvious.”

“Oh, well now you know.” Lauren shrugged. “So anyway, how’s the EP coming? You look like you’ve been working a lot.” She hinted towards her appearance.

“Pretty good. “Grace forced a smile, even though her producer was killing her. Constantly telling her she was too flat, or too sharp.

He only liked a couple of her lyrics, and he couldn’t find her any local shows. Grace had decided to start looking for her own places to open, and started to believe that producers were very picky with girl artist, and not so much the guys. She recalled Alex being able to use all of his lyrics, and having freedom with them. Grace, on the other hand was having a much more difficult time. Her throat was parched, and she slugged down a whole glass of water in one gulp. Her head was starting to pound as well.

“What does pretty good mean?” Lauren asked, and moved a piece of stray hair from Grace’s forehead.

“Well- we are working on the EP and I just can’t get some of the sounds right- so we have to re-record practically everything.” Grace sighed, pushing back her hair with her hand.

“That blows.” Lauren glowered.

“I know.” Grace sighed. “But I’m really tired so I think I’m going to head to bed.” Grace got up, and picked up Pooka in the process. Pooka wagged his tail and licked Grace’s face. She smiled, at least someone had missed her. She slipped out of her clothes and pulled on her sweatpants and one of Alex’s hoodies he had left at her apartment.

She missed him, and the worst part was he probably didn’t care at all.

Grace continued to work like a horse. She sang all day long, and barely even took time out for a lunch break. When the people at Hopeless were done recording with her, she would go into another room and work on more lyrics until lunch was over. Then she would continue recording. She had ignored all of the incessant phone calls from her mother. And she didn’t plan on answering them or calling her back anytime soon.

Lauren continued to harass her about whether she was eating and sleeping. Grace didn’t really care, she was too busy to do anything like that. She kept herself busy so she didn’t have to think. So she didn’t have to think about Alex.

“Grace…” Lauren said.

Grace continued to think. She wondered what he was doing at that exact moment.

“Grace! Snap out of it!” Lauren snapped her fingers in her face. Grace blinked rapidly and then stifled a cough.

“Sorry.” She swallowed, and picked up the pasta on her plate, then dropped it back down.

“Are you okay?” Lauren asked.

“Yeah, fine.” Grace replied.

“I was saying, the guys come home in a week.” Lauren said, taking a bite of her food. Grace nodded. “I think we should all do something. And I think you should talk to Alex.”

Grace looked over at her and glared. “What?!” Lauren shot back, “You guys are cute! And I’m sick of you moping.”

“I’m not moping.” Grace retorted.

“Yeah… you are.” Lauren stated truthfully. “And you’re also losing your voice. How are you even singing?”

Grace swallowed again, feeling the knives slide down her throat. She coughed, maybe she had pushed herself too much the last two weeks. “I’m singing fine… It’s just talking that’s the problem.”

Lauren narrowed her eyes at her before glancing back to her food. “I’m just worried about you…” Lauren trailed off. Grace looked up at her friend and smiled.

“You have nothing to worry about. I’m fine, really.” Grace lied through her teeth and then put her full plate into the trash can.