That Voice

Chapter 5

A/N: The girl in the picture below is how I would imagine Sage.  Just with longer hair and a bit shorter.  Ignore Mikey in the picture because this is the only picture I could find even though he's not the one the story is about.  Thanks! :)

Luke’s P.O.V.

My mouth dropped open as I took in the beautiful, young 15 year old girl in front of us who was looking down at her feet and tucking her hair behind her left ear in a nervous way.  Leah sighed in contentment as she plopped back onto her desk chair and the gorgeous girl went to stand behind her, still looking uncomfortable.

Leah held up her hands palms up and said, “I was thinking that you guys can have a little more male fan base if you had a female in the band…plus I think that she can add a sound to your music that will greatly benefit your success.” Leah looked up at the girl and smiled warmly at her.  The guys and I were checking out this new arrival who apparently had the potential to make our career exceptionally better.  But, I was checking her out for an entirely different reason.  

I was staring at her long, soft-looking, dark brown hair in a side part that was flowing down her back in a perfectly straight waterfall which reached her waist.  Sun-kissed flawless skin with a scattering of freckles that told me that she spent a lot of time outdoors.  She looked to be a mix between Asian and Hawaiian which gave her the carefree, but intelligent look in her almond-shaped, brown eyes with streaks of gold in them. Long, thick black eyelashes that framed those happy, yet mysterious eyes without the help of mascara.  “Amazing eyes,”  I thought to  myself as I got lost in them.  I looked lower to her full pink lips coated in a bit of clear lip gloss and her silver turtle-shaped earrings with a few native-american style friendship bracelets on her thin wrists. 

There was one bracelet that caught my eye though.  A thin metal chain that wrapped around her wrist that was covered with tiny metal daisies. It looked important to her and I wondered why. 

I liked the fact that she was wearing little to no makeup.  A person who was comfortable in their own skin was an awesome person by my standards.  She was quite petite, and very short. About 5 foot 4 inches.  Also, she was toned, so she had to have played a sport in some time in her life—either that or she was just an extremely lucky person.  Wearing a black tee shirt with the words “Save the Polar Bears” in big, white bubble letters and a polar bear sitting on an iceberg giving a thumbs-up over a pair of loose light blue, jean shorts.  Her sense of style was easygoing and quirky which I took a liking to almost immediately. 

As I was giving her my examination, the rest of the guys looked at her in approval and seemed just as smitten with her as I had been even though we didn’t know her name yet.  She finally glanced up at us shyly and her eyes met with mine first.  We both glanced away after after a few seconds, but I was smiling to myself and as I glanced up again, I saw that she was too.   

Calum nudged me and wiggled his eyebrows around.  Perv.  I just rolled my eyes and smiled to myself.

Leah smiled at the girl and she smiled back, seemingly at ease with her.  Leah swept her hand over to the girl in a grand gesture and said, “Guys, I’d like you to meet Sage Kennedy Lucas—“

She was interrupted by Sage smiling and saying, “Hello! It’s just Sage. Only Leah here calls me Sage Kennedy.”  She said that with an American accent. 

She’s an American?  Cool! This was going to be so much fun!

Calum feigned shock, “LUCAS?!?! Well…look at that coincidence.” and smirked.

Leah rolled her eyes playfully at Sage and Calum’s comments and continued “—She’s your new band member.  If you are completely fine with this?”  We looked around the room at each other with broad smiles on our faces.  We were all suddenly more open to this idea after seeing how pretty Sage was.  What can I say? We’re teenage boys for God’s sake.

Leah bobbed her head and tucked her hair behind her ear while asking, “Do you guys want to hear her sing? I almost forgot…that’s pretty important.  If you’re okay with that, Sage?”

Sage swallowed nervously and nodded as she smiled up at each of us curiously.  Her eyes lingered on me and my cheeks started to burn.  Seeing that, she averted her eyes quickly and walked quickly into the small studio built in Leah’s office and shut the door.  Leah took her seat in front of the controls and the four of us stood behind her to listen to Sage sing.

Sage put the headphones on and left one cup off so she could hear herself and told Leah to run the Bruno Mars’s track “It Will Rain”.  I loved Bruno Mars’s style of singing so she instantly got points from me and the rest of the boys.  We were all smiling at her reassuringly as she glanced up to us, but there was really no reason to be nervous once she opened her mouth.

“If you ever leave me baby, leave some morphine at my door

‘cause it would take a whole lot of medication, to realize what we used to have we don’t have it anymore…”

Our mouths dropped open in shock and I immediately recognized the voice as the one from the wedding.  But…it couldn’t be…could it?  That was in…in…New York.  My mouth fell open at the realization that this girl was the voice that was constantly the center of my thoughts and dreams for the longest time.  She didn’t know it either.

She still sounded just as amazing, maybe even more so.  Her voice was sweet and clear and powerful and just rough enough to sound a little bit rock-and-roll.  Singing looked as easy as breathing for her and she didn’t have to give much effort to hit the high notes.  In the song, she expressed the imaginary heartbreak so well that it seemed like she had experienced it firsthand.  Her voice had just the right amount of power and effortlessness to belt and perform complicated riffs that the song required.  

We were made speechless again by this amazing girl.  “Woah..” we all whispered in unison and continued to listen in awe to Sage.