"Give it up for Marcus Harris everybody!" The crowd clapped in unison for the scrawny boy and he smiled in content before waving with his hand muttering a quick "thank you." and exiting the stage from where he first came out.
"Now, we have a particular young man up next. I was quite reluctant when I saw he was signing up for the talent show but I must say...I saw how gifted he was in rehearsals. So without further due, up next is Ryder Jordan." Mr. Whitman exits the stage just as the crowd goes wild with people yelling and clapping in encouragement for Ryder to come out and I hold my breath waiting to see him. Within seconds I spot his tall frame and brown hair as he comes out from the red curtains, he smirks confidently as he moves towards the microphone with a guitar strapped on. He fixes the height on the microphone stand and he clears his throat.
"What's up everybody? Are you guys having a good time?" His voice sounds soft and controlled and the crowd screams more in response, I even hear guys from the football team chanting his name over and over.
"Anyways...I'm gonna sing a song that means a lot to me-" he begins talking but gets interrupted by a girl with blonde hair in the third row.
"I love you Ryder!!" I frown at what she said but Ryder only laughs it off.
"Oh wow, thanks. Well, as I was saying, this song means a lot to me because it reminds me of someone that I hold very dearly in my heart and I invited her to come and watch me sing it for her." He begins strumming his fingers softly on his guitar and I feel my heart beating wildly inside of my chest because of his words. Ryder looks out onto the crowd, his eyes moving between the rows of people like he's looking for me. He finally looks down to his guitar and begins tuning it, once he's done he opens his mouth.
"You know who you are, and if you're here then this ones for you." Ana hits me on the side with her elbow and I look at her smiling. He starts harmonizing softly and then begins to sing.
"Give me love like her, cuz lately I've been waking up alone..." His fingers dance on his guitar rhythmically, like maybe he's played this song a millionth times and he knows it by heart. I watch his face, as he frowns his eyebrows looking in pain. Like he's singing this from the bottom of his heart, like he means every word, every melody, every chord, every note. Like he loves me like no other, like he needs me, like we're meant to be.
"Give me love." He presses something that looks like a pedal on the ground and his voice continues echoing despite him not singing, he strums his guitar once and twice and presses the pedal again. His voice has merge with the strumming creating something beautiful as he hits his guitar with his hand he steps on the pedal again and the voices stop as he continues singing.
"Give me love, now. Give me love now, now. My my my my give me love." He continues singing and I can tell the songs coming to an end because he's singing more softly and he's strumming more delicately, not as fast and not as desperate as before. He stops strumming and instead begins clapping, the crowd claps along with him as he sings the same words over and over and yet despite them being the same words they seem completely different as he sings them with a different tune, with a different tone, with different emotions. His voice is so perfect, so raw, so honest, so pure, so lovely that with every word sang I fall in love with him just a little bit more. I feel myself crying but I don't care because he's there up on stage singing me a song letting me know he loves me, and he doesn't have to say it because I feel it.
The song ends along with his singing and harmonizing, and there's a beautiful silence in the crowd as they look at him in awe. He smiles, a dazzling smile that can be seen from miles away. He looks like he belongs on stage with the big spot light shinning down on him. He grabs the mic once more just as Mr.Whitman tries to step back into the stage.
"I'm sorry if I could just have a few minutes to say something.." He says into the mic looking in the direction of the teacher and Mr. Whitman nods letting him speak. Ryder mutters a soft thank you and stands up more straight unhooking the mic from the stand. The crowd begins to clap but he shakes his head from side to side.
"I don't know where to begin-" he starts saying styling his hair with a hand when he's interrupted.
"How about from the start!" One of the guys from the football team shouts and Ryder only chuckles and nods.
"Thanks Brad, that's really helpful. I wish I would've thought of that." He says with sarcasm and you could hear people laughing.
"Okay, how about this? If anyone is sitting near Violet Tanner make some noise." As soon as he says my name I freeze and look around me hoping no one recognizes me, I see him looking around the crowd and pointing at random spots and I suddenly look at Ana but she's already looking at me mischievously.
"Ana, don't-" I begin to say but it's too late as she raises both of her arms and screams loudly like a mad woman, Mike does the same and suddenly we have everyone looking at us. The guys behind me that where noisy at the beginning of the show quickly catch on and do the same as Ana, I snap my head towards the stage and I see Ryder looking at me with a burning gaze.
