Five minutes had passed and there was still no sign of the DJ. I had tried to reach him a couple of times, but he hadn't answered any of my calls. He was either paying attention to the road, or ignoring me.
For his sake I was hoping for the first one, because I would kill him if he'd ever show up.
Right now I had to focus on performing in front of the entire school.
My nerves had calmed down a bit, but I still felt like throwing up. Mia had offered a couple more times to take my place. Even though I really appreciated the offer, this was something I had to do. Thereby, it would have been cruel to force my fellow students to listen to Mia making music.
Not that I'm really good or anything, but at least I know how to play a proper chord on the guitar. Mia had demonstrated what she would do to the poor, innocent, guitar, when she would have gone up to the stage. The more I listened to it, the more I knew I made the right decision by playing something myself.
Mia and the principal had asked me what I was going to play, but I wanted to keep it a secret. I really hoped that Mia would get the reference. Even if she didn't, that song was one of my favorites and it was kinda awesome (but also totally terrifying) to perform that.
I was standing beside the stage with Mia by my side. When the principal announced my "act", Mia leaned into me and whispered: "You got this. I'm already so proud of you."
And with those words in my mind, I walked up the stage.
When I stood there I almost started to panic, but then I looked at Mia and knew everything would be alright.
I grabbed my guitar and someone in the crowd yelled: "Whoo go Harper!!"
I didn't even have to look into the right direction to know that Alex was the one cheering me on. I was really lucky to have him as my friend.
My guitar was hanging on my shoulder and I stepped closer to the microphone. I scraped my throat and said:
"Hey guys! Uh, you probably didn't expect me to play a song on the guitar. The DJ is running a bit late because of horrible traffic, so in the meantime I hope I can entertain you with one of my favorite songs. It's called 'Ease my mind' by Ben Platt"
There was almost no sound coming from the dance floor.
Tough crowd, great.
I let my fingers find their place on the guitar and played the first chord.
Please don't fuck this up, please don't.
I took a deep breath and started.
"Most days, I wake up with a pit in my chest,
There are thoughts that I can't put to rest,
There's a worry that I can't place.
Most nights, I am restless and quiet won't come,
So I lay there and wait for the sun,
There's a trouble that won't show its face."
Okay this wasn't going so bad, maybe I could really do this.
When the pre-chorus was over and I started the chorus, all I could do was look at Mia. I hoped that this song could help me articulate my feelings for her.
Obviously I couldn't stare at her the whole time, because that would be suspicious. So I switched between looking at Mia and looking at Alex, who was standing in the back of the room, while singing.
"Darling, only you can ease my mind.
Help me leave these lonely thoughts behind.
When they pull me under,
And I can feel my sanity start to unwind,
Darling, only you can ease my mind."
The song went on for a couple more minutes and when I finished I felt such a relief. Besides the relief I also felt proud of myself. Not necessarily because I didn't screw up, but because I had faced my fears and just did it.
Luckily, the crowd didn't hate it because the second I played my last chord, the crowd went wild. They cheered me on and started to yell "Harper! Harper! Harper!"
I never knew I could feel so good as I felt right now.
There was only one problem: I wasn't planning on playing more songs and I hadn't seen the DJ yet.
And then the crowd started screaming: "We want more! We want more! We want more!"
I was screwed.
Just when I was thinking of another song to perform, I saw the DJ walking in.
Thank god.
He walked up to me and said into the mic:
"Thank you Harper for being my opening act, but now it's time to get this party started!"
The students looked at him with a strange look. Was he being a big asshole or was he trying to make up for being late and actually get the party started? I honestly didn't know.
But when the DJ started playing the music, the students got looser and everybody began to dance.
I walked off the stage and met Mia.
"OMG you were awesome! But, did I imagine it or did you sing that song for me?" She asked.
"I did, I never truly know how to express my feelings for you and this seemed like the best way. I hope you don't mind," I answered.
She took my hand and said: "I loved every second of it."
After an hour or so and a couple of dance moves later, the DJ announced that it was time for a slow dance.
"Ladies and gentlemen," He started.
Or you know, just say something gender neutral like "students", "everyone", "can I have your attention please" "listen up".
Anyways, he continued with: "Now it's time for us to clear the dance floor and make room for the lovely couples between us. So go to your partner and ask them for a dance."
I was getting a bit awkward. I really thought that Mia wouldn't want to dance with me, at least not now, not like this. So when she asked me for a dance, I was really surprised.
"Are you sure?" I asked
"I'm sure," she answered.
She took my hand and led me to the dance floor. I heard some people whisper, but I chose not to care.
Tonight was all about Mia and I, about no one else.
Mia put my arms around her shoulder and we started to dance.
The longer we danced, the more people started to whisper and look our way.
I could see that Mia was getting a bit nervous.
"If you want to stop, we can stop. I won't be mad or disappointed or anything like that, I promise."
Her eyes told me she wanted to leave the dance floor.
"Follow me," I whispered in her ear.
I started to swirl and move around while still holding Mia. I tried to make it less obvious that we were trying to run away from everyone and I thought we did a good job.
We naturally left the dance floor and no one looked at us anymore.
"I'm sorry you had to deal with all that," I said.
Mia smiled.
"It's okay, I'm just not used to people looking at me and it kinda freaked me out. I'm still glad we danced though," she responded.
"Me too."
Suddenly, Mia started to act nervous again.
"You okay?" I asked her.
"Yeah it's just that I, uhm, was meaning to ask you something." She took a deep breath before saying: "Do you officially want to be my girlfriend? I really like you and I think you like me too so I hoped we could make things official between us."
I did not expect that to happen. But I was glad it did.
I took her hand and my smile grew bigger and bigger.
"Yes, I do. I really do like you too and I can't wait to see what's next for us. I have a good feeling about it."
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
Sorry for the long wait, again. School has started and I'm already super busy. Somehow I got really motivated to write a chapter this evening, so I figured I could publish it right away so you guys didn't have to wait any longer.
There was actually more in store for this chapter, but I wanted to end it in a nice way (I'm already sorry...) and it was easier to split It in two.
Anyways, what did you think of this chapter?
How about Mia and Harper making things official between them? Did you had a clue about what song Harper was gonna play? (I must say, I edited chapter seventeen a couple of minutes before writing this chapter to give the title of the song away.)
Thanks for staying with me! We're almost at 7k reads and I'm really happy with all of the support. It really means a lot to me when I receive all the kind comments, the votes or when I see someone added this story to their bookshelf. You are the best.