Page 46 of Clichés & Curses

‘I’m all right.’ I tried to wave off my nervousness but the squeak in my voice might have given it away.

‘We don’t have to do this, you know?’ Colton reassured me, sensing my uneasiness. ‘I can still go there and cancel.’

The thing is, I did want to. As much as I would have loved to just sit there for the rest of the night and be content with listening to other people singing on stage, I knew that a part of me would regret backing out of this, once I got home later that night.

‘I want to do this. I’m just a bit nervous, that’s all.’ I started rubbing my hands together, trying to warm them up once I felt them starting to get cold.

Noticing what I was doing, Colton took my hands and put them between his. His thumbs slowly rubbing the back of my hands.

‘Does this help?’ he asked.

‘It does,’ I replied, giving him an appreciative smile.

I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, both of us looking down at my hands that were clasped between his.

‘Next up, give it up for Clara and Colton!’

Upon hearing our names, we raised our heads and looked at one another.

‘You ready?’ Colton asked, a small smile tugging on his lips.

I gave him a nod, and Colton finally let go of my hands. Just for a split second before grasping one of them as he got off his seat and waited for me to get off mine. I eyed my drink and decided to just finish it up. I was going to need that extra liquid courage for when I’m up there.

Leading us to the stage, Colton let go of my hand to take two mics from the DJ and passed one to me.

At that moment, I was grateful for my cardigan for giving me the sense of being less exposed. I braved myself to look at the crowd, but my courage only lasted for one fleeting second before I let my eyes fall to my feet.

But as I felt a warm sensation covering my left hand, I turned my gaze to look where it was coming from: finding Colton’s hand wrapping mine.

I peered up to look at his face and was met by his encouraging smile.

I gave him a smile of my own and the song finally came on.

It took me a moment to register what song it was. But once I recognized the melody, my eyes instantly widened. Seeing the expression on my face, Colton’s smile turned into a massive grin.

It was ‘Waterloo’.

By ABBA.

I was still too stunned by the song choice to start singing, so Colton started instead, his head banging to the beat of the verse. And as he went to the chorus, Colton started stepping sideways—one step to the right and to the left repeatedly—bringing me along with him since our hands were still connected. The movements slowly calmed down my nerves and I was starting to enjoy following the rush of the music.

As if sensing my ease, Colton raised his hand that was holding mine, indicating I take the next part.

I started singing, my voice slightly awkward, and my tone quiet. But Colton kept nodding his head, encouraging me, and I started singing a bit louder.

Letting go of my hand when the next verse came, Colton started dramatically walking backwards to the side of the stage. That was when I realized that he had been acting out the lines. I continued with the next line, repeating his head banging from earlier, when the beat came, following his dramatic antics.

We continued the rest of the song, just singing to each other—some lines on our own, some lines together. And before I knew it, we were nearing the end of the song. As we sang out the last line, Colton took my hand, twirling me around again and again as the outro played, until the song finally came to an end.

He stopped spinning me and wrapped his arm around my waist on the final beat of the song, my hands instinctively going to his chest. We just stared at each other for a few seconds and for that brief space in time, only Colton and I existed.

And it wasn’t until I heard the sounds of clapping and cheers that I remembered where we were and what we were doing: singing karaoke on stage in a bar full of strangers.

Snapping out of our little moment, Colton finally freed his hold of my waist and grabbed my hand. Facing the crowd, we took a bow before leaving the stage, passing the mics back to the DJ.

As we were walking back towards our table, people kept cheering, their eyes following us. I just smiled at them, while Colton waved at them as if he was royalty.

I was laughing at how ridiculous he was being, when he turned his head at me—an amused look on his face as if daring me to do the same. Taking up on his challenge, I copied his wave. That was how we ended up, walking back to our seats, waving one hand in the air, the other one interlocked with each other.

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