Left on the Sidelines

-Danielle-

"Look, all I'm saying is every hit song has something about Hollywood in it," I exclaimed as the band, Katia, Jenna, and I were all sitting at a table in the recording studio.

This was basically the make it or break it point in their careers. None of them wanted to give up what they were doing, but we all knew that if this song didn't go big, they probably wouldn't be able to make a living off of Lovesick Electric.

"Okay.. How about 'We're dancing on the edge of the Hollywood sign'?" Ryan suggested. "Oh, I'd love to, Ryan. Thank you," Jenna said, holding her hand over her heart. He lightly shoved her shoulder, laughing, "Whatever."

Ian started humming a random tune and Ryan hit the table with his hand, "That's it!" "What is?" Ian asked, startled. Ryan hummed the same tune, then added in the word 'whatever'. Katia jumped up, pointing at Ryan, "La, la, la." "Whatever," Ryan shouted, high-fiving Katia. "La, la, la," he continued before pausing. "It doesn't matter," Jenna smiled, shaking her head. "La, la, la." I shrugged, "Oh well." "La, la, la," he finished, grinning.

A few hours later, we had all the lyrics and the guys were working on the chords when one of the producers walked into the room. Katia, Jenna, and I were hanging upside down on the couch and squeaked in unison, "Hi, Evan!" He gave us a funny look before laughing, "Hey, girls." He turned to the guys, "How's the song coming?" "I'd say another hour..hour and a half, we'll be done and ready for recording," Nash smiled. "You're a couple hours ahead of what I thought you'd be," Evan said, sounding surprised. "Well, we can't take all the credit," Ryan chuckled. "After it was insisted that we add something about Hollywood, the girls were pretty into helping write it," Ian said, looking at me. I stuck my tongue out at him, which he gladly returned. "Alright, I'll be back in an hour to check up on you again," Evan smiled, turning to walk out of the room, "Come get me if you finish before then." "Yes, sir," everyone said at the same time. We all looked at each other and started laughing before the guys got back to work.

About 45 minutes later, everything was completed and I volunteered to go find Evan. On my way to his office, I was humming and not really paying attention, so it was no surprise I ran into someone turning around a corner. "Oh, shit. I am so sorry," I said before looking up, but when I did, my eyes widened and I took a couple steps back.

"Hey, Danielle," my ex-boyfriend smirked. "Jordan! What are you doing here?" I asked, shocked. "I'm signed to RCA, remember? I mean, you are the one who suggested it, after all." "Oh, right," I trailed off.

Here's the thing: I dated a few musicians before him, but I never felt the way I did about them like I did Jordan. He was the first guy I said I love you to, the first guy I kissed, and the only one who's met my parents. He was the first guy I truly fell in love with, but that all came crashing down when he got signed. I'd been telling him for quite a while that he should try to get signed to RCA, but he'd always tell me he wasn't good enough. Then, after playing in our school's talent show, he realized that people really did like his music and decided that he would take my advice. As soon as they heard him sing, they immediately wanted him on their label and signed him on the spot. We went out to celebrate and a couple months later, he flew to Nashville to start working on his music. About two weeks after he left, he called me and told me he wanted to break up because, in his words, now that he was famous, he didn't need me around.

I guess I should've seen it coming. I mean, that's always what happened. Guys would dump me as soon as they realized they were capable of making it in the music business and it was the same excuse every time: "I don't need you anymore."

"How have you been?" Jordan asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Oh, I've been good. Yourself?" I answered. "I've been alright," he said, "Look, Danielle, I know we ended on rough terms, but would you maybe like to go out sometime?" "Um, I-I can't," I said nervously, walking backwards as he was stepping toward me. "Why not?" he asked.

I was trying to find words and jumped when I walked into someone behind me. "Because she already has a boyfriend," Nash said, wrapping his arms around my waist. I sighed in relief, leaning back onto him. "You two are dating?" Jordan asked, laughing lightly. "Yeah," Nash answered, "Now why were you walking toward her like that?"

I started playing with the bracelet on Nash's wrist out of nervousness.

