The Only Girl in the Band

The Only Girl in the Band...[Part 14]

"There's one small problem," I was saying, the day before we were supposed to perform at Paris Hilton's New Year's Eve party.

"Oh, no. What is it?" Ian asked. I glanced at Mae, who had decided to watch band practice today. After exchanging a glance, Mae nodded, understanding.

"She can't perform on stage," she said.

"What?" Camron asked. Caleb held his head in his hands, remembering what I had told him a while ago when we first met.

"Stage fright," I mumbled in response, my face pale. Ian let out a stream of curse words and walked out of the studio.

"You're telling us this now?!" Liam exclaimed.

"I'm sorry! I had completely forgotten about it! We've always practiced down here in the studio," I said.

"We're screwed!" Ian yelled from outside. I looked to Caleb for help.

"All right. Let's calm down. I think we should go to a busy club tonight, have you perform, test out how you do with alcohol in you, and not worry," Caleb suggested.

"Alcohol? That's your brilliant solution?" Camron asked.

"We haven't got a choice at this point. God, it was stupid doing such a big party as our first ever gig. I completely forgot about your stage fright," Caleb said.

"Why didn't you tell us before?!" Ian asked, frustrated and angry, as he walked back in.

"Don't yell at her!" Mae defended. Ian glared at her.

"I told Caleb," I said in a quiet voice. Ian's face turned slightly red in anger. A picture of steam coming out of his ears and nose flashed through my mind and I fought the inappropriate urge to laugh.

"So, what? We're going to wait until tonight to figure this out?" Liam asked. Ian was on his phone.

"No, come on," he said, getting up. We all stood and followed him. "Follow me in my car. Vanessa, you're coming with me," he demanded. I chose not to argue because he was already in a bad mood, although I would have liked to go in Caleb's car because I knew that Ian was about to lecture me. Surprisingly, he was silent, which was slightly more worse than him yelling at me.

"You're mad at me," I pointed out after 10 minutes of silence. He glanced in the rearview mirror to check if the others were still following, his eyes narrowed.

"Well, good to know you're not stupid," he snapped.

"Wow, I really didn't expect you, my boyfriend, of all people, to get this mad at me," I said, slumping in my seat.

"Vanessa!" he cried in an aggravated voice. Hearing him say my full name made me flinch. It meant he was really angry with me. "You know how much this band means to me! And you're about to screw up what could be our biggest performance to kick off our career. You're so careless," he lectured. I frowned, feeling his words stab me.

"I'm sorry!" I said.

"Sorry's not going to cut it," he said pointedly.

"Where are we going?" I asked after a few moments of silence.

"A friend of mine works at the mall. We've played there a couple times just for fun. I texted him and asked if we could perform a quick show. They always have some sort of thing going on. He cleared it with his boss and he said yes. So that's where we're going. You're going to practice singing in front of a crowd of mall shoppers," Ian told me.

"I-I-But that's-that's a lot of people," I stammered.

"That's the point. We can't wait until tonight for you to practice performing in a cafe full of people. Besides, the mall will have loads more people in it. Way better practice," he said. He turned into the parking lot of the mall. We both got out as Caleb and Camron parked their cars.