Midnight Music

Chapter 5

"You did not!" I gasped in absolute shock as I stared at the website on my phone. In her most recent post, Daisy wrote about how a mysterious girl with an angelic voice suddenly appeared at the Masked Muse and defeated the star of the club, Platinum. "Like a clever Cinderella, the lovely Iris made her appearance and disappeared into the night, leaving nobody to know who she is or where she came from. Hopefully, we'll see her perform again for us peasants. What the hell is this?"

"It's called a blogpost. I figured you'd prefer I left you as a mystery rather than come up with some complicated biography. And check out the video! It's had over a thousand views since I posted it on Saturday!" Aspen pointed at the numbers next to the video of my performance against Platinum on Friday night.

"Why did you do this? This isn't what I wanted." Now people are going to try and figure out who Iris is.

"Sorry, but this is what Daisy does for her blog. If you want, I can take it down."

I sighed. "No, it's fine. It's great, and it could be fun. Maybe it'll even help break the shell, you know?" Shoving my phone into my pocket, I continued to walk with my roommate out the door.

As we walked in the bitter, early February weather, we were suddenly joined by a young man. His curly brown hair poked out from under a blue beanie, and his hazel eyes twinkled at Aspen. "Hey, gorgeous." He greeted her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, you." She smiled back at the stranger. I cleared my throat and gave her a look that asked 'Who is he?', then she seemed to remember. "Oh, yeah. Amy, this is Mason. Mason, you remember Amy, don't you?"

'Remember me?' Have I met him before and forgotten? I held out my hand, utterly confused. He smiled nicely. "I sort of remember her face, but I think she introduced herself as 'Anonymous' when I met her."

My head thought back to a couple weeks ago. "Wait. . . DJ Moon?"

"In the flesh. But my real name is Mason. Sorry about the confusion."

"It's fine. I'm just wondering if I should tell you my other name, since I know both of yours now."

"You can if you want. I promise I won't tell anyone, not even the other people at the club." Mason's face was so sincere, but my superstitions gnawed at me once more, asking for reassurance before I make a mistake.

"How many people of the Masked Muse do you know?" I asked curiously.

"I know Platinum very well, and a couple of others because we became good friends," He thought for a moment, stroking his invisible beard. "I'd imagine I might actually know a few more, but I don't know for sure because not everybody reveals their identities to the other employees."

I looked at my friend, who nodded. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have one person in the club know," I fished my wallet out of my messenger bag, and pulled out my Star Card with a flourish. "I'm Iris, and here's the proof."

Mason looked from the card to my face, his eyes gradually widening and his mouth dropping. "Wha—? You mean—that was you?! When you and Platinum— Whoa!"

Aspen and I laughed at his reaction. "That's right. You are the only one in the club who knows. And I'd like to keep it that way, since I'm not an employee or anything."

"I wouldn't be so sure." I raised my eyebrows at Mason, but my roommate cut him off and pointed out that we were now in front of the building where my class was.