Listen Close

Sixteen years of age

Miah watched as her best friend attempted to hide his excitement and nerves and completely failed. He was fidgeting with his hands, something he always did when he was nervous. She reached a hand over the seat between them and clasped his hand, holding it still. He glanced at her and she eyed him with one raised eyebrow. Seth smiled sheepishly at her.
“Sorry” he muttered, squeezing her fingers.
“You’ll be fine. They already like you; now you just have to see if they’ll sign you as well” she told him calmly, hoping her words could calm him down as well.
Seth inhaled a deep breath and slowly released it, expanding his chest slightly.
“You really think so?” he asked hopefully, turning to look her full in the face.
Miah was again stunned by the blueness of his eyes in that moment, but she quickly nodded her head and mentally shook herself out of her blue reverie.
“Yes, I really think so” she assured him, facing front again.
Seth nodded slowly and copied her, letting go of her hand and folding his arms across his chest.
Miah thought about everything that had led them to this day. The two of them were now waiting in a waiting room in a Sony music building in downtown Chicago. Seth had asked her to come with him instead of his parents, and she had been surprised, but she agreed to go.
At sixteen, he was so young but they thought he could make this work. His voice could make this work.
“Seth Rhodes?”
A young male secretary stuck his head out of one of the many doors along the lengthy corridor to their left. He beckoned, but Seth was already on his feet. Miah jumped up after him and quickly ruffled his hair back into place, smoothing his fringe down and smiling up at him. He kissed her cheek and then walked after the man into the sound proof room.
Miah sat back down and swung her feet back and forth, staring fixedly at the closed door. She was focused so intently, she jumped when the woman next to her touched her shoulder and spoke quietly to her.
Miah turned to face her and smiled shakily, unused to attention from strangers.
“I didn’t mean to scare you. My name is Amara Bier. I just wanted to let you know that I’m sure your brother will be fine” the woman told her, speaking kindly.
Miah blinked curiously before realising what the woman meant. She shook her head and laughed abruptly, too loudly. What she did when she was nervous.
“He’s not my brother” she replied, kicking the toes of her grey military style boots together.
Amara raised her eyebrows.
“He’s not? Oh. Could’ve fooled me” she murmured, turning away.
Narrowing her eyes, Miah crossed her arms and scowled blackly.
“What do you mean?” she asked grumpily.
Amara glanced back at her and smiled faintly, seeing the glare on the teenage girl’s face.
“You behave like brother and sister, that’s all” she said coolly.
Thoughts whirred in Miah’s brain.
“No, we’re not. We were born on the same day in the same hospital, only rooms apart. We’ve known each other forever” she explained, feeling as if she had to force the information on this odd woman.
Amara nodded, seeming summarily satisfied.
“Well, child, you better be careful that he sticks with you. My daughter’s in this business and she’s left all her old friends behind for the new ones” she told her.
Miah stared at her for what seemed a long time, and then turned back to face the opposite wall again. Seth wouldn’t do that to her, would he? He was the closest person to her that she knew, and she didn’t know how, or if, she would be capable of carrying on without him. She already bore the scars of depression and he was the one to get her onto the other side of it. He couldn’t leave. She’d die.
She was eventually broken out of these musings by the door opening to the room Seth had disappeared inside. She stood and the smile on his face gave everything away for her. He was signed and he was going to hit the big time. She pasted a smile on her face and opened her arms to him.
He bent slightly and scooped her up round the waist, her knees digging into him. He didn’t seem to care.
“They signed me” he told her, smiling up at her from his lower vantage point.
Miah nodded and smiled back at him, clutching his shoulders for dear life. There was no way he would drop her... He didn’t. Seth carefully lowered her back onto the floor and flourished his newly signed contract in her face.
“See?” he beamed, obviously thrilled.
Unable to help herself, Miah nodded again and gently pushed the papers out of her face.
“Are you ready to go now? We’ll miss the bus otherwise” she asked, unsubtly reminding him of their schedule.
Seth glanced at her face, scanned the strained smile, and then nodded, unsure what had warranted her lack of enthusiasm. It had been her idea in the first place to record something and sent it in everywhere he possibly could. He had her to thank for what was happening now.
Then he understood it, the reason for the look on her face. He comprehended the reason for the storm clouds ready to burst in her dark green-grey eyes. Ahh. He would be leaving in a week for Los Angeles, and she’d guessed it already.
He sighed and stole her hand, swallowing her slender fingers in his.
“Come on” he said softly, gently tugging her on after him.
They walked in silence to the stairs down, forgoing the elevator in silent agreement. Their feet pounded in perfect rhythm until Miah pulled her hand from Seth’s and he stumbled a step, catching his balance again before he face planted and kissed the concrete. He carefully avoided her stony eyed gaze and picked his feet up again, trotting down a few steps ahead of her the rest of the way down. As soon as they met the ground floor and glimpsed the sunlight wishing its way through the windows and door glass, Seth steamed forward and pushed the door open, waiting until Miah came through before allowing it to fall closed behind him.
They made it to the bus stop before Miah asked him the question they had both been dreading.
“So when do you leave?”
Seth bit his lower lip and stared at the ground under their feet. It had felt steady a minute ago.
“Next Monday” he muttered.
Miah sat down hard on the bench, startling an old man. She ignored him, intent on her own problems.
Itching to change the subject, Seth launched into another topic.
“Do you wanna go back to school or come home with me until your parents get home from work?” he asked her, sitting down beside her.
Miah kept her face turned away, fighting to keep him from seeing her eyes as she wrestled with her individual pain.
“I’d like to go home, actually” she murmured, almost to herself.
Seth’s forehead furrowed as he thought about that.
“That’s what I just said. Home” he said, confused.
Miah swung around so fast he almost fell off the bench.
“My home” she hissed, shoving her hair out of her face.
Oh.
Seth nodded silently and felt for the contract sheets he carried, folded up in one of his jeans pockets. He clasped his hands together and bowed his head so he wouldn’t have to look into Miah’s angry, hurt eyes. Those eyes that were now trained on him, tracing every line that formed him. He knew that she knew him better than any other human on the planet, better even than his parents and his guy friends, but she’d never really understood his heart. He knew hers though. He read her heart through her eyes every day, like a book he’d owned forever.
Miah Warren had never actually told Seth Rhodes that he owned her completely, but he knew it anyway.
He heard her sigh and looked her way, but she was sitting with her back to him.
The bus arrived a few minutes later, but Seth let Miah board it alone. He decided to wait for the next one and take that. He didn’t look up as she found a seat next to the window, as she always did, and gazed out at him through the glass. He didn’t see.

Forty five minutes later, Seth stepped off the bus and wandered slowly down his street to stand just outside Miah’s house, next to his own. He caught sight of her pacing around her bedroom as her window faced outward. He couldn’t see it, but he knew she carried a book in both hands. Probably a thriller, based on her current mood. He also knew she would probably finish it within the next few hours. He’d made her mad a lot of times.
Miah walked across to her window and stared blankly outside, and he ducked behind a tall, wide hedge. Peeking out, he could tell she hadn’t seen him. She was standing, without her novel now, her hands pressed to the glass window. Her eyes were clouding over and he closed his, quietly loathing himself and the tears he had caused.
Seth sidled away from the hedge and walked home, slowly going up his front path so he didn’t attract Miah’s attention. He slid his house key into the lock and let himself in, locking it behind him once more. There were boxes stacked in the hall already, put there by an ecstatic best friend who didn’t understand just everything that was happening yet. She understood now. She knew all too well.