The response from the audience crashes over me, louder than before. Cheers. Whistles. Voices calling out.
I can’t help but press my hand to my chest. Look up. Hope she’s up in heaven looking down on me.
She’s here. I know it.
“I’m Hope Kristiansen.” I smile despite the way my legs threaten to give out. “Thank you for listening.”
More cheers. Some answer back, louder, brighter. I stand there for another second, basking in accomplishing such a huge personal milestone. When I step offstage, heart still racing, something new takes shape inside me.
Back in Zane’s office, my hands won’t steady and my breath is fast, uneven, catching somewhere between disbelief andsomething sharper. Heat floods my entire body, climbs my throat, spills into a grin I can’t hold back.
No one ignored me. They stayed. Listened. Wanted more.
The realization resonates deeper than the applause. For the first time, I can’t talk myself out of what comes next.
I want this. All of it.
Not someday.
Now.
three
That Same Night
Tonight’sgonnabeepicif I can just calm myself down.
Cold air burns my lungs as we inch forward in line outside The Mission. My hands stay buried in my jacket pockets, fingers flexing against the fabric to ground myself.
Everything else is insanely loud. This nightclub situation isn’t my scene.
“You good?” Daniel bumps my shoulder.
“Yeah.” The word comes out too fast.
Jamie looks me over. “You don’t need to defend a goddamn thesis.”
“A thesis is a piece of cake.” I gesture toward the line of people who all seem to know precisely where to stand, how to move, what to say. “This is my worst nightmare.”
Jamie grins. “Well, there’s no code to hide behind.”
He’s not wrong.
The line shifts. We step forward. The doorman stamps my wrist, the ink cold and damp. I stare at it for a second. Proof I made it this far.
Inside, everything smacks me in the face at once. Sound. Heat. Motion.
Bass rolls through the floor from the system overhead, steady and low, setting a pulse under everything. Light cuts across the room in shifting colors, catching on bottles, metal, faces who all seem to belong here in a way I don’t.
I pause just past the entrance, marveling. This is her world.
Hope.
“Dude.” Daniel turns in a slow circle. “This place is insane.”
“Yeah.” I force my shoulders back, try to match the energy around me. “Maybe I’ll work up the courage to talk to her tonight.”
The words slip out before I can stop them.
