Page 41 of Secondhand Smoke
Her eyes clung to him, watching him move across the stage like he owned it. And he did. It was like those lights were lit for him, the stage built for his gait, and the crowd was pulled in becausehewas there.
The patrons who had been otherwise uninterested even paused their conversations to take the band in.
The girls screaming for the band took her back to a happier time in her life. She remembered screaming over Bowie on television with KC, Sam, and Minnie when they were sophomores. They’d all been rabid for the man. Nell had never imagined she’d witness a similar phenomenon, and for someone she personally knew.
Dennis was the closest to Barrett; both were playing the guitar back-to-back during a complicated portion of the song. While Barrett’s eyes closed as he lost himself in the music, Dennis scanned the crowd—first, the girls at the front, making them convulse with a wink, then squinting through everyone else.
Considering how bright those lights on them were, Nell was startled when she realized he could see past the stage into the dim bar and eventually directly at her, alone at her dark table.
He grinned and used Toni’s drum solo as a chance to turn to Barrett and whisper in his ear.
A second later, she was staring into Barrett’s passionate and surprised brown eyes. His face instantly took on his lopsided, goofy grin, and he winked. Nell shrank some, her cheeks burning, but gave a small wave anyway.
At the last crash of Toni’s drums, Barrett picked up his guitar and put every ounce of himself into that instrument as she watched, entranced. And to think that was only the first song.She could only imagine how incredible the rest of the show was going to be.
* * *
People seemed to genuinely enjoy the band. Several drunk patrons had even joined the girls by jumping around and getting into the music with them, head banging and singing along to the more familiar songs.
As far as Nell could tell, Seventh Circle did mostly covers of popular rock songs, which was useful for engaging drunk metal fans. Not that she could really tell the difference between an original song or not. She lacked knowledge about the genre, but based on people’s reactions, she could assume they were radio hits.
After the band left the stage, the audience scattered back to the bar area, save for the girls who parked themselves outside the stage door, waiting for the boys to emerge. Nell didn’t know any better either, so that was exactly where she was as well. Not closer than ten feet behind the group of girls who fawned loudly over the performance and the “hot singer” and “killer drummer”, she stayed back and waited for the band to come out.
About five minutes later, someone finally did.
Barrett’s hair was mussed up and tangled from swinging it around on stage. Whether he didn’t notice or didn’t care, the messy rockstar look suited him. His eyes found her in an instant, and she waved, smiling nervously.
Why was she nervous?
Barrett’s lip ticked up in the corner, and he started to move toward her as best he could before the girls, or groupies, surrounded him and started bombarding him with introductions and questions.
“We saw your set in Bellevue,” one of them said, her hand grabbing onto Barrett’s toned upper arm. “You guys were sick.”
The other nodded in agreement, and Barrett looked away from Nell with a surprised look. “You came from Bellevue?”
“Yeah,” another one piped in. “We’re your fans.”
His face grew contemplative, and after a long moment, a grin spread. “Fans?”
“Can we come back and hang with you guys?”
Nell didn’t want to intrude since that would be rude. She did, however, find herself wanting to push the girls aside and tell them to go home and leave Barrett alone. He’d come looking for her, after all, and they were being rude for blocking his way.
“Nah, we’re tired. We’re leaving now. You guys should too.”
They whined, trying to convince him otherwise. Barrett was remarkably patient and coaxed them to leave. After what felt like ages, they left, and he was finally free to make his way to her.
“You came.” He grinned, his voice light like he was out of breath.
“Of course,Scott. You invited me,” Nell teased, more relaxed now that it was just the two of them. “You guys seem pretty popular.”
“No.” He laughed and ran a hand through his tangled waves like he just now realized how messy it was. “Not at all, actually. This is the first time anyone has shown up for us.”
“That’s too bad,” she said, and his smile faltered in confusion. She crossed her arms nervously and forced herself to keep eye contact with his intense brown gaze. “That I wasn’t your first real fan, I mean.”
“If you want, I’ll tell everyone you were.”
“Will I need to do anything in return?”
