Connected To Him (ManxMan) ✔️

Part 1: Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Karaoke

You learn something new every day. Sometimes, it's learning the name of an actress in an early two thousands movie you watched a couple of times. Other days, it's discovering that your brush against the corner of a table last week left a scab. Today, it was learning that Scarlett couldn't sing. Like she really couldn't sing. But that didn't stop her from singing song after song at karaoke, causing Ethan's abs to currently ache from the strain of laughing so many times.

Overall, it was turning out to be a fun night.

Chris was going on a trip with some of his rugby friends and because Aaron was a part of that crowd, he got to go too. Scarlett thought it was bummy that they were having so much fun without them, so thought they should do some karaoke.

Now, Ethan and his friends were many things. Funny, charismatic, obsessed with pizza hut. But they were not performers. Not talented ones at least. A couple of them hesitated at the idea of doing karaoke. A whole night of bad singing didn't seem like a great idea. But once Meaghan and Rachel got on board, they convinced everyone else.

Ethan couldn't have been more glad. None of them could sing and, like he'd imagined, it turned out to be a night filled with bad singing. But something about those bad singers being his friends made it a great time for Ethan.

Scarlett was currently going off to Watch Me by Silento. As the song progressed, she steadily grew louder and louder because everyone around her was hyping her up. The sound of her yelling bounced off the walls of the small room. Ethan assumed they had made the room soundproof, otherwise, her yelling should have gotten them a noise complaint.

Scarlett was standing at the front of the room where a small space was cleared for people to sing. Behind her, the rest of their groups sat on the sectional couch that went around the other three sides of the wall. Scarlett stared with large excited eyes at the TV in the top right corner of the wall in front of her, stumbling every so often with lyrics she hadn't memorized.

Scarlett wrapped with all the confidence in the world but at some point, she got off tempo during the bridge and never got it again. For the last chorus of the song, she and the six people behind her sang completely offbeat.

Before walking back to her seat on the couch, Scarlett bowed, the short hair of her wig falling into her face. Brushing the strands away from her cheeks, she smiled at Ethan as she sat down on his left.

"That was wonderful, Scarlett." Ethan told her, giving her a small bow of respect. "Please, teach me your ways."

"Oh, it's easy." She scoffed with a cocky smile. "Whatever the artist does, don't do it. I promise that you'll sound less than decent."

"You know what? That makes a lot of sense."

Ethan only laughed when Scarlett hit his arm playfully. Her full lips were twisted into a frown that looked too soft to be real as she glared at Ethan.

"You were supposed to say 'no, Scarlett. You were far more than decent. You were amazing!'" She exclaimed, a look of awe on her face.

"Scarlett, why would I lie to you?"

That earned Ethan another hit, which he rubbed with a small smile. Scarlett stopped talking to Ethan to watch River sing an Adele song. Of the seven of them, he was by far the best singer. River didn't seem fully comfortable singing, but he was undeniably good. A soft smile appeared on Scarlett's face as she listened to him sing.

On her other side, Aiden had his phone out, recording the underclassmen with a proud smile. Although River was one of his friends, Aiden always took a more caring approach with him. Sometimes Aiden's doting habits would annoy River and he would roll his eyes as Aiden cooed or coddled. Yet, sometimes Ethan saw him lean into the attention. Even now, River sang directly into Aiden's camera, performing right to him. River didn't talk about his family a lot, and moments like this made him wonder if it was more complicated than he let on.