Page 38 of Malice in e minor

“Are you also allergic to drama, Orion Hart?” she asked.

“I need an EpiPen because it’s fatal.”

Topher snorted, and I resisted the urge to throw my plate at him.

“Then, I’m also in.”

Excellent. And, apparently, we needed to protect Leif too. I didn’t know why we were all being herded towards this ballet. I wanted to do it, but I was also highly suspicious.

I wasn’t lying about not liking drama. If she was, I’d be miserable, but I could ignore it for work.

I hoped she wasn’t.

Itold a fib at dinner. I absolutely ate up drama when it didn’t involve me in the slightest and I could just go about my day and forget about it after I’d read or heard it. I could tell a story with music or bring one to life with my violin, but I was shit at telling one with words. JaToya might joke about not having a creative bone in her body, but she was a natural storyteller.

I was planning on video calling her when I got back to my dorm. If we didn’t video call, we texted every day. We did this in undergrad and while she was getting her PhD. I stayed in New York while she went to Spelman for undergrad and Howard for upper education. She’d only just gotten back to New York and taken a job where we weren’t calling and texting or visiting over breaks when I decided to play my violin in the subway and ended up here.

I was very curious about Topher and the Immortal Nightmare boys, but I wasn’t about to ask them now that we’d be working together. Orion, in particular, seemed to hate him and I’d be working closest with him on this project. It was a bit of a fever dream because I really respected him as an artist and he seemed almost human over dinner.

We’d come up with a decent plan over dinner. Leif had planned this out thoroughly. He had written out scenes, exactly how he wanted them to play out, and the vibes he was going for. Leif had also set up a million mood boards online. He was making this super easy for us to bring his vision to life.

I was pretty sure Cullen was just there to protect Leif and me, but he had a great idea. Leif didn’t just need to graduate. He needed important people to come see this performance, so he actually had a job when he got out of here. I knew that was Topher’s thing, but Topher could only do so much. Leif had to market himself just like I was doing.

This was Leif’s ballet, but someone important could be in the audience and check the program to see who wrote the music and offer me a job. I also understood why Leif wouldn’t want this to be the Immortal Nightmare show, but was totally fine with advertising I was helping with the score because of my viral video.

Leif was already familiar with Orion’s music because you could listen to it nearly anywhere, but all he knew about mine was the subway video. I wasn’t fond of editing videos and hadn’t finished putting together something from what I recorded in the snow.

I’d only seen Leif dance the Nutcracker Prince, so I wasn’t all that familiar with his style of choreography. It was Cullen’s idea to have Leif choreograph to anything I wrote that I was planning on using on my channel. It would get him used to my music, and I’d learn how he moved so I could write for him better.

Orion suggested adding a piano for some of the songs. We could either film him and use his fame to promote our channels or we could leave the piano completely out of the footage so no one knew it was him playing.

It changed my opinion of him. The only one-on-one time I’d spent with him, he acted like it was beneath him to be around me. He was different tonight. Orion was humble, and he wasn’t trying to take over the project. I didn’t even think he would have made a scene if Leif or I said we didn’t want to work with him. He assuaged any doubts we might have had before we voiced most of them.

When I got to my dorm room, I sent a link to Leif to the cloud drive with my music. I had one from him with all the prep work he’d done on his ballet. Orion had sent me something too, but I didn’t open it just yet. I had no idea what he’d be sending me this early.

First, girl time. I was a big fan of having girl friends. I liked Rue and the other dancers I’d met, but we’d just met. I didn’t want to run her off being neurotic just yet. Soon, baby.

When JaToya picked up, she was still in her lab. I narrowed my eyes at her. She couldn’t talk about most of her work, but I knew she was working on some kind of robotics for surgery. She’d moved to where I couldn’t see anything to answer.

“I know, but I’m so close.”

“Uh huh, and did you remember to eat dinner?”

“Yes, Mom. I could be asking you the same thing.”

“I ate dinner with Immortal Nightmare, two ballet dancers, and a sexy tattooed guy who is a recruiter.”

“I hope it was more productive than my night. I can’t get it to do exactly what I need it to do. I thought I was there, but I’m not.”

“You could ask Davarius for help.”

There was another doctor at her lab she had a huge crush on. She profile stalked him and didn’t find anything nasty. If anything, it made her like him more. JaToya had it bad. Usually, if she liked someone, she pounced, but this one made her tongue tied.

I wanted her to hop on that. My best friend was usually the smartest person in the room and she needed someone who could keep up with her.

“Shh! He’s here. He could come back at any minute,” she hissed.

I perked up. That was a good sign. I made a zipping motion with my mouth. We were so talking about that later. I’d never embarrass her.