Page 3 of Next to Everything We Wanted

She laughed, the gold in her eyes lighting up. “Sorry. I just want to make sure you’re okay before we start. That everything’s okay with us.”

“Of course it is,” I said, hoping to convince myself.

“Good.” She gave me a faint smile before going back to her usual spot.

I put on my blue rhythm guitar and looked at my watch. Seven o’clock on the dot. Perfect. I quickly tuned up my microphone before I spoke into it with a smile. “Good evening, What Do You Beaners! Can I get a little bit of noise?”

The audience gave us way more than a little bit. Everyone shouted, whistled, clapped, and put their hands in the air. A little girl in the back of the café was already screaming the lyrics to “Sky Opens Up”, the second song offSomewhere We Can’t See.

“It’s your night,” I said, nodding over to the girl. “We’re singing our entire extended play,Somewhere We Can’t See. We’re starting with ‘Before Midnight’. If you know it, sing along. If you don’t, try to guess the lyrics. That’s what I do when a song I don’t know comes on. And if you hate it, sorry, we don’t serve anything with tomatoes.”

The huge laugh that erupted made my heart sing.

I sang the first verse and strummed my guitar, my nerves finally subsiding. It always took until I started singing to feel better, and it was one of the best feelings.

The song started to pick up at the first chorus, where the soft melody turned more upbeat. The audience sang and clapped along to the beat. Well, except for one tone-deaf dad who kept clapping off beat. His son and daughter both looked away as if they didn’t know him.

Though many people didn’t have a musical bone in their body, it made me grin to see them light up over the music they loved.

“There you go!” I said during the transition from the chorus to the second verse. “Keep clapping!”

More people clapped, drowning out the noise of Tone-Deaf Dad. I couldn’t control the smile on my face as I sang, lost in the lyrics. Forrest had written this song, and he’d done an outstanding job.

Before I knew it, the first song was over. The next song was “Sky Opens Up”, and the crowd was even more excited for this one. The girl who’d been singing it a few minutes ago now belted the lyrics again with the rest of the audience.

An ache grew in my chest as I sang, fighting the urge to look at Celeste. I’d written this song about her, and she’d loved it when I first sang it to her on my acoustic guitar. Part of me wondered if we’d made the right choice breaking up, knowing that moments like these would be next to painful. Still, I kept my smile on my face.You’ll get used to it.

Even though the song was only four minutes long, it felt like it was crawling by. I started the second verse, Forrest and Celeste softly harmonizing with me. Celeste’s voice made a tingle run down my spine, and I silently cursed my body for how it reacted.Focus on something else.

My gaze went to the crowd, searching for familiar faces to calm my nerves. A good portion of the audience were regulars who were both obsessed with our music and what the café had to offer.

The ache in my chest eased as I spotted one group sitting at a booth near the stage. They sat there every single week, sometimes with more people. Out of all my fans, they were the ones I was always the most excited to see. Four of them werefrom the band that had won Battle of the Bands in March, Like Airplanes, and the other two were one of the girls’ cousins.

The first one was Hayden, a guy with neat braids and a huge smile. He knew every song word-for-word, probably better than anyone. I swore he’d almost passed out the time I’d signed his drumstick.

His best friend, Dallas, sat next to him. He hadn’t started coming until February, but it hadn’t taken him long to become a fan. He and Hayden now swayed their heads as they sang along, their faces lighting up.

Dallas’s girlfriend, Raina, held his hands from across the table. They were an adorable couple, always looking at each other like they’d hung the moon. Despite my relationship wounds, my grin widened.

The brunette next to Raina was Sienna. She sipped on her latte, drumming her free hand on the table. When her eyes met mine, her red lips lifted in a grin as she gave a shy wave. She was so bashful around me, and it never failed to make me laugh.

Her cousin Emma sat beside her, drumming her fingers on the table as well. Adam, Emma’s twin, sat across from her, singing at the top of his lungs. They were the most adorable kids out there, always asking me to sign things for them.

Just like that, I was already on the bridge. The ache in my chest disappeared, replaced with buzzing excitement as the bass of the music vibrated through me. The bridge of this song was my favorite part, and probably my favorite bridge from all of our songs. My voice reached its height as every word flowed naturally from my lips.

Forrest and Celeste kept singing as I sang my whistle notes. The crowd rose to their feet and clapped, which was something I still wasn’t used to after the eight months of performing here. It was like we were performing at a concert, surrounded by thousands of adoring fans.

When the song was over, the applause pierced my ears. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I looked at my bandmates, who were grinning as well.

Phoenix winked at me and mouthed, “Told you it was going to be fine.”

I winked back before facing the crowd again. Even on harder days like these, nothing could lift my spirits like performing at What Do You Bean. I wouldn’t give up my life of being Ivan Hicks, someone free from the chains I’d once been tied to, for the world.

CHAPTER 2

Sienna

Before Somewhere in the Sky, my Friday nights were anything but thrilling.