Page 11 of Leah

Girls all around me suddenly screeched at the top of their lungs, and I desperately stared in the same direction they were… and then I saw him.

Carter.

Looking like a fucking rock god.

Moving slowly to the centre of the stage like he had all night to spare.

Jesus Christ, he looked good.

“How the fuck are you, Vancouver?” he suddenly said into the mic.

The noise was beyond deafening.

Melanie jumped up and down, still holding my hand with one and waving her other hand wildly into the air. She was pure excitement, meanwhile I was nothing short of star-struck.

Yeah,star-struck.

He looked nothing like the boy I grew up with, or the boy that left me behind to follow his dreams.

He looked pure man, all tall and broad, dishevelled dirty blond hair, skin already glistening like polished marble under the lights.

Fuck.

No, really,fuuuuuck.

He looked absolutely gorgeous. Breathtakingly gorgeous.

He was the kind of man you fantasized about as you lay awake at night. Rebellious, wild, sexually masterful; he was someone you snuck out the window and ran away with.

I should know—I did it.

I swallowed hard as he smiled at the crowd.Smiled.So bright, it lit up his face. He looked happy. He looked like he was doing what he loved. This was what he was born to do. I’d always known it, but seeing it—

My heart stilled and I put a hand over my mouth in pure disbelief. Hearing him on the radio was unimaginable. Watchinghis popular music videos online was exciting in its own right. But seeing him about to sing in the flesh again, in front of thousands of people, was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

“Is that really all you got?” he hounded the crowd, laughing heartily as they went berserk. “You know my hometown isn’t far from here, and you’re making me look bad right now! Seattle did a better job than you.”

I couldn’t hear my laugh. The people went haywire, and I was sure this was the response he was looking for.

“That’s better! That’s what I wanted! Fuck yeah!”

I gaped at all the faces around me as the music that’d been playing in the background began to grow louder. I was surrounded by so much joy. Whatever problems existed in everyone’s lives had been left behind. They were living in the now, and that meant enjoying Fatal Rebellion’s magnetic pull.

I would realize later there was something about them when they played you couldn’t put a finger on. They had that X-Factor, that secret nobody knew but could feel beneath the layer of music. Lots of people could sing and play an instrument if they truly set their mind to it, but very few could carry a crowd the way Carter and the guys did.

That energy was inescapable. It seeped into your skin and ran through your veins, firing adrenaline, until you were nothing but a captivated observer, hanging onto every lyric.

Carter’s voice gave me goosebumps, and my body naturally swayed to its sound. Flashbacks tore through me as he went on, and I couldn’t resist allowing the past to bleed into the present.

All those days at the creek.

All those nights in his bed.

The knocks on his window.

His knocks on mine.

The endless hours at the arcade.

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