Rise (Colton Dixon)

Chapter 11

Alexis
Colton leads me out of the lounge, but instead of heading out, he takes me down the hallway and into another room. What the heck?
He pauses outside the doorway.
“I thought it would be too bad if you left without meeting everyone else. Most of them should be hanging out in here.”
I feel my eyes widen, and I open my mouth to protest, but he stops me with an upraised hand.
“Hey, relax. Trust me, they’re about the chillest people you’ll ever meet. And if they find out I took you home without introducing you to them, I’ll be in for it.”
I swallow hard, but nod wordlessly. There’s not much I can say, I guess.
Colton grins, places one hand on my shoulder, and guides me through the door.
We step into an open room, filled with noise mostly revolving around ping-pong game going on in one corner, between the dude who mostly rapped in Capital Kings and Jen from Skillet. I stop in my tracks at the sight of her.
I forgot about Skillet. I was thinking about all of the invisible little peeps no one but Christians know anything about… people that I didn’t want to meet just cause I didn’t wanna see them judge me, not because of any kind of nervousness because of who they are. But this is Skillet. I’ve loved them since I was ten years old.
“Still going easy on me, Cole?” Jen laughs, tossing her blonde hair. “Cause I think you might wanna start trying just about now.”
“Nah,” the dude… Cole, I guess… replies as he almost misses her serve. “I just couldn’t stand to beat a girl.”
He’s rewarded with a ping-pong ball in his face.
He gives Jen a long look before stooping to pick it up off of the floor. “That totally didn’t bounce, Jen.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh boy, so you get the serve. We’ll see what it does for you.”
“Yeah, man,” the dude who sang with Cole adds. “Seriously, man…” He laughs before singing, “I want you to be a king!”
Cole throws the ball at him… and misses, hitting Normal Hair from for KING & COUNTRY where he’s sitting nearby instead.
“Mature, aren’t we, Cole?” he asks in a tone like he’s talking to a child.
So his accent is awesome.
“Hey,” Cole laughs. “I’m following your advice over here, Man. I’m showing Jen how priceless she is by letting her win.”
Normal Hair chokes on the water he’s drinking. “That’s not really how it works.”
Colton is surveying them with a look of amusement. Cause none of them have even noticed we walked in.
He clears his throat meaningfully. And, they’re too busy playfully arguing to even hear. All except one of them, that is.
It’s the lead singer… who’s name I completely forgot… from the band that introduced Colton… whose name I also totally forgot. I don’t even care.
He grins at Colton before his eyes fall on me. He rises from his chair and walks over to greet us with a smile that just makes you want to like him.
“Who do you have here, Colton?” His light southern accent does the same thing as his smile.
Ugh. What is freaking wrong with me? If he knew anything about me, he would be judging me so bad that he’d kick me to the curb.
“This is Alexis,” Colton replies, removing his hand from my shoulder. “She came here by herself and I’m walking her home, but I wanted you all to meet her first.”
“Well, of course,” the guys laughs, and turns to me. “I’m Mike.”
I do sort-of remember that now.
I take his offered hand without meeting his gaze.
Colton glances down at me. “He’s the lead singer of Tenth Avenue North,” he tells me with a slight smile.
I nod. “Cool.” It felt like I should say something.
“She came here last-minute and didn’t really know what she was getting herself into,” he explains briefly, cracking a smile. “Didn’t know we were all crazy Jesus freaks.”
Gee, thanks, Colton. Now he is gonna start judging me. But you know what? I don’t care. It’s better than him thinking I’m a Christian.
“Ah, I see,” Mike says with another smile. Probably to cover what he’s actually thinking. “Well that’s the most fun, right? Get yourself in for a surprise.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I still don’t meet his friendly gaze. It wasn’t exactly a good surprise, Dude.
“So, you’re here by yourself?” he asks after a long moment.
Like Colton didn’t just say that.
“Couldn’t get your parents to come with?”
My parents wouldn’t have been invited.
I let out a rye laugh. “My parents are on their second honeymoon.”
“Oh, gotcha,” he says, like I told him they were out to dinner. “And your friends weren’t interested?”
I shrug. “I don’t have any friends.”
Something that’s probably disgust he’s disguising as sadness flits through his eyes.
“Come on, how could that be right?  Who wouldn’t want to be friends with you?”
I just repeat my prior action. “I’m a loser. Why would they?”
Mike opens his mouth, but he’s cut off by an Aussie-accented call from across the room.
“Colton, why didn’t you tell us you brought us a guest?”
I glance over to see Curly Hair walking towards us. Dude, he’s seriously tall.
Colton laughs. “I would have, but Cole and Jen were arguing too loud.”
The guy laughs. “Well, that’s certainly true.” He turns to me and offers his hand. “Sorry about that, Love. I’m Luke.”
And I’m not your freaking Love. “Alexis,” I mutter, shaking his hand while staring at the ground.
“Come on,” he says, waving me deeper into the room. “You don’t have to stand in the doorway all night.”
