Heart Beats by Romeo Alexander

Making music was always my dream. The fame and fortune are just nice perks. Or at least they were…

MICHAEL
The thing they never tell you about being a runaway success is that success can run away with you. Leave you stranded in someplace you maybe never meant to be. The pudgy little nerd I used to be would hardly recognize the mega “superstar” I’ve become. Not so sure that’s a good thing anymore.He wouldn’t know what to make of the guy who stages temper tantrums for YouTube hits. Makes waves instead of making hits. The guy who dared to come out to all his fans, and then let that game changer just…flop.I became so jaded I forgot what it’s like to see a guy who takes your breath away…until Kenneth Takada. The dreamy dark-haired guitarist on the other side of a musical rivalry I’ve staked my entire reputation on. I can’t help myself, but the closer I inch towards him, the more he makes me want to pump the brakes. I don’t know why it’s not like he wants anything to do with me. How could I get him to change his mind if I can’t even make up my own?It’s like I’ve forgotten how to be real. To show someone Michael, not M Bomb.And if I don’t remember fast, this particular dream’s never gonna make it off the ground.

KENNETH
I’ve never been good at using my voice. I need my guitar to tell people what I want them to hear. My music. My art.But there are still times I wish I knew how to speak up instead. When keeping quiet means watching everything get so much worse.Like letting my bandmates land us in some stupid feud with a hip-hop artist I’d barely heard of before it was too late to matter. Because now that M Bomb is on my radar, fighting’s the last thing I want to be doing with him, but believe me, there is a lot I want to do with and to him.However, the stage is already set. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion, and I can’t help but run towards it. Thinking if only I could stop it somehow. If only I could make him see me as something other than a rival.If only I could find the words…