Reed shakes Bonnie and me while Zeb laughs.
“You guys ready?” Zeb asks.
“Let’s fucking go, man,” Bonnie says.
“Fifteen seconds, Bon,” Avie says as he passes us.
We look at each other once more, and then, as loud as we can, we scream.
The audience’s noise drowns it out. We hug each other again, and finally, we separate to our respective spaces.
I glance back at Reed one last time. “One eye, brother,” I tell him. “I got you.”
Reed points his long arm at me. “Better keep two tonight,” he says.
“Ah,fuck,” I laugh. “What are you going to do?”
Reed grins. “You’ll see.”
“Fucking hell. Fine. Two,” I reply, walking backward away from him.
“I trust you,” Reed calls back.
I trust you.
The sentence drives deep into my soul. I point at him again before turning on my heel to make for my place in the wings on the opposite side.
Bonnie dramatically climbs onto her platform at the back of the stage as I reach the curtains. The audience roars with her silhouette against the strobe lights. She picks up her sticks from the seat and drums a few beats, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
A flash brighter than the phone cameras lights up the stage between the strobes. Even if I know she's there, it’s hard to see Andi in the walkway.
The strobes flash faster, and I finally find her.
She’s staring at me from the other side, and just before my signal to head onstage sounds, I sign a single word to her.
It might be the lights, but I swear she signs it back, and it causes my heart to skip.
I step onto the stage opposite Zeb to deafening cheers and shouts. It knocks me all the way to my gut.
I can hardly feel my face and hands as I push the strap over my head and strike a note.
And when Reed hits the stage, the energy rises to a new high.
The waterfall of adrenaline racing through me after the show has my vision in a blur, my ears shot to hell. I still can’t feel my hands. My face hurts from grinning.
Reed hit a new level tonight that I know will only grow over the coming days.
He’s the epitome of chaos.
And with all the excitement radiating through me, it’s a wonder I don’t throw Andi into the nearest wall and fuck her senseless when I spot her gorgeous self standing backstage and waiting on us when we step offstage.
I’m sweating.
I can’t hear a damn thing.
I still have lights flashing in my eyes.
Yet staring at her numbs all of it.
