5 

Nova slowly opens her eyes, wondering what room she is in. She props herself up by her elbows on the tiny stage and notices that she never left her dad's studio. An arm wraps around her waist, and she freezes, cautiously glancing over to confirm her suspicions. Camden groans in his sleep, trying to pull her closer. 

She looks up at the clock on the wall. 10:40 AM

"Camden!" Nova shakes him, trying to get him off of her, "You're late!" His eyes stayed shut, but he loosened his grip on her. 

"Late?" He questioned, opening his eyes and looking around the room, "Late!" He said after remembering and jumped up, racing toward the door. Cam paused, turning to look at Nova, "Thank you." 

She gave a small smile and waved for him to go on. Nova stands up and walks to pick up her phone and Camden's on the piano. Cam's phone buzzes, showing the tenth text from Zander. She fixes her hair a little and walks out. 

- 

"I don't know. I could've sworn you wore that yesterday." Nova hears Zander tell Camden after the session. 

"Yeah, you gotta get the memory checked." Nova and Camden exchange a smile behind Zander's back, which Melody catches onto. She lightly hits Nova on the arm. 

"I saw that," She states smugly. "Dating a musician? Not the best idea. Especially one of dad's musicians." 

Nova scoffs, "We aren't dating." Mel notices the way she is not making eye contact with her and is instead staring at the ground. 

"Nova, you are a terrible liar. I won't tell dad. I think the forbidden love thing is cute. Just be careful." She sighs, holding up the keys to their car, "Now, do you want to drive or go talk to your boyfriend?" 

She opens her mouth to speak, "Hey, Nova, can I talk to you for a sec?" Camden interrupts. Perfect timing. Melody is never going to believe her now. Nova holds her hand out but Mel shakes her head, knowing she is going to choose Cam one way or another. 

"I'll let you have the car tonight, Nova. Promise." Mel blows a kiss to her, walking backwards toward the door while waving the keys in the air. She swirls back around to completely leave the room. 

Camden shuts the door behind her, "Look," He carefully thinks of his next words, not wanting to say the wrong thing, "we didn't...do anything wrong, right?" 

"Do you mean not telling my dad about the song?" Nova has an idea of what he means, but she wishes it would be left in the past. They are friends. It wasn't his conscious choice to put his arm around her. 

"No, I mean, we are still friends? What happened doesn't make it weird for you?" He tries to hold eye contact but is afraid she is angry with him. He doesn't want to hurt the relationship they are building. He'd rather have a friend than a broken heart and lost love in the future. 

She steps forward, staring into his eyes, making sure he fully understands that she means these words, "Nothing happened. We are friends." 

Camden nods, "Then we agree. There is nothing to tell because nothing happened." A small part of him wants her to say that it is something. That she feels something for him, but he pushes it down. He needs a friend. 

"Agreed." Nova holds up her pinky and he chuckles, wrapping his own around hers, ignoring the way his heart is pounding against his chest.