Chapter Thirty One - The Chant

We'd somehow silently made a mutual decision to never talk about that night again.

Once we got into his car after the gig, neither of us brought it up and swiftly moved past it over the following days, becoming busy with the training and school.

"So, I binged this series in three days, and now I have to wait a week for one single episode. I hate myself." Meera sighed over the phone.

"Let's not forget about the holidays when you'll be waiting months for further episodes," I reminded her.

She groaned. "Well, good news is there's plenty of other shows out there to keep me going. This is how they trap us."

I chuckled.

"What are you doing? Why are you huffing?" she asked.

"Just climbing the stairs. Music time."

"You mean Matt time." I could hear the smile in her voice, and I rolled my eyes. Ever since I'd told her about what had happened at the gig, she'd suddenly gone from his hater to supporter, much to my dismay. "How's it going?"

"Like it's always been. Barely getting by."

"Oh, come on, Becks. You're not fooling me. We both know you've slowly come to love the evenings," she teased.

If she were in front of me, I would've smacked her but, on the phone, all I could do was sneer. "Only because I get to learn music. It's fun."

"Sure, sure."

"Why do I even try with you? Never mind. I gotta go right now, Mee."

"Of course you do." I could picture her wiggling her brows, and I sighed out loud, which only made her chuckle. "Give me all the deets later. Bye."

"Bye." I hung up.

Shaking my head, I slid my phone in my pocket and lifted my hand to knock on Matt's bedroom door, but his voice made me stop.

"That is bullshit." He sounded a bit riled up.

My brows pulled together in confusion. Did he have someone over?

"You don't know squat, okay? Your brain is probably the size of a pea," he snapped and I flinched, pitying whoever it was directed at. "I don't li... it's not possible—hey! Don't give me that attitude, you little fucker—"

"Meow!" came a feral hiss.

"Shut up."

Was he...

I gave a hesitant knock at the door since I didn't want to be found eavesdropping like that. Silence fell on the other side of the door. Then, after about two seconds, Matt said, "come in."

I swung the door open and found him seated in his study chair with a textbook open in his hands and on his bed, sat Bella with one front paw folded over the other, looking classy as ever.

As I walked in, I looked around his room in confusion.

"Do you have someone over?" I asked.

"No. Why?"

"So, who were you talking to? Bella?"

He perked a brow at me while lifting his phone off the study table to flash at me. "Ever heard of this thing?"

"Right." I blinked, feeling silly all of a sudden. I waited for him to ask me why I was listening to his conversation but he never did. I don't think it even crossed his mind.

Bella jumped out of bed, neared me, and started rubbing her head against my jeans as if greeting me. "Meow."

"Aw! Hey, Bells." Just as I began to stroke her fur, she moved towards the door.

"I really can't tell if she likes me or not," I said as I watched her leave, tail up in the air.

Matt shut his textbook and got up. As he pushed the study chair under the desk, I couldn't help but notice his broad shoulders moving under that light blue shirt. He'd paired it dark denim jeans. His hair was dry, which meant he hadn't just taken a shower, which meant he hadn't gone to the gym.

I frowned. What was wrong? Had he been feeling under the weather?

He started walking towards the door. "Let's get to music right away. We only have half an hour today."

"Why? Do you have to go somewhere?"

"Yes."

I followed after him, eyes fixed on the back of his neck as I wondered if I should ask or not. Or if he would even tell me if I did.

"Where?" I finally asked.

He opened the music room door, stepped inside, and turned the lights on.

"I'm meeting with a club owner," he answered, to my surprise.

"Another gig?"

"Yes. It's a very famous club, so this is kind of a big deal. If we get this gig, we'll gain a lot of recognition for the channel."

"Great!" I nodded.

"If only I could reach Sarah." He looked down at his phone with a frown before putting it on the table face down, and I found myself staring at it curiously even though it could tell me nothing.

"Who's Sarah?"

"The girl who was setting up instruments with you."

My mouth formed an o-shape. Sarah. That's what her name was. Finally.

"What do you want with her?"