"Ah there she is, can we please get her on stage?" I start protesting but Ana is already holding me by the wrist and guiding us towards the stage, people clap as we pass by them and I start saying cuss words at Ana but all she does is laugh I'm return. We quickly reach the stage and she pushes me in front of her and towards the stairs where Ryder is smiling widely and offering me a hand, I take it and he pulls me up on stage with him. I see Ana walking back towards our seats leaving me all alone with him. My legs are shaking out of nervousness so I keep my eyes on Ryder and not on the thousands of students watching us.
"I knew you'd come." He says into the mic so the audience can hear and I nod.
"I promised you I would." I say looking up into his beautiful hazel eyes. He instantly smiled and takes the mic closer to his mouth.
"Now that I have her up on stage with me, I can finally say what I wanted to." He bites his lip, fixing the strap of his guitar so it's on his back.
"For a while I was very unhappy and although I didn't show it or I didn't know it back then, I know now that I was. Because when I look at her I feel my heart beating in my ears, and my stomach does this weird flip thing that I didn't know it could do. And when I get near her enough to hear her laugh my words get a jumbled mess along with my thoughts and I'm not the smooth Ryder that I am with everyone else, I'm suddenly a 14 year old boy with a crush that says all the wrong things. And I loose my cool. And how could I not? When she's lovely and beautiful and smart and she's everything that I could ever hope to find." He intertwines our fingers together and pulls me more closely to him, so close that I can smell his aftershave and see the freckles in his nose more clearly. So close that if I'm not careful enough I could kiss him right then and there, in front of all these people.
"I know that this is the first time that we are speaking like this, in person, but you make me feel like no one else has ever made me feel before." I feel myself crying again and he wipes away my tears with his thumb.
"I used to sleep around with girls a lot and I didn't think I would ever want to settle down with one but you, Violet, you changed me. And now I don't want to be with somebody else if they're not you. I don't need them, I only need you. Do you want to be my girlfriend?" I feel my cheeks burning in embarrassment at his confession but I nod my head rapidly.
"Yes, yes. Of course I want to be your girlfriend!" I say, my voice coming out soft but happy. He places his forehead against mine, and I imagine how we look right now with our height difference in front of all these people but I couldn't care less. He breathes heavily and I close my eyes in anticipation of his lips against mine.
"I love you, Ultraviolet." He says softly and I open my eyes as I hear him. He doesn't have to say this into the mic because this ones for me and no one else's. I place my hand on his cheek and rub it with my thumb.
"I love you more, Horse Ryder." I look at his hazel eyes from this close and at his plump lips so close to mine so I close the gap between us and kiss him. I kiss him slowly at first like we have all the time in the world, because we do. We have all the time of the world together. I feel him snaking his arms around my hips and before I can acknowledge what he's doing he's spinning me in his arms while kissing me and it warms my insides. We break apart as the crowd begins to clap louder than before and he takes my hand in his smiling down on me. Mr.Whitman comes up on stage with a frown on his features and looks at us.
"Well that certainly was a...performance." Ryder smirks at him and I laugh. He comes near me and presses his lips against my ear until I feel his hot breath fanning my cheek.
"Let's get out of here, I already won by having you." I feel butterflies in my stomach at his statement and I nod. He pulls me behind him as we descend the stairs that are at the side of the stage. He begins to run as Mr.Whitman calls his name dragging me behind him and he flips him off as the teacher tells him that he can't leave yet. I laugh at his action and run along with him, we get to the doers and he pushes them open I hear Ana and Mike telling me they'll drive us but I shake my head at them. I didn't want them, I only wanted Ryder. I only ever wanted Ryder. We pass the doors of the school and continue on running, I let him lead the way as he laughs and looks at me like I'm the only one in the world that matters. So I open my mouth as we're running to tell him.
"You're the only one in my life that matters." I yell it, despite the lack of noise. And he hears me because he smiles more.
"You're the only one in my world that matters." He says yelling too. I see cars passing us by at full speed despite this being a school zone so I look at him in the eyes to find out he's already looking at me.
"I'll never love you any less than I do right this second." He yells it and stops running, so I stop too. My hair is a disheveled mess, probably full of tangles but I couldn't care less because he was in front of me and I loved him and he loved me and he was mine and I was his.
"You promise?" I ask him breathing heavily and staring right into his hazel eyes as if it's the first time I'm actually looking at them.
"I promise." He breathes out sincerely, looking into my eyes. And that's all we do, we stay there breathing heavily on the side of the street with the noise of the cars passing us by and the minutes and the seconds and we just stay there. Staring at each other. And I realize that I want him in my life. Today. Tomorrow. Next week. Next month. Next year. Next lifetime. And maybe even after that too.