Page 38 of The Heart That Breaks
WE SIT AT the round table for an hour or so, tossing out songs we like, discussing bands we think are cool, how we’d like to be perceived when people listen to us, and I feel like I’ve landed on another planet. All of a sudden, I’m hanging out with two guys who obviously love music as much as I do and who seem eager to hear what I think about everything we’re discussing.
Nathan wants a list of twenty songs we can learn, and once we’ve gotten that together, he says, “Let’s take a stab at our mutual favorite.”
It’s a Barefoot Outlook song calledKeep on Reachin’. And all of a sudden, I’m nervous and certain there’s no way I’ll ever do CeCe MacKenzie justice.
As if he’s picked up on my nerves, Nathan grabs his guitar and looks at me with a reassuring smile. “We’ll all be rough at first. But gotta start somewhere.”
And now I’m dreading singing in front of these two. What was I thinking to act as if I could come here and live up to their expectations? “I think maybe I should get home,” I say.
Nathan glances at his watch. “Come on, let’s give this a shot.”
I want to. I really want to. So I take a deep breath and decide risking permanent mortification is the only way I’m going to know if anything can come of this. “Okay,” I say. “Let’s do it.”
Nathan and Matt give each other a high five. “I’ll print the lyrics,” Nathan says, tapping the computer keyboard.
“That’s okay. I know them,” I say.
“Cool,” Matt says.
Nathan looks at me with an appreciation that I can’t deny feels good. He picks up his guitar and strums the intro. I’ve loved this song since the first moment I heard it, and my fingers tap against the table of their own accord.
Matt’s at the drums now, and he finds the beat behind Nathan’s playing. They start the intro over again, leading me into the first verse.
I close my eyes and think about the first time I heard the song and the way it made me feel about my own hopes and dreams and how badly I want them to come true.
I somehow manage to forget that I’m sitting in a studio with a guy I have a crush on and his best friend who seems at best suspicious of my reasons for being here.
The words to the song are imprinted on my subconscious and I sing them as if they are my own. When I let the last few trail from my lips, I open my eyes to find Nathan and Matt looking at me with wide eyes.
“Did that suck?” I ask, my heart dropping.
Nathan shakes his head, looking as if he doesn’t know what to say.
“No,” he murmurs finally. “It didn’t suck.”
“Wow,” Matt says.
“Actually, that was incredible,” Nathan says.
“Really?” I ask, unable to stop the smile that takes over my face.
“Really,” Nathan says, putting down his guitar, and all of a sudden, he’s out of his chair and standing in front of me, throwing his arms around me and lifting me up, swinging me around in a circle. “Dang, girl. You can sing!”
I laugh, happiness lighting me up from the very center of my heart. I loop my arms around his neck, telling myself it’s for the simple reason that I have to hold on, but it’s more than that. I pull back a little, smiling down at him. “So we’re gonna be a band?”
“Heck, yeah, we are,” he says, looking up at me with a grin that I absolutely cannot resist.
I’ve wondered how a person would know if they were falling in love. If it would be an obvious feeling. Or if it would be one that came with a question mark. I think I have my answer.
“We need a name,” Matt says, and we both turn to look at him.
“Got any ideas?” Nathan asks.
We go back and forth for a bit, throwing out ideas and words. We all agree on Wild. And then spend another half hour debating what to add to it.
“How about Getaway?” Nathan throws out.
“Wild Getaway,” I say. ‘I like it.”
