Chapter 25
~Dane~
Zion hasn't performed at Hummingbird for a while. Not because he didn't want to, but because he was normally busy. Sometimes, it was because of work and other times, it was because we were working on a song.
But today, Zion said he wanted to perform a song there. I asked him what song he was going to perform, but he just told me it was a surprised.
I was wondering if it was the song he accidentally wrote down on his demo list, but I wasn't going to question him about it. If he wanted me to know what song he was going to perform, he would have told me the moment I asked him.
Oh, well. Whatever song he was going to perform, I knew I was going to love the performance. I just loved watching Zion perform. He was so talented and had so much energy on stage. You could see how much he loved music and performing.
I met up with Zion and his friends, plus Alika, at Hummingbird. The first thing I noticed when I got to the table they were at was that Zion had a guitar with him. I guess he was going to be doing an acoustic song, which only made me think even more that he was going to be singing a song he had been working on his own. None of the songs we wrote together were acoustic. Sure, he could probably easy turn one of them acoustic, but he had told me he loved how energetic the songs were.
I didn't think he would want to sing any of them acoustically.
Before the open mic started, the six of us decided to order some wings for us to split. However, once the food got here, Zion refused to eat any. "I don't think I'm able to stomach anything right now," he said.
Miguel looked at Zion suspiciously, his eyes narrowed as he seemingly scanned Zion up and down. "Who are you and what have you done to Zion?"
Zion furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"You said it in a way that makes it sound like you're nervous," Miguel said. "Since when do you get nervous?"
"Yeah," Marjani agreed. "You once said that getting nervous is for chumps."
"I'm not nervous," Zion said. "Who said I was nervous?"
"Then why can't you stomach anything right now?" Miguel asked.
"Why can't you stomach anything right now?" Zion shot back.
"Now you're getting defensive?" Miguel asked. "Yeah, you're definitely nervous about something."
"You're nervous."
"The more defensive you get, the less I believe you."
Zion didn't reply with anything else. Miguel was right; the more defensive Zion got, the less believable he was. I didn't really believe him either. He was clearly nervous about something, but I wasn't going to question him about it. If he didn't want to tell us why he was nervous, then I shouldn't ask him about it.
Too bad his friends didn't think about it that way.
They just kept questioning him about it, but Zion was trying his best to avoid answering.
So I decided to try to change the subject for Zion's sake. I could tell he really didn't want to tell everyone why he was nervous, but since it was rare for Zion to get nervous apparently, his friends were just way too curious about what was going on.
"Oh, did Zion tell you guys that we went a demo to two recording studios?" I asked.
"What?" Divya asked. "No." She looked at Zion. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Sorry," Zion said. "I've been trying not to think about them the entire time, because I'll just be constantly worrying about when they're going to contact me and if they're going to sign me."
"You must really be trying not to think about it if I didn't even know about it," Alika said. "So what record labels did you send the demos to?"
"The one Carrie is signed to," Zion said. "That was mainly out of petty because Carrie ended up listening to me recording the demo. We recorded at that studio, by the way."
Divya chuckled. "Of course you sent a demo there out of petty. That definitely sounds like something you would do. What's the other record label you sent the demo to?"
Zion looked at me for the name since he didn't really remember it. That wasn't surprising. He was constantly asking me to remind him what the record labels' names were. The only surprising thing was the fact that he was constantly forgetting the name. Shouldn't he be remembering it if there was a chance he was going to be signed there.
Then again, he did say he was trying not to think about it so he wasn't obsessing about whether or not he was going to get a response soon.
"It's called Mementos Records," I said. "The reason why we chose it is because they do sign anyone, but they tend to focus on more LGBTQ+ singers."
"And as much as I want to be petty and get signed to Carrie's label, I think I'm more interested in Mementos Records," Zion said. "I just really hope I get signed to them."
I want to assure Zion and tell him that he will, but I couldn't say that when I just didn't know. I had to be honest with Zion. He might get signed, he might not. He would be extremely lucky to get signed to his first choice.
Soon, the open mic started, so those who signed up were getting called onto the stage to perform. Zion was third who signed up so once his name was called, he stood up and grabbed his guitar as the audience gave him a welcoming applause.
Zion got onto the stage, holding up his guitar and standing in front of the microphone. "Hey," he said. "So I will be singing another original song which are normally written by my songwriter, Dane, but this one was written just by me because... It was written for him. Every single line, every single word is how I truly feel about him."
The audience awed as Zion prepped the guitar to sing, all while I was processing what Zion just said. He wrote a song for me?
My heart started beating a bit faster once the song began and I actually got to listen to the lyrics. At first, part of me was worried that he meant it in a way of him saying, "Look what you taught me to do," because he did want to write songs; he just didn't know how to put his feelings into it.
But that wasn't what he meant.
He meant it exactly how he said it; it was a song about how he truly felt about me.
More specifically, it was how I was always on his mind.
He I was, being so afraid that he didn't like me back. That all his flirting was just Zion being Zion. But it wasn't. Well, maybe part of it was Zion being Zion, but another part of it was genuine.
Now I could see why Zion was nervous. He was ready to put his heart on the line, all while not knowing if I liked him back. He was risking everything right now. If I didn't like him back, that could have messed up our partnership. That was probably why he didn't look at me for some time as he was singing the song.
It wasn't until the end of the bridge that he finally looked at me. I had been smiling softly this whole time, feeling so happy that he wrote a song just for me, despite not being too confident in his songwriting abilities.
He was finally able to crack a smile when he looked at me and saw me smiling at him.
When the song ended, everyone applauded as Zion did a polite little bow while he put his guitar on his back. I got off of my seat and walked over to Zion as he was getting off the stage.
And once he was off the stage, I cupped his face in my hands and pressed my lips on his. He didn't hesitate before wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I heard the audience applauding once again, and I could clearly hear Zion's friends and sister cheering the loudest, but all that was one my mind right now was Zion.
When we pulled away, Zion was smiling widely. "I take it you liked the song?"
I smiled back at him. "I love it."
____________________
FINALLY THESE TWO GET TOGETHER WOO. i really think they took the longest out of all my couples ahahaha
i've had this scene played for so long, i'm surprised i didn't write it sooner. but i'm proud of myself i was able to hold off a bit so i didn't write it too early.
and it's actually perfect timing because rn, it's 2:53am meaning it's june 1st meaning IT'S PRIDE MONTH. HAPPY PRIDE MONTH EVERYONE!