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Looking around the room, I reminded myself that I didn't know anyone here. That was the whole point of this little adventure of mine. I could be who I normally wasn’t because no one in my life was around. The crowd wasn’t going to like my performance, that was for sure. But even if they booed me off the stage... who cared?
With that little pep talk under my belt, I turned to a triumphant looking Danny. "Okay, I'll do it," I announced to him.
His grin grew even wider, catching me off guard with the pure perfection of it. Our waitress had just come to the table and she stumbled a little bit from watching it.I don't blame you, I thought to myself.
Max came back to the table, a glint of sweat on his forehead that somehow only made him more attractive. "Well, what did you think?" he asked cockily, knowing he had been amazing. I gestured to the crowd that was still clapping and roaring after his performance. "I'm pretty sure you're getting enough adulation," I told him sarcastically.
Now they were both grinning at me. And I felt like I was about to hyperventilate. It was not fair that these two had been given this much charisma to go along with their hotness. I found myself waving a hand in front of my face to cool it down, and they both laughed even harder.
Grumbling, I slid out of the bench seat of the table and walked over to the DJ stand to pick a song. The DJ did not look as happy to see me as she had been to see Max. Again, I didn't blame her.
"What are you going to sing tonight?" she asked disinterestedly.
"What Christmas songs do you have?" I asked. She rolled her eyes and handed me a thin binder from behind her. I opened it up and scrolled through the songs. What song was least likely to cause eternal embarrassment… Hmmm. I found, ‘Let It Snow’ in the binder, and I giggled. Danny had already made plenty of snow jokes, might as well play into it.
“This one," I told her, pointing at the song. She smirked. "I'm guessing you're going to be the funny performance of the night," she told me.
"If by funny, you mean terrible," I responded with a laugh. She gave me her first genuine grin of the conversation. "I'm going to enjoy this," she said. She reached behind her again and came back with a Santa hat. "Here you go," she told me.
"Thanks," I said with a laugh as I placed it on my head.
"I'm bumping you up to next," she said with a smirk.
I nodded. “Might as well get it over with," I agreed.
The girl in front of me finished, someone who had pipes that resembled Mariah Carey of course. She came off the stage to roaring applause.
And then it was my turn.
I walked up the stairs to the stage shakily. The club wasn't that big, but it was packed. Seeing everyone in the crowd made me want to run away, but then my eyes flickered across Danny and Max's apt faces. Danny still had a challenging look on his face.
I took a deep breath.I could do this; I was going to fulfill this dare.
The music began and I started singing. I hadn't been exaggerating when I told Danny just how terrible of a singer I was. My voice was a combination of nails across a chalkboard and a wheel that was broken on a bicycle and needed oil. Danny and Max were literally falling out of their seats they were laughing so hard.
The audience was dumbstruck that someone so bad could actually be on stage singing, but their reactions just made me belt my heart out more. When the last notes faded there was silence as the crowd absorbed the train wreck they had just seen.
And then everyone started clapping, even as they laughed and wiped their eyes because come on...that took some nerve to be that bad publicly.
I got off stage as quick as I could, my cheeks flushing.
"That was amazing," crowed Danny once I got to the table. He was still rubbing his eyes from laughing so hard. "That was without a doubt the worst performance I've ever seen. I don't think anything can top it. Just brilliant, really," he said, still chuckling to himself at just the memory of it.
I looked over at Max to gauge his reaction, and his look wasn't what I expected. He was watching me like he was going to eat me. The blush that I was still rocking after my performance only got worse. The pompous prick smirked at me knowingly. He trailed his tongue over his bottom lip, wetting it, and I felt tingles everywhere.
"Why don't we get out of here?" he suggested in a silky voice.
Danny looked over at him. "That made you want to eat her milk and cookies. Didn't it?” he said with a grin. He looked at me and waggled his eyebrows. “Evidently bad karaoke makes Max want to ‘rock around your Christmas tree,’" he continued.
Max and I both groaned. These were truly terrible puns.
“The least you could do is come up with good ones," I told him as we walked out of the bar. We stood on the freezing sidewalk waiting for our Uber. Luckily the bar had heaters set up outside so hypothermia didn't set in.
"Oh, like you could think of better ones?" challenged Danny.
I scoffed. "I’m pretty sure anyone could think of better ones," I told him.
Danny looked delighted at our banter. "Okay, let's hear them then," he said, crossing his arms in front of him.
