“What?”
“You need to accept that nearly everything you have is a result of your family’s money,” she says, viciousness cutting through her voice. “You’ve been able to get away with so much because your family is wealthy. You always have a safety net to fall into. But my family didn’t have money. I had to scrape by for everything I have. I don’t have that safety net. I’ve risked a lot by getting involved with you, but I see now that it was a mistake.”
I grit my teeth together. If she wants to throw the vulnerabilities I confided to her in my face, I’m not going to wait around for her to come back like I’ve already done too many times.
When I don’t respond, she slams her palm against the down button on the elevator. I turn around, walking back to my office.
“Get out,” I tell Alina. She hesitates for a moment, but as she sees my face, she grabs her purse and she quickly leaves my office. I sit down at my desk. Today was supposed to be a day of victory, but success doesn’t come without sacrifice.
Chapter 13:
Zandra
When I wake up, I lie in my bed, remembering the night I had.
I played it cool. I bought myself some dinner—a special treat of a food truck burrito—and I had some of the wine my parents had bought me. I watched some TV. I pretended everything was great. Not only was it great, everything was fantastic. I didn’t want a boyfriend dragging me down while I was in a new city. I didn’t want Mark with all his bullshit and complications, both from our past and the fact that he’s my boss.
I considered quitting.
The wine brought in the idea like a tide. I wouldn’t have to worry about a boss that couldn’t respect me enough to tell me the truth or a boss that gets involved with his employees. I could find a boss that respected me for my mind and not try to move on me.
The tide crashed back down. No. I couldn’t quit. I wasn’t going to let Mark distract me from my goal. If I wanted to become a creative director, my resume couldn’t show that I fled companies shortly after getting hired or after they had a publicity issue. I decided I could be an adult about it.
But I crawled into bed and I cried.
This morning, I take extra care to make myself look pretty, but not like I am trying too hard. When I take the Muni Metro, I concentrate on trying to remember every part of the plot of Crime and Punishment instead of rethinking every decision I made concerning Mark. When I walk into 2Resonance headquarters, I keep my head up, step onto the fourth floor of the building, and wonder what the hell is happening.
There are people running across the floor, several people frantically talking on the phone, and Julietta looks like she’s ready to smash her laptop as she’s roughly typing in code. I carefully walk over a pile of spilled sheets of paper, past Roger, who appears to be praying, and past Aaron, who is rubbing his temple like it’s a magic lamp. I turn around and step over to Aaron’s desk. I tap on his shoulder.
He jerks around, surprised to see me. “Hey,” he says. “Armageddon day, huh?” I’ve never heard Aaron have so little to say.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” I say.
His eyebrows shoot up. “You didn’t watch the news? Get any news notifications?”
“I don’t use any apps that alert me with the news. I usually catch up with the news by looking at the headlines passing by newsstands. I don’t remember reading anything about the apocalypse.”
“That’s because it’s our own personal hell,” he says. He ruffles his hair, letting out a sound that’s reminiscent of a braking train. He takes a deep breath. “Where do I start? So, apparently, nobody here was a huge fan of Shadow Tradition or cared about their latest single, which was released nearly a month ago.”
I shrug. “They gained attention because of one song. Anyone who stayed with them for this second album had to be a dedicated fan. It’s why they wanted the free promo from us.”
“Yeah. I understand now why they were so desperate to team up with us,” He clicks on his phone a few times before holding it out for me. “Read this article that has been trending for the last four hours.”
2Resonance: Resonating with Sexual Predators
2Resonance’s latest advertisement ignited a significant amount of praise over their choice to recognize and promote independent music and suggesting platonic reasons strangers could connect through their music service/social media platform. But underneath the positive message is the overwhelming message that 2Resonance is not only willing to turn a blind eye to sexual predators but are willing to host concerts for them.
The most prominent band in the 2Resonance advertisement, Shadow Tradition, is most known for their song, “Amber’s Luck,” which was played during the death of a prominent character on the comedy-drama show, Crooked Homes. They quickly capitalized on their good fortune and their debut album rocketed up the Billboard charts. With fame comes power and accusations of abusing their power came quickly. Cal Hubbard, the drummer of Shadow Tradition, and Isaac Hoover, the lead guitarist, were accused of sexual violence during their Gasoline Tour. They have both denied the accusations and no charges were filed.
However, from the reactions on social media to their lead single for their second album, the accusations are appearing more likely to be true. The first verse of their song, “DNA”, paints a story of a woman getting ready for a night out, dressing provocatively in the hopes of, “the shorter the skirt/she knows she’s got his attention/she wants his bad intentions.” The lyrics become progressively more questionable, insinuating that the woman only wears her high heels because she doesn’t want to be ‘chased’ long and that she’s acting drunk because she doesn’t want to be held responsible for what she and a man do later. Some fans have argued that the song is meant to be taken lightly, but others have suggested that it indicates the band member’s mentality about consent.
I stop reading. I scroll back to the top of the article. There are 343 comments on it. Even if some of the comments are defending 2Resonance, any attention on this wouldn’t reflect well on us. This is exactly the opposite message Mark and I wanted to send out. We were trying to convince people it was safe to meet up with strangers, not that the strangers might listen to Shadow Tradition and think that a woman’s clothing conveyed consent. It doesn’t even matter what Shadow Tradition’s intent was at this point. It’s in the hands of the public and it sounds like the public is strangling us with those hands.
I hand the phone back to Aaron. He takes it.
“Either you didn’t read until the end or you’re an incredibly fast speed reader,” he says. “But in case you missed it, the article also shares tidbits the band has said in previous interviews or on red carpets, which includes statements that are borderline homophobic, another one that mocked people for not being able to afford their concert tickets, and one where they made a joke about killing puppies. Puppies, Zandra.”
“Fuck,” I say. The elevator doors beep as they open. I watch Mark rush onto the floor, pulling aside Angela. They talk in hushed, hurried tones. She nods quickly before retreating to her laptop. He turns to Julietta and they talk in the same intense tone. His face is creased with tension and his hand is curled up into a fist.
