[Comp./Closed] The Truth Is Getting Blurry

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel sat behind the switchboard and gave a thumbs up to Dani before he went back to adjusting some of the levels and sat back. He tapped his foot along to the beat of the song and waited to listen for the drop. He felt like it was coming to soon but he couldn’t figure out a better placement for it. He stopped the track and looked up at a frustrated Dani before offering a small smile. He leaned forward and pressed the button that allowed him to talk to her in the sound booth. “ Sorry.. you want this done quickly or do you want it done right?”. He watched her scoff as she took her headphones off and threw out a sarcastic comment, ‘ Sounds like foreshadowing of your next prom night’ she said with a sweet smile before he laughed sarcastically at her. “ Just come in here for a second so we can talk,” he said, pushing his chair away from the board to stand up and stretch. It was kind of awesome how much time they all spent at the studio. It wasn’t just working on their own music, it was working on everyone’s. Helping out, throwing out an opinion, offering any type of help that they wanted. For the most part Dani and Joel would be going towards the same audience, so it made sense for him to try and help out with her sound.

“ You mates write music about personal life experience, right? And you said she wrote these lyrics?”, Lance questioned from the other side of the room that Joel was in. He looked over to watch Lance who was watching Dani with a questioning look. “ Yeah I think she said she wrote it a while ago. Like.. in uh… February..March?” he said, not really sure on when the time frame had been. “But we broke up in January,” Lance said, throwing a look over to Joel. “ And she said that she wasn’t seeing anyone else,”. Joel clicked his tongue uncomfortably, looking around the room. “ This is awkward,” he said under his breath, waiting for Dani to come into the room. Joel picked up his coffee and looked down at the watch to check the time. It was getting late, but it wasn’t like he had to worry about waking his roommate up. He looked back over at Lance and then reached his back hand into his pocket, searching for his phone. He liked to check on Madeline every day, or at least find out if Ryan had. He figured that based on the time he should text Ryan instead. Joel sat back down in his seat, looking up at Dani as she came into the room. “ Hey okay so that drop that’s happening right when you start the …” he coughed before he continued, singing her chorus, “ All I can say, we’re going round and round,” he said, circling his finger in the same way Dani did when she sang it to mock her. “ It should drop at the start of ‘ round and round’ not at the start or ‘we’re going’. Which sounds small to you, I’m sure. But I’m pushing it back,” he said, sitting up to readjust the layout of the song.

Outfit

[Dani Marie Cooper]

Dani shook her hair out, hating the way the headphones flattened it against your head. She looked up as she saw Lance and Joel talking to one another. She reached into her back pocket and took out her phone which had been on silent to see if she had any new messages or calls. She smiled at yet another picture of the Eiffel tower from Claire. She’d officially been there for a week now and it was obvious to Dani, Zoe, Felicia, Kiersten and most likely Natalia as well, that she was ready to come home. For one reason or another. She leaned against the wall, sending a quick text message to Felicia, wondering if they should all get together for a girls night soon. Drinking some wine and watching a movie sort of sounded fun. Plus doing facial masks. After that she scrolled through her contacts and found Jake’s name giving a small smile. They’d been together for about nine months now and she still got butterflies when she was around him. It was sort of overwhelming but every time he smiled or she caught his eye when they were in a large group of people sort of sent her into a fluster. It was difficult enough having to do scenes with him. He was so much better at it than she was. She couldn’t help but be giggly around him, but thankfully those on set had just attributed that to her personality. Her closer friends however, she had kept at a distance about Jake. They’d sniff that situation out like Mackenzie sniffing out a fake Chanel bag. ‘ Wanna go to the gym tomorrow? ’ she texted Jake with a small smile. Jake was at least muscular, where Dani was anything but. It was just fun watching him work out with is weights, and then she was off in the corner all but dying over a set of five pound weights. She looked back up in time to see that Joel had sat back down and leaned away from the wall, making her way back into the room where they were.