"It's always a good idea to have female company when dealing with club owners. They tend to pay more attention."

"I don't know who's creepier. Him or you."

"Whatever works." He shrugged and picked up his guitar.

"Why don't you take me?"

His brows furrowed into a scowl and he shook his head a clear no. "You're not even part of the channel."

"Oh, please." I scoffed. "I set up instruments with her, remember? It makes me just as much a part of it as she is. Not to mention, I was the one who wandered the place in that stupid onesie. So, not to brag, but I think I've played a bigger part."

He thought for a second, then shrugged. "Fine. If you don't mind being hit on by a creep for the sake of my gig, then sure. What do I have to lose?"

I crossed my arms. "Bring it on."

*****

I was on my second strawberry milkshake. Matt was occasionally sipping his black coffee as his eyes kept averting to the big glass door of the cafe every few minutes.

There was no sign of the said club owner.

"I think he stood you up," I said right before slurping on my milkshake.

He cut me a glance, narrowed his eyes for a moment, and then looked down at his watch again. "Maybe."

"Call him."

"I already did. He's not picking up."

"How does it feel to be stood up like this? Do you think this is karma?"

He crossed his arms over the table and leaned forward, staring at me, unamused. "I've never stood anyone up."

"Correction: you've never been on a date before. You need to go on one of those to stand someone up."

"What makes you think that?"

"I thought you weren't into shit like that? Buying flowers and chocolates. A date sounds pretty close to those corny things. I just assumed you got laid thanks to the mere sight of that..." I pointed a finger across his face and added quickly, "whichever airhead finds it attractive anyway."

A little smirk formed on his lips over my unintended compliment, and I cursed myself in my head. Where is my damn mouth filter?

"Yes, I don't do flowers and chocolates, but coffees are an exception. The least I can do is get a girl some energy before I exhaust all of it."

The old me would have told him he was so full of himself but this new, pathetic me could not utter a syllable. Something heavy weighed me down.

I swallowed, then mindlessly circled the straw in my milkshake before drinking a mouthful. A memory suddenly came back to me. He'd offered me coffee as a first date in the changing room when we both thought we were someone else.

He never wasted any time, did he?

"You mean Rebecca?" I raised a brow. "Because I've never seen you with another girl."

"You mean at school, where I have no scope of hooking up with any other girl. Rebecca's got this whole overly possessive, psychotic vibe that other girls find scary."

"I don't."

His brown eyes bored into mine. "Too bad you're the only one since you and I can never happen..." Even though the statement was something even I swore by, it still made me frown. "It would be nice to have another option for a change, you know? A girl who'd be able to stick up for herself so I wouldn't have to worry about that psycho cutting off her hair upon seeing her with me."

Touché.

A beat passed before he leaned forward, still holding my gaze. "And once she'd made it clear to her that she wasn't scared of her, it'd be nice to have that girl on my arm at the high-school ragers, to make out with her right on the dance floor or kitchen island while everyone around us would be too wasted to care..." He leaned in further and I found my eyes dropping to his lips as his voice dropped to a husky undertone. "...and to hook up with her whenever or wherever the hell we wanted..." Once he finished, he gave a shrug and leaned back casually. "...you know? All that."

All that, he says like it's no big deal.

Why did my toes just curl?

"Too bad." I cleared my throat. "I didn't think you wanted something like that."

"Have you met me?"

I could feel beads of sweat forming on my chest and neck, so I hooked my finger in my neckline and pulled to loosen it a bit but it went back to the way it was the moment I let go.

"Why not just have Rebecca on your arm then? Are you guys not into PDA? Hallway kisses and stuff like that?" I asked, feeling my voice breaking towards the end.

He watched me like I'd asked him something stupid. Or something he wasn't expecting.

"No, we're not."

"Why not?"

"Because I once pulled her out of the way of an ice cream truck, and she was deluded for the next two weeks that I'd finally fallen for her. Now imagine the ideas she'll get if I so much as kiss her in front of everyone. She'll probably latch herself onto my arm for my whole senior year."

