Back to You

In The Moment

"You and your friends have to go, man." The very familiar guy said.

Ryder's gaze broadened in alarm. I was just as mystified as he was. "What?! Why?! You asked me to bring them here dude!"

Sighing, the man sadly shook his head as I began analyzing him more to put a finger on where I recognized him from. Then as the seconds passed, it all clicked right away.

This was Jeremiah. Ryder's cousin. The man who he said owned this club. He was usually a passionate and frivolous kind of person, but not too unbearable. Oddly now though he was on edge for some reason.

I remembered meeting him once when Ryder asked me to go to a family vacation retreat because his entire family preferred for me to attend. It was around the same time Angela and him were in a middle of an argument at the beginning of their relationship for asking me first.

But for Jeremiah, that was the first and last time I saw him after he just moved out of the country.

"I know, but I've got to change my mind now! I need some paying customers around here—which I don't have right now. I'm already in debt with your parents for the money they gave me to buy this place." He explained, groaning.

"Well, at least they don't ignore your existence..." Ryder snickered.

Glancing over at him perplexed, I wanted to find out more what he meant by that. I was informed that him and his parents weren't completely where they wanted to be to have a close-knit family bond as a whole, but I had no idea what happened before between them that caused it. They always seemed happy when I was around, so I didn't usually press him for further on the subject.

"Look I know you got stuff going on there, but I got stuff going on here! I opened this karaoke club for people to pay for the karaoke station I invested 500 bucks for, McKenna." He told him.

"Wait, karaoke?" I asked as my ears perked up. His gaze then moved over to me and nodded.

"Uh yeah! What did you guys think the sign on the door meant? The place is called 'Club 21—Karaoke Bar'." He said with a 'can-you-guys-read' expression. "I don't want to be a jerk dude, but I can't just keep having teenagers sit around drinking their own booze Adam and the rest brought. I can't even sell mine to y'all." He told us.

I winced shyly. "Pretty sure it's illegal."

"Yeah sure, if you wanna put labels on things." He answered shrugging nonchalantly. "Apparently the rumor around here is that no one wants to go up and sing anything, because you're here watching and would think less of them if they make a fool of themselves. I need money!"

Ryder sighed and nodded, pondering in thought over what to do. I didn't even think he had that much power socially but it was kinda a shame.

If that's what they love to do, they should go for it.

"Alright, we'll figure something out Jeremiah! Could you actually say hello to the girl in front of us? Show some kind of sense of decorum, please." Ryder spoke out. Wow, a lot could change in a week. "I'm so sorry about this Faith. Faith, this is my cousin Jeremiah. Jeremiah meet Faith. My new friend I invited here tonight."

"I know, we've met." I accidentally blurted out.

"You have?!" They both inquired baffled.

God, when I was going to get good at this?! "Uh...what I mean is you look like someone I've met before. Some time ago." I corrected clearing my throat.