Unrequited

Dare You to Move-Switchfoot

Dare You to Move-Switchfoot (8)

WELCOME TO THE FALL OUT. WELCOME TO RESISTANCE. DETENTION IS HERE.—BETWEEN WHO YOU ARE AND WHO YOU COULD BE, BETWEEN HOW IT IS AND HOW IT SHOULD BE. I DARE YOU TO MOVE; I DARE YOU TO LIFT YOURSELF OFF FROM THE FLOOR.

I shook off the damn feeling of losing to my nerves, breaking down to everything that moves. I focused on the music instead and looked outside my window. In twenty minutes, M is picking me up and he’ll drive us to school and we’d go through the daily notion of high school and then by the end of the day, we’ll be standing behind the stage, prepping up for the audition we had been working so hard for.

I closed my eyes and listened to the voice in my earphones, singing those lyrics that mean so much to me.

He dared me to lift myself off from the mess I made.

He dared me to be better than I was before.

He dared me to stand up and express myself—

The honking of his car snapped me back and I opened my eyes. He was right there. Matt came out of his car, jogging up to the steps of our porch and the doorbell rang twice. Mom called me up from the kitchen and I grabbed my bag as I headed down.

I wiped the grin off my face as I saw him.

“Good morning,” he greets warmly and I smiled too little. “Big day,” he reminds me and I sighed.

“I’ll see you later, Mom!” I called out and I heard a brief response. We started walking up to his car when I said; “I’m nervous.”

“Well,” he opens the door of the passenger for me and grins. “You shouldn’t be.”

-

He asked me if I wanted the band to be there but I said no. I saw one of the members talking about his mom being rushed to the hospital and apparently, Matt doesn’t know. He didn’t push me so that was good.

At first, I started to doubt if I’d seen the right guy but he was talking to another band mate so I crossed doubt off my list. I realized then that Matt was confident we’d make it through with or without the band—that we’ll do fine on our own.

We re-opened the discussion about the name we’ll be using during lunch while the gang talked about a movie opening up this week. We couldn’t participate as much as we want to because we were busy having the debate.

“Mile Breakers are much better,” he argued. “And rings the bell a lot more,”

“Less is more,” I said. But he only raised a brow at me.

“Breaking is also eight letters, B.”

“Alright,” I resigned. “Let’s ask the gang.” We turned to them at the same time but they were already looking.

“YOU TWO ARE IN A BAND?!”

I stared at M. And we were thinking the same thing: uh-oh.

-

I was shaking as we waited and I didn’t know why. The auditorium wasn’t filled with people. There were just a few students bored to death that came out here and the judges.

But as I peeked I groaned to myself and realized why I was so nervous. The gang was sitting front row and Matt joked about them having a basketful of tomatoes ready to be thrown at us. I told him that the joke was not acknowledged because I was freaking out already. Well, he only laughed at me and that made it worse and better at the same time.

“Are you ready?” He asks me as he pulls the strap of his guitar safely across his chest. I shook my head no. “What?” He reacts and suddenly pulls my jacket that brings me closer to him. “You’re going to do great.” Matt whispers and despite the guitar being in the way, I embraced him tightly. He let out a low and short laugh before doing the same with one arm and a soft kiss on top of my head. “Let’s do this.”

I took his hand and we went to the stage as the name Mile Breakers were called. I rolled my eyes at him as I grabbed the microphone from the stand.

-

Do you get that feeling that…no matter what you do, it seems perfect?

After all these years, I finally had that moment. Up there, as I sing with him, I feel like it didn’t matter if we get in or if they laugh at me. What matters is that I was brave enough to take that limelight and that he was right there with me.

Matt’s voice didn’t sound like an angel’s voice to me everyday. Usually, his voice was like a rock star going acoustic on his nth concert. As it blended with mine, I felt the connection and the brilliancy of how it was somehow meant to be—on how the puzzle fit together flawlessly.

The world fell silent and then finally the panel said: “We will see you in the assembly tomorrow morning.”

-

I dare you to move—I dare you to move—I dare you to lift yourself off from the floor—I dare you to move—I dare you to move—like today never happened, today never happened…before.