Destiny had been very surprised by Cazzway's cuisine. It was exactly to her liking. Dinner had been short, sweet, and only mildly expensive. They hadn't encountered any screaming fans, just hyperventilating ones. Alyne and she had just exchanged disgusted looks.
Now she was sitting in her hotel room again, Alyne's phone number in her pocket. They had split ways after dinner, especially since Alyne's aunt and uncle had no idea where she was. They had promised to keep in touch, and even thought up the idea of Alyne visiting someday in the near future. Destiny had been very lucky to meet her.
Now she heard another knock on the door. This one was softer, and there wasn't any sound of bickering siblings coming through the door. Destiny had a sneaking hunch she knew who it was.
She was right, too. When she opened the door, she found Taylor's smiling face peering back at her. She moved out of the way to let him in.
After they settled themselves, Destiny on her bed and Taylor in a cushioned chair, Taylor began to speak. "Des... Arthur has news. The labels each called him... two want to sign you. He wanted to tell you himself, but I talked him out of it."
Destiny gulped. She hadn't thought it would actually happen. Her mind was in turmoil, thousands of thoughts rushing around at the same time. She opened and closed her mouth several times, not able to get the words past her throat, which suddenly felt dry.
Eventually, she managed to speak. "Which... ones?" she asked, trying to sound casual.
"Arista and A&M," he said, excited. "Do you know any of the artists on those?"
She shook her head, dumbfounded.
"Oh, well, that's okay. Arthur says he strongly suggests Arista. I would probably suggest it, too. However, A&M has got artists like Janet Jackson, Amy Grant, and Bryan Adams."
Destiny just soaked it up. She wasn't quite in the right state of mind to make a decision quite yet. Famous? Me? Kept flying through her head. She shook her head vehemently, trying to clear her muddled thoughts.
"Anyway," Taylor said, "tomorrow's our gig. You're going to be there, right?"
She nodded.
"Okay. We'll get you front row seats, of course..." he zoned out, thinking about something.
"Taylor?" Destiny asked after a few minutes. He snapped back to reality, looking at her.
"Hmm?"
"Do you think they'll actually.. like me?" She was speaking of the public, not the recording company. She was worried. She knew the restaurant people liked her, and the Hansons did, but that didn't guarantee the rest of the population. She was scared of failing. Sensing this, Taylor got up and moved closer to her bed, sitting himself next to her. He gathered her in his arms.
"All you can do," he said softly, "is your best. I can't make any guarantees. Some people won't like you, no matter what you do... we've learned that, the hard way. But if you're patient, and you really care about what you do, well..." He drifted off, and Destiny didn't say anything. He felt her breathing against him, softly. He ran his fingers through her hair, comforting her worries.
Something about Destiny was very different than anyone else he had met. She was strong and self-sufficient, having lived on her own, but on the same note, she was strangely like a child, unsure of herself and struggling to come to grips with her tragedy. Both sides gave her extraordinary character, he thought, still holding her tight.
After five or ten minutes of sitting there in his arms, Destiny snapped out of her strange, dreamy trance. She felt a strange feeling well up inside her as Taylor's fingers continued to gently stroke her hair. She was vividly aware of their closeness. She was confused. Without knowing why, she was strangely contented.
Then she drew away slowly, knowing it was late and he had to go. Taylor released her, but watched her, trying to read the expression on her face. What he read was a jumble of confusion, happiness, and worry. Then her face broke into a smile.
At that, Taylor smiled back. Both stood up and crossed to her door in silence. Taylor reached for the doorknob, then seemed to change his mind, and turned back to Destiny, who was standing next to him. After over three months of knowing her, he felt remarkably attached to her. She looked up at him, somehow sharing his thoughts.
He, again, took her in his arms, but this time, he leaned down and kissed her very, very gently. He could feel the surprise run through her body, and when he drew away, her eyes were wide and staring. He released her, then quietly opened the door, and without a word, was gone.
Destiny stood on her balcony, ignoring the cold. She was once again looking up at the stars, wishing they could guide her emotions and thoughts as they could her direction. She found the stars of Orion's belt easily, and then spotted the Big Dipper a second later.
When Taylor had kissed her, it had brought a rush of emotions, some good, some bad. The worst were the memories. She could practically see her parents in front of her, fondly kissing each other as they often did before they parted ways for the day. It gave her a deep pang of regret that she couldn't see that anymore. Her parents had been so close.
On the other hand, she had known it as a sign of remarkable affection. She hadn't realized that her feelings for Taylor had been any different from the other members of the family until he had walked in the door of her room in the police station. After that, she had been aware... but she had never thought this would happen. It was beyond her.