"Just wanted to give her a hug is all. I haven't seen her in God knows how long," Jordan replied smoothly. "She didn't look like she wanted to hug you from what I saw," Nash said, obviously seeing right through him.

I guess Jordan realized he couldn't do anything with Nash there, so he just said, "Well, I should be getting back to work." He looked directly at me, "I'll see you again soon, Danielle," before walking to wherever he was going in the first place.

"What was that about?" Nash asked, finally letting go of me. I quickly wiped a tear off of my cheek and started sprinting down the hallway, "Nothing. I have to go find Evan." He grabbed my wrist and turned me toward him, "Evan can wait. Who was that guy?" "My ex," I muttered, looking everywhere but at Nash, "It was nothing, don't worry about it." "Look at me without crying, then tell me it was nothing."

I looked at him, pretty confident I could pull it off until I tried to talk and my voice cracked. I felt the tears start falling and Nash took my face in his hands, wiping them away with his thumbs before wrapping his arms around me. I buried my face in his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist tightly, which only made me cry more, if not harder.

We stayed like that until I calmed down. "You wanna tell me why you got so worked up about seeing him?" Nash asked, moving back to look at me. I shook my head and he said, "Well, that's too bad, because you're going to." I sighed and told him everything.

"That's not going to happen with us," Nash said when I finished. "How do you know?" I asked quietly, leaning against the wall behind me. "Well, for one, we're already signed," he said, making me laugh a little. "And two, I wouldn't have asked you to be my girlfriend if I was just going to leave you."

"Just promise you won't leave me if this song does become big," I whispered. "Whether the song turns out to be a hit or not, I wouldn't want anyone with me but you," he whispered back.

He leaned in and kissed me, but we quickly pulled apart when Evan walked over to us, "What's going on here?" "Well, I'm trying to make out with my girlfriend, but you're kind of interrupting," Nash answered. I hit his shoulder, trying not to laugh as Evan shook his head and smiled, "What are you doing back here?" "Song's done," I said happily. "Really?" Evan asked, surprised. Nash simply nodded and Evan said, "Awesome! Go get the rest of the band and we'll start recording."

Evan walked away and Nash looked at me, "You heard him! We've gotta go get the guys!" He picked me up and started walking back to the room everyone was in as I laughed.

"Let's get recording," I exclaimed as Nash walked into the room. Everyone gave us funny looks, but stood up and we went down the hall. The band went into the recording booth while Katia, Jenna, and I watched them.

"So, what took you so long earlier?" Jenna asked. "What do you mean?" I said nervously, but knew what she meant. "Evan's office is right down the hall, it shouldn't have taken you that long to get him." "Well, I ran into someone and we talked for a bit," I shrugged. "Who?" Katia asked. "Um, my ex.." I trailed off. "Oh my God, what happened?" Jenna asked. I rolled my eyes, telling them what happened.

"But you have Nash," Jenna said after I told her and Katia about Jordan. "I just said Jordan was the first guy I fell in love with, I never once said I would leave Nash to go back to him," I said. "I know, but I'm just saying what if." "I'm not going to go back to a guy who says 'I don't need you anymore' over the phone. If he wants to try to get me back, whatever, but I'm more than happy with Nash and that's not about to change." "That's so cute," Katia gushed.

"Speaking of cute, I hear you and Jamiebear have another date tonight," I winked at her. "How'd you know about that?" she asked, blushing. "You're all he talks about," I groaned, rolling my eyes, "I can't have a conversation with the boy without you being mentioned by him. We'll be talking about what cereal we need to get at the store and he'll just be like, 'Katia likes Lucky Charms'. I love you, Katia. Really, I do, but I don't care what your favorite cereal is, okay?" "He really does that?" she laughed. "You have no idea."

I noticed Jenna was laughing so I said, "Don't think you're off the hook either, missy. Ryan does the same thing with you." She turned a light red, making me smirk, "He really likes your hair. He says it's soft, like what he thinks a cloud would feel like." Jenna just rolled her eyes and giggled. "Well, I really like his hair, too. We were made for each other," she said dramatically.