My eyes widened for a moment and as unexpected as it was, a laugh escaped my mouth. "Oh my God! I can see that happening."

I was still feeling unsettled for God knows what reason, so I forced another laugh while shaking my head, hoping he couldn't tell something was wrong with me when even I didn't know what it was.

Silence fell between us until Matt finished his coffee and looked down at his watch. "I don't think he's showing up. We should leave."

With a nod, I finished the last of my milkshake and started to get up until a low thump behind me, like someone was tapping at a mic to check if it was working, caught my attention.

"Hey, everyone. How are you all doing this evening?"

I turned in my seat to find a guy standing next to the counter, waving at the customers brightly. My eyes lit up when I saw a karaoke screen being set up behind him as he spoke.

"We had our grand opening day exactly a week ago, and I cannot thank you guys enough for all your love. As a little token, we're living up to our name 'Food n More' and introducing karaoke nights once every week starting today. We're hoping you guys will have an amazing time."

A round of applause broke through the small cafe, and I looked around with a smile. Everyone looked so happy for them.

"We don't care if you sound good or bad. We just want you to have a good time. So, all yours." He pointed his thumb towards the karaoke behind him and slowly stepped away from the makeshift stage while searching among the customers. "Anyone?"

Some people laughed nervously while others hid their faces, saying, "no. Sorry, no way."

I glanced over at Matt, and he was busy looking at something on his phone. I wondered if he'd even heard the guy.

"What do you think?" I asked.

He looked up at me and seemed baffled over my excitement until I pointed back towards the karaoke with a bright smile.

He scoffed. "Yeah, right."

"What? You only do it when you're getting paid for it?"

"Obviously."

I deadpanned. "Come on. No one's stepping up. It's their karaoke opening night. They'll be so disappointed."

"And that's my problem because?"

I sighed, crossing my arms as I leaned back in my seat, disappointed. I hoped I was conveying to him through my body language that he'd spoiled my excitement. Whether he cared about it or not was a whole other debate.

His eyes narrowed for a moment as he looked between me and the stage, then mirrored my action by leaning back in his seat with crossed arms. His eyes were stubborn.

"I'm not doing it, Andrews."

"Yeah, I got it, Williams."

"But you can go if you want." He shrugged, then added with a smirk, "unless..."

"Unless what?" I demanded.

"You're too scared to take the stage and face all these people alone."

With a frown, I looked back at the host. His eyes were desperately searching among his customers, and he was slowly losing hope as I could tell by his falling smile.

I took in a deep breath and, without a second thought, got up and announced, "I'll do it."

The guy's eyes lit up as he let out a chuckle of relief. "And we have a brave young woman among us. Come on up, beautiful."

A few people applauded and cheered for me, and I felt like a star while walking past them. I could get used to this, I thought with a blush as I climbed on the stage with a smile and grabbed the mic from him.

"What do you wanna sing?" he asked me.

"Anything that's not Ariana Grande's."

That got me a few smiles from people, but one of the girls in the booth right next to me did not look very amused. She appeared to be just about a year or two younger than me, and she sat there with a frown on her face.

"Hey! She's not that bad. I love her," she argued.

"Oh, I do, too," I quickly defended. "I just can't sing as good as her, so it makes me a little conscious."

The frown was replaced with a perky smile the moment she realized I wasn't a hater as she quickly gushed, "aw no!"

"What's your name?" the host asked me.

"Rebekah."

"Everyone, let's hear it for Rebekah."

"Rebekah! Rebekah! Rebekah!" The entire room broke into a chant to cheer for me, and my smile was so big my jaw had started to hurt.

As the background started playing, the host held up his thumb as if asking if I was okay with the song. It was a newly released song, and I'd heard it many times and knew the lyrics, so I raised up my thumb in affirmation.

"Great," he mouthed.

The lights slowly dimmed as the customers' voices turned down a notch, and I finally started singing with the background.

The spotlight on me wasn't as bright as the one at school, which had completely blinded me for a moment. Here, I could see the people very clearly. They were all watching me, but I didn't let nervousness get to me. Because I'd come to learn that nervousness was like a thought that could be pushed to the back of my mind even before it could show up.

