Take A Breath, Let the Rest Come Easy

“He woke up from dreaming and put on his shoes,” Alex sang into the microphone. “Started making his way past two- in the morning, he hasn’t been sober for days.”

Grace was nervous, extremely nervous. Ever since they had created the song, and Alex had told her about the performance; she felt like her heart was located in her stomach. She was sat on a stool with her hand clenched tightly over her own microphone. The crowd was massive. She had never performed for so many people in her life. Her palms began to sweat, and her heart was beating rapidly. Alex’s eyes flickered over to her and then back to the crowd. He knew she was nervous, hell- so was he. This was a new song, and he didn’t know whether the crowd was going to enjoy it or not. It wasn’t exactly your regular “head banging, good time” song.

What made things worse, was Alex had introduced her as his girlfriend. She wouldn’t be able to make an escape out of the venue without being questioned now. As excited as she was that he was now referring to her as his, she was too nervous to even think about the idea of having a boyfriend again.

Alex’s hand slid over to Grace, and gripped her fingers reassuringly, causing the enormous crowd to “Awwh.” Grace blushed.

She inhaled a deep breath and pulled the microphone close to her mouth. The lyrics escaped her throat and she shut her eyes tightly while she sang. The nervousness faded from her mind, and she finally felt at ease.

“Give it up, for my beautiful girlfriend, Grace Karter- Find her on twitter.” Alex cheered, and the crowd seemed pretty pleased as well, which made Grace happy.

She mouthed to Alex as she walked off the stage, “You got me a twitter?!” She hated social networking. Alex shrugged, with an extremely cute, guilty expression sprawled on his face. Grace rolled her eyes and continued on backstage.

“Hey, good job Grace!” Jack kissed her cheek and then took off back to the stage. Grace fixed her incredibly big hair. Something the people backstage wanted to do to her. She went to swing around to the other side of the stage to watch the rest of the boy’s performance. It was a local venue, which Grace was pleased she didn’t have to go too far. A tall man with a strange looking hat stopped her.

“Hi, Grace Karter, right?” He smiled. Grace nodded, and shook his hand politely.

“Yes, that’s me.” She replied, all business, just like her father had taught her when she was very young.

“My name is Jake Cole, I’m with of Hopeless Records.” He introduced himself. “I heard you had a phone call with one of my co-workers and it would be my pleasure to offer you a contract deal.”
Grace’s whole body began to shake, as she tried to contain her excitement. Professional. Professional. Professional. She told herself.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” She said, while he stared down at the hand she was still rapidly shaking. Grace pulled her hand away, embarrassed.

“If you’ll think about considering us, we have an opening tomorrow at 9am. Here’s my card.” He handed her the little business card. “I’ll look forward to working with you, Ms. Karter.” He smiled, and then took off back towards the crowd.

She caught Zack’s eye first, as he was walking towards the backstage lounges. “Zack!” She shouted.

Zack swung around. “Hey!” He yelled over the noise.

“I’m getting a deal! Hopeless Records offered me a deal!” She exclaimed. Zack pulled her around the middle and swung her around.

“That’s great, Grace!” He said, thoroughly happy for her. “Have you told Alex yet?” He asked. Grace stepped away from Zack and shook her head.

“I’m going to tell him now.” She said. Zack nodded and then let her leave to find Alex.
Alex was standing at the side of the stage, searching for Grace. He hadn’t seen her since she was on stage with him and he was starting to get concerned. He reached for his cell phone and began to start texting her, when he saw a text from Lisa.

Hey, I came to your show! You were awesome! …As always. ;)

Alex’s face heated up. Why the hell was she there? “Hey!” Grace suddenly shook him from his thoughts. Her green eyes were sparkling with happiness, and he knew she had good news. He immediately smiled down at her and pecked her lips. “Hi, gorgeous.” He mused.

“Hey, guess what!” She stammered, jumping in excitement.

“What?” He asked.

“Hopeless Records wants to sign me!” She said.

“Chirst- Shit, Gracie that’s awesome!” Alex said loudly, and pulled her into a hug.

“Thanks.” She chuckled.