Page 14 of Sing Your Heart Out

Sarah flushes and scurries back to the safety of the circle; as far as I’m concerned, she blew the rest of them out of the damned water.

I perform my second song with Nate and my solo song, garnering less applause with each one. Then I step back, glad that my turn is over.

Sooner rather than later, Dee and Dwayne are ready to judge us. They withdraw for a few minutes and leave us to mill about.

Mellie makes a beeline for Sarah, who stands nearby. I step in to congratulate Sarah on a job well done.

“Hey,” I say, quietly putting my hand on her arm.

Sarah doesn’t see me immediately and jerks away, her eyes going wide. She whirls, her hands going up as if she means to defend herself from me.

I step back and raise my hands. “Whoa there, slugger. I was just coming to tell you that you did really well.”

Sarah turns bright red, dropping her hands. “Oh. Uh, thanks.” She looks warily at Mellie, who gives her a sad smile. “We’ll see what Dee and Dwayne have to say, I guess.”

I look down at her, feeling an internal tug toward her. Really I want nothing more than to wrap her in my arms and keep her safe.

That’s not going to happen, not by a long shot. But the urge still remains.

Mellie narrows her eyes at me. She steps up to me, leaning close to whisper in my ear.

“I can see what you are thinking written all over your face. But don’t think for one second that you can just waltz over and take Sarah as your partner every time. I have a stake in her too, you know.”

She pulls back, but I just shake my head. The back of my neck heats. “I wasn’t thinking anything about Sarah, Mellie.”

She just sniffs, then turns her back on me, intentionally standing between me and Sarah. I drift away, my mind churning over the accusation.

I don’t want a partner, even one as unique and gifted as Sarah. My gaze keeps coming back to her small frame, time and time again.

I don’t want anyone else to be able to claim what’s mine musically. After my ex screwed me up, screwed me over, and dumped me I will never, ever rely on anyone like that again.

But the man in me knows that a roll in the hay with Sarah would be infinitely satisfying…

“Okay, people!” Dee calls, stepping back into the circle. “Alright. Dwayne and I have made some decisions. It was tough, but I think ultimately we came to a fair decision.”

Dwayne follows her into the middle of the circle. “So we’re going to do this like a reality show. We’re going to call the three best and the three worst to come up. Everybody else will be safe. Two people will be sent home right now. Okay?”

My heart beat picks up a little bit. Dee starts calling names off a piece of paper that she’s holding.

“Piper! Marco! Mellie! Sarah! Buckeye! And Rico…”

They all step forward, looking confident and nervous in equal measure. Dwayne looks at the rest of us, a small smile on his lips. “Y’all made it. As for the people in the middle of the room…”

Marco starts grinning. Sarah actually looks like she’s going to be faint. She sticks a hand out to Mellie, who takes her hand and shoots her a calming smile.

“Piper,” Dwayne says. “You gave us… well, we’re not sure what that was. None of your songs were even remotely what we are looking for.”

“Rico, I’d say the same for you.” Dee pipes up. “I like the fact that you’re electronica, but… I did not like the fact that you had no lyrics. Even when you worked with two other people…” She shakes her head.

Dwayne continues. “Marco, we were very disappointed that you seemed to play the same song twice. I thought we had been clear about needing the songs to be in English, to please our American audience.”

Dee cuts him off. “But if we weren’t clear about that, we are sorry. That goes for everyone here: the majority of your songs need to be in English.”

Dwayne glances at Buckeye. “Buckeye, I really liked your stuff. Very cool sound. Sort of like a young Bob Dylan. And Mellie, you gave us two great songs… both of which we are excited about optioning for Heartstroke Records.”

Mellie bends her head in acknowledgement.

Dee smiles evenly at Sarah. “Sarah. I mean… what do I even say? You blew my mind.”

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