Page 25 of Yours, Finally

Chapter 9

Vi

The karaoke place waspacked that night. Gabe and Lina sat at one side of our table, and Jake and I sat at the other. A pseudo double date, but I tried not to think about it.

Most of the large room was kept at a low light, except for the singing platform which had several stage lamps pointed at it. Someone sang a song I didn't recognize in a way that sounded… fine, and one of the tables worked hard at cheering them on; probably their friends. We had wings and fries on the table, besides the moody candles among the plates and each of our drinks.

Lina munched on a fry. "Who's going to go out there first?"

I glanced at Jake by my side. He'd been quiet all night, with nervous energy buzzing about him. At Lina's question, he shookhis leg, and the movement rubbed against my thigh softly but insistently.

"I'm going to fess up," he said. "I know you're all waiting for me to go there, but I'm not ready yet."

"Take your time, Jake." Gabe made a gesture to show he didn't think it was a big deal. "With a little bit of notice, I'm sure we can all go again as well if you need more time to prep."

I held back a sigh. I loved the friendship between Gabe and Jake.

"Besides, we're having fun too." Lina finished her fry and picked up another one right away. "I'm sure I can convince Gabe to go sing something, too."

Gabe chuckled. "I wish I could deny it but I would probably bend at the firstpleaseout of her lips."

"And we all know it," Lina added, and we all laughed.

"I will sing something, too." I reached for the big song binder hanging from its hook at the table, put it in front of me, and opened it at a random place. "What I lack in voice training, I make up for with my personality."

"You don't have to do this," Jake said. "We all know why we came here."

"We do!" I insisted. "We came here to have fun together, and for some of us to go up the stage and sing decently but nothing to write home about. And one of us maybe, just maybe, will go out there and sing something that's going to bring the house down."

I slid my finger down the plastic cover protecting the printed lists of songs, not really seeing my options, but trying to keep it casual and low pressure for him.

It seemed that I had failed.

Jake snorted. "No pressure. Bring the house down, Vi? I've never sung in front of this amount of people."

"I don't think I've actually heard yousingsing," Gabe said. "But the few times I heard you singing to yourself it sounded great."

"I didn't know you were so musical." Lina smiled. "But something tells me you're good, even if you don't quite bring the house down."

Jake shook his head. "Why must you all be so relentlessly supportive? Now I feel like I don't have an excuse."

"Let's not build it up in your head more than we have to," I said. "The only expectation we have is that you relax enough to give it a chance. We're not even going to be paying attention to how good you are or not."

He laughed. "I don't buy that for a second."

"It's true!" I lied. "Look, I'll submit a song for myself. I'll sing and have fun even if I'm no singer. Just like the person on stage right now."

We all gazed at the singer, who laughed through a poor rendition of 'Maneater' by Daryl Hall and John Oates. Everyone who paid attention to them clapped and laughed or sang with them, while the performer flipped their hair and called at someone at their table with a come-hither finger curl. We laughed.

"Okay, fine." Jake still chuckled. "That helps."

"And I'm going to help even more." Inspired by the current singer, I picked the first 80s song I recognized and texted it to the sign up number. "There we go. Song LPB29384 for Violeta is on the docket."

I put my phone face down on the table. Jake's large, warm hand landed on mine and squeezed.

"Thanks, Vi," he said.

I gazed at him. He stared at our linked hands, before taking it away and grabbing fries to add to his plate.