Dani looked at Joel as he explained the way he wanted the music to change and offered a shoulder shrug, not really caring one way or another. “You know best,” she said, picking up her chai tea and sitting on the counter which caused Joel to throw her a parental look. She slid off of the counter quietly and sank into one of the leather chairs and spun it around to Lance when he heard her question him. ‘ So when did you write this song?’ he asked. Dani took a drink of her tea. “ Is it relevant? I wrote it when I was upset with someone but I’m not anymore, so it’s moot” she said, thinking back to when she had written the song about Jake. ‘ I think it matters greatly, Dani. And is pretty crucial to our friendship. I take issue when people lie to me’. Dani set her cup of tea down and took in a deep breath, offering him a quick smile. “ Look, London Bridge. I never said I lied to you. I wrote it .. when we were dating. It’s about nothing.” she said, trying not to cringe at the realization that she had just lied to him. Again. After he said he hated people lying to him. Some things you just couldn’t tell. She felt uncomfortable as Lance stared at her, arms crossed. That was one thing she hated when they were dating. He never said exactly why he was disappointed, but you could tell he was. ‘ Right’ he said in an unconvinced tone, ‘ Dani, I’m happy now. I love Kiersten more than I ever thought imagineable. Could you just be honest? Was there someone else? That’s why you broke it off?’ he asked again, this time causing Joel to sing, probably because he was uncomfortable and trying to be off in his own little world as he worked on her music. “ I spend every minute either on set, at the studio, in school, or with the girls. Who else could there possibly be?” she countered back to him. They stared at each other for a few moments, both too stubborn to back down.

Outfit

[Lance James Renner]

Lance lifted his eyebrow at Dani as he kept his eyes on her, arms crossed against his chest, leaning against the counter of the switchboard. “ What’s the point in lying now? We’re all friends right? I gave you everything in that relationship. You have no reason to try and resurrect it now and you still won’t be honest with me,” he said out of frustration, though his tone never indicated so. ‘Why does this bother you so much? What is really pissing you off?” she questioned , sitting back in her chair. Lance smirked and shook his head, “ The fact that you can’t be honest with me. Can you even be honest with yourself?” he asked, feeling almost sorry for her. He regretted it though as he asked it, seeing the hurt reaction in her face and looked away. Just moments later Joel seemed to have exploded from the awkwardness of sitting in the middle of them. ‘ Actually Lance. It’s me. Dani and I are madly in love. And that’s why she can’t keep her hands off me,” he said with an exasperated sigh. ’ Shut up , Joel’ she said without looking at him. Lance watched as Dani stood from her chair and was bracing himself for curse words being thrown at him in Spanish. ‘ Look, I’m sorry I hurt you. And I’m sure I made mistakes in certain ways that I handled things. But it’s the past, and you need to step away from it and focus on the present. Don’t sit there and attack me with questions like you never made a single mistake in your life. Are we friends? Cause if we are then you need to appreciate that and drop it. If we’re not, then fine. Keep asking me questions and treating me like I’m a child. But until you decide that, why don’t I let you be happy in your life. And I’ll be happy in mine,”. Lance looked away from her and shook his head slightly. Arguing with her was useless.

When he looked back to her to say something else, to counter back, she was picking her stuff up, muttering to herself in Spanish. Encouraging Joel to burst out into singing his song ‘Baby’. Dani placed her hand over his mouth to shut him up and looked back at Lance. “ I’m sorry if what I did hurt you. But look at what you have now. Would it have even been possible if we didn’t end things? Maybe I made a mistake. But you’re focusing on the wrong turnout of the event. I might change how I handled things, but I don’t change what my decision was. You’re happy. I’m happy. Who cares about the inbetween?’ she questioned, dropping her hand from Joel’s mouth and making her way out of the studio. Lance sighed as he watched her leave and turned to look at Joel. “ Want to have some beers tonight, mate?” he asked, leaning away from the counter and picking his jacket up off the back of the chair that Joel was sitting in.

Outfit

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel brushed the back of his hand over his lips after Dani took her hand away from his mouth. “ See. She can’t keep her hands off of me,” he said sarcastically before he sat back and looked at Lance who had just asked him if he wanted some beers tonight. He smirked and ran his hand over his face tiredly. All he wanted was to go home and lay in bed , get back to work tomorrow. But Lance had thrown back a lot of beers with him when he needed it. “ Yeah we can do that,” he said, forcing himself not to yawn. “ Let me just finish this real quick,” he said, making a few more adjustments before he played the song back to listen for how he had adjusted the beat. He nodded satisfactorily and saved the new copy, burning it to a disc to give to Logan. After writing Dani’s name on it and the name of the song he put it into a cd case and made his way to Logan’s office, setting it outside the door in a makeshift drop off bin for Logan. He understood how they might want to work at different times, and he might not always be there. Muse for music could hit you at 2 a.m. and there wasn’t a chance in hell Parker would let him leave the house to work with the artists for that.

