Sing to Me (5 page)

So, I
lalala’d
and hummed
with the rest of th
e class, but the whole hour, I
kept wondering what Colby would have said to me if we could have talked
earlier
. I wondered
what
I
would have said.
I hated
t
hat I’d never know
, but I felt
warm and
shimmery
in
side
becau
se I was pretty certain
he had feelings for me. And that was
a
good
thing since
I was starting to have feelings for him
too
.

Oh, who am I kidding?

I was crushing big time.

*****

“I hate running late,” Olivia said as we pulled into the
parking lot behind the school a few minutes
after 7:00 that evening.

I smiled, knowing it wasn’t my fault. I’d been ready to go at 6:30, but Olivia hadn’t pulled into my driveway until 6:40. For her, that was a good time. She was usually
either
really early or really late for everything. Tonight, she was running late, especially since she’d stopped at a drive
-
through after picking me up.

As I got out of the car, I saw Olivia trying to grab her purse, her phone, a binder of music, her giant bottle of water and the
enormous
salad she’d
gotten
for dinner
. Then she looked at her guitar case with a b
ewildered expression
.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” I said, grabbing the handle.
Luckily I had all my stuff in my backpack so my hands were free.

I walked calmly inside, though an amused smile hovered on my lips
.
Olivia looked almost frantic.
In my experience, rehearsals for anything usually started late anyway. Luckily I didn’t have to worry about this one. My only job was to give Ol
ivia some moral support while I
got some homework done.

The prom committee had decided to feature some of the local talent with live music at the prom
-
mostly, I suspected, because they would be cheap. I wasn’t surprised that they’d asked Olivia, but I hadn’t ever heard of the band they’d also hired. I couldn’t even remember the name of it.

Just as I thought, when we
got
to
the
music room, pe
ople were
milling around, hooking up microphones, tuning instruments, and talking. I saw Olivia’s shoulders relax as we went inside. She put her stuff down on a table, and went over to talk to a guy I didn’t know. He looked to be in is early twenties
and seemed to be the man in charge.

I turned and sat Olivia’s guitar down on the table next to her stuff so she could find it easily and looked around for a corner to sit in and crack open my Physics book.

“
Rylie
? What are you doing here?”

I turned quickly, knowing there was only one voice that could make my heart skid to a stop like that. Colby
stood a few feet behi
nd me
looking
surprised, but there was a warm glint in his eye that was easy to interpret.

“I came with Olivia. What are you…?” But before I even finished the question, my brain supplied the answer. “
Oh. Is this
your
band?”

A half-smile turned up one corner of his mouth. “Well, it’s not
my
band. If anything, it’s Micah’s – that guy Olivia’s talking to over there. He’s kind of our
frontman
and the one who got us together. But yeah, this is the band I play with.”

“Oh. Wow. I thought you meant something more like…”

“Like a bunch of wa
nnabe’s playing in their parent
s
’
garage?”

“Yeah.
Something
like
that.
”

“Well, we kind of were until Micah came along and recognized that we had something.
After a few jam sessions,
Blacktop Rising
was born.
”

“
Oh, so that’s what the band is called. I couldn’t remember it.”

“
Not
what Micah had in mind when he came up with it. He’s trying
to create our brand, you know?
Obviously we have some work to do.”

I looked up into his brown eyes, feeling shy but unable to resist their pull on mine. He was close to me now,
close enough that I could feel his warmth and catch the scent that was uniquely his.
“Well. I’m excited for you,” I said. “
That’s really cool that you’ll be playing at prom.”

“Yeah, well, I might as well
play
since the girl I like is already going with someone else.”

I didn’t know whe
re to look
because the expression in his eyes was so intense
, so I focused on the hollow at the
base of his throat. “I bet she
wishes she wasn’t,” I said softly.

His chest rose as he took a deep, quick breath.
“
Rylie
…”

“Hey Colby. We’re ready to start. Get over here,” the guy he’d called Micah demanded.

I saw Colby’s jaw clench as he bit down on his frustration.
“Darn
. Hey
look,
Rylie
-w
ill you hang out till I’m done here so we can talk?”

“I’ll try to, but I rode with Olivia so I don’t know how long she’s staying.”

He glanced over at Olivia. He was obviously torn between needing to go and wanting to settle things with me. “I know
,
but, if she wants to l
eave before I can, will you
stay? I’ll take you home.”

“Um, ok.
Sure.
I’ll wait for you.”

“Great.
I’ve got to go,” he said, almost like he was apologizing.

I watched him jog over to where the rest of the band stood waiting. He picked up
an electric
guitar and settled the strap
o
ver his shoulder
, then
glanced towards me one more time before he nodded to Micah to signal he was ready.

