said some of the performers would be in their tents, should we want to visit them for a more one-on-one experience. The lights turned off after a long round of clapping, and everyone started to get up.
Everyone but me.
I couldn’t.
I sat there, in the dark, in the topmost corner of the risers, wishing it didn’t have to end. Wishing it was still going on, so I wouldn’t have to go home. I… it wasn’t as if I didn’t like my family or my home, but there were things about it I would change if I was able to. Mom and Dad, well, let’s just say sometimes it was a blessing that I didn’t seem to exist under their eyes, while other times it felt more like a curse.
What eighteen-year-old wanted to be invisible in her own house? Sure, there were days when I was thankful, when I didn’t have a thousand and one questions to answer every day when I got home from school, but at the same time, it made me feel like shit.
A sigh escaped me, and I lowered my head, my brown hair draping around me like my own curtain. My body felt so tired all of a sudden; I didn’t want to get up, didn’t want to go home, put on a smile and act like everything was okay. It wasn’t.
“Hey,” a male voice spoke, causing me to jerk and nearly fall off the risers.
My heart hammered in my chest, and I stared at the practically golden eyes of a man who I most certainly did not remember from the show. He sat backward on the row in front of me, having been silent as a mouse as he’d made his way up. With hair as brown as mine, a face freshly-shaven with a jawline so sharp it could cut stone, he was a type of attractive you didn’t see in this town. Definitely a few years older than me, but that didn’t stop the flurry of embarrassment from erupting in my gut.
I’d been sitting alone in the darkness in this tent. Right. How lame.
“Hi,” I whispered, immediately getting to my feet. “I’m sorry, I was just—”
He got up with me, taller than me even though he was on a lower level. Wow. Was I really that short, or was he ridiculously tall? “You don’t have to leave,” he said, flashing me his teeth; perfectly white and straight, even though his canines seemed to be a little too sharp. “I was just making sure you were okay. You seemed… sad.”
Oh, great. Even a stranger noticed I was sad. What did that say about my parents, hmm? They had no clue how much I hated it here, how much I didn’t want to be a part of this town. Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with cornfields or going to church every Sunday and praising Jesus, but it just wasn’t for me.
I… I didn’t know what was for me.
“I’m fine,” I said, shrugging him off. “I was just hoping for another show.” Even I winced at that lame attempt, but he didn’t seem to find me as uncool as I was, for whatever reason.
“Then why don’t you stay?” he offered. “After dark, things always get better here.”
A lump formed in my throat. Was he asking me to stay? I didn’t do flirting, mostly because I was either oblivious or no one bothered to flirt with me. Probably that second one, not that I was bitter about it.
My parents would kill me if I stayed. They would kill me… or they wouldn’t even notice.
“I…” I trailed off, knowing I sounded like an idiot in the face of this gorgeous, beautiful hunk of a man. The muscles this guy had… I mean, wow. He could probably pop the head off my shoulders without even trying.
“I’m Trey,” he said, offering me a smile and his hand.
Like, a handshake? Okay, that was a little weird, but I guess I could go for it. I didn’t know people who weren’t old still did handshakes, but I guess you learned something new every day.
Hesitantly, I said my name, “Thana.” As I said it, I reached out my hand toward him, my goal to shake his hand, but the moment my fingers grazed his, he took my hand in his and lifted it to his mouth, giving the back of my hand a soft kiss.
Uh, okay. That was definitely weird.
He released my hand, giving me another smile that made it hard to