Cage
Sitting at our table at Live Bay seemed empty. Everything seemed empty. I’d thought going to see Eva and telling her I loved her would do something. Low had got me to believe someone like Eva could love me. She was wrong. Eva had chosen her family over me, again. She always would.
“Smile, you’re depressing as shit,” Rock grumbled as he slammed a beer down in front of me.
“Thanks,” I replied.
“Never thought I’d see you with a broken heart. Out of all of the guys I never thought it’d be you. It’s like I’ve walked into the f**king twilight zone and can’t get out.”
I grunted and took a long swallow of my beer.
“Wanna dance, Cage?”
I didn’t even try to remember her name. She was one of the mistakes. I had so many. I just shook my head no and took another drink.
“Sorry honey but he ain’t real good company right now,” Trisha apologized for me.
“If you change your mind—“ she started
“I won’t,” I interrupted her.
She got the hint and walked off. I never even looked at her face. They all looked the same anyway. They all weren’t Eva.
“You think maybe you could be less scary?” Trisha asked.
“No.”
Rock chuckled, “Let it go, babe. He’s nursing a broken heart and you know that boy ain’t ever had one before. It’s a new experience for him.”
“You may want to warn Krit before they take a break. I don’t want Cage and him getting into it because he can’t keep his mouth shut.”
I didn’t belong here. I didn’t want to be here. I laid a couple twenties on the table and stood up. “I’m leaving, anyway. I’ve had all the fun I can handle for the night.”
“I hate for you to be alone. You want me to call Low?”
Low was the last person I wanted to talk to. She didn’t understand that it wasn’t an easy fix.
“No. I just want to go home and go to bed. I need to be at the gym in the morning.”
“Later,” Rock added with a nod and I turned and headed for the door.
I noticed that Jackdown had stopped playing and the crowd had gone silent. That was odd and unheard of. I paused and looked back at the stage to see what it was I was missing that had quieted the crowd.
“Hello,” Eva’s voice said over the microphone. What the f**k?
“I don’t, uh, I don’t normally play in front of people. Actually, I’ve never really played in front of people other than my family.”
I began walking toward the sound of her voice. I pushed through the crowd and kept my eyes focused on the stage until I was close enough to see her. She stood in the spotlight with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and her guitar across her chest. Those blue eyes that had stopped my heart the first time she looked at me found me in the crowd. A small smile touched her lips.
“But I have this song that I wrote for this amazing guy who completely changed my life and I need him to hear it.”
She was going to play and sing in front of a bar full of people. I took another step toward her and she began to play.
“I didn’t want to see you but you invaded my world
Every dark corner you found a way in
Bringing color to the lifeless and lost.