Overture (Rain Dance, Book 1) (Rain Dance Series) (59 page)

     
"'Wannabe,' of course."

     
"I don't
know that one," I said, generating strange looks from all the girls.

     
"Even
I
know that one, Babydoll," Dale laughed.

     
At his
nickname, I began to feel the curious gazes from Ethan's coworkers. They,
almost nervously, flicked their eyes back and forth between my roommate and
their boss. "Um...I never really listened to them," I shrugged.

     
"But you
knew who Ginger Spice was?" Connie asked doubtfully.

     
"Everyone
knows Ginger Spice."

     
"Do you
know
any
song by them?"

   
  
"'Say You'll Be There.'" The one song by them
that I adored.

     
"Fine,
we'll do that one."

     
Damn
straight we're doing that one.
I would have to open up the song, but after
that it would be easy peasy, much easier than 'Wannabe' would have been. When
we each had our mics, we quickly went over who got which section before
starting. Rather than singing, I instead spoke melodically. It was twenty
seconds of numbness and awkwardness with just my voice echoing back to me.
Jillian came in next. She also spoke more than sang, but with growls and extra
emphasis on certain words. It almost sounded demonic, and soon I found myself
biting my tongue to keep from laughing. Samantha, with her soft and gentle
voice, had the hardest part as Sporty, who sung the heavy power vocals that
closed the song. Still, she pulled through with a bashful smile. When we
finished, everyone broke out into applause.

     
"Alright,
the males are up!" Jillian hollered.

     
They spent the
next fifteen minutes looking over the music list and arguing over what to
choose. Ethan sat and observed quietly, occasionally taking my hand and rubbing
his thumb over it. Sometimes he would turn and talk to Pierre. It soon became
obvious that they were fairly close friends. I tried not to fidget whenever I
noticed the blonde eyeing me speculatively. Normally I would have stared right
back, but I couldn't bring myself to do so this time. There was just something
about him that made me want to avoid any direct eye contact.

     
It was lucky
that we were divided evenly between genders since there were only five mics. By
the time we received our food and drinks, the men had finally decided on a song
- David Bowie's 'Heroes.' It was hard to separate any individual voices,
especially what with Tyler, Henry, and Dale speech-shouting the lyrics.

     
The next hour
passed quickly with the extroverts taking charge. We continued singing in
groups, dividing into threes or twos most of the time. Not only was I the
slowest eater, but I was also the slowest drinker, and was only halfway through
my second glass when Connie said it was time for solos.

     
"Baby goes
last," Jillian stated.

     
"Why, is
she gonna break out the dance moves and throw down?" Henry joked.

     
Being the
unsociable dolt that I was, I didn't know how to respond, so I simply winked at
him before swallowing back a large portion of my drink.
Heaven and
Lightweight Gods…Help me, please.
Too busy praying, I barely registered
Ethan's fingers digging into my arm.

     
"I'll go
first, then." Connie drank the last bits of her third glass and stood,
reaching for her microphone. Her decision to sing 'My Love Is Like…Wo' didn't
come as that much of a surprise. She oversang, but moved with such enthusiasm
that she earned whistles from half the room, myself included when she did a
perfect dip without losing balance.

     
Samantha went
next, wanting to get it over with quickly. Everyone cheered her on as she tried
her best to get through without laughing. Dale gazed at her adoringly the
entire time, and it wasn't hard to see just how badly he was falling. I didn't
think I'd ever seen him look at a girl like that before.

     
Tyler followed,
doing surprisingly well. Connie, who watched his dancing accompaniment with
devouring eyes, certainly enjoyed it. Next came Beth and Henry. While Beth's
voice was much higher than her song had called for, Henry had the opposite
problem and struggled to get his voice to reach Prince's falsetto. Both
performances made for a good laugh.

     
As Pierre began
his perfect rendition of 'Careless Whisper,' all the other girls broke into
either gasps or screams. Connie, Beth, and Jilly started whistling. Henry and
Tyler both rolled their eyes while Ethan just watched on, amused.

     
"All
right, boss. It's your turn," Henry grinned.

     
"Pick
something for me," Ethan offered.

     
Tyler laughed.
"Are you sure about that? How about some Beyoncé, then?"

     
Pierre began
flipping through the list. "I'll choose."

     
"Make it good,"
Henry insisted. "We need to see him self-destruct."

     
I took another
large sip of my drink, too worried about myself to worry about Ethan. I had
managed to calm down, but now that it was nearing my turn, I was starting to
panic again.

     
"Alright,"
Pierre called out in his lovely accent. "Take a vote: classic, dramatic,
or old school?"

     
"Old
school," Tyler replied.

     
Henry shook his
head. "I want dramatic."

     
"How old
school are we talking?"

     
Jilly shouted
beside me, "Dramatic!"

     
"What
exactly does dramatic imply?" Dale asked, setting his drink down.
"You gonna give him a cape and have him sing
Phantom of The Opera
?"

     
"I want to
see that!"

     
Pierre looked
to me. "Any preferences?"

     
I shook my
head. I didn't want to hear him sing at all. Not in front of others.

     
"Dramatic
it is." After handing the microphone to Ethan, he went to enter the song.
A few seconds later, the opening beat of 'Cry Little Sister' began playing.

     
Never mind my
previous thoughts -
fuck yes and thank you very much, Pierre.

