Page 59 of Another Postcard

I didn’t know what to say, but I opened my mouth and everything came pouring out in a rush, barely stopping to breathe. By the time I was done, Sasha and Kristi were both glaring at me, making me want to crawl under a rock. They obviously didn’t believe my side of the story. “That fucking cocksucker said what?” Sasha snapped. At the same time, Kristi grumbled, “Motherfucking Levi.”

“Wait, you’re not mad at me?” I asked, more lost than ever.

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Open your eyes, B. He fucking steamrolled you and didn’t give you a chance to explain.” Her eyes narrowed on me. “And I don’t know where the fuck your backbone went, but you’ve had your sulking time. It ends right now.”

I opened my mouth to rebut her, then snapped it shut. She was right, I was being a complete pussy.

“You’re made of stronger shit, B,” Kristi added.

“Sometimes a girl just needs a good cry,” I defended myself.

“Absolutely,” Sasha agreed with a firm nod. “But you’ve had all day. Time to pull up the big girl panties and figure out what the fuck to do about this.”

“There’s nothing to do.” I shrugged and flopped back against the cushions.

“Well, if anything, you at least need to show off the steel inside you and make sure he knows he can’t take the music from you,” Kristi said as she clapped her hands together and then pressed them on her knees and stood. “For now, Jonas said he’d be our chaperone so we can go out and get completely plastered.”

Sasha shot to her feet, grabbing my arm along the way to pull me up as well. “Best fucking idea ever! We can get rowdy and stick it to Levi and Cooper at the same time. Two for one special!” She seemed overly excited at the thought.

“What is it with you two?” I was being nosy but figured, what the hell, if ever there was a time for me to get an answer, it would be now, while she was feeling bad for me.

Her eyes rolled so hard I thought they might get stuck in the back of her head. “Story for another day.”Damn it.Kristi met my eyes and nodded, knowing exactly what I was thinking.

We moved on from all talk of anything of importance and focused on our night out. We agreed to meet in the lobby in half an hour, so I hurried to change and did my best to cover up the evidence that I’d spent the day crying.

That night, we did exactly what we set out to do and got completely falling down drunk before passing out in my room. The next day, we went sightseeing together and Matteo even joined us. He didn’t bring up Levi or anything that had happened, he treated me as though everything was normal. It lightened my heart and I managed to have a good time.

The following morning was a little more difficult since we all went out in the morning,allof us. Then we had a publicity event and a shoot for the cover of the live album they would release before the tour next year. I studiously avoided looking at Levi, but I could’ve sworn I felt his eyes on me all day. Wishful thinking, I supposed.

Finally, it was the night of our first concert in Rome. The moment I walked on stage and the audience went wild, I was a little surprised. I always got a good reception, but I was becoming more and more well known, especially since I was officially a part of Stone Butterfly, rather than a backup singer. I took my place behind a shiny white grand piano that we’d requested for the concert.

A few weeks into the tour, I was working on a solo ballad in a small performance space in our hotel. Noah often tracked them down so we’d have somewhere to work while on tour without our buses. Matteo had walked in on me practicing and working the melody of a new song. He’d turned right around and went to find the rest of our band mates, herding them to the room I was in. He told me to sing what I had and I shrugged, then sat at the piano and began to play. When I finished, they’d all stared at me in stunned silence.

“It’s not that bad, guys,” I snorted. “I have to work to do still, but sheesh.”

“When will it be ready?” Levi asked.

“I don’t know, I’m just messing around,” I answered, barely paying attention anymore, lost in changes I’d thought of while singing it for them.

“Rome.” Levi’s voice was firm and his tone had my head raising in surprise.

“Huh?”

“Can you get it performance ready by our first concert in Rome?”

“Um, sure, I suppose.”

“Great, you’ll close the first set.”

My jaw virtually hit the piano keys when it dropped but before I could respond, they’d all filed out the door with huge grins on their faces. Levi had popped back in and run over to give me a hard kiss and then ordered, “Get to work.”

The memory warmed me and the audience’s excitement heightened my ability to let our music take me sky high. To the music version of cloud nine. The only thing that tripped me up was not knowing how things would be between Levi and me on stage. We were professionals and knew how to keep the audience from sensing our tension and that’s exactly what happened. Whenever I met his aqua blue eyes, you’d never know he wasn’t still desperately in love with me, or that he harbored such ugly opinions of me.

The audience quieted after a long applause for our second to last song of the first set.

“We’ve got a treat for you guys tonight,” Levi told them. “You all know that Brooklynn and I wrote ‘Sanity’ together, she also wrote ‘Like Her’ with Sasha. She’s a brilliant musician and she’s been working on a new song. Do you guys want to hear it?” They screamed and practically brought the roof down.

“This is ‘The Road to Forever,’” I said. The piano was sitting on a low, mobile platform and when it went dark except for the spotlight on me, it started floating downstage to the center. As it moved, my fingers began to glide over the keys, playing a haunting, heartbreaking melody. Little by little, it strengthened until it was strong and full. Then, I began to sing. I’d written it in a lower key, showing off my husky alto that slid up through my mix into a clear belt. The song was a ballad, the melody fitting the words, captivating the audience in the richness of the tones and the lyrics. The song was about finding your way when you’re lost, finding your way back to your perfect forever. It was meant to lift the listener up, to bolster their hope, to make them feel like all things are possible. As it crescendoed and my fingers alternated between chords and lyrical runs. My voice built until I was singing with every cell and molecule inside me. I closed my eyes and poured out my hope and love into every note and at the peak, I held out the brightest note, the vibrating strains of the piano going quiet and when I finally let the sound fade, there was complete and utter silence throughout the arena.

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