city street lights

“You don’t have any? I have four older brothers, you’d blend right in with them just by default.”

“nope, i always wanted one though. so a sister and four brothers would be great.”

“how saintly.”

“sounds like something out of a bad high school movie almost.”

“wow. good talk. i feel great.”

“no problem, sorry it ended on a shitty note. but don’t worry about it, you seem talented i’m sure you’ll end up debuting.”

“it will likely pay off.”

“you really think so?”

“I don’t think anyone’s ever told me that I’m doing anything right in regards to my daughter so….thank you for that,” she mumbled. “I just don’t want to be like my parents and cut off all contact the first time she really needs me, you know? But that’s probably a pretty common fear, turning out like your crappy parents.”

“i mean, you’re a single mother and you can only do so much. so you wont meet everyone’s standards, but i think you’re doing a pretty damn good job. anytime you need a boost of confidence regarding it just let me know.” he smiled warmly. “and it definitely is a common fear, i haven’t even started wanting kids or anything like that but i’m still scared i might end up like my dad.”

“what would it be otherwise?”

“a sad attempt at trying?”

“a noble cause, really.”

“definitely, making life better for people one step at a time.”

“sorry about that. nothing anyone can do, though.”

“true, i guess it was going to happen regardless.”

“what if i’m never allowed to debut though?”

“well then that completely sucks and ignore all the advice i just gave you.”

“there’s nothing wrong with trying, right?”

“true, it might pay off.”

“Do you still feel that way? I’ve always been afraid of what would happen if my daughter ended up hating me. She doesn’t have another parent to go to, I’m all she has and she’s all I have. I don’t know if I could handle her growing up to hate me.”

“partially yeah, things have definitely smoothed over with time but there’s still part of me that resents my dad.” he paused for a second, “as for your daughter you seem to be doing everything right, and even if she does grow up to be like me and hold some disdain there will always be a large portion of her that loves you regardless. even when me and my dad didn’t get along, i still loved him deep down.”

“Just call me Captain Comfort. Things are rarely as big of a deal as you think they are. Think about it like that and you’ll probably stop stressing about it so much.”

“will do, that seems like it would definitely work. don’t be surprised if i come to you for more advice captain comfort.”

“thanks for the advice?”

“if you wanna consider it advice, then no problem.”

“i really appreciate that.”

“no problem.”

“and if they do? maybe i’ll put you responsible and then you can handle all the shit from spotlight itself and their fans,” ernie mused, letting himself into the hotel room more and sitting on the bed, “and this trip better be worth it - i didn’t come here for some midnight chat.”

ethan rolled his eyes sarcastically at ernie’s worrying, “it’ll be fine, and if something does happen by all means blame me, i’d rather have to deal with spotlight over you lose your job.” he replied as he closed the door behind ernie. “define what you mean by worth it, because the only way i can make sure it’s worth it is if i know what you want.”

“you can wish whatever you’d like. and i’m sure if you wanted you could find opportunities beyond. i just doubt your group will last forever.”

“probably not, we have been promoting for quite some time now...” ethan said as he began to trail off, “i do write some songs for the company, i suppose i do have that to fall back on.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for sure,” she laughed. “On purpose? Or were you just being a typical teenager and it happened in the process?”

“well...” he started, “it happened through a messy divorce and ending up with the parent i didn’t get along with... so it kind of happened on purpose and typical teenager. just it started early.”