Page 53 of Kiss Marry Kill
“You need to live a little. Paint outside the lines,” he said. She took the beer from his hand again and finished it off.
“Thought you didn’t like beer.”
“Ack,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t. Can I have another one?”
He chuckled, got up and brought back two bottles. “So what’s your big secret?”
“I sing.”
“You sing?”
“I sing.”
“Expand, please.”
“I’ve always loved singing and music. I love it. My parents think it’s a waste of time. Richard doesn’t even know. There’s this band I follow on Facebook called TNT, and we’ve become friends. Mostly because I’m such a huge fan and I interact a lot with them on Facebook and never miss them when they have live shows at Robbie’s. You know Robbie’s?”
“The little hole in the wall on 57th Avenue?”
“Yeah, that one. Anyway, every time they have a gig there, I sneak out and go listen to them.”
“And then what?”
“And that’s it.”
“You’re a twenty-two-year-old woman. What do you do, sneak out the window?”
“No.” She rolled her eyes and took a drink of her beer. “I say I’m studying or something and I just go and sit right up front. One day they’re going to be huge, I just know it.”
Jax shifted his body to face her, his knee touching hers. “Sing for me.”
“No way, dude!” she laughed.
“I don’t get it. You have this deep dark secret where you hide out in a bar to hear a band?”
“It’s not something people I know do.” She quickly added, “I know that sounds bad, and I agree that it’s bullshit, but it is what it is.”
“So change it. It shouldn’t be that way. You like to sing, then fuckin’ sing.”
Shaking her head, she turned back around. “It’s not that easy.”
“It is. It’s that easy.”
“Just drop everything I’ve worked so hard to do, and what? Live under a bridge while I sing for quarters?”
“You don’t have to be that dramatic about it. You can get a job somewhere and see where the singing takes you. Get a small apartment, break away from Mommy and Daddy.”
“You make it sound easy.”
“It is easy, Megan. It’s just something you have to be brave enough to do.”
She turned around to watch the movie, thinking about those words.
You just have to be brave.
* * *
“Oh my god!” Megan squealed, early the next morning. “I’m not getting in there!”
