I tried to cut this in half again, because I know it's a long time to be looking at a computer screen, but I really couldn't find a good spot. It felt like an injustice to me, cutting the chapter up again. So here is the second installment of the first chapter, and I hope you guys like it. Let me know what you think, and those little nitpicks are always appreciated.
Oh, and if some of you STILL think Autumn is similar to Becca, let me know when and why you began to think this, so I can make some changes and fix it. Thanks again.
1.2
The music sounded off, for some reason. Tilting my head and listening more closely, a frown on my face, I realized what it was. I wasn’t a bossy person, but when I thought something was wrong, I usually mentioned it. “Sound-booth person, you need more sound on the bass,” I said hesitantly into the headphones, glancing down at the clipboard in my hands. “I think it’ll pump things up a bit.”
“It’s Mike. And the bass is fine,” a voice snapped in my ear. I could see the sound booth high up above the crowds. “It’s already up to six amps.”
“Fine,” I said, sighing. “Then at least turn down Royce’s guitar a little. He’s practically drowning out Felicity’s voice.”
“Whatever.”
But Mike eventually did turn down the guitar, and soon Mom’s voice was ringing out again. Smiling brightly, she pranced from one end of the stage to the next, bending to brush hands just barely with the tips of her fingers. Some of the fans screamed louder.
“You think I don’t see the way you’re looking at her,” Mom sang, swinging her hips in a way that had utterly humiliated me in the beginning. Imagine someone’s mother dancing like that in front of thousands of people. “And soon enough you’ll miss what we were.”
I leaned against the wall to watch her, not feeling anything. Not pride, not embarrassment, not amusement. Her long blond hair tangled around her shoulders in the way she liked, and the lights glaring down at her made the small scraps over her private parts pretty much transparent. I looked down at the clipboard just to avoid the sight, sighing some more.
Royce shouted into the microphone, and, caught off guard, I glanced up just for an instant. His spiky hair shone green under the colored lights, and he swaggered with that easy confidence that it seemed all performers had. I bit my lip, staring at him before catching myself and glaring down at the clipboard some more.
“Thanks for covering for me,” the man who’d shoved the headphones and clipboard at me five minutes before said, appearing at my side. He took both back without warning, mussing my hair. “Man, I had to pee.”
“Sure,” I said, trying to smooth my hair down again.
The guy frowned, eyes on the stage. “Mike, add more volume to the bass,” he said loudly. “Now.”
Just barely, I could hear Mike’s voice through the headphones, “Okay, Larry.”
Pursing my lips, I continued to watch my mom’s performance. “I won’t take you back, show up and I’ll just make you pack.” She ran a hand down her neck and all the way to her hip. I finally turned away, faintly disgusted even though I’d seen it a hundred times.
“Oh, Annie?” Larry called as I walked away. I paused, turning a little to face him. “Could you bring me some coffee?”
“It’s Autumn,” I said, but he had already turned away and was saying something else to Mike. Smothering resentment and anger, I headed for the refreshment table, where there were doughnuts, ice water, and coffee laid out for backstage staff. I poured the coffee quickly into a plastic cup, and took a swig out of it. Just right.
I grabbed four ice cubes from a bucket and dropped them in the coffee. I waited until they’d melted until I took another drink. Cold coffee. Mmmm. Larry would love it.
“Thanks, Annie,” he said to me when I handed him the cup.
I nodded. “No problem.”
Before he could drink it, I turned around and strode quickly to a door with a red EXIT sign above it. Cold air hit me in the face, calming and comforting. I was in a tight alley. Gates blocked off the entrances so overeager fans wouldn’t try to get in that way.
I tucked my hands tightly into the crooks of my elbows, huddling into my baggy sweatshirt. Even out here I could still hear Mom’s voice, a sound I’d heard all my life but at the moment wanted to escape more than anything. “I hate how you smile as if I’m the only one, and just so you know I went out and bought a gun!” Sounds of a fake gun firing boomed through the wall, and the thrilled screams increased. I laughed, just because I wanted to laugh about something.
“You like Felicity Dawn?” a voice asked from behind me.
Uttering a small shriek, I whipped around so hard my neck ached from the action. A guy sat against the wall, his face obscured by shadows created from the yellow bulb above the door. My eyes swept over his faded jeans and old skateboarding shoes—all I could see of him.
“Sorry,” he added, voice deep and scratchy. “Thought you knew I was here.”
How could I have known you were there? I wanted to snap. But I bit my tongue and backed up until I was pressed against the wall opposite the guy. “Um, that’s okay,” I replied, my heart still pounding against my chest. I scared easy. “What did you ask me?”
“I asked if you like Felicity Dawn,” he repeated.
