Dark And Light

chapter 21

April 18, 2036

Picture this: a small venue. A crowd of homey, comfortable people. The ambiance is amazing. You think that during your performance you'll get the most attentive crowd, maybe even wave at a few.

"This place is fucking huge!" Eva gasped when we stepped into the barely-occupied building.

I thought this was gonna be smaller. But this is bigger than any place she's performed at. She took hold of my hand and I immediately registered how cold it was.

"On a scale of one to ten-"

"Twenty. Two tens. Vinte."

I nodded and decide we should just tour the place. This was one of the rooms and I knew there were more places to see if we walked back the way we came from. Luckily, Sabrina was just as eager to explore- as if she didn't have the energy she needed to conserve. I won't take long with her, I just needed her to calm her nerves in the other rooms first. The painting in one of the rooms had us lingering there for more than 15 minutes. She was scheduled to begin in 40 minutes and people were slowly trickling in. They were mainly people that had me know for sure that this was some petty charity and music scouting kind of concert night. I don't know how else to explain it, they just give off snobby spoil money laundering rich type of vibes. Sabrina must've noticed it too, cause I saw her glance at them a few times and not exactly succeed at hiding her face of disgust. I'm glad Storm raised us to be humble despite having it all.

We went back to the room we'd perform in and helped Sabrina with a few mic checks and a few vocal warm-ups. That alone caused a few of the attendees to file in and listen to her voice, smiling. I resorted to clenching my jaw tight and feigned meek smiles to whoever smiled at me. To the snobby ones trying to play humble. The attendees that were truly humble got a real meek smile.

6.30 pm Finally came up and the host began. The crowd was just as reactive as you'd expect one of this consensus to. The time went on and we listened to instrumental artists play their pieces, which I will admit was great... but I preferred Sabrina's guitar playing any day over the ukelele.
An entire hour passed and I checked the line-up to find when Sabrina would do her section in this event. And It was right after the 2nd artist for tonight.

"You're next." I smiled and looked at her.

Except, she wasn't there. She was not catching cold feet. She had four items to perform and the band was more than pleased to provide extra percussion sounds.

I stood still for a minute and tuned in to her presence. Backstage bathroom.

Just as I was about to move off, I caught a glimpse of someone. I scanned the space quickly and quirked my brows when I didn't see her. I hope my mind was just playing tricks on me.

I walked to the bathroom and the moment I put my hand on the handle, the person on the other side of the door opened it and stepped right in front of it. She looked so scared.

I immediately gave her a hug and reassured her that she'd do great. It only lasted a minute because the artist currently performing would end then. I helped her get her guitar on without messing up her bangs and handed her her lyric sheets in case she forgot a few lyrics. She never has, but it was a much larger crowd, so I wouldn't blame her for having those papers nearby.

"I'll be in the front row,"

"Yeah, the rest of your fam is scattered there too. Except for,"

"Bella."

We sighed. She said she'd be arriving late. Hopefully, she reaches by the second song.

I gave her a peck on her lips before walking out of the backstage room and into the hall... because I have no idea what to call this large area. I had to do a double-take with the reserved tag. I removed it and looked at the large laminated paper with a quirked brow.