That Voice

Chapter 20

Luke’s P.O.V.

Ash had just stepped out to the front of the stage followed closely by Cal and Mike.  They were supposed to get the crowd riled up for me to introduce Sage.  This was gonna be so awesome!

The screams got louder as he shouted, “How’s everybody doin’ tonight?!?”  The chorus of squeals that followed assured me that they were a good crowd and probably wouldn’t hate on Sage.  Probably.  

Some of the braver girls were shouting at the three of them asking where I was.  Cal just smirked and spoke into his mike, “We’re getting to that.”

Ashton continued, “So, we have a surprise for you guys.  As you know, we are always looking for more people to be part of the 5sos fam.  So—“

He was cut off by Mike who got to the point, “We have a temporary new band member.  We’re just trying it out as an experiment, so absolutely no hate or you will lynched…”  The crowd gasped and went quiet, then all of a sudden burst out into cheers and shouts of excitement.

The crowd laughed and Michael said, “No, but seriously, we will.” which made them laugh harder.

Ash was laughing and shaking his head at Mike and turned back to the crowd, “So, whaddya say? You wanna meet the new band member of 5SOS?”  I took the resulting cheers as a good sign and tugged on Sage’s hand to get her to follow me onto the stage.  

Her hands were understandably a bit sweaty, but I could’ve cared less as I led her up the ramp.

When the fans caught sight of her, they gasped and began to cheer louder.  Her palm was still encased in mine, and I held our connected hands up like she won a wrestling match.  

The fans cheered louder and Sage looked out into the dark crowd, little beams of light appearing sporadically, and waved saying a shy little, “Hello!” into the mike that she was holding.  I chuckled.  She’s so adorably shy.

We walked to stand front and center on the stage with the rest of the guys and a few girls in the front row stretched out their arms to touch us.  

Sage’s grip on my hand hadn’t lessened any, and I could feel her lightly shaking.  I released my hand from her death grip and wrapped both arms around her shoulders, pulling her in close bending down to rest my chin on the top of her head.   

Ash swept his hands in the general direction of where I was holding Sage and announced, “Ladies and…ladies, this beautiful girl here is Sage Kennedy Lucas!” I laughed at Sage when she leaned forward and poked his ribs when he announced her full name.  Smiling sheepishly, he looked back at her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her from my embrace to stand next to him in view of the crowd.  

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“Everybody say hi to Sage!” Calum said as he stole the mike from Ash and all of the fans gave a cheerful shout.  Sage giggled and waved at them, mouthing a “hi” and I could see everybody in the front row melting from her adorableness.