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Perfect Pair

"You're out of your damn minds."

Mollie continued to push the cart stacked with books down the aisle. She didn't even bother looking at us two idiots following her, she was dead set on her answer but I was determined to change her mind.

It had been a month since I had pulled her up on stage, and she had successfully avoided any more impromptu performances.

"Please, Mollie, we need you!"

"Why don't you get Ryan's girlfriend to do it? Maybe then she'll take the bitch level down a bit," she sounded bitter and a little part of me wondered if it could be jealousy. 

"Yeah...we aren't together anymore. We broke up right after the whole Bluebird thing, she didn't tell you?" I asked awkwardly.

"We aren't exactly doing each other's nails and gossiping at the end of the day. I personally avoid her at all costs," she said fixing the books on the shelf.

"Right. Anyway, Ol, please. We agreed as a band we want someone who we all get along with and will take our set to the next level."

"Have you guys been smoking?"

"No! This isn't a game Mollie! Just sleep on it. Please 3 songs. 'Seeing Blind', 'Everything I shouldn't be Thinking About', and then another one of your choice. Doesn't even have to be a duet it could just be you singing."

"If I say I'll think about it will you guys leave me alone, or at least buy something? My manager has been giving me a death glare since you two showed up," she sighed, stopping to face us with an exhausted look on her face.

"Yes! Yes, we'll leave. Just think long, and hard okay? Let us know so we can start rehearsals. Shows on Monday."

"It's always on Monday," She replied. It was a long-standing thing at Losers bar. Whiskey Jam every Monday, everyone and their mother came, which is what was making Mollie so hesitant in the first place.

******

"Just breathe, everything will be okay," Lexi soothes as Mollie continued having a breakdown in the women's bathroom. I was standing right outside the door, I probably looked like a total creep, but our singer was currently having a mental breakdown. 

"Oh my god...oh my god, I'm gonna be sick," Mollie exclaimed as she continued her pacing.

"Did you see all those people out there. That's like, twice as many as there were at the Bluebird."

I could hear everything hear her through the door and the sound of her giant shoes pacing against the floor.

"Just calm down. You're gonna be great they're going to love you." I called through the door. 

"Show time Mol," Tori announced peeking her head around the door. "You look like a creep standing guard of the women's bathroom. You know that, right?" Tori asked as she turned back to head to the stage. 

"Shut up, I just want to make sure she doesn't run away." 

"Uh-huh, sure," she smirked before leaving to head to the stage.

"Don't think so Ol, you're not getting away that easy." I said grabbing her hand as she tried to go the other way. 

"I can't do this. There are so many people here," she said frantically searching for a way out.

"Just you and I up there when the music starts. Nobody else matters," I reassured her as led us towards the stage.

Mollie had stayed tucked in the back and did harmonies on the first song we did. She looked like she was going to pass out and you could tell her heart was hammering in her chest when we had brought her to the front for her and I to sing together. We had originally rehearsed Greg singing lead with her, but the harmonies just couldn't get together properly.

"This is our very good friend Mollie, if you don't mind she's gonna join us for a couple songs, and if you're real nice she might even sing something on her own."

Greg announced bring her up. We had started off with 'Seeing Blind' something familiar to ease her nerves, then we moved onto the one we had just written. It was fun and flirty, and Mollie was a bit more at ease by the time the music started.

Singing with someone else seemed eased Mollie's nerves. When it was just us up there singing, every else was just a blur off to the side. Mollie grabbed her guitar and made her way to the microphone at the center of the stage.

"So, I grew up in Northwest Indiana and before I left to come here, I was driving through the backroads and I had my music on, and I just felt...at peace, taking in the fields and parks, listening to my favorite music. So, when I got home, I ended up writing this, and I hope y 'all like it. This is 'My Church'."

We played along and this time it was us doing harmonies for her and I knew then, watching her up there that I was watching a star. The crowd was mesmerized by her. Her voice, her words...they were magic. 

She tried going back to her dorm after the show, but we talked her into celebratory drinks at mine and Tori's apartment. She had a late class on Monday, and Lexi wasn't letting her use class as an excuse to hide away from celebrating her amazing performance. I found Mollie sitting out on the balcony when I wondered out with two Coronas.

"Been looking for you. So, you get your head wrapped around it all, being up there in front of everybody?"

"It's...intense...like I don't even know how to explain it. I suppose I should thank you. If it weren't for you pulling me on stage in the first place, I wouldn't have had the guts to do it again," she said nudging me with her shoulder.

"We make a good pair, I think. I mean on stage anyway...cause I've known you for six months, but I don't actually know nothing about you."

"Not much to tell...born and raised in Indiana, mom ran off when I was eleven, dad died four years later, my sister and brother and law took me in. Worked my ass off and got into Belmont," she said giving me the cliff notes edition. That wasn't enough though, because every little piece I learned about her makes me want to know more.

"Well, maybe you'll have to tell me more sometime. I have a feeling; you and I are gonna do big things one day."

"Yeah...maybe."