Page 152 of The Jaded Notes

They play for a minute while I ramp up the people in the front.

I sing alone.

I’m stuck in the ruins,

Of everything we knew.

Fragments of our story,

In this heart made of blue.

Bren and Hawke join in again.

Behind my hell is blackness,

That just won’t set me free.

I’m broken and bleeding,

Where your love used to be.

Just a ghost on the line,

Laughing like it’s all fine.

Bren and Cooper shred as Hawke lets loose on the drums. It’s an instrumental breakout, so I can catch my breath. I face Livianna.

She’s gently bouncing to the beat without letting on to anything she’s feeling, but her eyes shine like they used to, like they did when she would come to our shows and everything was perfect.

It gives me hope, and I realize my cue is about to hit. I jump in right on time.

Tell me…do you feel it, too?

This static between us like truth?

Or am I just noise,

In a song you outgrew?

The three of us sing to close.

Still caught in the echo,

Of a love left behind.

Each mile a dagger,

Each memory, unkind.

I’m fading in the distance,

Still calling your name.

A ghost on the line,

And nothing is the same.

They play to the last note as I make my way over to her. I step behind the curtain where she’s hidden from the crowd and plant a kiss on her cheek like I used to do when we were young and unbreakable.