Bright Angel
Chapter 26
Melissa: At 7 the doorbell rang and I ran in my new little black dress to open it for the visitor. As I opened the door, my eyes fell on a tall blonde boy in a nice suit. The expression on his face was priceless as his eyes scanned the length of my tiny body. “You look…,” he stumbled for words, “amazing!” “Thanks,” I blushed and giggled nervously. “You didn’t have to buy it for me, Taylor.” “I wanted to. If you could only see how great it looks on you.” I smiled as he moved closer to kiss me. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Anything for you,” he whispered in return. “So, are ya ready to go,” he inquired after kissing me once more. I took hold of his arm, “if you are.” We made our way down the stone pathway leading off the front step and towards Clover’s car. “So,” I said as soon as both of us were in the car and headed up the driveway, “where are we going?” “I can’t tell ya. It’s a surprise,” he smiled. A surprise? I pondered the though for a moment. Hmm…where would he be taking? Somewhere fancy, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to wear this. I was curious and anxious for an answer. “So, what did you and Hillary do today?” “Roller rink, actually. It was fun,” I went into detail explaining our attempt at creating chaos and scaring the shit out of people as he laughed with me. Then, I asked what they did today. “Oh, Zac, Isaac, and I had to do a TV show then some radio promotion at the mall.” Before long, the green Volvo was on the expressway making its way into downtown Atlanta. He pulled into a nice little Italian restaurant on Peachtree where we enjoyed a candlelit dinner for two. The food was great, but the company was even better. An hour later, we were back in the car driving further into the city. “Where are we going now,” I asked. “You’ll see,” he told me as I smiled. I was loving every minute of this. I had always dreamed of meeting someone who would be sweet, romantic, and full of surprises. My excitement faded for a moment as he drove the car into the parking lot of a piano bar that was apparently having kareokee night. I laughed nervously. “My goal is to get you up on that stage before the night is over,” he laughed. “You got to be kidding me,” I told him, “you don’t understand, I, I just can’t do that. It scares me.” “Melissa, God has given you an incredible talent. Not only are you perfect, but you can sing better than almost anyone I know.” I blushed, “no, I can’t.” “Yes, you can. You don’t give yourself enough credit; you’re amazing.” “Taylor, I have stage fright,” I told him, embarrassed. I held my hand and looked into my eyes. “If I get up there with you, will you do it? For me?” I sighed and looked down, “I don’t know.” “I’ll be right there holding your hand, I promise. It won’t be bad.” “Ok, I guess I will.” I took a deep breath and let him lead me into the building. As soon as we walked in, we found a small table for two in the corner of the dark purple room filled with all kinds of eccentric people. I sat at the table while Taylor went up to put us on the list to sing. 10 minutes later, we were up. I held his hand and the two of us made our way on stage with me, scared to death, and Taylor, totally calm. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a second. “You’re shaking,” Taylor whispered, “you’ll do fine, don’t worry.” Just then, the music kicked on, the spotlight shone bright in my eyes and my heart started to race. I looked over at Taylor, who smiled in reassurance as I held onto his hand tightly. Then, it was time to sing. Our rendition of “I got you babe” wasn’t all that bad either. With him, I found myself not nearly as nervous, as if I could do anything as long as I had him there. The song ended and I looked at Taylor with a big grin on my face. “I told you you’d be fine. You were amazing out there, you owned the place,” we both laughed as he slid his arms around my waist and kissed me. “Thank you,” I told him. “For what?” “Everything. For you.”