Fireworks

Chapter Four

"Hey, I'm Steven," A middle aged man introduced himself to Liv and I.

"Hi, I'm Emily and that's my sister Olivia." I smiled, motioning between the two of us as I spoke.

"I play piano and guitar here almost every night, just for back up for the singers, if they don't know how to." He explained.

"Awesome, okay," I said, thinking for a moment. "Well, I play violin and I might do that a bit and a play a little but of piano and I sing. You can do the piano, though, maybe I can take it over for you at some point so you can eat or something."

"Do you have any sheet music that I could see for the songs that you might be doing?" Steven asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure," I said. I opened my bag and got out my music folder. I took out the sheets from the left side, which had the piano music in it. The right side carried all my violin music.

"Great, I'm gonna start warming up." Steven said, walking away from us and sitting down at the piano. He took a guitar case out from under the piano and began to tune it.

"I think I'm going to start with Vagabond, which is piano. I think it's the fourth of fifth sheet," I announced.

"Okay, cool," Steven replied. I plugged the tape into the little stereo in the corner of the stage.

"Guys, we're opening the door now!" David called into the dining room.

"Liv, let's sit down." My dad added, leading the two of them to a booth straight across the dining room from the stage.

"You look nervous, calm down," Steven laughed.

"I've never really sang in front of a ton of people," I mentioned.

"He wouldn't have hired you unless you were great, so I'm sure you'll do fine." Steven promised me.

As soon as David unlocked the door, people came swarming in. There were a bunch of reservation signs on the tables, and some people were just walk-ins. The restaurant also had an outdoors portion in the back, that looked out onto the water. That was terrific for me, since that meant that not as many people would be in the dining room, listening to me.

As soon as the people all sat down, Steven began to play the piano and I began to sing. I sounded really shaky at first, but I think it improved as I kept going.

The song was Vagabond by The Misterwives.

I started out softly, and I kept looking at my feet. But, people weren't booing me yet, I they can't hate it too much.

"She's so young," A waitress mentioned to another waitress.

"Yeah, her voice sounds so mature," The other waitress agrees.

"Do you guys want a drink?" David offered. Steven continued to play some random song on the piano as I was taking my break after the first song.

"Do you have lemon juice?" I asked. Lemon juice helps your voice before a performance, and I drank some earlier, but I like to keep drinking it.

"Yeah, I think so," He nodded.

"Can I have, like, a little shot glass of lemon juice?" I asked with a little laugh.

"Sure thing," He smiled. "I'll get you both waters, too."

A minute later, as I was in the middle of my next song, he brought two glasses of iced water and a shot glass of lemon juice. He placed them at the end of the stage and walked away.

When I finished the song, I downed the lemon juice shot and put my water at the back of the stage. I also handed Steven his water and he cracked it open and sipped a long sip out of him. For someone who isn't using their voice at all, he sure is thirsty.