Save You Tonight (Liam Payne)

Chapter 3

A few months later:

 

            I’m now officially a firefighter. I suffered a few scrapes and burns, thanks to live fire training, but I made it. I thought I would be more excited, but I’m not. However, all of my firefighter buddies are excited for me, so that makes me feel a bit more proud of myself. We’re all in a pub, and everyone is getting drunker by the minute, but not me. I’m content with my sparkling water.

“Liam!” my friend Frank booms. He’s red in the face and definitely drunk. “This is Lila. Lila, meet Liam—he just became a firefighter today.”

I look up at Lila—she’s pretty with fiery, red hair and a white smile. “Congratulations, Liam,” she tells me. I gaze into her warm, doe-like, brown eyes, and I smile back.

“Thanks, Lila,” I say and gesture to the seat next to me. She sits down and Frank leaves us alone.

“So why do you want to become a firefighter?” Lila asks me. She takes a sip of her martini while waiting for me to answer.

“I like saving people,” I tell her.

“Oh? Hero complex?” she jokes.

“Nah. Well, I don’t know…I guess. I couldn’t save myself, so now I save others. You know what I’m trying to say?”

“Yeah…You feel empty inside. I suppose I feel that way too. I wanted to be an actress, but Hollywood didn’t want me, so now I’m back in England kind of wandering aimlessly through life. What’s your story?”

I don’t answer her, but she figures it out herself. “You look really familiar,” she says. “Where have I seen you before?”

I shrug, but she studies my face a bit longer before speaking again.

“Oh my god,” she whispers. “You’re the guy who sang ‘Cry Me a River’ on the X Factor a while back. I was so sad when you got eliminated.”

I don’t say anything. I just freeze.

She chuckles softly. “You have to sing for me. Joe!” she calls to the bartender.

“What’s up, Lila?” Joe asks.

“Can you hook up the microphone? I know it’s not Karaoke night, but this guy.” She places a hand on my shoulder. “Is an amazing singer. Do. It. Now.”

“You got it, Lila. This better be good though,” he says.

“Oh, he will be!” she calls after him.

I stammer. “I-I can’t. I don’t sing—“

“Oh, shut up!” Lila tugs me off the barstool and onto the small stage with the microphone. The spotlight is shining in my eyes, and all the eyes in the bar are on me. I’m not sure what to say, so Lila speaks for me. “Liam here is going to sing for us! What song will you sing?” She shoves the microphone into my face.

“Uh…’Cry Me a River,’’ I say automatically. “But—“

“Good choice! I’ll let you get started.” Lila leaves the stage, and it’s just me standing there like an idiot.

It just started to flow out of me—the music. “Now you say you’re lonely…”

As I sing, time escapes me and I become completely immersed in the song. I’m a bit rusty as I haven’t been practicing much, but my memory carries me through the entire thing. The whole time, I’m going back to that night, and the emotions that have long been repressed come pouring out of me.

“Cry….Me. A river…..!” I finish. After I lower the microphone, there’s this complete silence in the room and then it bursts into applause. The contrast is too much for me to bear. My voice was the outlet for my feelings during my performance, but now, my eyes are, and tears are streaming down my face. I’m now crying a river.

I rush out of the pub into the night. No one follows me except the ghosts of my past.