I focused on my voice. And everything that Matt had taught me started coming back to me, especially how I was supposed to wait for the right moment to take a breath before going higher.

And it turned out perfect. I knew that when people started clapping. Now they would do that for anyone who had the guts to step up on the stage but when I saw the wonder on their faces and heard whispers amongst them like 'wow! She is actually pretty good' 'such a beautiful voice' 'oh my God! That was the best thing I've heard all week', I realized how great I'd actually been.

But there was one person I needed validation from, even though I would never admit it.

My eyes went back to our booth for his reaction, but to my disappointment, he wasn't there.

Did he leave? I suddenly felt my heart drop.

But just then, I saw him standing right next to the stage, arms folded over his chest. I could've sworn my heart had just skipped a beat.

I didn't even care if he'd liked it or not. Just looking at him, realizing that he was there, giving his full attention, and didn't miss it, made a wide smile appear on my lips.

Turning back to my little audience, I said a thank you and bowed down to show my gratitude. A loud cheer broke for me again, and I stepped to the side to walk up to Matt.

"So?" I asked.

He twisted his lips like meh, it wasn't that special, then shrugged. "It was okay."

Unbelievable

With a scoff, I started to walk back to the booth, but he wrapped his hand around my arm and pulled me back to face him. This time, he didn't put up any facade when he looked me right in the eye.

"You know how you said you were not ready at my gig?"

I nodded, breathing a little heavily because of the close proximity—he had to be close so I could hear him over the cheers. I was really thankful for the dim lights right then.

"Well, now you are."

Finally, he allowed the approval in his eyes to be seen.

And suddenly, I didn't care if he could tell he'd just made a profuse blush appear on my cheeks. I was happy. I didn't know if it was because of my performance or his reaction. Or both.

"What are you doing out of the booth?" I pointed my chin towards where we were seated ten minutes ago. "The view wasn't good enough from there? Needed a closer look, Williams?"

He took a step closer, eyes holding me in a wrecking intensity. "I did."

He'd gone off script. I wasn't prepared for that. I opened my mouth to speak but came up with nothing.

"I thought you were going to pass out from nerves when that girl argued with you." He pointed towards the stage with his thumb.

"So, you were here to catch me?"

"Of course not. I just needed a front row view to record it properly."

He flashed his phone at me. The camera was on standby to record. And that made me ease up and let out a chuckle.

I narrowed my eyes playfully. "Jerk."

His eyes lingered on my face for a moment before he started walking towards the exit, expecting me to follow but just then, I realized something, and my eyes widened. "Wait. Did you deliberately provoke me to take the stage?"

He threw me a smirk over his shoulder.

"Wait again." My jaw dropped. "Was there ever a meeting with a club owner?"

"Maybe."

I searched his eyes and knew the answer right away. "There wasn't. You knew there was going to be a karaoke here. It was all planned."

"Maybe."

I scoffed again, completely taken aback. I had found it a little suspicious when he was okay with some creepy club owner hitting on me just for his gig, especially considering the way he'd acted at his last one when that drunk guy had messed with me. I should've guessed it right away.

"You owe me a song now for targeting me with all that planning." I pointed my thumb back towards the stage.

"Karaoke?" One side of his mouth raised with disapproval. "I'll pass."

"No, you won't."

"There's no way you can make me do something like karaoke—"

"Oh, shut it, Williams." I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the centre of the stage with me. He didn't resist. I smiled at the host. "Can we do another?"

"Of course!" He nodded excitedly—he'd already been seeking the next customer to perform—and handed me the mic. Then he brought another one for Matt and stepped off the stage.

"Hey, it's me again! This is my friend Matt. Hope you guys can stick around for one more song," I said, feeling a certain pair of eyes watching me.

Another round of applause went around the room.

I grinned. Parker was right. You do get used to it.

