Changed Time

As the week went by, her dad loosened up around everyone. Her dad tried to get Sammy and Laurissa to confess about why Luna was crying in the first place, but they swore secrecy to Luna not to tell him what was eating away at her life. Luna knew she could trust them with her secrets because they were the only parents that actually wanted to know her secrets. During the middle of the week, her dad convinced her to keep practicing on singing to prove everyone wrong. She knew she wanted to do that more than anything, but she didn’t want to get a head of herself. She was learning five songs for the chorus, two songs for herself, and three Spanish songs for her dad. He stressed Luna about singing, and the only way she could destress herself was to sing songs that she already knew and loved.

She looked around on where was the best place to sing at Laurissa’s place without causing too many issues. She goes toward the front of the house, where she knows no one would be. Luna walked into the guest room/home office. She closed the door behind her.

The first thing she could do was cry about how bad her flashback was, but worse, that she didn’t have a safe place in her mind. Luna fell to her knees and held herself to catch her breath. As she could feel herself stabilizing on her breathing, she knew she needed to practice all her songs. Luna had to think of her dreams of being a singer. She got off the floor, swiped the dust off her knees and legs, and thought of one good thing. The thought of singing on television or singing with other musicians. She looked at a blank wall and said aloud, “I am good enough. I am a talented singer.”

After she repeated her mini motto four times, she got herself ready to practice one of her many songs. As she felt herself warming up with her vocal exercises, she realized she wasn’t remembering any of the lyrics. She tilted her head up and sighed that she could sing nothing. She wanted to scream. Luna wanted to figure out why she couldn’t think of the songs that she was nonstop learning.

She laid on the floor and stared at the ceiling and started humming Take a Bow by Rihanna. She remembered every word to that song because everyone in her last school thought that she sounded just like her. Luna thought about that moment that her last school friend found out that she sang similar to Rihanna. She thought they must have been deaf or weird for comparing her to a legend like Rihanna.

“But you put on quite a show (Ooh, oh)/Really had me going/But now it’s time to go (Ooh, oh)/Curtain’s finally closing/That was quite a show (Ooh, oh)/Very entertaining/But it’s over now (But it’s over now)/Go on and take a bow.”

Singing this song brings back all kinds of memories for Luna, good and bad. All she could think about was how she was going to deal with Oliver in middle school. She didn’t know how to tell him they were going to be going to the same school for another three years. As she was thinking of him, she started smiling because she could see all his little details that made her blush. She could see his freckles. His smile. His laugh. Luna knew she had to stop thinking about him because she knew she was blushing. Luna was excited to see what would happen next between her and Oliver. She was curious if they were going to date or actually become boyfriend/girlfriend as soon as they got to middle school. As Luna was getting up, she heard her dad on the phone.

“Of course, I miss you. There is no question about it, but you understand you hurt my daughter. I can’t forgive that ever, but I love you and I miss you. Please stop telling Paige to tell me other things.” Luna knew he was talking to Raina, but she was confused about what Paige could say, since Paige wasn’t speaking in full sentences. Luna felt bad for her dad, but she was glad that he finally chose her over that horrible woman. The thing about this situation was… why were they talking?

Last time, Luna asked about how Raina was doing with her life without her dad. Her dad started crying because he turned into a depressed mess. That was the one thing about her dad that she couldn’t stand. She loved her dad more than anything in the world, but with his emotions, he would forget who the child was and who the adult was. She could hear him saying something else, but she couldn’t tell what it was exactly because he mumbled it. Which meant he didn’t want anyone to hear it. Luna doubts her dad wanted her to hear anything they were talking about. Her hearing this conversation being a thing could be Luna’s way of getting her dad out of going to the graduation and making a huge fool of himself to everyone. She knew he would want to make it up for her, but in her head, just knowing that he would not go was an automatic blessing in disguise.