Chapter 5 Maya's Silent Struggle

The house was quiet. Too quiet. Her parents were out.

Maya sat on her bed, her gaze locked on the notebook resting on her desk. It was slightly open, just enough to reveal pages filled with half-written lyrics, scratched-out verses, and unfinished thoughts that once carried so much promise.

Now, it felt like a monument to failure.

Her fingers twitched in her lap, itching to reach for it, to smooth out the creased pages, to find the words that had once come so easily. But her body remained frozen, as if moving would shatter the fragile stillness she had wrapped around herself.

A sigh slipped past her lips, barely audible over the hum of the air conditioning. She had spent the entire day avoiding this moment; cleaning up her already spotless room, scrolling mindlessly through social media, even considering reorganizing her closet. Anything to keep her from facing what was sitting right in front of her.

But the silence made sure she couldn't escape.

She finally tore her eyes away from the notebook, shifting her focus to the guitar propped against the wall. Just looking at it sent a painful squeeze through her chest.

That guitar had once been an extension of herself-something that felt as natural as breathing. Now, it looked foreign, like it belonged to someone else entirely. Someone who hadn't been rejected.

Her fingers curled into fists.

It wasn't fair.

She had given everything to her music. Every late night spent perfecting melodies, every moment of self-doubt she had fought through just to put her heart into lyrics. She had imagined a future where she'd walk through the doors of that prestigious music academy, proving to herself that she belonged in that world.

And yet, when the moment came, they had told her she wasn't good enough.

Maya swallowed against the lump forming in her throat.

She shouldn't still be crying over this. Shine already told her that.

But the weight of it sat heavy on her chest, pressing down until it felt impossible to breathe.

Her gaze drifted back to the notebook, drawn to it despite the ache in her heart.

Slowly, she reached out and pulled it onto her lap. The cover was soft and worn from years of flipping through it. She hesitated before opening it fully, her eyes scanning the words she had written with so much hope.

"Lost in the echoes of a song I never got to finish..."

Her handwriting was slightly messy, like she had been in a rush to get the thoughts onto paper before they disappeared.

She traced the words with her fingertip, feeling the indentations of the ink.

She had started writing this song the night before she submitted her application. The melody had been so clear in her mind, the emotions so raw. It was supposed to be a song about belonging-about chasing dreams and finding a place in the world.

But she had never finished it.

And now, the silence in her mind was deafening.

Maya clenched her jaw and flipped through the rest of the pages. Lyrics stared back at her, some fully formed, others abandoned mid-sentence. Ideas she had once been excited about now felt like ghost of a version of herself she wasn't sure existed anymore.

A shaky breath escaped her lips.

Had she lost it?

The passion, the spark, the music that had once felt like her entire purpose-was it just... gone?

The thought made her stomach twist.

She had always believed that music wasn't something you chose, it was something inside you, something you were.

But if that was true, then why did it feel like she had nothing left?

Her grip on the notebook tightened.

Maybe the academy had been right.

Maybe she wasn't meant for this.

A tear slipped down her cheek, landing on the page in front of her.

She quickly wiped it away, frustrated with herself for feeling so weak.

She hated this, hated how powerless she felt, how easily one rejection had unraveled everything she had built inside herself.

A small part of her whispered that this wasn't the end, that music was still in her even if it felt distant right now. But that voice was quiet, drowned out by the louder, crueler thoughts that had been haunting her for days.

She glanced at her phone on the nightstand.

A text from Shine sat unread. Thinking about you. Call me if you want to talk.

Maya exhaled shakily and set the notebook aside. She wasn't ready to talk. Not yet.

Instead, she reached for her headphones and slipped them on.

The moment music filled her ears, her body relaxed slightly. It wasn't her own music, but it was something. A reminder of what it felt like to get lost in a melody, even if she wasn't the one creating it.

She lay back on her bed, staring at the ceiling, letting the song wrap around her.

Maybe she needed time.

When she will finally find her way back into music.