new year's, drew starkey ✓

22

new year's —
22. revelations

same day, 10:12pm - charleston time

"Let's give a round of applause everyone! Another great performer from The Blue's."

Everyone clapped the jazz band that was getting off the stage. It seemed they were a very popular band around here and everyone knew them; the cheers didn't stop for awhile.

"Wow, they are really famous around here." Rudy exclaimed.

"They were good and i'm not a jazz fan." Madison replied.

Everyone agreed, jazz was very specific however Kira thought that it was a gender that somehow everyone managed to like secretly. For example, everytime that Kira heard jazz, she thought about her abuela - she was a huge jazz fan and her dinners or lunches were always filled with jazz music. Kira missed her a lot, she missed her grand lunches on sundays and her colorfull house back in Spain, she didn't know when she would see her again.

"Hey, everything okay?"

Kira snapped back from her thoughts and focused on the voice in question. It was Drew and she smiled a little.

"Yeah, just thinking about some stuff." She shrugged.

"Happy or sad stuff?"

"Happy, for sure."

Drew smiled and gave Kira a squezze on her shoulder. It was these small gestures that made Kira's heart go wild and she didn't know how to feel about that, it was a dangerous territory. She smiled back and looked at the stage again where the owner of the restaurant was starting to speak again.

"And now it's time for anyone who wants to sing, play, recite poetry, whatever you want, to come foward and give us a good night! Don't be shy, let's hear you!"

And in that precise moment, Kira just heard someone behind her getting up and utter words that made her heart stop.

"We can go first." Flynn exclaimed and then, more quietly. "And you're singing, Kae."

Kira didn't move for a second, afraid to turn around and those words be in fact, directed at her - which it was, but she was too afraid to admit that reality. Here's the thing, Kira doesn't sing - at least since she was 14. Her friends and family say she needs to go back to singing, but she couldn't. She also thought her voice was not the same since that time. That was one thing she was very insecure about, at least since her mother died when she was only 14 years old. Well, yeah she had a stepmother since she was 16 whom she now called her mom, it was so easy to love her, she was a perfect mother.

It was really easy to call her mom, she was always there for her and her brother and soon enough, they asked her to adopt her legally the next year, when Kira was 17. So basically, when Kira says her mother, it really is her stepmother, Olivia and it feels strange to call her anything but that. So, when her biological mother died she couldn't sing for awhile, it reminded her of her too much; Kira's recitals, their sleepless night singing Disney songs, however, over time, Olivia helped overcome that fear of hers. Nowadays, Kira can sing normally with friends, in the shower, everywhere, however it came this insecure feeling in singing for everyone. She thought she wasn't good enough.