I was straining, trying to see his face. He sounded young, almost my age. “Oh. Felicity Dawn?” I bit my lip, shrugging. “I don’t know. I guess. Do you? Like her, I mean?”
The guy was silent for a second. “No,” he answered flatly. Something was shining near his face, and I guessed it was an earring. “She’s just a mindless drone,” he went on. “Slut. That”—I saw his hand flash out as he made a motion at the door—“is not music. Just noise.”
I didn’t know what to say. He was talking about my mother. “If you don’t like her, why are you here?”
He laughed, a short bark, really. “Got to make money somehow, don’t I?”
“Oh, you’re on the staff?” I asked, feeling stupid as soon as the question popped out. How else would he have gotten out here?
“Yeah.”
We fell silent. I considered going back inside. There was something a little creepy about just standing out here and talking to some stranger. Not that Mom had ever taught me not to. She wasn’t one of those parents that said, Don’t talk to strangers, sweetie. Guess it never occurred to her.
“So your name is Annie?” His voice emerged from the darkness again, and I was curious about his face. Was he cute? Ugly? Average? “I heard Larry call you that earlier,” he told me.
The guy seemed harmless enough. Mentally shrugging, I slid down the wall until I was sitting. I didn’t want to go back in, anyway. Not until Mom’s concert was over. “It’s Autumn,” I said. “Not Annie.”
“Cool name,” he replied. “I’m Thor. Thor Williams.”
Thor Williams… I didn’t know anyone by that name. “You worked here long?” I asked, just because I didn’t know what else to say. I didn’t exactly have experience talking to guys. I’d been home-schooled and on the road for most of my life, and the men at Mom’s old gigs had been either drunk, interested in Mom, or ugly.
“No. Just got here about a month ago—I’m new to this city.”
“Oh. Where’d you move here from?”
I sensed him smiling, somehow. “Cheyenne. Wyoming.”
Was he laughing at me? “I’ve been there. Felicity had a couple concerts in Wyoming a few weeks back. It was smaller than most cities we go to.” I kept my eyes on my knees—it was frustrating not being able to see his face. And I was too shy to ask him to scoot over so the light was on him.
Thor laughed, and sitting there in the alley with him suddenly felt surreal to me. I had never done anything so… random as this. “You travel with Felicity?” he asked me.
Oops. Mom was always stressing to me how I shouldn’t let anyone know that we were related or that I was with her unless absolutely necessary. But since when has she done anything for you? a nasty little voice whispered.
I lifted my chin, glaring at this Thor person. “Yes. She’s my…” Then I faltered, really wanting to blurt it out to someone but not wanting to betray the only other person in my life besides Grandma that I cared about. She’s my mother, I wanted to say. She’s actually thirty-five. She never knew Christina Aguilera, and before she got her record deal she sang country.
“She’s my cousin,” I finished lamely.
Thor was silent again, this time for longer. I wondered what he was thinking, how he saw me now.
“So are you like her?” he finally asked me. The light above the door flickered, and I glanced up at it. Are you like her… like her… like her… The question reverberated off the walls of my mind. I didn’t know how to answer. I didn’t know the truth, myself.
“I hope not” was all I said, the best truth I could come up with. Then, without waiting a beat, I said, “We’re heading to Phoenix next.” I didn’t want the silence to return. Didn’t want to give him a chance to tell me that I looked just like my “cousin”, like everyone else did.
Thor just said, “It’s hot there.” Like he had nothing else to comment on. Not one for conversation, I guessed.
“Maybe I should go back inside,” I said slowly, pressing my palms against the ground to stand.
“Do you want to go back inside?”
I frowned. What kind of question was that? “Not really.” The truth popped out before I could stop it. I didn’t want to go back in, no, but this guy seemed too weird for me. I kept getting the impression that he was silently laughing at me.
“Then don’t,” he said.
It almost seemed as if we were talking about something more than just my going back in. Who was this guy? “It’s not as simple as that.” The words didn’t even sound like mine. But as I spoke, Thor shifted. It looked like he was leaning forward, and I suddenly tensed. Something is wrong, my insticts were whispering… And yet, I wanted desperately to see his face.
The door suddenly opened, giving Thor no chance to reply, and I jumped. Thor settled back into the shadows, and I ground my teeth in frustration and disappointment.“Annie, Felicity is asking for you,” Larry said, frowning down at me. He didn’t even notice Thor.
Used to this, I wasn’t confused for once. “Okay.” I didn’t move.
Larry paused. “Now,” he added.
Sighing, I stood up and brushed the back of my jeans off. “What does she need?” I asked him, already knowing the answer but for once wishing it was a different one.
“She didn’t say.”
