The Internship

Chapter Thirty-Three

Mitch was nervous. It was practically radiating off of him and I could feel it across the room. When the leader of our crew turned around to finalize a few things before the show, I ran over to Mitch.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yes--yeah I'm fine."

"You know that you have no reason to be nervous, right? You're perfect," I said before kissing the back of his hand.

"Stop it, no I'm not."

"I don't want to hear it, Mitch. You're perfect and that's a damn fact. Besides, we've been rehearsing this with Kirstie and with everyone here the past couple of days. We've got this down."

He took a deep breath and I could see him calming down. I brought him in for a hug and rested my chin on top of his head while rubbing his back.

"Hoying! Get over here! You're on in less than five!"

"Sorry," I mumbled while hurrying over to my spot. Mitch and I were entering from opposite sides of the stage and meeting in the middle. A woman came over to me and fixed my makeup for the millionth time.

"Alright, the boys ready? Okay we're set. Lights? Sound system? Yes, yes. Send 'em out, we're good! You got this boys!"

I looked over to Mitch to send him a smile and thumbs up but his eyes were fixed in front of him. His whole demeanor had changed. He looked confident. If he was nervous, you wouldn't notice.

I walked out onto the stage and my jaw almost dropped when I saw the crowd. Sure, I knew that it was an event for a very important company. I also knew that the venue was large, but damn! This many people?! Now I was the nervous one, and I could only hope that it didn't show.

Mitch and I went to our stools in the middle of the stage. Our microphones were in our hands and the music began. The clapping that had erupted when we walked out, died down.

We began our first song, Skinny Love by Bon Iver. Mitch's voice soothed me and I soon found it easy to lose myself in the music. What I'd said backstage was right. We were ready. The rest of the performance went perfectly. We sang A Drop In the Ocean by Ron Pope and Lay Me Down by Sam Smith. Then, we brought the mood of the performance up with Break Free by Ariana Grande and XO by Beyoncé before wrapping it all up with Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran.

Everyone loved us. They were dancing and singing along and it made it even more enjoyable for Mitch and me.

I gave Mitch a giant hug when we were backstage again. Our whole crew was split into groups, just hanging out. This was as much of a success for them as it was for us.

I wasn't surprised when Mitch pulled out bottles of Chardonnay and glasses for everyone. We all got into a circle.

"Thank you to everyone who helped make this performance run so smoothly tonight. For everyone run that Scott sang and everyone note that I made the female hidden in body hit, one of you was behind it. You made tonight possible and for that, I love you all! Cheers to success!"

"Cheers!" We all yelled back before drinking from our glasses. While the rich snobs on the other side of the wall partied, so did we backstage. It was the most fun that I'd had in a while. And it was good to see Mitch unwind a bit. He'd been stressed lately and it didn't help with how worried I already was about him. He seemed to be getting worse despite not wanting me to be worried about him. Saying that it'd pass. I'd let him brush it off lately. He'd busy himself with this performance and distract us both, thinking I wouldn't notice. But that's not how these things work, anyways. He needs help and after tonight, I'm getting him some. I can't lose him.