Page 29 of Hittin' the Right Note
It feels good to admit, even if just to himself, and his face hurts from grinning so much. He struts around the stage, showboating a bit and showing off for the crowd, and they eat it up.
Performing is a high unlike any he’s ever known, and it carries him all the way through his set list. He knows, even as he finishes the last notes of “Forever and Ever, Amen” that he’s going to be chasing it for the rest of his life.
As the last notes die away, he starts walking off the stage waving and smiling and blowing kisses to the audience, absolutely certain he killed it out there.
Mikey gives him a brief hug, and for a split second Luke thinks he might actually kiss him. He’s not sure whether thethought fills him with joy or terror, but it ultimately doesn’t matter because Mikey moves on and strides out onto stage.
If Luke thought he’d had the audience eating out of his hand, he can’t hold a candle to Mikey. From the moment he opens his mouth and starts singing “Somebody to Love,” the audiencelosesit.
Luke shakes his head and smiles. That’s the secret sauce to Mikey’s success. He’s just one of those people who haspresence.There’s no point in trying to define it. It’s just a part of him, something he wears like a second skin.
When he starts hitting those high notes of Freddie’s, Luke sees him in an entirely different light. In a flash, he can imagine what Mikey will be like in a couple of years, once he’s had a chance to hone his voice, once he’s had a chance to really dig deep and find the inner vein of native talent.
Damn,Luke thinks.He’s fucking beautiful.
And it’s true. Mikey’s always been a bit of a pretty boy, but up there he’s a true superstar. In his tight shirt and his black leather pants, he could almostbeFreddie Mercury, his body glowing in the spotlight.
Luke can’t keep a smile off his face as Mikey makes his way through his set list–which includes classics like Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” and more modern stuff like Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River”–and manages to hit every single note. He’s both a true showman and a helluva singer, and Luke loves him for it.
All too soon Mikey is done singing, and he starts to make his way backstage. His face isglowing,and Luke is so happy for him he could burst. The rest of the NACA gang are all congratulating Mikey, slapping him on the back and telling him how great he did and how he should be proud he managed to get the crowd eating out of his hand like that. The whole time, though, Mikey has eyes only for him, and he only has eyes for Mikey.
When he steps forward, he has to fight the urge to kiss Mikey right there. Still, he’s pretty sure he can see Mikey’s desire flashing in his eyes, and it makes him feel all sorts of things.
He thinks it’s safe to give Mikey a hug. For just a split second–so fast Luke is almost sure he imagined it–Mikey stiffens, but then he loosens up. The two of them don’t hold the hug too long, just long enough so they both know what the other is feeling, and then they pull apart.
“You did so great up there, dude!” Luke says, trying to sound just a little more macho, in order to throw anyone who might suspect what they are to each other off the scent. “They loved you!”
Just like I do,he thinks but doesn’t say.
“Thanks!” Mikey says, that smile he always saves just for Luke plastered all over his face. “I was pretty great out there, wasn’t I?”
Luke shakes his head a little at just how self-confident Mikey is. If he liked him a little less, he’d probably see him as arrogant. At the moment, though, he’s just happy for him.
The rest of the concert goes by, and then the various singers are reunited with their families. Luke finds himself separated from Mikey–though he can see him on the other side of the room, talking to his parents–but he takes some consolation from the fact his mom and Aunt Patty are there, faces beaming.
“Sweetie, your performance wasbeautiful,” Aunt Patty says, sweeping him up in one of her hugs. He breathes in the scent of the Avon perfume she always wears, and when she holds him out, he takes a quick minute to study her. Even though she’s easily in her mid-fifties–she’s his dad’s elder sister–she doesn’t look a day over forty. Her curly blonde hair doesn’t have a streak of gray, and her face, so much like his dad’s, doesn’t show a single wrinkle.
His chest tightens up a bit as she looks at him, adoration and love in her eyes.
“Thanks,” he says, blushing a bit.
“It really was something,” his mom says, slightly more restrained in her praise. “Your dad and brothers would be proud. They said to tell you sorry they couldn’t make it. They had work on the farm to take care of.”
He knows it’s code for, “They had more important things to do,” but he lets it go. Some battles aren’t worth fighting.
They start asking him questions about how it felt to be up there on stage, and he answers, but his mind is really on Mikey and what he’s saying to his parents. He dares to look over, and he frowns when he sees they’re already gone.
He sighs and turns back to his mom and Aunt Patty.
Luke isn’t sure why, but he has a feeling something’s changed between himself and Mikey. He doesn’t know what it is, but it casts a shadow over the evening, a sour note to end the harmonious evening.
With a sigh, he leaves, wishing he could go back to the good feeling he had just a while ago but knowing it’s gone.
So much for that,he thinks.
CHAPTER 11
MIKEY—2015