I nodded. But I knew. Did I look old underneath that harsh lighting? she would ask me frantically. Did I look good in this outfit? How was my voice, and my dancing?
As always, I had my answer ready. I’d memorized it. Fine, fine, everything was fine. You tripped? Oh, no one noticed—the backup dancers had probably been distracting them.
“Well,” I turned to Thor uncertainly, still unable to see his face even from where I was standing by the door. But I could tell he was looking up at me. “Guess I’ll see you around.”
“Probably not,” he answered. “After all, you are going to Phoenix, right?”
I smiled, a small bitter curve of the lips. “Yeah. So I guess… it was nice talking to you.” Even if it was weird. “Good luck with this job.”
“Thanks.”
Larry had already gone inside. I opened the door and had just put one foot over the threshold when Thor said something.
“What?” I stepped back.
He cleared his throat. “I said, you don’t seem anything like your cousin.”
“Oh.” I stood in surprise for a moment. Then, unexpectedly, I felt a real smile tugging at the corners of my lips. Really? He thought I was different? “Well, thanks.”
“You’re welcome. It was nice meeting you… Goodbye, Autumn.”
The way he said my name was so strange. Even then, as light-headed as I was feeling, whether from the cold night or Thor’s words, I noticed. His voice, hoarse and sort of scratchy, deepened. Still smiling, I shook off my childish unease.
“Bye.” I let the door swing shut behind me, and was back in the loud, busy world of the backstage. The sound of some rapper echoed off the walls, and the crowds were a little less enthusiastic—Mom was on a short break, obviously. Some stagehands darted past me, and I glanced at them before heading for Mom’s current dressing room. It wasn’t hard to find—it was a few feet away from the right exit of the main stage, and the door was marked in golden, perfect letters: FELICITY DAWN.
“Felicity?” I rapped on the door with my knuckles.
“Come in,” she snapped. I inwardly sighed when I recognized the tone of her voice.
“How was it?” I asked as I came in, making sure to gently close the door behind me. Didn’t want to give the employees something to gossip about. There had already been a particularly nasty article about Mom in People magazine involving her break-up with Royce, the guitarist.
“Did you see that?” she hissed when I drew close to her seat in front of the mirror. “Did you see that?”
“See what?”
She glared at me, flipping her hair back in agitation. “That jackass, Royce. When I walked over to him during Bought a Gun, he just completely ignored me and turned his back, making mooneyes at some slut in the front row! I should have fired him right after the first break-up, but no! He batted those baby blues at me, and I melted. Well, not anymore!” she told me vehemently. “This time, he’s going! It’s over!”
I nodded, taking some smoother off the table and pouring it into my palm. “All right. Guess we should let Zach know, then, huh?” I started to rub the smoother into Mom’s slightly frizzed hair.
“What?” she snapped. “No! We’re not telling Zach. He would just gripe at me and find a new guitarist that can’t play worth a damn! No, what I’m going to do is find a new guitarist myself, and have him sign a contract, and then Zach won’t be able to do a thing!”
I hadn’t seen my mom this upset since… the last show. “Why don’t you wait until we’re finished in Phoenix,” I suggested. “Maybe Royce will shape up by then, and you won’t have Zach all pissed about the whole thing.”
She was quiet. A minute passed, and she studied her reflection, tilting her head to the side and admiring her profile. “Maybe.”
When she said that, I knew she was over the worst. This had been a short one—she must have already blown off steam on one of the staff. “Okay,” I said. “So your break is almost over, and you’ll be needing to get out there pretty soon.”
Mom flapped her hand at me, at the same time pushing her hair back over her shoulder. “Have the limo brought out back right when I’m done. I want to head right to the hotel.”
“Fine.” I straightened, wiping my hands off on a towel draped over a chair, and left the room again.
“Oh, and Autumn?” Mom called as I began to shut the door behind me. I turned, expectant.
“That color does no good for your complexion,” she said. “I don’t want people thinking that a cousin of Felicity Dawn can’t dress.” Then she flapped her hand at me yet again, indicating that she wanted no response.
As I headed back to the place by the wall where I watched my mother, I smiled to myself. I wasn’t mad—just surprised that she had even noticed my shirt.
After that night, I forgot all about my brief encounter with Thor Williams.
So instead of saying 'scraps' I would say 'pieces of clothing' or 'chunks of cloth' just so we know you are talking about her dress. 
I think it might just be the earring but you might want to alter that just a tad...
I really liked this part- I think even more than the last. I like the mysteriousness surrounding Thor- it really adds to the suspense of the story and I'm very curious as to where this is going 
You've written this really well too! I couldn't find much that I thought could be changed, just a few nitpicks.