To top it all off, the record deal was eating away at her. She suspected she would probably bomb it, fail miserably, and be the laughingstock of the music industry. She tried to share the confidence that the family had for her. Slowly, she turned and made her way inside, hoping to get some sleep before the next day's concert.
Taylor was putting his full effort into singing. The chords of Madeline flew across the throng of people, but failed miserably at drowning them out. He was very glad of his constant accessory: the earplugs. The chorus began, and the crowd continued to sing with them, almost covering the boys' voices. Taylor was sweating, beet red, and having the time of his life.
He tried to catch eyes with Destiny, but couldn't. She was tapping her foot to the music idly, but her chin was in her hands, and she was staring into nothingness. Taylor tried not to let that get to him, and proceeded to finish the song.
Zac stood up behind his drum set, shouting into his microphone, "Well, let's hear a scream!"
Isaac looked at Zac like he was crazy, but he covered his ears to drown out what he could of the tremendous noise that followed. Earplugs simply weren't enough. Destiny remained almost unfazed, but for a slight wince.
"Okay okay," Zac announced as he whipped out a megaphone, "Guess what's next?" he asked cheerfully.
The opening chords of Man From Milwaukee beat out, and Taylor was lost in a sea of screaming.
Destiny was hardly aware of the concert around her. She was still trying to figure out what she thought. About Taylor, about the record deal... about life. She did like Taylor, that she knew. But did she seriously want to get involved with him? Her personal life was severely lacking, and she didn't know how to handle her feelings. When her parents had died, she hadn't really been interested in boys yet, in contrast to most of the other people in her school. She was considered the nut. She didn't really care, but instead tried to figure out what was so appealing about the thought of dating.
Since she hadn't had any experience with the whole idea of love, she was hesitant to dip her feet into it. Destiny sighed, leaned back in her chair, and suddenly realized her tapping foot. 'Well, old habits are heard to break,' she told herself. The boys were playing Man From Milwaukee, and Zac was just finishing the megaphone portion. He looked so happy up there, doing what he loved doing.
Her eyes then focused on Isaac, who was paying more attention to his guitar than anything else. He was moving his feet in time to the music, as she had been, but most of his body was moving with it too. He looked up then, out at the crowd, smiled, and sang a bit with the other two. Then his focus returned to the guitar.
After a few moments, she focused on Taylor. It was hard not to. His shirt, which had been a rather bright shade of red before he'd gone onstage, was now a rather dark burgundy from the sweat. His face, however, maintained the natural color of the shirt. He was bopping around so much Destiny wondered how he was managing to sing. His eyes flicked back and forth across the keys, as he nimbly played out the chords.
'If I ever get involved with anyone,' she finally told herself, 'he's probably the best person to be with.' She watched him a few moments longer. 'I can't keep myself closed up all my life,' she decided.
After the concert, the three boys came forward and grabbed hands, dipping into a low bow as if on cue. Isaac just couldn't go quite as low because he was still wearing his guitar. As they looked up, Taylor managed to catch Destiny's eye. She smiled brilliantly at him, and he felt a rush of happiness flooding his mind. He grinned back, gave her a small wink, and rushed offstage with Zac trying to jump on his back.
Destiny tried to shove her way through the multitude of people. They were all still screaming, hoping the band they loved would come back on-stage. Destiny knew better. She made her way to the sidelines, where a small black door stood, almost invisible against the dark walls. She showed her pass to the security guard standing there, then made her way through the door and backstage.
She could hear the boys before she saw them. Zac was cheering and running around like a steam engine, saying things like, "chung chung," while Isaac was laughing at his antics. Taylor was raving about the performance to who she supposed were his parents.
When she turned the corner, Destiny realized she was right... it was his parents. Diana and Walker exchanged a warm, proud glance. As soon as Zac saw Destiny had appeared, he stopped his train act and pounced on her, dragging her to the floor.
"Dessie!" he exclaimed, fully charged up by his performance. He was like dynamite waiting to explode.
Destiny laughed. "Dessie? Where'd that come from?" She grinned at the younger boy, then carefully pushed him off of her. She stood up, brushed herself off, and extended her hand for Zac. It was getting to be a routinely occurrence.
Zac stood up with Destiny's help, then went flying into Isaac's lap. Destiny grinned, then commented dryly, "Maybe you ought to consider not doing concerts anymore, if it makes him like this!"
Isaac looked at her as if she were crazy. "What, are you insane?" he asked, his eyes wide.
"Not quite. Close though."
Taylor crossed over and they gave each other a hug, which Isaac watched curiously. When they drew away from each other, Taylor asked, "So have you thought about the labels? Arthur still suggests Arista. He says their contract is better."
