Jade pulled out her latest tattoo design, delicate and striking, each one etched with a story Arden could almost hear. Her lean, toned arms moved with effortless precision as she flipped through the pages, her dark eyes sparking with quiet intensity. “This one? I’m obsessed with it.”
Rachel launched into the tale of a marketing pitch disaster that had them all in stitches.
Penny, as always, took the lead, her quick wit and infectious laugh keeping the momentum going, nudging them deeper into the night.
Then came the first notes of the next song, curling through the air like bait.
Penny’s head snapped up, eyes gleaming.
Arden saw it instantly. “Don’t even start,” she warned.
Penny gave a long, dramatic sigh, her grin slow and dangerous. “Oh, babe… I thought you knew me better by now.”
“Double rent for a month if you let me sit here.”
“Bribery? From you? That’s desperation, my love. And also? No.” She grabbed Arden’s hand and yanked. “Come on, you know the rules.”
Arden groaned but didn’t fight it. Arden groaned but didn’t fight it. She’d sung before. Several times, actually. And every single time, Penny made it sound like she’d delivered a TEDx Talk set to music.
“This is a terrible idea,” Arden muttered.
“This is an iconic idea.”
She wasn’t nervous exactly, but the first step under the lights always felt heavy.
The dim lighting wrapped the room in cozy anonymity, but the expectant buzz pressed in, steady and insistent.
Then the opening notes hit. A driving rhythm, syncing with the pounding of her heart.
Penny let out a gleeful squeak. “Oh, this is gonna be so good.”
Arden drew in a breath, slow and steady, her fingers closing around the stand.
And then she released it.
The first note slipped free, and the room forgot how to move. Not gradually. Like someone flipped a switch.
Her voice moved through the melody with an ease that belied the weight behind it, not just singing, not just sound. An unspoken truth rode every line.
Each lyric unraveled another knot. Each note scraped at the quiet places where fear had settled.
The crowd felt it. The pulse of the room had changed. No longer an audience, but witnesses. Their silence wasn’t passive. It was captivated.
Eyes widened. Heads turned. Even the ones who had come for cheap beer and background noise found themselves caught.
Her movements grew bolder. Her grip tightened. The power in her voice roared.
And then she caught him.
A figure near the back. Motionless—set apart.
The room moved, but he didn’t.
Everyone else leaned in.
He watched. It wasn’t wonder. It was something else entirely. Distant. Detached. Cold.
The chill hit her hard, slicing through the fire in her chest. Her voice caught. Just for a second.
