I want to profusely thank BGMISFUN for all of the fantastic help with editing this story. Any errors are completely my own.
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"He's a self-centered, egotistical, unattainable perfection-seeking, elitist, entitled, self-righteous asshole, that's what he is," Ava nearly shouted through the phone at her best friend Phoebe, who was trying to calm Ava down.
"Well, assuming I am none of those things, can you please stop shouting at me?" Phoebe replied.
Ava took a breath. "Sorry, Phoebs. He is just without a doubt the most frustrating person I've ever had the misfortune of working with."
"If he's so frustrating, why do you keep working with him?"
"Because possibly the most irritating thing about him is he's actually good. Really, extraordinarily good. Our voices sound amazing together, and he makes me a better singer. I just wish he could do that without turning me into a psychotic ball of homicidal rage."
Ava flopped onto the couch and looked forlornly out of her apartment window. She had moved to the big city about a year ago to try and make a career for herself as a singer. She never really dreamed of fame, as she hated to perform. But she did love to sing, and she could see herself becoming successful as a studio musician. She would get to work with amazing producers and musicians and not ever have to actually go on stage. The thought of performing in front of large groups of people made her sick to her stomach.
The apartment had been a gift from God, it seemed. It was her aunt's, and she had recently decided to move to Europe to be with her new beau. She had agreed to rent it to Ava for an extremely reasonable price, given its location and size. It also came fully furnished, and Ava's aunt had expensive tastes. It was a beautiful place with a great view, something which Ava had come to appreciate as a method for calming down. The windows were floor to ceiling overlooking the river, and Ava loved sitting in front of them at twilight, watching the city come to life. It had also given her the occasional view of couples in the twin building. She was sure these people thought that at this many stories up there was little to no chance of being seen, but Ava had been privy to more than a few live sex scenes.
She tried to order her thoughts as she looked out on the city skyline, reflected in the river many stories below. But every time she landed back on the reason she was so worked up, and she started to feel the rage bubble up again. She felt her jaw clench, and tried to take a few calming breaths.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Ava asked.
"No reason," she responded quickly. Ava knew that wasn't true.
"Spit it out, Phoebs."
"Well," she started slowly, "It just seems like you may be overcompensating."
"Like, I really like him, but I'm just putting up this 'hating him' façade to fool others or myself, and one day we're going to be in the middle of a heated argument and we'll suddenly end up kissing passionately before he takes me right there on the piano?"
"Something like that."
Ava rolled her eyes. "You watch too many movies, my friend."
The next day, Ava was back in her voice coach's studio. They were waiting, as usual, for Liam. Liam was the cause of the rant yesterday, as he had been on many other days. Her voice coach, Jolene, had suggested that they team up and they had been practicing together for about six months. Vocally, it was a match made in heaven. Liam's rich baritone perfectly complemented Ava's mezzo soprano voice, and they had many a passerby stop in just to listen to them rehearse. In terms of personality, however, Ava couldn't think of anyone who was a bigger waste of space.
Ava had come from a working class background. Her parents weren't poor, but they weren't raking it in, either. Her father worked as a general manager at a restaurant and her mother was an elementary school teacher. She had three brothers, all older than she was. It meant that she was definitely the apple of her father's eye, and he and her mother had made every effort to encourage her singing. Ava knew there had been sacrifices so that she could remain in lessons, and she appreciated it more then she was able to ever put into words. She was smart and had worked hard and eventually earned a scholarship to a prestigious university to study voice. While she was there, she had met her fair share of kids who had never had to worry about money. They were the ones with the nice cars, who partied every weekend because they could afford to retake a class they had been too drunk or hung-over to attend. Ava had taken a lot of teasing from those kids. Her focus had always been her schoolwork and her voice. She couldn't afford to waste her time here; she had a scholarship to maintain. She got a job bartending at a local hangout to give herself some spending money, and had to spend every weekend being degraded by the same people who would ask her for her help studying once they realized how far behind they were. She had been so relieved to graduate that she had almost cried.
But graduate she did, near the top of her class. A couple of weeks later, the opportunity came up to move here, and she had some connections from university who had put her in contact with her current voice coach. She had been lucky Jolene had decided to take her on, as she ran one of the most sought after voice studios in the city. Nothing made her feel more comfortable than singing. It was where she could relax and let go of everything. At least, until Liam entered the picture.
Liam represented everything she was glad to have escaped when she graduated. His family was very wealthy, so Liam had grown up having been given everything he ever wanted. He was the stereotypical rich kid, the one who walked with the swagger of someone who had everything but didn't have to earn it. He was consistently late for rehearsals, he rarely practiced, and he wore a very annoying smirk on his face most of the time. He also loved to mock Ava for her roots, taking every opportunity to jab at her background.
Ava just returned every volley with as much venom as she could muster. She wanted to appear disinterested, like nothing he said bothered her, but he just got under her skin so quickly. He knew it too.
Finally he walked in, 15 minutes after practice was supposed to start.
"Everybody miss me?"
Ava rolled her eyes. "Like that's possible."
"Oh, come on, Berry. I know you secretly love me. Your little romantic heart is just waiting for a bad boy like me to sweep you off your feet."
"You know, I may have underestimated just how delusional you are."
"Your words hurt, Berry. On the inside."
He had started calling her "Berry" during their first lesson together, supposedly after her strawberry blonde hair. If it was anyone else, she might have actually found it a little endearing. From Liam, she wanted to slap him every time he said it.
"If you only had a heart."
