A Sweet Serenade

Chapter 7

"And last but not least, our very own Matt Fletcher and Lauren Olesky with 'A Million Miles of Our Love'," Mr. Renton, our choir director, said to the audience. He turned quickly to stage left and exited, the back of his tuxedo trailing close behind. I peeked out from behind the red velvet curtains when the applause quieted to the sound of the opening piano chords. Suddenly, I couldn't think straight. Breathe, Lauren. I told myself, just breathe. You practiced this with Matt hundreds of time, this is no different. I clutched my microphone to my chest. I needed to find a way out of this...

"I love you, I should have loved you from the start," Matt sang while walking in from stage left. He turned to the right and looked at me, his blue eyes twinkling with sincerity. "When I realized this I knew that I had to win my way into your heart."

Comforted by his loving gaze, I stepped out into the spotlight. "I loved you, I loved you from the start. You never saw it, but I did my best to win your heart." I sang back, taking his hand.

"And now with us together, it seems like nothing could be wrong," Matt grinned at me.

"Because now I have my other half, my harmony in song."

"Our love could stretch a million miles," we sang together. His smooth, warm bass offered a wonderful harmony to my mezzo soprano.

"Throughout life's troubles and trials," I looped my arm around Matt's waist. I swore I would keep my hormones in check on stage, but with his dark jeans and crisp, white button-down, it was getting harder by the second. He even had the top three buttons undone, taunting me.

"Your beauty is undeniable," Matt bellowed, seemingly suffering the same way I was as he looked intently at my lips.

"Just say the word and our love could be a million miles," we sang together as Matt took a step away from me, grabbed my hand and helped me do a quick twirl, making my navy dress swirl around my knees.

I looked out into the audience and saw how engaged they all were. A few people in the back had already taken to standing up, a family in the first row swayed and three girls in the middle had their hands up, holding their invisible lighters. This is good news, I thought to myself. They like me. The instrumental break was about to end so I took my place on a box on stage left.

"Your arms around me soothe my every fear," I sang draping my free arm dramatically across my body.

On the box on the opposite side of the stage, Matt sang, "The way you love me, nothing else compares," whist shooting me a flirtatiously cheeky wink like he did so many times in rehearsal.

"The cynics are infuriated, they say nothing good can come from this,"

"But I've known they were wrong ever since our first kiss,"

We sang the chorus once more before meeting each other face to face in the middle of the stage. Matt lifted his free hand up and pressed it flat against my palm.

"Just say the word," He sang looking into my eyes.  

"Oh, I've said the word," I launched into the descant while Matt continued the melody. 

"And our love will stretch a million miles." We harmonized on the last part, holding out the word 'miles' for two measures. Matt licked his perfect pink lips and pulled me by my waist to his for a kiss.

As I began to kiss him back, I became vaguely aware of the cheering in the audience. Within seconds, Mr. Renton had run onto the stage, his gray wisps of hair looking a bit disheveled as if our performance alone had caused him a great deal of stress. He grabbed Matt's microphone quickly before turning around and mouthing "dressing room. Now."

"Okay, ladies and gentleman," Mr. Renton began. "That was a duet that was quite..." he paused, searching for the correct words. "Unique. Now, Freshman Chorus is going to be singing a song called 'Jubilate Deo' by..."

As Matt pulled me through the backstage area, I noticed a few of the stagehands giving Matt thumbs up and many of the freshman going on stage looked absolutely mesmerized.

"You are amazing," An adorable, wide-eyed, blonde girl, who couldn't have been more than 4'10, whispered quickly. "I want to be just like you when I am a junior." Before I could thank her, Matt had already pulled me far into the prop room and the girl was bunching her robe up, stepping onto the first riser.

"Matt, that was amazing!" I laughed giving him a hug. "You were amazing!" 

"No, you were," Matt said, his voice low and husky. "You are a natural." 

"Thanks," I grinned to myself. "I was terrified before but somehow, when I looked at you I felt so comfortable." 

Matt beamed. "I'm glad I could help. Oh! I have something for you!" He exclaimed, digging behind a stack of glittery hats. He grabbed a tiny, blue jewelry box and set it in my hands.  

"Oh Matt, you shouldn't have--" I began. 

"But I wanted to. Open it!" 

I took in a sharp breath. "Matt, it's beautiful!"

In the box was a heart charm with a treble clef etched into the middle on a delicate, silver chain.

"You like it?" He asked, extending his hand for the box.  

"Are you kidding? It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Thank you so much!" I could feel tears welling in my eyes. I lifted my hair and he brought the necklace to my neck, fastening it in the back. "I was hoping you'd say that," he whispered before kissing me on the cheek.

Just then, the pianist that accompanied us on stage walked by. "I knew I heard giggling in there," She sneered pointedly. "Get out of there and go back to your dressing rooms!" She shot us each a nasty look, before stomping off. Matt clutched my hand and mouthed "awkward" at me while the sound of the pianist's clicking heels continued down the hall.

"Well, I guess I'd better go," I said letting go of Matt's hand. 

"Good plan," he laughed. "Renton is going to kill us on later, let's not get expelled on top of that."

---

Mr. Renton had been furious. We got a spiel on how the kiss was disrespectful to him, how it shouldn't have happened and how close he was to kicking us out of the program. "You're lucky you guys are some of the best singers this program has, or you'd both be gone!" he'd said.

Originally, he wanted us to serve a detention every Monday for the rest of the year. Matt, being Mr. Renton's prized pupil, convinced him to let us give voice lessons to kids in the program for free as a different form of punishment. Although it was meant to be a bad thing, I couldn't have loved it more.

One Sunday afternoon, I was sitting by the piano when the little freshman girl who had complimented me at the concert walked in.

"Hi," she said timidly. "I'm Sara Michaels... I'm in freshman chorus..."  

"Hiya," I chimed. "Are you my 4:30?" 

"Yes," she whispered looking awkwardly at her feet. 

"Well then let's get started."

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Hey, so I wrote this on two hours of sleep, on my iPhone while in an airplane. Don't ever say I don't love you guys! <3

Hope you guys did well on your finals!