I quickly whispered to the host what song I wanted us to sing, and the moment the background started playing, I looked over at Matt. His brows creased with recognition. It was the same song we'd sung on stage during the assembly.

"Talk about coming full circle," I muttered to him right before I turned to our little audience, and suddenly, a recurring thought came back to my mind. It wasn't the first time it had hit me, and every time it did, it left me feeling a bit uneasy.

Lately, I'd been thinking about what would happen to us once we'd be through with the challenge. I didn't want us to go back to our old ways. I wondered if he felt the same.

"Baby, when I met you there was peace unknown," Matt started singing. An old man in the front booth who was there with his wife was so amazed that his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at his voice.

I internally chuckled at his reaction. I couldn't blame him. Matt was a gifted singer.

"Islands in the stream
That is what we are..."

Soon, I joined him. We sang together, and when our little audience started snapping their fingers with the beats, I realized how much they were enjoying it.

I turned to Matt with a little smile, but it slowly vanished at the sight of him. He stood there, facing the audience in all his glory while doing what he loved the most—singing. And even though I'd seen him do that before, up close, it was just mesmerizing.

It was like watching a toddler playing in the sand—just pure elation and no care in the world about anything else. And that was the kind of passion I'd never experienced in my life. Not for a thing, not for a person. Surprisingly, not even for Sean. The only thing I'd ever experienced around him was anxiety.

But right then, in that moment, if someone had told me that this was it, this was my passion—watching my enemy doing what he loved, I'd blindly agree with them. Because it was something I longed for in my own life—to feel so much love for something that I would forget everything else around me, even if that love was for something as simple as a hobby like music.

Right then, I understood why my mom was always so worried about me.

Matt's eyes swept across the room, and when they fell upon me, I blinked and gave him a little smile, joining him near the finishing lines.

Needless to say, his pride had rocketed to the sky at the audience's reaction once everyone started cheering. He threw me a little smirk, which I brushed off with a playful roll of my eyes, calling him a show off in my head and lightly smacking his chest with the back of my hand.

He caught my arm without breaking the flow of the song and held it, his eyes giving me a sportive warning. And it gave me freaking butterflies in the stomach. If I wanted to yank my arm free, I easily could've because his grip wasn't tight. But I let it stay that way.

And once the lyrics came to an end, I took in a deep breath, staring into his warm brown eyes. There was no facade, no games to be played to best each other, no roasting or insulting. Just two people enjoying a performance. We both had just had a good time in each other's company. It was surreal.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

The chant from the audience broke me out of my little stupor, and that's when I realized how close we were standing.

Looking around, I quickly took a step back and turned towards the booths. Then, I managed to pull a smile and thank everyone before giving the mic to the host and getting off the stage.

And then, I made a beeline for the exit. Just a moment later, I felt Matt following behind me.

Once I was out in the cool air, I took in a deep breath and pushed my hair back, saying with a shaky voice, "that was crazy."

I hesitated to see his reaction because I'd been feeling enough awkward already. Why would those people say that? Did they think we were about to kiss? Or had any intention of doing it? What was wrong with them?

Without looking back at Matt, I made my way to his car. When I was standing next to it, I slowly turned. He'd been silent the entire time, and his face was giving nothing away, besides the fact that his hard exterior was back.

"I don't know what those people were thinking," I muttered, gaze falling to the ground. "They don't know us."

Every moment he chose to remain silent, he was subjecting me to torture. So, I risked up another glance and found him carefully studying my face.

"I've heard crazier things from the audience," he finally spoke, to my relief. "You learn to ignore it with time."

The next sound I heard was a beep when he unlocked his car and I watched him get in. That was it?

I was immobile for some reason.

After about twenty seconds, his window rolled down, and he raised a brow. "Are you planning on walking home, Andrews?"

I snapped out of it, shook my head and got into the passenger seat.

Hey guys!

I don't know why but this one kind of felt like a filler chapter to me while writing. But I still hope you guys liked it. There will be some action pretty soon so stay tuned.

What do you think of sweet, little Bella? And what do you think she knows hahaha?

Don't forget to vote, comment and share! ❤️