Page 76 of Crash & Burn

I hop back onto the stage where my singing partner and our crowd are patiently awaiting what we will be singing next.

“You ready, sunshine?” I ask Mia.

“I’m always ready.” One of her hips is sticking out with her arms still crossed. She has to look up at me to meet my eyes, and the blue hue of the karaoke room somehow makes her even more beautiful. Her lips are pouted, and, if I look too long, I’ll become a puddle at her feet..

Instead, I muster up all my strength and tap the tip of her nose with my finger. “We’ll see about that.” What I want to do is drop this stupid microphone and grab her face in both of my hands and kiss that sexy pout of hers away.

“Ready?” I hear Mateo yell.

“Ready!” Mia and I both answer at the same time.

She drops her jaw, and a laugh escapes my throat when she hears the beginning of the song and the knock. The dialogue between Shaggy and RikRok plays, and any second now the beat is going to drop, and I am going to sing my heart out for the sole purpose of seeing Mia’s reaction.

“It Wasn’t Me,” can only be described as my early 2000’s guilty pleasure, and it is one of those songs that everyone knows.

“Alright,” I sing before I, and everyone else in the room, sings along. Annie and Drew stand up and come up to stand in front of the stage, and Mia sings with me even though it isn’t her turn. Theo and Silas hold their drinks up, and no one is standing still. Even Emmett is standing behind Drew, a hand on her hip, as they move to the beat.

I glance to the back of the room and see Luke and Mateo aren’t going to be fifty dollars richer today.

“It Wasn’t Me” is also the song I know every single word to, even the Shaggy part that doesn’t get as much love as it should.

For the chorus, I gesture to Mia who sings to the audience in front of her before holding the mic to them to repeat thatit wasn’t meecho, and I pull my phone out to take a picture. Mia is literally glowing. She is beaming, and I am sure my face reflects the same. Her eyes are bright, and her cheeks are pink from how much she is laughing.

She keeps singing but notices I am just watching her now, so she walks over to me and grabs my hand just in time for me to sing the next Shaggy part. I try my best to sound just like him which awards me with more of Mia’s laughs.

By the second chorus, Annie and Drew have joined Mia, and I use it as my escape to watch with the rest of the guys in the crowd.

The three of them sing the rest of the song, and Mateo, Luke, Emmett, Theo, Silas, and I cheer as loud as we can when the song finishes.

Mia, Annie, and Drew take their bows before Mia hops off the stage and runs towards me.

“You!” She says poking me in the chest. “You ditched me!”

“You see me on stage all the time. It was about time you returned the favor,” I joke.

“You’re the musician, not me,” she laughs.

“I beg to differ. You belong up there, baby.”

Mia’s smile softens and her eyes slightly widen as she looks up at me, and I realize what just slipped out of my mouth. I want to kick myself in the balls because Mia and I are friends who call each other stupid, sarcastic nicknames. Nothing more.

No terms of endearment.

That is not allowed.

An apology is on the tip of my tongue, but Mia doesn’t skip a beat. Her smile returns even bigger than before. “Anything for my fans,” she says, before she winks at me, and turns to walk away.

She just winked.

At me.

That wasnotfair.

My cheeks flush, but no one can tell with how dark it is. To everyone else, we were just two friends laughing about what we just did up there—sang along to a stupid song, smiling, laughing, having fun. This whole night is just a celebration of what next year will bring for the band.

But to me, tonight was so much more than that.

I am right back to where I started.

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