Foolish Mortals

Chapter 4

sim-u-la-crum

simyəˈlākrəm

noun

an image or representation of someone or something

synonyms: image, duplicate, copy, model

"You guys have been great tonight!" Isaac shouted, waving his arm wildly. Sweat dampened his hair, and he swiped at his forehead. "We got one last song for you tonight, this one goes out to a special lady of mine. Simone, this one's for you, Cherry Blossom!"

Cheers erupted, and girls surged towards the stage, reaching their hands up. Isaac leaned down, trailing his hand over theirs.

I rolled my eyes, safe to do so as the spotlight was firmly fixed on Isaac at the moment. I'd written it thinking of Jess, actually, and Robbie had done the words. His cute rounded face peeked up over the drum set at me, and we grinned at each other. We had a similar mindset - we didn't really care about the glory as long as we got to perform good music for a good crowd.

I stood from my bench and tucked my violin under my chin, positioning the f-holes directly in front of the microphone. I deliberately avoided looking towards that little red-lit doorway again. I had been sneaking glances at Liam all night, and was impressed with his stamina. He hadn't moved an inch the whole time we'd been playing. We'd played a full hour, then took a break in which the club pumped pop music over the speakers, and we were now nearing the end of our second set. I wondered what exactly his job was, at the club. He'd implied during our impromptu interview that he was the owner, but now it seemed more like he was some kind of security guard.

I blinked as I felt the warmth and brightness of the spotlight fix on me, and the rest of the stage went dark. The crowd settled into silence, and for a long moment I could almost imagine it was just me in my practice room. I lifted my bow to the strings and began to play. It started low, minor, throbbing my bow across the G string in rhythmic tones. Then my fingers flew up the neck swiftly, jumping to the very highest notes and letting them sing out across the space.

This was my favorite part. When the melody danced back down gently, like petals floating in the breeze, creating this image so clear in my mind of Jess coming upon me, crying under a cherry tree after a thorough bullying. She just sat down next to me, totally quiet, and wrapped one arm around me until I stopped crying. Then we sat and watched the blossoms fall, and I knew we'd be best friends.

I reached the end of my solo, drawing the bow across the strings with a flourish. The rest of the stage lit up as Isaac's driving guitar chords kicked in, and he began singing. I sank back down, put the violin on its stand, and began playing my piano part along with him. I had to blink away a tear, as I usually did after performing that piece, knowing that Jess was out there in the audience crying too.

When the song was over, there was a long silence, then everyone erupted into screaming and applause. Isaac lifted his hand for a last wave, then led the way off stage. I was bringing up the rear, so I turned around and blew a kiss to the audience just before the stage lights went dark.

As we trooped through the hallway back to our green room, I high fived Robbie and Devon.

"Kick enough ass for you, Jack?" Robbie asked with a grin.

"Hell yeah, we were on fire!"

As soon as we were in the green room, I collapsed onto the red leather couch and stretched my legs out in front of me with a groan. I was filled with energy from the performance, but I could definitely use a few minutes off my feet.