Destiny nodded. "Yeah, I think I'll go with Arista then. Better contracts are kind of important." She grinned, then turned to Zac, grabbed his hands, yanked him out of Isaac's lap, and started dancing with him wildly. The younger boy was enthusiastic about it as anyone could be. He was spinning in crazy circles, jumping up and down, and twisting like a madman.
It was a month and a half later, and Destiny was standing in one of Arista's recording studios nervously. She glanced through the window, and smiled tentatively when Taylor and Zac each gave her a thumbs up. She plunked apprehensively at her twelve-string, ignoring the sound it made. She had designed fourteen new songs for her album, which she hadn't titled yet. She'd already finished recording six of them. Now she was about to do one she called Whisper.
She'd messed up five times that morning. It wasn't that the song was hard, really, it was because she was doing each part separately, and without the blend of instruments, she was a little bit off. The Hanson family had been more than encouraging, as had the workers at Arista. The keyboard section had been finished, as had the percussion. Twelve-string, guitar, bass, and vocals had yet to be implemented. Recording an album was a whole lot more work than Destiny had thought.
"Okay Des," came a voice through the speakers, "pick up after measure twenty nine, whenever."
Sighing, Destiny took a brief moment to collect her thoughts. Then she started playing the chords, which were somewhat in the beginning of the song. She closed her eyes, and carefully imagined the rest of the instrumental behind her, backing her. It helped her stay on time. After a few minutes, she had most of the twelve-string section done, though she had slipped up a bit near the end.
The workers edited it quickly, then asked her to pick up at a measure a hundred and seven. Blinking and wondering how the song had gotten that long, she did.
Taylor was helping her design her CD. She had titled it 'Sterling Silver Rose,' after her favorite flower, and the cover was the purple rose itself. However, the booklet needed some work. She wanted the lyrics in it, definitely.. since she had been staying with the Hansons, she had gotten to hear tons of music, and even got some of her own CDs. Some hadn't had lyrics, which had bothered her more than anything else in the world.
"Which font do you like better?" Taylor asked, scrolling through some of the available ones. She pointed out one called Stonehenge, which looked rather like something from Robin Hood's time. It wasn't quite as fancy, though. Taylor suggested she use it for the title, because when it got smaller it just looked blocky. They picked another titled 'Bavand' for her normal font. It was a scrawly, spidery one, which looked really cool, in Destiny's opinion.
"Now I have to type them all out?" she complained, staring at the screen with a not-happy expression.
"Yes, you do," he grinned, "because nobody else knows exactly what they are."
Sighing, she set to work.
Zac and Destiny spent some time together, just hanging out. She felt really close to him, almost like he was the brother she never had. When he was around, his zany nature tended to rub off on her, and at this point in time, they had a lot of inside jokes over Isaac and Taylor. They didn't mean for it to be that way, it just was.
Destiny was giving Zac a piggy back around the studio when he casually asked, "So, what's going on with you and Taylor?"
Destiny almost dropped him. She didn't, however, because his arms were securely latched around her neck, which gave him the ability to hold on rather tightly. His head was right next to her ear, so she had heard him quite clearly, and couldn't pretend she hadn't. Sighing, she bounced him higher up on her back and shot him a look out of the corner of her eye, which he couldn't see anyway.
"Why do you ask?" was all she said.
"Well, he's been talking about you a lot. Nothing specific, but I know him pretty well, and when he dwells on something, there's usually a lot of reason. I figured I'd get a straighter answer out of you than him anyhow. And for the fact that I was almost a splat on the floor a second ago, I know there's something up."
Destiny continued toting him around the studio hallways as she answered, "Yeah, well.. okay. I guess you deserve to know anyhow. We're sort of seeing each other--"
"Well I knew that," he interrupted, slightly annoyed. "It's sort of obvious."
Destiny stopped. She let Zac slide to the floor, and turned to face him. "How?"
"You guys get all gushy when you're around each other, and Taylor's going into your room way too often. I honestly don't understand these things." He shook his head forlornly. "And you should see the way he looks at you. I can read him like a book."
"A book?" she said, amused. "Looks like you've got us coined... So what did you want to know, if you already knew that stuff?"
"Oh, I just wanted you to admit it," he said, grinning cheekily. "He hasn't said anything about it, and he refuses to... so I had to pull it out of you." Destiny giggled. "Anyway, we'd better get back. They're probably wondering why a piggy back ride takes this long."
Before Destiny let Zac up on her back again, she swept him up in a huge hug. After a few moments of that, Zac gasped out... "Destiny... AIR!" She let go of him hastily. He exaggerated gasping and sucking in his breath, then smiled and jumped on her back.
