I’ll Wait For You

Elinor decided to discreetly glance at the tattooed man again, and saw he wasn’t paying attention, and scribbling on a notepad.

So much for claiming everyone deserves to be listened to, Elinor thought, with a stab of annoyance. If he did that to her act, she would try and find an excuse to jump off stage and strangle him.

The duo went through two more songs, Feeling Good and Skinny Love, and Elinor finished her shift with the stabby butterflies making things a whole lot worse. Maybe she should find an excuse to drag a chair onto stage, so her legs didn’t give way under her and cause an amusing and humiliating accident. The duo checked out, and Tina was practically jumping up and down in her seat as Elinor went to Richard Strong, and said she wanted to perform one song.

“Break a leg,” Richard said. “Or is that an appropriate phrase to use?”

“I don’t know, but thanks. Mind if I borrow a guitar?” Elinor flashed a brief smile. Karen had chosen this moment to take her break, and sat with Tina and Peter as Elinor walked into the music room by the side of the bar to fish out an acoustic guitar. She no longer owned one at home, but had an idea of what she wanted to do. She quickly strummed, getting her fingers into the feel of it, and sounding out the three chords she planned to play through the whole tune. Nothing complicated.

She left the music section and went up the steps on the side of the stage, headed to the microphone, and checked the number of people in the room.

Twelve. Could be worse.

“Hey,” she said into the microphone, her legs wobbling like jello, “I’m here to sing a song of my own making, and have been bullied here by my friends, so bear with me a sec.”

Without the guitar being plugged in, the strumming sounded disconcertingly quiet, but she bore with it. She alternated between the first two chords, and launched into song.

I saw the darkness in your heart coming clear

I felt your sorrow, all your pain, every fear

I thought you never wanted someone coming close

Burning through the secrets no one knows

I believed in you and made you all my world

But you chose instead to leave me in the cold

With a graveyard by my feet

A heartbeat with no sound

I know I live but like a scream I’m falling down

I still dream

Of a better place, a better time

And you see

I lost all face, missed warning signs

And now I’m free

My saving grace is that I find

Life and love leads me

Even now, though I’ve lost the things I felt were true

I’m here and in the starlight, always waiting for you

Still hoping that maybe you’ll say the right words

And somewhere I’ll have a place to return

But there’s no words, just cobwebs and dust

In the silence that’s left between us

 And a graveyard by my feet

There’s a heartbeat with no sound

I know I live but like a scream I’m falling down

I still dream

Of a better place, a better time

And you see

I lost all face, missed warning signs

And now I’m free

My saving grace is that I find

Life and love leads me

She repeated the chorus once more, before letting her voice fade into silence, plucking the last chord. She had closed her eyes for most of the performance, finding that it helped with her nervousness, even though her first notes had wavered, threatening to offset the whole song. Her voice tickled, sore because of the lack of exercise she’d given it. Her eyes ached as well, from holding back the emotion she felt when digging through the tunnel of her feelings.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that Richard Strong had both his elbows on the bar, palms cupping his face as he stared intently at her.

Immediately, Tina and Karen started cheering, followed by whoops from Peter. The others in the room gave small claps as well.

Elinor eyed the man with the tattoos. He watched her, gaze unbroken. He flicked her a smile, and she returned it.

“Thanks for listening, everyone. Maybe I’ll be bullied into doing this again next week. Who knows?”

This statement came followed by a cry of protest from Tina, “Oh, come on! You can’t just go up for one song! You su*k!”

Elinor merely grinned as she ambled off the stage, heart pounding from adrenaline and success.

The man with the tattoos watched her hungrily the whole time.