Camryn Quinn is finally getting what she wants...sort of. Moving into a dorm and away from her not so supportive father is a good first step, but like everything with him-it comes with strings. She must attend the college of his choosing for at leas...
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The opening cords of the song Taylor chose for us begin to ring in my head. My palms are so sweaty. I have a death grip on the microphone just to keep from dropping it. I ignore the intrusive thoughts about the amount of mouths that have touched it just tonight. I make the mistake of glancing over to the table where Taylor's friends are. Every single one of them is staring and wears the same stupid grin on all of their stupid faces, including my brother. His face is the worst of all though. He's challenging me, daring me to mess up and embarrass myself.
As if I could possibly be worse than his other friends and their horrendous renditions of popular songs. Especially those poor freshmen that no one seems to know the names of. They just call them freshmen. No attempt to individualize it with even their jersey numbers. My brother is a freshman for fucks sake, but I guess his position on the team as quarterback and the coach's son earns him some sort of seniority.
"I can't do this. I'm going to vomit right here on this stage and all I've eaten today is cheap sushi," I say, pulling the mic away from my mouth so the words don't reverberate through it.
"You can do anything for thirty seconds." Taylor doesn't provide any reassuring gestures. He only begins to nod his head in sync with the violin that adds to the melody in the background.
"There are a lot of things I wouldn't do for thirty seconds. Not even five. I think this is one of them."
Taylor opens his mouth, but instead of more words of wisdom he begins to sing the lyrics on the screen, "Who doesn't know what I'm talking about? Who's never left home? Who's never struck out?"
I finally stare down at the monitor because the tune and the words aren't enough to decipher what it is. I have no idea what song it is or who sings it. It only adds to my confusion of why the hell Taylor chose it in the first place. I thought for sure it would be a Taylor Swift song. That's what I had mentally prepared myself for as we climbed up onto the rickety black platform.
Taylor throws an elbow into my side as the chorus begins. "The chorus is all you Capt.! Thirty seconds!" His smile is one I haven't seen before, it's warm and encouraging. It coats me in Vaseline and begs me to take a chance, promising to protect me if I get burned.
"She needs wide open spaces. Room to make her big mistakes." My voice comes out soft and off key. I quickly fall behind the cadence of the song.
I don't stop, though. I continue to sing the words as they appear on the screen, letting them echo from my lips before registering their meaning. It's only once I repeat, "She knows the high stakes," that I realize what the words mean.
Taylor didn't just choose this song because it was one of his favorites—which is no doubt true considering doesn't have to read the TV screen—he chose it carefully for me. He knew that I would have to analyze what I'm singing because it's what I do. That the words would eventually travel to my ears, that their message wouldn't be lost on me.
