Page 77 of Hope & Harmony

The melody starts over again just as I slip along the edge of the crowd, finally getting a good vantage point for seeing the four musicians who make up KellyKills where they stand on a small stage barely a foot off the floor. When their lead singer, Shawn, I think his name is, starts singing, somehow, I already know the words.

How do I know this song?

Or, better question…how dotheyknow this song?

I watch, something familiar skittering down my spine and drawing me back to all those nights after I got out of the hospital when I would lie in bed and stare at the ceiling, wondering where the music had come from, the music I could hear as I lay unconscious in my hospital bed.

My family didn’t have any kind of explanation. They told me I must have been hearing music over the speakers or someone’s phone, but I knew they were wrong. I just didn’t have any way to describe it. All I had were the memories of music I couldn’t identify, and no matter how much I searched and searched, I couldn’t ever find that song.

Now, here it is—though the voice is wrong. I watch the lead singer, mouthing the words along with him, my fingers twitching at my sides.

Then I hear a raspy sound, and my eyes fly to the other guitarist. He’s singing in the background, providing the harmony, but I know that voice. Iknowthat voice. I listen, hypnotized, unable to look away. A tender spot inside of me feels like it’s been opened wide, and it aches…but in the best way.

When the song comes to an end, the crowd goes wild, and the man I’ve been staring at gives a tiny smile, his eyes flicking out over the crowd as he adjusts his guitar strap around his neck.His head turns, his eyes scanning my side of the room briefly, connecting with mine for less than a second before continuing…

…and then slamming back to me.

I feel like I have to be imagining it when they widen slightly, and his entire body turns in my direction, but I’m not. He stares at me long and hard, and I swallow thickly, a shiver running through me as I wait under his piercing gaze.

Someone behind me moves, bumping me, and I break my connection with the guy on stage. For reasons I can’t explain, I take the opportunity to slip through the crowd again, making my way back to the entrance with an urgency I don’t fully understand. I’m suddenly desperate to get out of this bar, to get outside where I can breathe fresh air.

When I finally shove through the doors and back out onto the street, I take a long, deep breath and tilt my head back, closing my eyes. It was just too many people. That must have been it. The racing heart and staring at that guy, that had to have been?—

“Excuse me.”

My entire body freezes at the sound of his voice, and when I turn around, I find the guitarist standing a few feet away, hands tucked into his front pockets. Everything about him feels familiar, but…I don’t know him. Right?

He watches me with an intensity I don’t understand, and eventually, I manage one word.

“Hi.”

His lips tilt up at the sides. “You’re here.”

I blink a few times, then nod. “I’m here.”

“You don’t know who I am,” he replies after a few seconds, and even though there’s no tone in his words to convey disappointment, I can sense it just from the way his shoulders droop slightly.

Licking my lips, I glance to the side before returning my eyes to his. Deep blue. Magnetic. Difficult to look away from for too long.

“I don’t,” I finally reply. “Should I?”

At that, he takes a step closer and holds out his hand. “I’m Scott,” he says. “Scott Kelly.”

I also take a step forward, as if my body is compelled to do so, and slip my hand into his. “I’m Madi.”

Scott’s head tilts to the side, his eyes brightening just a bit. “Madi. Nice to finally meet you.”

CHAPTER 2

SCOTT

She’s here.

I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve this kind of karma from the universe, but I’ll be forever grateful because she’s fuckinghere.

Madison.

Or, I guess she goes by Madi. I only ever heard the nurses call her Ms. Madison when I was visiting her at the hospital, and it feels good to learn something small about her that I didn’t know before. Especially when she’s been such an ever-present question in the back of my mind over the past few years since I found her lying in an alley a few blocks from where we are stand right now.

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