     
Ethan scoffed
and said something to his friend as he returned to sit down. I wasn't able to
catch it because it wasn't in English, much to my surprise. I had to strain my
ears to make out Pierre's reply.

     
"
Tu
l'as bien mérité
."

     
"
Ta
gueule.
"

     
Pierre laughed,
leaning back into his seat as Ethan took a quick sip of his drink and lifted
the mic to his mouth.

     
"It's not
dramatic unless you're standing!" Henry complained.

     
Ethan threw one
of my fries at him, which Henry caught with a grin. A moment later, he began
singing. I half-expected it, of course, but that didn't stop my breath from
catching. Ethan's voice was deep, raw, perfectly in tune, and brought instant
heat to the area between my thighs.

     
"Holy
shit," Connie remarked, though it came out as more of a cry.

     
Jillian gripped
onto my arm, her nails pressing into my skin as she stared in wonder. Possibly
not wanting to be outdone, the rest of the men jumped in, singing the choir
parts with much enthusiasm. Somehow, they all had the same exact idea to sing
in an unrealistically deep Transylvanian accent.

     
Ethan didn't
struggle once, not even when it came to the lengthy high notes near the end.
His voice even got all husky when he finally came to the last three lines. When
he was finished, everyone else broke into howls. Yeah…literally. And it was at
that point that I realized I was no longer trapped in a room with grown adults.
I hadn't been for a while now. No, I was with a pack of wolves. But more
importantly, I was now a good deal drunk. Why the fuck should I be nervous
about anything? I could hold a tune. I started laughing.

     
Eventually
everyone settled down and someone shouted, "Next!"

     
Jillian grinned
at Coops expectantly.

     
With a sigh, he
picked up a mic. "Not sure how I feel about following that."

     
Dale wasn't as
perfectly in tune as Ethan had been, but he sang without a care in the world,
shouting like it was his last breath. He pointed at Jillian and I so we could
jump in near the end to chant the '
oh-oh-oh-ohs'.
Everyone else dived
in, too, and it ended in applause. After taking a bow, he handed the mic to
Jillian.

     
"Should we
cover our ears?" he asked.

     
"It should
be okay," she replied cheerfully before turning to wink at me.

     
So she was
going to go ahead and take the other route. I fell into a silent fit of giggles,
rolling onto my side and clutching at my waist. Jillian may not have been the
greatest singer, but she made up for it in other ways. Ethan was leaning over
to see if I was alright when M.O.P.'s 'Ante Up' started playing. I watched as
the other men in the room became confused when the beautiful little Jillybean
put on her ultimate fierce-face and began shouting aggressively into the
microphone.

     
Watching
Jillian rap ranked high on my favorite's list. She was so damn cute it was
almost unbearable. I had always been a bit jealous of her skills - she could
replace the 'n' word with 'ninja' so easily, whereas I still had a lot of
trouble with it.

     
After the
second verse, she turned to Dale and I. "Hook!"

     
We both jumped
in and began shouting along, and by the time the song came to a close, almost
everyone was screaming the chorus. When it was over, Jillian gave her own bow,
thanking everyone for their cheers.

     
"Okay,
bathroom break!" she yelled. "We'll be back in just a few."
Grabbing my hand, she suddenly dragged me out of the room. "Come on!"

     
I was confused
when she led us towards the large open area where the live band and stage were.
The competition was now over and people were just singing for fun. She turned
to me with a hopeful grin. "Please, please, pretty
please
?"

     
"Jillian…" Unable to hold my pout, I broke out into giggles.
"I gotta pee."

     
She chuckled
excitedly.

     
The other girls
joined us in the bathroom, everyone needing to relieve themselves after all the
drinks. It wasn't until I was done washing my hands that I realized what I had
just done.
Ugh. After I promised myself never again.
I usually avoided
public restrooms like the plague, but thankfully this one wasn't so bad.

     
We ran into
Henry and Tyler on the way back to our room. The others inside were standing
now, apparently taking these few minutes to stretch. Everyone looked relaxed
and happy. I found it to be a little bizarre, especially considering how
obviously different most of us were as individuals.
Music is a powerful
thing, I guess. Or was it the alcohol?

     
Dale stared at
Jillian and I, smiling as realization set in. "Oh. Are you really going
to…?"

     
"The three
of us have to sing our song first!" Jillian bent down to grab our mics.

     
"We all
went. It's
the babydoll's
turn," Connie said, somewhat annoyed, as
she went to take her seat.

     
At this point,
I dearly wished my father were still alive just so I could slap him. When it
wasn't Coops or Jillybean calling me by that name, it was just flat out
humiliating. I was glad that Ethan hadn't caught onto it.
Right…Because
Kitten is so much better, of course
. I bit my lip, blushing.
From him,
yes, it is.

     
"It's
tradition that we sing this together first," Jillian explained. "It'll
be a while before we get another chance." After entering the song, she
quickly took her seat between Dale and I.

     
The three of us
huddled together as the opening piano to Oasis' 'Don't Look Back In Anger'
began playing. We sang as one, just as we had so many times before in the past.
For almost five minutes, it was as though we were in our own world, the other people
in the room having quietly disappeared. It was just us and our memories. For
me, they were the only truly happy memories in my life, with the exception of
the time I had with my father.