Love & Lyrics (Editing)

Chapter 12

We sang our hearts out in front of our first crowd on the West Coast Flight Risk Takeover Tour. Since we weren’t exactly well known, it was admittedly hard to get the crowd going. It didn’t help that the majority of the crowd was female, but a last minute change let us work it to our advantage. I signaled Crystal to get on the piano and Gabe to get off the drums and pull out his bass for the next song. If they wanted to stare at someone with a Y chromosome, we were gonna give it to them. It wasn’t like it was a huge hardship for Gabe to get oogled by a bunch of females; with his curly dark brown hair, hazel eyes and easy going smile, he already had girls falling all over him back home. The next song started off like a ballad, so Crystal began playing the melody on the piano; soon Gabe and I joined in as the song changed into an edgier, rockesque type of sound. We used the curvature of the aged stage to our advantage as we slowly switched places on the stage; Gabe walked the curve, whereas I made a beeline stage right. I sang into the mic,

“I can hear the foreign sound of my heart beating

Thought for sure it lay dead in my chest

I long ago thought that I

Lay it down to rest

But you bring me back to the world of the living”

Our voices joined as one with Gabe singing tenor, Crystal alto and me soprano when we moved onto the chorus,

“Epinephrine

Love gave me

Adrenaline

My heart beats for you

Leave me again and it stops once more

My heart can’t take it anymore

Epinephrine”

The most wonderful thing occurred on that stage as we moved onto the next verse. As Crystal began playing the melody on the piano, I decided to deviate from the plan and play the melody with her only slightly different. The sound of our playing was perfectly in sync and I couldn’t resist the urge to smile over at Crystal and Gabe. They returned my smile with ones of their own as we really let the music speak to us. The crowd must’ve sensed the change, because they began to get into it with us. Crystal began to sing the next verse as Gabe and I showboated. The girls looked at Gabe like Sunday morning brunch and at me with admiration. I smiled at a few of the guys standing in the crowd and gave one of them a wink, which he responded to with a smirk and a nod. This was going phenomenal. Since this was our last song of the night, toward the end, before the last time singing the chorus, I spoke into the mic,

“Thank you San Diego for your support today, you’re the first stop on the tour and I can only hope every crowd will be as awesome as guys. We hope you enjoyed hearing us and found us worthy of opening for Flight Risk.”

The crowd cheered and all in all it felt like we’d taken a huge step. We finished off the song and walked off the stage.

As soon as we cleared the wings, Chris scooped me up in his arms and gave me a spin. Not expecting this, I gave a yelp in surprise.

“You were fantastic! Liz you guys killed out there!” He set me down on my now wobbly legs and then gave me a hug. I closed my eyes and breathed in the comforting smell of his aftershave that I had become so accustomed to in the past few months. He kissed the top of my head and then, still holding me, whispered in my ear, “You were so damn sexy up there. I’m not sure that it was entirely legal; maybe you should reconsider this whole getting famous thing because I don’t want anyone to look at you and think the thoughts I just did.” He then pressed his lips to my neck and kissed his way up to where my neck and jaw met right below my ear. He inhaled my scent and made me shiver before he kissed there as well and made his way to my lips. He was driving me crazy so I moved my head, foregoing the last few kisses meant for my jaw and kissed him on the lips. One of his hands moved up my back and into my hair while the other rested on my waist. His tongue danced with mine to the music played by our passion and the storm that often came with him encircled us like we were the only ones in the world. He ended the kiss and stepped back with a smirk.