Instead of starting them off, Micah
grinned
a
nd said, “So that’s the reason you’ve been so moody lately. Well, I can see why. She’s
smokin
’ hot. Good thing for you she’s jail bait
though
.”

My eyes widened in shock. Micah’s microphone was on so everyone in the place he
ard him. Colby looked furious
and
Olivia’s eyes were as big as mine. She looked back and forth between Colby and I, obviously trying to figure out what was going on. It must have clicked pretty quickly because she shot me a look that clearly said “
I can’t believe you haven’t
told me about this, but you’re going to.”

Colby almost growled at Micah. “Look man, cut the crap and let’s get playing.”

“Sure, man.” Micah said. He looked over his shoulder at the rest of the band and said, “Let’s start with
Journey Home
and lead straight into
One Night With You
to get things going. Then
we’ll get Olivia up here and see what she can do.”

Relieved that everyone’s focus had shifted from me to their music,
I looked around for somewhere to sit while I waited.
The chairs had all been stacked up along the back wall so the janitor could vacuum. The band had set
up
on one side of the choir tiers, the drums at the top, a guy with a guitar and another with a bass were on the next step, and Colby and Micah were on the bottom. They’d brought microphones and another guy was going around checking them and messing with the wires that now covered the floor. Most of the lights were off in the room except one row of fluorescent lights in the back and the dim glow from Mr.
Grisom’s
office.

In the shadows behind the piano, I could see a few chairs that had been left out so I headed over there. Sitting down,
I leaned back and put my feet up on another chair
. Realizing I needed light to do my
homework, I stood and angled the chairs so that when I spread
my
physics book
open over my knees
, the light from the office behind me fell over my shoulder so I could see.
I
got out my notebook
,
told myself to get to work,
and didn’t
think about it again.

You see,
I couldn’t drag my eyes away from the band
.
Ok, well, mostly from Colby.

He’d rolled up the sleeves of the red plaid shirt he was wearing unbuttoned over a black t-shirt. I could see the muscles working in his
right
arm as he played his guitar
and the fingers on his left hand moved with confidence through the changing chords of the song. He was completely focused
, absorbed in the music, his head nodding slightly to the beat o
f the song. After the opening verse
, he began singing harmony, blending perfectly with Micah’s voice.

I couldn’t quite figure out if they were singing country or rock. Somehow they were straddling the line between t
he two and blurring the edges like it was easy. I knew it wasn’t.

Micah had a great voice and was very charismatic,
even if his personality
had already
rubbed me the wrong way.
He was really good looking too. I wouldn’t be surprised
if all the girls at prom fell in love with him.
But as the practice went on, it was clear that Colby was the better musician.

He was the one who really
seemed to feel the music.
It was Colby who would suggest a change in tempo or rework
the chords
of
the bridge to be less discordant. When something wasn’t going right, he was the first one to put his finger on the problem
. All this time
, I’d had no idea he was so talented.

I was fascinated as I watched his confident tweaking of their first two songs until they satisfied his critical ear. Micah, who had seemed to be so dominating,
almost
fade
d
into the background and let Colby take the lead in working out the kinks in their performance.

Olivia had been tuning her guitar and warming up her voice in another room. She came back in and sat down beside me on the floor as the band went through their second song for the last time.

“So, are you and Colby an item or something? When did this happen?”

“No, we’re not
. At least, I don’t
think
we are.
Yet.
”

Olivia raised her eyebrow at me and I could tell she didn’t believe me. “Yeah, right. You know he likes you though, right?

I looked at her, hoping to keep my emotions under control, but when I saw her face, I couldn’t help but grin and say, “Yeah. I think he does.”

“Wow. But I thought you hated Colby?”

“I never said I
hated
him. He just drove me crazy. But I’ve been babysitting his little sister to earn money for prom, and I’ve seen him a few times. He’s been different. And, um, he apologized for giving me a hard time and said he only did it to get my attention.
And because he was jealous of Brian.
”

“Wow
. That’s crazy. Why didn’t he
try
flirt
ing
or something
normal like that
?”

“I don’t have a clue.
”

“
He probably thought
he didn’t have a chance with you. So what
about
Brian
? I thought you were
so
in love with him.”

“I thought so too. I’
ve kind of realized that I’m not though. I mean, I think I real
ly like Colby. He’s pretty
exciting to be around
, you know
?
He’s kind of intense, but in a good way
. I’m all stirred up inside over him.”

“What are you going to do about prom?
”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I
kind of have to
go with Brian
, don’t I?
I mean, h
ow could I get out of it at this point?”