“What?” I looked at her phone as she turned the screen towards me.
“Seriously, look at his profile.” She pointed at the screen. “It shows all of the artists he’s worked with.”
There were links to videos of various songs that credited him as an agent or producer. I had heard some of the songs and knew most of the artists by name. It was a who’s who of country music legends and rising stars. After scrolling through the list, Misty flipped back to the video that had been copied and reposted. Sawyer Young’s comment was the first one below the video and there were a lot of comments underneath it telling him that he needed to sign me. Reading through the comments was like an out-of-body experience. It made my head spin for a moment, but I finally regained control of my thoughts.
“No.” I shook my head back and forth. “I don’t want any attention and I don’t want to be recognized. Ask this guy to take the video down!”
“I’ve already messaged him.” Misty sighed and put her phone back in her purse.
This is going to turn into a literal nightmare. I can already tell.
One month later
“Hey Lauren, if I ask you out on a date, are you going to write a song about me?” A guy laughed as I walked past him in the hallway on the way to my next class.
“You wish.” I glared at him and felt Misty tug on my arm.
“Just ignore him—ignore him like the rest of the assholes.” Misty sighed and pulled me away before I could really lash out.
“This wouldn’t be happening if you hadn’t posted that stupid video!” I yanked my arm out of her grasp and walked into the classroom on my own.
The random people online might had thought it was a beautiful song, but once people at college found out about it, I became an object of ridicule. People stared at me, whispered behind my back, and a few were brazen enough to just make fun of me to my face. The entire situation had strained my relationship with Misty, especially after Billy saw it and decided to let everyone know it was about him. He was an asshole to the core and the song made him even worse. I couldn’t believe I had actually been heartbroken enough to sing about him in the first place. The entire ordeal had killed my desire to play music, even when I was alone. It had always been an outlet, but even that was gone in the wake of Misty’s betrayal.
“People will forget. I’m sure someone else will steal your thunder eventually.” Misty signed as she sat down next to me.
“I wish they would. At this point I just want to drop out of school and hide under a rock.” I shot her an angry look and shook my head angrily.
“There’s a whole world of people out there that loved the song. Don’t pay attention to these narrow minded people.” Misty opened her textbook when our professor walked into the classroom.
Yeah, but none of them are having their song autotuned and ridiculed by people they’ve known their whole life.
I was happy that it was Friday. That meant two days of being able to shut out the world entirely. I had started living for the weekends. I hoped things would die down in a couple of days once the song got circulated, but an entire month had passed, and I was still hearing the same comments from other students. I really had considered dropping out of college, or at least transferring somewhere else. The only thing still pushing me forward was the fact that my parents wouldn’t be quite so eager to support me financially if I dropped out, and it would be hard to support myself without a college degree. My parents didn’t quite understand what I was going through. In their mind, it was just harmless fun and teasing. They said it was a beautiful song and I should be proud of it, but they hadn’t walked a mile in my shoes to see how much of an impact it truly had on my life.
“Are you going to come by the shop tomorrow?” My father sat down across from me at the dinner table. “Saturdays have been busy lately and we could really use your help.”
“I guess so.” I shrugged and stabbed at my food.
I didn’t really feel like going to the shop, but I couldn’t turn my back on my parents if they needed my help. I got up early the next morning and went to the store with my father. The early mornings mostly consisted of moving around a few pieces of merchandise so the sale items were up front when people walked into the store. Our most popular items were guitars and drums, so the rest of it was put on sale pretty often.
Once the doors were open, I sat behind the counter while my father worked on inventory in the back. I sold a few instruments in the morning hours and when the crowd thinned out, I started working on my class assignments for the upcoming week. The chime on the door sounded after the store had been empty for almost an hour and I lifted my head to see a well-dressed man walk into the shop.
“Welcome to Texas Melody. Is there anything I can help you with?” I stared as he walked over and looked at a few of the items we had on sale.
“Maybe.” He turned towards me and nodded. “I’m looking for Lauren Williams.”
“That’s… me?” I tilted my head to the side.
“It is you.” A huge smiled spread across his face. “I thought I was going to have to search every square inch of Texas to find the girl in that video.”
“What?” I blinked in surprise.
“My name is Sawyer Young.” He walked over and extended his hand. “How would you like to move to Nashville and become the next big thing in country music?”
Is this the guy who commented on the video? No freaking way!
“I’m sorry—what are you talking about?” I took his hand and shook it out of instinct, but I was still rather confused.
“That song from the video. You wrote it?” He leaned against the counter after shaking my hand.