Page 220 of Wicked Angel
“That was how you wrote them,” Raf added. “Just do your thing.
“We’ll get a chance to rock at our next show,” Coop put in.
Of course, that was true. If there was a next show. We didn’t exactly have anything else booked, though. This was a special night. A one-off. For Yash, it was a chance to showcase the songs and the band andmeto record labels. For me, it was a chance to play the songs, if only once, and see how it went.
I needed to know if I could play these songs. If I could sing them in front of people. I needed to play them, once, for my friends and my family and my peers.
After that… I wasn’t sure yet. How would I know until I knew how it felt out there tonight?
I took a deep breath.
Then Yash walked in, with Elle—and Flynn, sort of. He hovered near the open door. “Hey, Johnny,” Yash said. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking…”Shit.I took a breath, looking at Yash and trying to tune out Flynn. He was kinda the last person I wanted to see right now, but I knew he’d probably be here, with Elle.
“You need to do this,” Yash told me, sincerely, because he knew what this show and the songs meant to me. But his eyes said,This is your call, brother.
Because he really was a great manager. He’d never force me to do this for his own reasons. Not if this wasn’t right for me.
“I can play the show,” I forced out. “We’ll just need to make a few changes to the setup, so hopefully everyone can hear me.
“That’s what we were thinking,” Elle agreed. “If you’re game, we can make it work.”
“Great. Then let’s do it.”
“You can do this,” Noah told me, patting me on the back. “We’re all here for you, Johnny. The songs are special. Just focus on the songs.”
“Thank you.”
The guys all gave me another hug, and I watched Flynn leave with Elle and Yash. My dad headed back out into the club to get seated. I tried not to think about anyone being in that room out there but Angeline and my family.
Everyone else got to work.
And the way my team and the bar staff rallied to make this happen for me was awe-inspiring. I watched from backstage with Lamar and Noah.
The staff lit candles and passed them around. The emergency lights were on around the edges of the room, illuminating the exits. But everything else was an undulating flicker of candle flames.
“If the fire inspector comes by…” I said to Elle when she came by to check on me again.
“Then we’ll deal with it,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of strong negotiators in this room. Between Ronan and Jude and Summer, we’ll appease them somehow. Even if we have to clear the place out. We’ll make sure you can play for the execs, no matter what happens. Even if I have to take you all back to my house.”
“Thanks, Elle.” I gave her a hug. She’d been incredibly supportive of this whole thing, from allowing Yash to book the show here tonight, to checking in on me a few times over the last several weeks, even while she was on the road with Dirty. Asking me how writing was going.
I knew that meant Angeline had pled our case to her, and done a great job. Somehow, Angie had convinced her sister that I was someone to believe in. Or at least that I was someone to give a chance to. And she was giving me that chance. Not just with her bar, but with her family. She was treating me like I was her sister’s boyfriend, and that was that.
It was almost like she liked me or something.
“This feels wrong,” she said thoughtfully, looking out across the small stage, where the staff was setting up candles, trying to provide the best lighting they could.
“I know. I’ll be so quiet, and so far away.”
“Maybe if we just have everyone move forward, onto the dance floor. We could move all the chairs.”
“Actually…” I eyed the dance floor in front of the stage. It was huge. “What if I play in the middle of the dance floor? And we ask everyone to just gather around me. People in the front seated on chairs, then standing at the back? In the tightest circle we can.”
“Like a human amphitheater,” she mused. “I like it.”
“It’s probably the best chance we have of everyone actually hearing me.”
