Unfazed

Chapter 8

"Hey." She said, smiling up at me. It took a moment for me to process that she was standing in front of me. "Hey, you look beautiful tonight." I blurted out. I tried to mask my shock by turning back towards the food but not before I caught her cheeks growing warm."Thanks, you don't look bad yourself." She replied. I nodded my head, still not meeting her gaze. 

"Nice house you have here." I told her in all honesty again. "Its ok I guess..." She trailed off. "What a mansion isn't good enough for you? You need a castle instead?" I replied snarkily. "That's not it." She was quick to defend herself. I turned to see her glaring at me. "Then what is it?" I asked. "You wouldn't understand." She mumbled and then walked away, leaving me to stare at her back until she disappeared into the crowd. 

I had a feeling that I just did something bad, I was filled with guilt. But what was there to be guilty about? It was a simple question. I didn't think she'd get mad. Still, I regretted it. As I made the desicion to go apologize, my thoughts were soon interrupted. "There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere." I looked over to see Marcus making his way towards me. "Well, here I am." I told him, motioning my hands around. "I can see that. Now, come on you're are on in ten and the boys are already waiting for you." With that, he grabbed my arm and led me into the crowd. 

*****

I was now backstage, a guitar over my shoulder and the boys behind me. Just as we were waiting for Marcus to announce our band Seth came up to me. "You ready bro?" He asked me. I gave him a sideways glance and sighed deeply. "As ready as I'll ever be." He nodded at me and turned to go, but before he got far I asked him, "Hey have you seen Cleo?" "Um, yeah I saw her for like two seconds before Marcus called us back here. She seemed kinda pissed, but she promised she'd save me a dance." He said, then winked at me before going to stand next to Cole.

The thought of Cleo's arms around Seth infuriated me. I don't even know why my feelings were all out of whack tonight. I think it might have to do with his rich atmosphere. I just wanted to go wow Cleo's mom, then go home and get out of this suffocating suit, maybe even take a warm bath. Just then I heard Marcus call our band, that was our cue. We walked out on the mini stage set up for our performance. 

We were on stage, all of us in our ready positions. I looked out at the crowd, a bunch of eyes stared back at me. This wasn't a concert, where I just looked out and saw an endless sea of heads. No this was up close and personal. I could see everyone; the men in suits, the woman in their most expensive attire- all looking at us critically. And up front, was Cleo's mom, who seemed unimpressed so far. But through all these people not once did I spot a brunette with green eyes staring up at stage expectantly. 

I turned back towards the boys and gave them a tight nod, letting them know I was ready to begin. Today we chose to play one of our slower songs because we decided a bunch of oldies wouldn't appreciate our loud rocker type of music. This one song, had more soul to it and to be honest I really liked it.

When I first started our band, rock was everything to me. I lived on rock music. But the more well known we became, the more I realized rock music just wasn't the same for me. Soon I started writing our own songs, and the more I wrote the more I leaned to the softer sound. Its weird really, how one could just change like that. Its not that I don't like rock anymore, it will always be the bad ass side of me, but Ive just learned to love soulful songs. And that was exactly what this song was. 

As the music started and I started singing, I made sure to put everything I could into this song. I really wanted it to affect people, I wanted them to hear all the pain in my voice and then have them relate to it. I kept my eyes closed the whole time, having my face portray the story. 

I always thought that she

Was the one for me

Little did I know she wasn't