Colton turns to where Jen and Cole are standing at the ping-pong table. “Cole, give it up already. Jen won. I’ll teach you how to actually beat her later.”
Cole shrugs lightly. “Yeah, okay fine. I’ll take you up on that, Colt.”
Colton nods and turns to the rest of the room. “Alexis, this is Joel…”
Normal Hair Aussie. “Nate…” NF. Awesome.
“Jason…” I think he’s from Tenth Avenue North.
“Cole…” Duh. “Dylan…” Capital Kings’ singer.
“Jen, Cory, and John…” I knew that. That’s Skillet, Dude! Except Seth isn’t in here.
“Michael…” How exciting. It’s a lead singer of freaking Newsboys. “Duncun…” The drummer and one good part about that band.
“And Ben.” I don’t know. Maybe part of someone’s band.
“Not everyone’s in here,” Colton adds. “We’re missing Manic Drive, KB, Britt Nicole, and bits and pieces of everyone else, plus my aids…” He laughs.  “but this is a lot of us. And, guys, this is Alexis.”
They all chorus their greetings, and I mumble something close to one in return.
“Please, sit down, Alexis,” the Michael dude says with a smile. “We’re crazy, but I’ll make sure Duncun doesn’t bite.”
“I’ll reign myself in,” his drummer laughs. Another Aussie accent. Sweet.
I obediently drop onto a couch Colton nudges me towards, perching on the edge of it while he and Mike sit down on either side of me and Luke takes a chair next to Joel.
I have to admit I’m impressed at how welcoming they’re acting. I mean, minute as they may be, they are celebrities.
“I’m gonna take Alexis home cause I don’t want her to get kidnapped,” Colton explains quickly with a slight smile, “but I knew I’d be in trouble if I left without introducing her to you guys.”
“So, how did you meet Colton?” Mike asks from next to me.
“Oh! I know this!”
I start it surprise and look at Normal Hair. Er, Joel. Kay. Hard habit to break.
He’s grinning as he looks at me. “She met Annie first!” he continues excitedly. “Because you, my dear, are the young lady I gave my bracelet to.”
***** it. I was hoping he wouldn’t recognize me.
I bite my lip and stare at my lap. “Uh… yeah.” I hesitate. “Um, sorry about that… I just…”
“Darling, don’t worry about it,” he replies gently. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
I honestly cannot believe that he wasn’t just a little ticked about that. Probably more than a little. Whatever. He already proved he’s not afraid to lie with that whole priceless thing.
I shake my head slowly. “I guess. But… um… why’d you give it to me, anyway? I wasn’t even in the front row.”
He shrugs. “Every concert, I just look around, and whichever young lady God puts on my heart, I give it to her. That was you tonight.”
Wow. These people are seriously mental. “Gotcha,” I mutter.
“So, even though you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into,” Mike  says after a long moment, “did we do okay?”
And, this again. “Uh… yeah,” I reply, still staring at the ground. “It was good.”
He raises his eyebrows for me to continue. These people have like no ego, I’m serious. They should be seriously insulted by my tone here.
I take a deep breath and continue. “Um… it’s just… a lot to take in, I guess.”
Luke tilts his head slightly. “How’s that, Love?”
Would you ****** quit calling me that?
I exhale. “Just… the fact that…” I don’t even care about insulting them anymore. “Everyone here actually believes all that, I guess.”
And, they don’t even seem insulted. Wow.
Duncun looks at me for a long moment, a slight smile. “Alexis, it’s completely normal to be feeling overwhelmed right now. And I think maybe just a small part of that is that you’re in here tonight, kind of wishing, kind of hoping, that this is for real.”
I bite the inside of my lip hard. How many time tonight am I gonna have to hold back ****** tears?
“I mean, that’d be cool and all,” I choke out, “but there’s no way.”
He nods. “I understand.”
And, all of a sudden, I feel incredibly small, and even more of an outcast. I mean, I’m sitting in a room, surrounded by perfect Christians, with fresh cuts burning on my arms and absolutely no belief in my heart, and they’re not even offended. All they can do is be nice to me. Why?
I take a sharp breath in. “I should get home.” I rise. “Colton, you don’t-“
He cuts me off. “I’m walking you home.”
I shrug. “Whatever.” And I begin towards the door. Mike follows me, laying a hand on my shoulder. I turn to face him.
“Alexis,” he says quietly, “you said you don’t have anyone to call your friend. That’s not true from this moment forward. I’m one.” And he hands me a piece of paper with a phone number on it. Great.
And I notice Luke, who got up as well, looking at us with sadness in his eyes. He obviously heard what Mike said. Fantastic.
He grabs a sticky note from a little table, scribbling on it quickly before giving it to me as well.
“Me too, Darling,” he murmurs.
Another phone number.
I bite harder, looking at the ground. “Thanks.”
And Colton and I turn to leave, with everyone chorusing their goodbyes.
I don’t even know what just happened.

A/N: So, I know I failed at writing Mike and Joel and Luke (and probably Colton too), but at least I tried, right? Also, Brand New Life doesn't have much to do with the chapter, but I have been completely content to have it stuck in my head since the day it came out, so I thought I'd add it. Plus it's like the best thing that you'll ever here. Almost. I'm done now.