Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Thirty-Three

    Fifteen songs in, and Drake was backstage mopping sweat off of his forehead. His DJ, Future the Prince, was playing music for the crowd to keep them amped while Drake gulped down two bottles of water and changed his clothes.

    Mia sat on the couch in his dressing room with one leg crossed over the other. "Have I ever told you how amazing you are onstage?"

    He grinned as he pulled a thin, striped long-sleeved shirt down over his head. "Only every time you've seen me onstage," he responded, facing the full-length mirror in the room. He adjusted the collar while studying his reflection.

    She smiled at his back, then lowered her eyes and responded to a text message from Bri.

    "You know...you should perform with me."

    She lifted her eyes. "Excuse you?"

    He laughed and walked over to the vanity, where he lifted a baseball cap. "I said, you should perform with me," he repeated, putting the cap on his head backwards. Flirtation lit up his eyes as he slowly approached her. He leaned down and positioned his face mere inches away from hers. "It would be fun."

    "A crowd that size?" She shook her head. "No way, this show is all you."

    "You performed at OVOFest. The crowd there was huge."

    "You ambushed me. That was completely different."

    He arched an eyebrow at her. "The crowd would love it. Come on."

    The tour manager knocked on the door, then cracked it open. "Five minutes."

    Drake glanced at him over his shoulder and nodded. A moment later, his eyes were back on Mia. "You can't just stand on the sidelines while I'm onstage performing our song. Come on."

    She could hear the roar of the crowd, even now. It wasn't that long ago that she was in Los Angeles at a PartyNextDoor show, scared to death to go out onstage, and that crowd had been a small fraction of this crowd. But if you're considering being a music artist, this is what your life would be, she told herself. This should serve as a test. Do I have what it takes to be a solo singing artist? Meeting his gaze, she started to nod. "Okay."

    He grinned from ear to ear. "Yeah?"

    She bit her lower lip. If you want to back out, now is the time to do it. "Yeah."

    From the moment she spoke the word, he didn't waste time. He checked with his crew to make sure she had a microphone that was functional, looked over her hair and outfit, and even jogged out to the stage to talk to his DJ. He explained to her that he was switching up the order of the songs being performed, saving her song for last. Bringing her out would be a surprise for the audience, and he wanted the show to end off on that high note.

    While watching him perform the second half of the show, she sang under her breath, trying to warm up her voice. Index finger closing one ear so she could hear herself better with the loud music blaring all around her. She paced back and forth on the side of the stage, out of view of the audience, alternating between singing and humming.

    Hush, one of Drake's friends and crew members, handed her a microphone, then ducked off as quickly as he had appeared.

    The upside was that she wasn't nearly as nervous as she had been that night at the Los Angeles House of Blues. She'd gone onstage, killed the performance, and the audience had loved it. The reviews for her impromptu performance at OVOFest had also been positive. All she had to do was go out there and do what she loved doing: sing music that she'd written with her pen and bask in the presence of an audience that felt her words on a personal level.

    "I want to thank you all for getting hype with me tonight," Drake said into his microphone. "Now...I rarely introduce my songs. Usually I just dive right into them. Or Future will start playing the music, and you'll know what's up. But with this song, I have to introduce it. This next song that I will be performing is 'Soul Cry.'"

    Most of the women in the audience screamed.

    "You know the song, then?" he asked them, walking across the front of the stage and making eye contact with some of the fans in the front row. "I take it that means that you have some love for Mia Thomas, then?"

    More screaming and applause. This time, a lot of the men chimed in.

    "Well, if you have love for Mia, I'm going to need everyone to stand up. This song is special to me, and so is the woman who wrote it. And...actually, I have a surprise for you, Miami. Future, let's give it to em!"

    Future the Prince cued up the music for the song "Soul Cry."

    Mia closed her eyes, allowing the music to flow through her. Then she lifted her microphone to her lips and sang into the microphone, "Don't you know my soul cries out for you?"

    The audience went wild, screaming in response.

    She opened her eyes and found Drake beaming at her. He crooked his fingers at her, beckoning her to come out onto the stage. With a smile, she strode out onto the stage, not stopping until she reached him. She sang the line again, then continued with the rest of the verse, batting her eyelashes at him before turning to face the audience. The very large audience. The very large, boisterous audience.

    Blue and purple lights beamed down on her from overhead and rotated, swirling across the stage and over the first few rows of the crowd. The screaming died down and the audience started to sing the words with her.

    Hearing the crowd sing her words made her heart feel so full that it was near the point of exploding. She backed away from him while singing, her lips curled into a smile, and moved to stand at the front of the stage, pouring her heart out into her voice. During the performance, she hit notes she'd never hit before. All the while, she could feel Drake's eyes on her, could feel the pride he felt from where he stood behind her. When her part was over and it was time for his verse, she turned and started dancing, working the stage while he moved forward. A few times during the performance of the song, they crossed paths on the stage. If he wasn't playfully grabbing for her, then he was giving her flirty looks or bedroom eyes.

    The audience ate it up. Their smattering of applause filled the expansive stadium. Clapping, screaming, whistling, foot stomping. The place was filled with so much energy, it was a wonder the ceiling didn't pop off.

    Mia blew kisses at them and took a bow.

    "Ladies and gentlemen," Drake said into his microphone, his voice sounding extra deep, "I'm going to need you to give it up to Mia for one time."

    Several different emotions ran through her. Pride and the feeling of accomplishment. Appreciative of the audience's warm welcome. Elation that words she'd written were sung back to her from a crowd this size. Hopeful for her future and what was to come. Because the love and adoration that was flowing from the crowd was as addictive as any drug, any high. She closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and drank it all in.

    Then she remembered the man who'd made all of this possible, the man who'd forced her to get onstage at OVOFest...the man who'd pressured her to get onstage at House of Blues in Los Angeles...and the man who'd suggested that she perform with him tonight.

    She opened her eyes and glanced at him over her shoulder. His eyes were already on her; they always were. Wearing a smile, she turned and ran to him. She jumped on him and wrapped her arms around his neck, making sure to keep a tight grip on the mic.

    He grinned at her and lifted his microphone to his mouth. "Miami, I don't think you guys know just how much I love this woman right here," he said, and dropped the microphone to the floor so he could wrap both arms around her.

    Briefly forgetting that an audience of nearly twenty thousand people were cheering them on, she pressed her forehead to his, then kissed his lips. When she pulled back from the kiss, the applause and shouting from the crowd was deafening. She raised her microphone and said, "Thank you so much for the love. I love you, Miami!"

    He grabbed her hand and guided the microphone to his mouth. "We both love you, Miami!" With those final words, he carried her off of the stage and back to his dressing room, where he locked the door behind them.