Everything Has Changed

Chapter 10- Sing Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

Eva's POV- 11:34 pm:

After about a forty minute conversation on the phone with Amanda and Cameron about me and Niall’s date and a quick change into more comfy clothes, I slide back into the hangout room where I find all five boys looking at me excitedly, and a guitar in Niall’s hand.

“You promised you’d sing.” Niall gestures towards the stringed instrument and smirks at me.

“Uh, as I recall I never promised you anything. I said that I’d love to sing for you, but maybe I changed my mind.” I try my very best to wriggle my way out of this humiliating situation.

“Please Eva.” Zayn and Harry whimper.

“Yeah Eva. Please.” Liam and Louis put on their best pouty faces.

“Come on Eva, you should take your shirt’s advice.” Niall points toward my gray, oversized sweatshirt.

For a minute I am really confused but once I look down I can see that my sweatshirt clearly states, “Now or Never.” Goddamnit. Just do it Eva, now or never. I give myself a pep talk and grab the guitar from Niall’s hands, and he smiles as I take a seat next to him and Zayn on the couch, “Alright. One song.” I try to say in a confident tone even though I am crying on the inside.

“Okay.” The boys all move to sit on the carpet in front of me, and shift their positions to get comfortable before I start.

I start to strum the beginning notes of “Daughters” by John Mayer. Ever since I was a little girl my mom would play John Mayer songs through our porch speakers while I would swing on the swing set. He has always been my favorite musician just because every single one of his songs brings me back to good times, and he is absolutely amazing at what he does.

I get really nervous as my cue comes to start to sing, but I assure myself that everything will be fine. Worst case scenario; I absolutely suck and they laugh in my face. But now that I think about it, that is a horrible turnout if that does happen. Oh no. I let the first few lines just slip through my lips, trying to forget about the situation I’m in and just focus on the music, and it works. The next thing I know I am strumming the last chord of the song and I open my eyes to look at the five boys all wide-eyed. I start to doubt myself as the boys stay silent for a matter of seconds. Fuck. I just sounded like absolute shit didn’t I? SHIT.

Just as I think I am going to run out of the room sobbing from embarrassment, Harry clears his throat and speaks, “Eva. Holy shit Eva. That was incredible.”

“Yeah Eva, I don’t even know what to say. That was so good.” Liam searches for something to say.

“HOLY MOTHER FUCKING SHIT GOD. EVA THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!” Leave it to Louis to give me a compliment filled with about a billion swears.

“Yeah, why haven’t you auditioned for anything yet?” Zayn looks at me confused.

“Uhhh I don’t know. Whenever I ask my parents if I can they always tell me that I should wait until my voice is a little better. They say I’m not quite good enough yet.” I explain my parent’s lack of support of my lifelong dream to become a singer.

“Well no offense, but your parents are crazy. Anybody who could hear that voice of yours and not fall in love with it is insane.” Niall says as the other boys nod in agreement.

“Haha well thanks, you should tell them that.” I try my best not to blush.

“Oh we will.” Louis stands up as if he is going to go track down my parents and tell them they need to smarten up, but Harry tells him to sit down and cool off. I just laugh as the boys chit chat about my voice as I'm sitting right in front of them.

Niall's POV- 11:37 pm:

I watch Eva's trembling hand as she stums the first few chords to a song I don't think I have heard before. She's nervous and the boys and I can tell, considering that we get nervous when we perform too. She has her eyes closed as tight as they can be. We all look around at one another and wait for her to start singing. Then, I hear the first few words slip from Eva's lips like butter on a hot pan. The boys and I all look at each other with our jaws dropped. She is incredible.

Her voice is soft and I can tell that she is by no means capable of belting gospel songs or anything like that. But she sings with such amazing control and her pitch is spot-on. She's much better than some of the artists that I know who have record deals with us at Synco. She's real, authentic, and I can feel the song as she sings it, I can tell she is singing from the heart.

All I can think while I'm listening to Eva is that Simon has to hear her. He'd love her.