Two Quarters and a Heart Down

Chapter 20 - Dance, Dance

Patrick's POV

'Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in breathe out.' I think to myself. My hands shake at the microphone, my guitar strap around my neck with the instrument behind me, looking out at the people anticipating our performance. It's now or never, this is the moment we've all been waiting for. It seems so fast how it all started, yet it's super amazing. I only just started this high school and now I'm playing some jams in front of my fellow students? On stage with some really great (sometimes assholes though) friends. It's pretty sweet. But also nerve wracking as hell. Literally, we're about to perform a song we all wrote in a matter of hours. How crazy is that?

"Pretty sick, right?" Pete whispers behind me, as if he could read my mind. His breath is warm and heavy on the back of my neck, giving me the chills for multiple reasons. Out of lack of verbal words, I simply nod, then feel his hand on my shoulder. "We're gonna be great, 'Trick." He reassures me. I turn to face him, his beautiful whiskey colored eyes staring back at me, wide with excitement.

"Yeah. Alright, let's do this." I whisper back. We each get into position, and I bring the microphone down a tad since it's rather high for me after Hayley and Lynn's previous performance. I simply nod to Pete to let him know I'm set, which he then returns and looks to Andy and Joe for the same signal. They each understand it's a green light, and I see them ready at their spots. I swallow the bulge of nerves in my throat and glance at the crowd. I let off a nervous wave to the crowd, getting a few smiles in return. Hayley and Lynn stand close to each other near the front of the stage, giving me silent encouragement as they mouth words of positivity. I see another seeming-to-be-couple, two tall boys, much taller than me. One with dark hair and tan skin, the other with paler skin and long brown hair. They seem to be excited for our act as well. The noise in the room is still rather loud, some people not noticing another act is ready to perform. I lean forward and cough into the microphone lightly, not getting much reaction from the noisy crowd. The tall boy with brown hair cups his mouth and turns to face the crowd.

"Attention! Attention! May I have all your eyes and ears to the front of the room, if only for one second?" He shouts, his voice almost playing out in a sing-song tone, for sure grabbing people's attention. He looks up at me and smiles, which I return along with a nod of thanks. Now all the eyes and ears are definitely on us. In my daze, I stand there doing nothing until I hear light clapping from behind me. My head darts back into reality and I turn to see Joe start clapping, which Andy shortly adds on by tapping his drumsticks together, followed by an enthusiastic Pete, and me following up once I catch on. We each get into the groove, clapping louder and to a beat. I look to the crowd to get them to join, Hayley, Lynn, the tall male couple, and a few others add on, smiling. I start really getting into the beat and I feel my body shake as I dance ever so slightly, my guitar bouncing against my back since it's slung behind me while I sing. I then hear more clapping up front while it lessens on stage as Pete and Andy take to their opening instrumental measures. Andy starts up his drumming while Pete starts the prominent bassline. It seems as if people are flooding in now, a ton of people I've never seen before, I didn't even know they were at this facility tonight. They all look really excited and into the mood, which in turn brings up my mood and boosts my confidence. Alright, here we go. I think to myself in a split second. Next thing I know, it's my turn to finally open my mouth to the world. Er, well the school at least.

"She said she's no good with words but I'm worse, barely stuttered out a joke of a romantic stuck to my tongue." As I sing the last few words of the line, I use my finger to gesture to my tongue, running it over my tongue and pulling it back into the air kinda like those hiker people do to test the wind. In spite of the lyrics I had in mind, being "He said..." for the first line, I've it changed to feminine pronouns so the audience doesn't flip. Although a majority didn't seem too bothered by the obvious gayness within other performances tonight, but I'll just play it on the safe side anyway.