Page 34 of Strum Me

Chapter Fourteen

Brad

I can’t have heard her right. “I’m sorry, what?”

She grins at me. “I said I’m going to go sing some karaoke.”

“In God’s name, why?”

She tilts her head as her shoulder lifts in a tiny shrug. “Because you guys are not going to trust me until I prove to you that we’re all in this together. So get your cameras out and turn them on, because I’m going to give you something you can use to blackmail me with for the rest of our natural lives.”

Jez stares at me for a moment, and then breaks out into grin. “Yep, that’ll work!”

I throw him a scowl that he brushes off with a wave of his hand. I’m torn. I don’t want to see her humiliated, but I know that something must be done to get the guys on her side. And this just might be it.

“Er, are you sure about this?” I ask her, as she downs another shot.

“Yes... why?” she asks, knowing perfectly well why.

“Because um...the choir solo debacle of ‘98.”

“What’s the choir solo debacle of ‘98?” Hailey pipes up, sitting straight up in her seat, obviously eager to see the show start.

“Oh my God, I’d forgotten that,” Marius says, the horrified look on his face telling us the memory is now coming back to him.

“Me too!” Sebastian adds.

“Well, I think we’d all repressed it,” I explain, and everyone nods in agreement.

“Hey! What’s the choir solo debacle of ‘98?” Hailey demands again.

“Let’s just say Emily had a choir solo. It was just one or two stanzas, but…well…who knew vomit bags were something you should provide at a school concert?”

“OH MY GOD! Emily!” Hailey turns to Emily, her mouth agape.

Butter slaps me on the arm, hard. “It wasn’t me! It was the cafeteria food!”

I rub my arm where she’d attacked me. “Hey, your singing set it off!”

She sticks her bottom lip out in protest. “Hey, I can’t help it if our classmates were a bunch of ‘You vomit, I vomit’ pact-makers!

Jez stands up, a newly acquired beer in his hand. “So, are we gonna do this or not? Because this dry night thing is fast losing its appeal.”

Butter tugs on the sides of her jacket, psyching herself up. “Yes! I’m going up. Any requests?”

“Yes, I’ve got the perfect song,” Cadence announces up and covers her mouth from us as she mouths something to Emily.

Butter obviously approves, as she skips through the crowd to the karaoke operator and says something to him. The background music immediately cuts out as Emily steps onto the tiny makeshift stage in the corner. I see her grab the microphone and mouth something, her eyes looking upward. Whoever she’s praying to, I hope they make it work for her.

The music starts up, and the crowd roars with laughter even before she starts, and I can’t help but join in. We all know the song. She locks eyes with me for just a moment before she lifts the microphone to her lips and starts to sing. Over the crowd I can just make out the words “walked” and “party” and “yacht” but I don’t need to hear much more.

Her choice of song, “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon, is clearly meant for me.

She closes her eyes and sings along, the words somehow etched into her memory without her knowing. Her pitchy and flat-as-an-ironing-board voice has somehow caught the attention of the entire bar, who cheer her along as she stumbles over words and shrieks to get at those hard-to-reach notes.

I turn and the guys are holding their sides with laughter, Marius’s camera pointed squarely at the performance on stage, shaking as he tries to stay upright.

I can’t look away for too long and spin around to face the stage again.