Welcome to New York

Chapter 33

"A karaoke-bar?" Peter whined.

It was Saturday evening, our date night, and I had decided that it would be fun to drag Peter to a karaoke-bar. He clearly didn't like this idea, but we went in anyway.

"Come on, this will be fun," I said as we ordered two cokes and sat down.

Two girls were singing Bang Bang by Jessie J and the crowd was cheering them on.

"It will be fun watching people," Peter said. "But I'm not going to sing."

I rolled my eyes at him and smiled.

A few more people got up. We found out that a spotlight chooses who was going to sing, which made Peter really nervous. I started to think this maybe was a mistake, but then the spotlight stood still on me.

"Come forward, my lady," the host on the stage said into his microphone.

People were cheering me on, and I saw Peter giving me a worried look. Of course, I stood up and walked to the stage.

I scrolled through the songs I could sing. When I saw one of my favorite songs on the screen, I tapped it immediately and grabbed the microphone.

From the speakers came the first sounds of Panic! at the Disco's song The Ballad of Mona Lisa. I knew it was a difficult song to sing, but I sang it almost every time I was in the shower. I was ready to nail this song.

I didn't need to look at the lyrics, they were imprinted in my head. I looked at the audience in the bar. A lot of people were watching me, which frightened me a little bit. I didn't dare to look at Peter during the first verse and the first chorus. But when I did look at him, I saw that his mouth hung open a little bit and his eyes were full of admire. The second verse was all sung to him. He smiled at me and raised his thump.

During the last chorus I went all the way and gave everything I got. If I say for myself, I slayed. The people in the bar applauded and the host came standing next to me to take over the microphone.

"That was amazing," he said. "I'm asking this for a friend, but are you single?"

I laughed. "No, I'm not. I have a boyfriend who I love very much."

"Is he here with us tonight?" the host asked.

I looked at Peter, who was blushing. "Yeah, he is here, look at how handsome he is!"

Peter started to blush even more. The spotlight went to him, making his eyes become huge and his mouth making 'no, no, no, no' movements.

"Let's hear from the boyfriend," the host said, inviting Peter on stage. I jumped off and on my way back to our table I kissed him on his cheek, wishing him good luck.

I saw him looking at the screen, swiping through the songs. He tapped on one and Rihanna's Umbrella blasted from the speakers.

Peter started singing. It was really beautiful, but I saw he was insecure. He didn't dare to look at me at first as well. But when the chorus started, he looked me straight in the eyes and sang it all to me. I looked back at him, biting my bottom lip. He was so cute on stage and his singing was so good. During the second chorus he started to dance a little bit as well. My stomach was filled with butterflies. I couldn't stop smiling. He was having fun as the song continued. No, it definitely wasn't a mistake coming here.

It was around midnight when we finally got out of the karaoke-bar. After our two solo performances we sat down and enjoyed the others, but after a few hours we were invited together on stage and we sang Finesse by Bruno Mars together. The host called us a lovely couple, and I couldn't agree more. This night was amazing, but I didn't want it to end.

"I don't want this night to end," Peter sighed as he put an arm around me. Well, at least we agreed on that point.

Then I came to a realization: There were no trains running at this time.

"Pete..." I spoke.

"Yeah?"

"How do we get home?" I chuckled.

I saw him realizing the same thing.

"I'm sorry, this wasn't really well planned out," I said.

"No, it's my fault as either. I was having way too much fun." He kissed me on my head. "Does your uncle have a car? Can he pick us up?"

I sighed. "He's probably already asleep."

Peter sighed as well.

"We could go to a hotel?" I suggested.