Windows of the Soul

We walked into the Chill Drill. The setting was familiar; tables around, an ordering booth to the left, and a stage to the right. A couple was on the stage, belching out a remix of a Rihanna song. Jace took my hand and led me to an empty table.

“What do you want to eat?” He asked. I sat down in the worn chair.

“Whatever you’re having is fine,” I said. Jace pushed himself off the table and stalked up to the ordering booth. I looked around, seeing a couple of familiar faces but no one I knew personally. Jace came back with drinks, two Mountain Dews, and we sipped in silence as we watched the couple finish the bouncy song.

“Who’s next?” A bald man called out through a microphone, headphones around his neck and a makeshift DJ booth in front of him. A couple of people looked at each other, and suddenly Jace jumped up.

“I’ll go,” Jace said, walking towards the front. My eyes widened. He glanced back at me and smirked. A couple of the girls giggled as he walked past them. I watched as he took a microphone and got up on the stage.

“What song do you want to play, my man?” The bald guy asked. Jace stepped back over to the man and said something in his ear; I couldn’t see what it was from where I was standing. The DJ nodded and said something back, and Jace nodded. The DJ came back on the speakers.

“Okay, get ready for some Bruno Mars!” A beat came on, and I instantly recognized the song. Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars. No. Way. Jace started to sing, and I laughed. He was terribly off-note. At least every part of him wasn’t perfect.



Jace looked straight at me, through the throng of girls that had stood up and started to dance along the bottom of the stage. He smiled as he hit a note that sounded like a dying cat, but the girls continued to squeal. The whole place was swaying; not from the voice but from the music.



I felt tears gather at the back of my eyes, but I pushed them down. Even though I’d dated Drew for two full years, he never did something this romantic. I laughed and started to dance too, joining in the girls in the front. Jace never took his eyes off of me. I pushed my way to the front, much to the annoyance and dismay of a couple of other girls, and Jace helped me onto the stage. As the song ended I threw my arms around his neck, and he kissed me on the lips. I heard a couple of “aww”s from around the room. I leaned back and his eyes twinkled.

The music ended and the DJ took the microphone, giving it to a perky girl and her best friend. Jace and I got off the stage, hand in hand, and got our food.

“That was really good,” I gushed as he bit into a fry.

“I suck at singing, you don’t have to lie about it,” Jace said, grinning.

“It was really sweet though,” I said. The fries here were delicious, and the hamburger we both had was cooked perfectly. I’d never really noticed how great the food was here.

Jace tapped his foot to the beat as the girls finished a Lady Gaga song and we finished our food.

“Why don’t you go sing?” Jace asked. My eyes widened.

“No. No no no no no. I don’t sing.” I shook my head quickly. Jace raised an eyebrow.

“You can’t sing one song? After I went out there, sounding like crap? The people loved it!” He nodded at some of the girls who had sat down when he finished his song.

“Nope. Nada. Sorry.”

“C’mon,” Jace encouraged me.

I rolled my eyes, still sure of my answer.

“I’ll sing with you,” Jace offered. At that I decided to do it. Two horrible voices didn’t make a right, but it made a worse a little better.

“Fine.” I consented. We went up and I looked at him. “What song do you want to sing?”

“You pick.” Jace said. I thought for a moment and decided to pick a song he didn’t know. Just for the fun of it.

“Sparks Fly by Taylor Swift, please.” The DJ nodded, and I made my first mistake of the night. I didn’t make sure Jace was behind me when I went up and the music started. I looked around desperately for Jace, and there he stood, back by our table, smiling in encouragement. I glared at him furiously, but if I walked off the stage I knew I would look like a bigger loser than if I sang. So I sang.

First things first: I only sing in the shower. And that’s when my mom and Tessa aren’t in the house. I’m so self-conscious of my voice. But with Jace there, I blocked out everything but him.



Surprisingly my voice sounded better than I thought it would. I opened my eyes after sealing them shut to see everybody swaying, but a different type of swaying than Jace had. A good swaying, not a laughter-type of swaying. I opened my eyes and sang the chorus.



I finished the song and listened to the chorus of applause. I shyly gave the microphone back and jogged up to Jace.

“You weren’t bad. I don’t know what you were scared of,” Jace said. I smiled and kissed him deeply on the lips. I would’ve kept kissing him if I didn’t hear an all-too familiar voice say through the microphone, “You know who you are.”

Drew. My second mistake.