Page 37 of Our Final Encore

He’s also sober, which I assume must be hard especially considering the other band members don’t shy away from the typical musician’s lifestyle. Drinking is an every night thing for them, and I’ve even seen them cutting up lines of what I assume was coke.

Alexa, the band’s main vocalist and keyboard player, sits down beside me on the small leather loveseat.

She’s nice, she’s just a few years older than me, so we’re closer in age than I am to the rest of the band. But she’s kind of pushy and demands a lot of attention from everyone. Including me. I’ve never gotten along well with people that need to be the center of attention all the time.

“Want one?” She shakes the can in her hand after she takes a sip.

“Uh, sure.”

It’s not the first time one of them has offered me a beer, but being underage I felt like maybe it wasn’t a good idea. Tonight though, I just want to rid myself of the anxiety still lodged in my gut from my conversation with Opal.

“Here you go.” She smiles and hands me a can of PBR.

“Thanks,” I give her a tight grin before popping the can and taking a long swig.

“Feeling the stress of touring yet?”

“You could say that.”

She blinks at me a few times. Her eyes are blue, I notice, but not the same color as Opal’s. They’re darker. And her short hair is blonde with pink tips. They couldn’t be more opposite of each other if they tried.

“I’m here if you need a shoulder to cry on.” She winks before taking another sip of beer.

“I’m fine, thanks though.” I realize that she’s sitting closer to me now than she was before she got me the beer, so I make it a point to move a couple inches in the other direction.

“Missing your family?” One of her eyebrows quirks up.

I shake my head, pinching the back of my neck. “My girlfriend, mostly. I’m not super close to my family.”

A flicker of interest crosses her face. “Girlfriend? That must be hard. I don’t think I could do the long distance relationship thing. Or any relationship, for that matter.”

I know she’s probably expecting me to ask her why, but I’m not interested. “Yeah. It’s not easy, but we’ll make it work.”

She gives me a lopsided smile, but she looks slightly disappointed about my lack of interest in her love life. “Well, good luck. Sounds like she’s a lucky girl.”

“I’m the lucky one,” I say, making sure it sounds final.

“I was thinking, maybe we could sing a duet together. Maybe one of your songs.”

“Yeah?” I instantly perk up, surprised by the offer. I’m just their opening act, and not a very well known one by any means. I’d never expect any of them to offer me something like that.

“Why not? You’re a good singer, I’m a good singer, together we’d sound great.”

“Okay, yeah, I’m down.” I’d be stupid not to take the opportunity. And she’s right, we probably would sound good together. Even if she is slightly annoying.

TWENTY-FIVE

Opal

October

Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I reach over to check my phone. Today is my birthday, October 23rd.

I haven’t heard from Alex since yesterday morning. Our conversations are becoming more and more sporadic. I know he’s super busy, half of his day is spent driving to a new city and the other half is spent performing, and a lot of times when he calls me late at night I’m already too exhausted to have a real conversation.

With a sigh I pull myself out of bed and waddle to the bathroom before washing my face and braiding my hair. Mamaw is still asleep, so I quietly make myself a pot of coffee and bring a cup of it back to my room.

A notification causes my phone to rattle on the side table. I halfway expect to find a happy birthday text from him, but instead it’s just a notification from Youtube. I’m not sure why I even have those turned on.

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