The Last Song of Me

Chapter 33: Lightning Strikes the Same Place Twice

I felt the strings come in and play the harmony. With the addition of my acoustic guitar it sounded amazing. It was sweet, smooth, dramatic, but not overdone. I was excited for my solo tonight, and I hope that it’s a surprise for the viewers. I spotted Logan standing near one of the ‘no entry’ doors, and he gave me a smile and thumbs up. I smiled back and felt a bit of nervousness arise in my stomach. Great. I can’t deny it anymore.

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            I attempted to avoid Logan for the rest of the afternoon because I was nervous enough as it was. I did have to see him during our duet run through/practice/rehearsal, since we literally gave the band the music for it today. They were masters at sight reading so they probably could’ve caught on if we played the piano part, but our late night session of writing last night produced sheet music and everything…sloppy sheet music, but it was complete…

            After hair, makeup, and wardrobe, I walked near the stage area through tons of other special guest performers and crew. Logan strolled up next to me as I was running through some vocal warm ups. Usually I don’t do these before a show, but since I had a solo tonight I wanted to be extra prepared.

            “What are you doing? You sound like a dead cow.” Logan interrupted my breathing exercise.

            “Vocal warm ups. And I do not!” I said as I coughed a little.

            “Shhh…you’re scaring the children.” He put his finger over his lips and touched my shoulder.

            “You suck.” I shrugged his arm off of mine and went back to the controlled breathing. The show had started and I heard Aaron on stage introducing the judges. My heart started to pound a little harder, and I felt it jolting my body a little. Some butterflies started to flutter in my stomach, and I closed my eyes. A slightly larger hand encompassed mine as I was dragged out on the stage.

            “Sam…wave to the nice people…” Logan said through a smile as we got to the middle of the stage.

            “Oh, right…” I smiled, waved, and looked out in the audience. Usually they limit the seating for the other live round shows, but tonight every single seat was taken up. I saw the ‘I love you Sam’ signs, and people chanting Logan and my name. It was crazy. The other couple strode on the stage, and Chloe shot me the most ridiculous smile ever. Her eyes affected me the most, as her intense stare made old feelings towards her arise, and made me remember another reason why I needed to win…so she didn’t. I saw her cling to James, and he gave me a sympathetic look, although my competitor. I gave him back a mutual one, feeling bad that he had a monster of a partner to work with every day.

            “Alright America, here is your top two finalists!! Give it up for James and Chloe, and Samantha and Logan!!!!”  Aaron yelled into his microphone. “Ok, ok, to start us off this evening, our solo spotlight is on Sam!!” The crowd erupted into cheers and claps. The room darkened, and all attention was drawn to the big screen that rolled footage of my rehearsal, and why I chose the song, etcetera, etcetera… I heard myself say:

            This week I chose ‘Lunatic’ for my spotlight solo. I chose this song because it describes a situation that all of us are in, or have been in…or will be in in the future. Lunatic is a song about a girl who likes a guy, who likes her too, but it’s just a circle of questions. She thinks that he thinks that she’s crazy trying to get his attention…but he doesn’t think that whatsoever. It’s a bit of miscommunication. The crowd laughed a little at my roundabout way of describing the song.