Breathing

Chapter 7:

I grabbed my phone off the bar and darted outside. My hands hit the contacts list and headed straight for Aiden's name. I needed him to help calm me down.

"Hello?" Aiden's sleepy voice answered from the other side.

"Aiden." I cried into the receiver.

"Riley, what's wrong?" He asked, immediately shaking the sleep away.

"He's here." I said between panicked breaths. My chest was constricting and I felt like my heart was trying to escape from my body. "I'm at the new bar tonight and he is here."

"I'm coming up there." Aiden hung up the phone.

I was hyperventilating and I had to place my head between my knees to catch my breath. My head was pounding and I felt like I was dying. I sat down before I collapsed onto the pavement. I was having a panic attack. I tried to slow down my breathing and began counting. I couldn't stay out here until Aiden came, so I had to find a way to get through this alone.

After 15 minutes, I was able to calm myself down enough to go back in the bar. Kiera was drowning and relief flooded through her when I stepped back behind the bar again. Ezra and the rest of his band were standing on the stage about to play. I was shocked when I saw him standing up front with his guitar. I wanted to scream. Not only was he in the band, but he also fronted it. I had to be getting punished.

Ezra was busy searching the bar, trying to find me through the crowd. An evil smile crossed his face when he saw me looking at him. He was going to make me suffer through this. He was going to use his music to torture me, knowing exactly how watching him play always affected me.

The music started playing in the background and I was trying to drown the sound out by singing Jessa songs loudly to myself. I stepped up next to Kiera, who looked at me like I was insane.

I robotically poured drink after drink looking down until I cleared all the backed-up orders. Little beads of sweat clung to my forehead and I grabbed a towel to wipe them away. Kiera grabbed her tray and went back to her section to gather more orders.

The second Ezra touched the guitar strings again. I closed my eyes. It hurt in a way I could even wrap my mind around. I could see his fingers in my mind, sliding up and down the neck of the guitar as he plucked the strings. The phantom feeling of those same fingertips brushing over my skin, had me shivering.

It was too much.  Way, too much.

I opened my eyes again and Ezra stepped up to the microphone and began singing. His music style had changed from emo metal to more of a bluesy rock. When he opened his mouth to sing, everything we went through together came flooding back. The soulful growl and whine penetrated me deeper until I was on the verge of tears.

I looked around and finally saw the familiar long auburn hair pushing through the crowd coming towards me. Aiden leaned up against the bar across from me. He had a furious look in his eyes.

"Is this really happening?" He asked in disbelief.

"I don't know how this even happened. Please don't start anything. Can you just sit here with me until I can get through this shift?" I pleaded.

"He has some nerve." Aiden started exploding and I reached over the bar and covered his mouth with my hand.

"Calm down. He probably didn't even know I would be working here. It's probably just a coincidence. I wasn't even supposed to be at this location tonight." Aiden's shoulders relaxed a bit and I moved my hand away.

"Did he ask about her?" Aiden's eyes narrowed and he clenched his teeth.

"He did."

"What did you say?"