Right Here Waiting

The clock was getting closer and closer to three. He still wasn’t there. Eliza turned her head towards the doors but he wasn’t there. She peeked through the door; no one was in the room except the record label people. She moved away from the curtain, shaking her hands out of nervousness. She lifted a hand and wiped the sweat from the back of her neck. Why she had let Katie talk her into wearing a beanie, she’d never know. Her hair a blazing hot pink with black underneath, and Katie had made, at the time, a valid point that it could scare them away. Eliza didn’t want to dye her hair, since it took her so long to get the colors just right, but she did remove the anti-eyebrow piercing from the top of her cheek. She left the lip ring in, not really caring about that, and having it done so recently, she really couldn’t take it out.

The only reason she’d even agreed to go out for this was because Katie and her father had talked her into it. When Katie brought the flyer home, Eliza was on the phone with her dad, and he’d heard the whole conversation, saying it would be a good opportunity. He was her influence to even get into music. He’d taught Music in her high school in Huntington Beach, California, and she’d picked up a guitar from an early age. He promised he would be there, but there was no sign of him. She looked back through the glass to the waiting room where she saw Katie sitting by herself.

“Eliza Grey?”

She turned back around to see a guy standing in the door looking expectantly towards her. She nodded her head at him.

“They’re ready for you now.”

With a last fleeting glance toward the waiting room, she made her way into the studio. Eight pairs of eyes were on her as she entered and she could feel more sweat coming from underneath her hat. All four of the executives were in a semi-circle facing a stool. She shook the hands with the people and introduced herself, thanking them for this opportunity. She explained that she was going to play three different pieces, showing off her different abilities and that Ryan was going to help her out. She had been allowed to set up before they got there, and she’d set up her electric guitar, her acoustic, the amp and tuned the piano they’d provided to her.

First, she moved to the case that held her Ibanez K7 Apex 2 and pulled it out. Undoing the cords, she plugged them into the amp, testing the volume, the tone, and bass. She glanced at Ryan, a guy from her class at Berklee who said he’d play with her for this song. She explained that the song had one of the most difficult guitar pieces, but that it sounded better if someone else were to accompany her. They nodded, showing their permission. Another stool was brought for him and they sat down. Counting off, Ryan started playing the opening chords. Eliza glanced up and saw a couple of the executives smiling; they knew the song well.

Eliza’s eyes closed as she listened to Ryan play, a few seconds later, her fingers flying over the guitar playing along. Her head moved along with her high notes, melting into the same notes as Ryan before moving into the first verse, her voice ringing out loud and clear. Opening her eyes, she continued to sing, watching Ryan to make sure they were on the same note. She shifted her eyes to the executives right before the second verse. Four of them were nodding along, the fifth was smiling. She took it as a good sign and moved into the chorus again. She knew her time was coming. Her eyes closed again as she hit all the high notes flawlessly.

She moved into the second solo, her fingers flying across the strings, knowing the most important part was coming.

The executives watched with ongoing fascination as this small girl nailed the solo to the Metallica song. Her fingers flew down the neck of the guitar to hit all the high notes. A few leaned into each other to whisper a few compliments, but quickly hushed themselves, listening more. Contrary to their belief, her voice rang out clear and true with the song. With her playing, it complimented the song well.

When the song was over, Eliza opened her eyes as the five people in front of her clapped. She smiled in her appreciation and when the applause ended, she glanced at Ryan, signaling she was ready for the second song. She counted off, and immediately started singing.

The executives shared a laugh at the song she was playing. Most people would never have chosen a Bryan Adams song to play as an audition, but this Eliza girl was something else. Once she was done with those two, she started singing songs she said she wrote by herself.

She finished the song to more clapping.

“What made you choose those two songs?” One asked her.

As she stood up to put her guitar back and unplug the amp, she laughed. “Bryan Adams was my dad’s idea. ‘Summer of ‘69’ was the first song I ever learned to play. I used to remix it to say ‘Summer of ‘89’ since I was born in the eighties. After that, I started listening to more and more rock, and I grew up on Metallica. It’s one of the more difficult challenges for guitar players, and anyone who learns guitar always tries to play that one. I know it was one of the most difficult ones for me.”

“How would these songs be played, exactly?” Another asked her.

She launched into the vision she had for her song: the drums, the bass and the words. They all seemed impressed with her.

She thanked Ryan as he left and picked up her acoustic guitar. Sitting back down on her stool, she explained the two songs she was going to play this time.

“Lullaby” by Shawn Mullins had always been her favorite song since her mom played it for her when she was younger. It was the only thing she listened to when her mom died her sophomore year in high school. Even now, nine years later, it still made her tear up and she couldn’t hold the tears back as she sang along with her guitar. She finished that song, and wiping away her tears, she moved onto the next one. Finally, it was time for her piano performance.

She had decided on a classical piece, to show her diversity when it came to music, but she followed up with a piece that was a little more close to home. She was halfway through her second piece when she was interrupted by someone bursting through the doors. She glanced behind her to see Katie being chased by a guard, frantically trying to get past him.

“Excuse me, miss. You cannot be in here,” one of the executives said.

“Wait!” Eliza burst out. Everyone stopped, except Katie, who ripped her arm out of the grip of the security guy. Eliza could hear her say “Rude” to him as she made her way towards Eliza. “Katie what’s wrong?”

“Your dad isn’t coming,” Katie said, her eyes softening.

Eliza looked around embarrassed. “Katie, that’s fine. You could’ve waited until after my audition to—”

“No, Liza, you don’t understand,” Katie said, sitting on the bench with her roommate. That’s when Eliza noticed Katie was crying. She ignored the executives as they leaned in to hear the reason for the disruption. “Your dad never made it to the airport. He missed his flight.”

Eliza’s heart stopped, before doubling its speed. “What happened?”

“I was holding your phone and it rang, and someone asked if I was you, and thinking you’d want me to, I just said yes, and they started to explain all this complicated—”

“Katie.”

“Right, sorry. They explained that he was in his car and he was hit from behind and pushed into the middle of an intersection where another two cars t-boned him.”

“What happened, Katie?” Eliza pushed on, trying to stop the tears from coming. He wasn’t dead. He had to be okay.

“He’s in a coma, Eliza. They don’t know if he’s going to make it or not.”