Page 97 of Glass Half Full
“What?” I demand. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing,” she assures me, though I’m anything but assured.
“Fine then. Keep your secrets. I’ll have you know your father came over and scared the shit out of me when I was at the bar. I needed that water to recover.”
Renee groans. “Ugh, what did he say? I told him to lay off you.”
“It was actually a pretty positive interaction,” I admit. “He, uh, he said he trusted me.”
She gasps. “Wow.”
“Yeah, wow,” I agree.
She nods after recovering from her surprise. “I’m glad he’s seeing sense.” Her lips move to my ear so only I can hear her next words. “Because I trust you with my whole heart.”
Her fingers close around my wrist, and I know that as much as she meant it be sweet, we’re both having flashbacks to last night.
She trusted me with everything, with her very life in my hands. I’d never felt so powerful and so simultaneously at someone else’s mercy. As I watched her eyes get hazy while they stared into mine, watched her gasp for breath, watched her give herself to me like no one ever had before, I knew she was my be all and end all. My miracle. She’s a cosmic phenomenon, and there’s never going to be anyone else like her.
“Welcome, ladies and genderfolk!” Stella calls everyone’s attention as she steps behind the mic on stage. “Are you ready to get this slam started?”
We all laugh and cheer and clap through the introduction and explanation of the slam rules. By the time they’re drawing names for the first round, Renee’s leg is bouncing with nerves next to mine.
I lay a hand on her thigh. “You okay?”
She nods. “Yeah. I’m excited.”
“Oh friends, you are in for a treat!” Stella calls from onstage. “The first poet performing for you in round one of our slam tonight has been long awaited back up on this stage. Please stomp, clap, and throw your underwear for Renee!”
Renee blows out a breath beside me and squeezes my hand before she gets up out of her seat. No underwear is thrown, but the noise is deafening as she climbs onstage.
She positions herself behind the microphone, blinks at the audience, and then steps in front of the mic stand instead.
My girl don’t need no microphone.
I let out a whoop and keep the applause going. She looks fucking radiant up there. I know she feared she’d never find her words again, but I didn’t doubt her. Not for a second. This is her gift, and I feel like the luckiest bastard in the world just to be here to witness it.
“This one’s called ‘Glass Half Full.’”
She smiles straight at me as she says it, and my heart roars to life in my chest, thumping out all its pride and gratitude and awe in a steady, rapid beat.
Renee raises her eyes to the sky for one brief second and then begins, her voice pure and resonant as it swells to fill the room.
“I wasn’t old enough for a real glass
So they gave me a plastic cup.
I knocked it against beer bottles and wine coolers.
I listened to the ring of the clinking sound.
I shouted ‘Cheers!’ at the top of my lungs
And wriggled in my dad’s grip
Where he held me on his lap at the grownups’ table.
I tie-dyed our best white linens
