𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙊𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙐𝙥.

Showtime II.

The applause lingered long after Animal I Have Become ended.

West's ears rang. Whether from the amplifiers or the adrenaline pumping through him, he couldn't tell. He'd barely noticed his fingers hurting until now. They stung pleasantly against the strings.

Lia leaned toward the microphone, still breathing a little heavier than usual. "We're gonna slow it down a bit."

Franny stepped forward, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"This one's very special to me."

She rested a hand lightly against the microphone stand, looking almost embarrassed by the attention.

"I wrote it after my family dragged me to the Oregon coast last summer."

"I spent the whole holiday wishing I was home..." She smiled to herself.

"...Then cried when we had to leave."

That earned a few knowing chuckles from the crowd.

"It's called Postcards to Places That Don't Exist."

West counted them in.

The opening guitar melody drifted into the room so quietly that conversations at the back dissolved on their own. No one had asked people to stop talking. They simply did... Franny always had that effect.

The song wasn't really about Oregon.
Not entirely. It was about those impossible moments you wished you could fold into your pocket forever...
Road trips ending, summer becoming autumn overnight... Friends growing into strangers without either of you noticing exactly when it happened.
The terrible privilege of realizing you were living in the good old days while they were still happening.

West's fingers moved almost absentmindedly over the fretboard.
He thought about Easton. About bombing hills on his skateboard until sunset painted everything orange... about Brittany shoving him off benches because, "You look too comfortable."

About Killian stealing his beanie because his ears were cold, then denying it even while wearing the damn thing. He smiled without realizing it.

The final note lingered just long enough to disappear naturally into the room.
For a second, everyone simply sat with it... Then applause bloomed slowly. It was less explosive than before, but somehow more emotional. Franny thought she even saw a girl wiping a stray tear from her eye in the front row.

"Well, that was depressing." Lia grinned

"I heard that." Franny muttered.

"I wanted you to."

The crowd laughed, and the shift in energy was almost physical. The room had finally exhaled.

They performed one last song before finally letting the stage go. By then, West had stopped thinking about whether he was doing everything right. His body was tired, his fingertips were aching, and there was still a faint tremor in his hands, but the nervousness that had nearly swallowed him backstage had given way to something lighter.

He looked out at the crowd and realized he was smiling. People were clapping along, some of them singing despite not knowing the words, and the little room felt completely different from when they'd first walked onto the stage. West had spent weeks worrying about what it would feel like to have forty strangers listening to him play. Now he couldn't believe the set was already almost over.

When the final note faded, the applause came rushing in.

West stood there for a moment, guitar hanging against his side, breathing hard and grinning like an idiot. He'd actually done it. He'd played in front of a crowd, sung into a microphone, survived the livestream, and somehow hadn't embarrassed himself.