Dammit Dan, You Stole My Hart

Chapter 16

Eleanor - 11/06/16, Saturday

Friday had gone by with another rehearsal. This time we practised their actual performance piece, which was Rough Landing, Holly by Yellowcard. I'd heard of them before, but never really listened to their music. The song was pretty good in my opinion, and was situated comfortably within my vocal capabilities.

So there we were, half an hour before the performance, sitting around in the dressing room getting ourselves ready for the stage. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. What if you screw up? This is the opportunity they've been working so hard for?

I shook my head to clear those thoughts. They weren't going to help me pull this off.

Daniel and Andrew were both somewhere in the crowd. I highly suspected Daniel had gone off to find a bunch of his emo friends. Whereas Andrew, he was probably already seated outside, watching the other performances that were currently going on.

I had chosen a simple, black knee length sleeveless dress that spoke elegance, but gave me enough room to move about. After all, it was quite an upbeat song, and I didn't want to ruin the whole atmosphere by standing up there and doing nothing.

Kim had gone for her usual stage attire, jeans and a simple shirt that had the words "Spread Anarchy" written in big black text on it. Carmen, too, had gone for a pair of denim jeans, but was wearing a grey hoodie instead.

"I don't really find it that warm on stage, especially during the colder days," she had explained.

Matthew had gone for a singlet and shorts. "It doesn't matter. It's not like anyone's going to pay much attention anyways," he had said, and I swore there was a tint of bitterness in his voice. I didn't push him for answers.

Carmen and I were putting on the final touches of our makeup, while Matthew was strewn over a couch, catching some last minute shuteye.

Worryingly, Renee had yet to show up. Kim had gone out to try and contact her. Being the bassist, she was actually quite instrumental to the band.

"The bass, although you never seem to hear it, is extremely important," Renee had cheerfully explained. "It makes all the difference between good music and bad music." She certainly took pride in her instrument of choice.

Which made her disappearance a complete mystery to me. Why would someone like her suddenly abandon her post like that?

She's just caught in traffic or something. Well, that wouldn't explain why she hadn't been answering our calls. Perhaps she forgot to charge her phone or something.

Kim reentered the room. "I can't find her," she said. Her voice had recovered to the point where she was able to speak normally again, but not sufficiently for her to sing. You could still hear the slight hoarseness in her voice.

"Well we're up in about seven minutes," Carmen said. "So do we have a contingency plan if she doesn't show up?"

Kim considered it. She turned to me.  "Eleanor, you know the lyrics to Terrible Things right?"

"The Mayday Parade song? Yeah I do. Why?"

"There's a keyboard up there. I'll play the song, and you'll sing. Hopefully, by the end of the third verse she'll have turned up. If not we'll just play that bit acoustic," she said.

Someone knocked on the door to the dressing room. "Get ready it's almost time for you guys to be up."

"Dammit Renee," Kim breathed. "Of all the times."

So there we were, waiting on a bassist that wasn't showing up. We were fast running out of time.

Three minutes.