Joel came back into the studio and yawned, picking up his jacket from the small couch and pulling it on. “ Ready man?” he questioned, heading out of the studio as he waited for Lance to follow him. “ I wouldn’t worry about it man. She seems to get over stuff pretty quickly. I mean almost every time we talk she threatens to kill me, but she still talks to me.” he offered, looking back over at Lance as they walked down the street It was sort of awkward sitting in the middle of that argument when he felt like they both made good points. He would certainly want to know the truth of what had ended a relationship, especially if he was still friends with the girl. But he also thought Dani was right when she said he needed to focus on what the ultimate end result was for Lance. Kiersten. Joel reached up and hailed a cab, sliding into it and leaving the door open for Lance. After giving the address to the driver he turned his head to look at Lance and offered a small grin. “ We could always get another tattoo tonight, instead” he offered, knowing Madeline would be tempted to skin him alive if he got another one.

[Dani Marie Cooper]

Dani got into the back of the cab and sighed, laying her head back against the seat. When the driver asked her where she was headed, she started to rant off her address before she stopped and switched it to Jake’s instead. She didn’t like lying to Lance, but the less people that knew about what was happening the better. The last thing they needed was for anyone to draw attention to what they were doing. It had been one thing when she had dated Lance. As a corporation, Disney didn’t care about that. It wouldn’t upset the viewers, or more importantly, the viewers parents, if two kids that were dating on the show, were dating in real life. But how did you explain to small children why two of their favorite siblings on a Disney show were kissing in some picture taken by a paparazzi. They’d be out a job quicker than said picture would be taken. When they got to Jake’s building, she paid the cab driver and shook her hair out so that it at least helped to cover her eyes as she made her way into his building.

Thinking back on it, she probably should have texted him that she was on her way but she honestly just couldn’t stop thinking about how she was lying. And not just to Lance but to her best friends. The end result was worth it though. Jake was worth it. And if they all knew the situation, they’d understand. Atleast, that’s what Dani constantly told herself. She looked through her purse and found her keys before she singled out Jake’s and opened his door, dropping her purse down to the side and stepping out of her shoes. She had planned on going home and crawling into her own bed, but her mind was racing so much she wouldn’t have been able to sleep. Being with Jake would help her just relax and fall asleep so much quicker. She took her jacket off and tossed it to the ground as she made her way to his room. Following quickly she peeled off her shirt and threw it in the same regard, followed by her jeans as she left a trail of clothes to his room. Once she got inside she opened Jake’s drawer and found one of his shirts and pulled it over her shoulders quickly. Dani reached her wrist up to her teeth and bit against her ponytail holder to slide it over her hand before she brought up her long curls into a ponytail and tightened it. She crawled into Jake’s bed gently before she curled up next to him. “ I love you,” she said quietly before she gave him a quick good night kiss and then turned over so that her back was facing his chest. Eventually she knew everyone would have to figure out. The show would end. Disney would no longer matter. And it wasn’t like she was willing to give Jake up. So eventually people would have to find out. She just hoped that by then it wouldn’t be such a long time that they wouldn’t forgive her.

[Lance James Renner]

Lance looked out the window of the cab, watching as the lights and buildings moved by them quickly. “She had a few good points, didn’t she” he said as more of a statement than a question, looking in Joel’s direction. He scoffed when Joel mentioned getting more tattoos. “ I think Parker would cry,” he said , instinctively reaching up to rub his hand against the one on the side of his arm. He knew he was lucky to have Kiersten though, no one needed to point that out to him. And he wasn’t suggesting to Dani that she shouldn’t have broken up with him. He was suggesting she should have been honest as to her reasons why. Especially since she wanted to maintain being friends. Honesty seemed to be a pretty crucial concept to any relationship, no matter the romantic levels in which it might entail.

After the cab pulled to a stop Lance headed up to their apartment quickly, fishing his key out of his pocket and lazily leaving the door open for Joel to follow him in. He took his jacket off, throwing it on the back of the couch before he made his way into the kitchen. Lance sighed as he opened the door to the fridge, leaning against the side of it as he reached down and grabbed two beers by the necks of the bottles and set them on the counter. He reached down into the drawer and took out the bottle opener, opening one each for himself and Joel. After sliding it down to Joel he reached into his front pocket to take out his phone and check to see if he had any messages from Kiersten. “ Cheers mate,” he said unenthusiastically to Joel before bringing the beer to his lips and tilting his head back.