Brad
I can’t have heard her right. “I’m sorry, what?”
She grins at me. “I said I’m going to go sing some karaoke.”
“In God’s name, why?”
She tilts her head as her shoulder lifts in a tiny shrug. “Because you guys are not going to trust me until I prove to you that we’re all in this together. So get your cameras out and turn them on, because I’m going to give you something you can use to blackmail me with for the rest of our natural lives.”
Jez stares at me for a moment, and then breaks out into grin. “Yep, that’ll work!”
I throw him a scowl that he brushes off with a wave of his hand. I’m torn. I don’t want to see her humiliated, but I know that something must be done to get the guys on her side. And this just might be it.
“Er, are you sure about this?” I ask her, as she downs another shot.
“Yes… why?” she asks, knowing perfectly well why.
“Because um… the choir solo debacle of ’98.”
“What’s the choir solo debacle of ’98?” Hailey pipes up, sitting straight up in her seat, obviously eager to see the show start.
“Oh my God, I’d forgotten that,” Marius says, the horrified look on his face telling us the memory is now coming back to him.
“Me too!” Sebastian adds.
“Well, I think we’d all repressed it,” I explain, and everyone nods in agreement.
“Hey! What’s the choir solo debacle of ’98?” Hailey demands again.
“Let’s just say Emily had a choir solo. It was just one or two stanzas, but…well…who knew vomit bags were something you should provide at a school concert?”
“OH MY GOD! Emily!” Hailey turns to Emily, her mouth agape.
Butter slaps me on the arm, hard. “It wasn’t me! It was the cafeteria food!”
I rub my arm where she’d attacked me. “Hey, your singing set it off!”
She sticks her bottom lip out in protest. “Hey, I can’t help it if our classmates were a bunch of ‘You vomit, I vomit’ pact-makers!
Jez stands up, a newly acquired beer in his hand. “So, are we gonna do this or not? Because this dry night thing is fast losing its appeal.”
Butter tugs on the sides of her jacket, psyching herself up. “Yes! I’m going up. Any requests?”
“Yes, I’ve got the perfect song,” Cadence announces up and covers her mouth from us as she mouths something to Emily.
Butter obviously approves, as she skips through the crowd to the karaoke operator and says something to him. The background music immediately cuts out as Emily steps onto the tiny makeshift stage in the corner. I see her grab the microphone and mouth something, her eyes looking upward. Whoever she’s praying to, I hope they make it work for her.
The music starts up, and the crowd roars with laughter even before she starts, and I can’t help but join in. We all know the song. She locks eyes with me for just a moment before she lifts the microphone to her lips and starts to sing. Over the crowd I can just make out the words “walked” and “party” and “yacht” but I don’t need to hear much more.
Her choice of song, “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon, is clearly meant for me.
She closes her eyes and sings along, the words somehow etched into her memory without her knowing. Her pitchy and flat-as-an-ironing-board voice has somehow caught the attention of the entire bar, who cheer her along as she stumbles over words and shrieks to get at those hard-to-reach notes.
I turn and the guys are holding their sides with laughter, Marius’s camera pointed squarely at the performance on stage, shaking as he tries to stay upright.
I can’t look away for too long and spin around to face the stage again.
Her body bends and sways to the beat, emphasizing words out of time and letting her voice take severe liberties with the melody.
And in this moment, she is undeniably the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen in my life.
Her dark, luscious hair, pulled into a loose ponytail, sways as she rocks her head, revealing the damp nape of her neck, glowing from a thin layer of sweat from her performance. Her lips make love to the microphone, and my cock tightens as the inevitable thought goes to her mouth on me. She’s pure sex.
But it’s more than that.
She’s exquisite in her sheer confidence, even while playing the clown.
My girl, turning her greatest detractors to pawns in the palm of her hand.
“You’re so vain!” she belts into the microphone, raising her finger and pointing it at me, then jabbing it into the direction of my bandmates. The action makes everyone in the bar turn around.
Suddenly it feels like a hundred eyes are trying to focus on us in the dark, scanning our faces, trying to place us. Then a voice screams out, “OHMYGOD, it’s the ROCK CHAMBER BOYS!”
A loud squeal completely drowns out Emily’s singing and Marius jumps up, shouting, “Run!”
Jez and Hailey scramble from the table as Sebastian waits for Cadence to jump off his lap before leading her out of the bar. I yell out to Emily and she drops her microphone and jumps off the stage, getting a head start from the crowd as they appear starstruck. Grabbing her hand as she runs to me, we follow the rest of our group out the door.
The cool night air is a blessing after the humidity of the bar, and the seven us pant as we cross the street, making our way toward the tour buses.
Our drivers jump into their seats as they see us making our way toward them, cranking open the doors. There’s a high-pitched scream and I glance back. There’s a group of about ten to fifteen women running up behind us.
Jez, Marius, Seb and the girls jump onto the closest bus.
“Go, go!” I yell at them and the door closes behind them
I pull Emily onto the girls’ bus with me and as soon as I’m safe inside, there’s a creak and a thud as our driver activates the door to close. We fall forward as the bus lurches to life. The driver steps on the gas, making a sharp turn to the right following the bus in front, and Emily falls on top of me, knocking me onto one of the white leather recliners.