Music Heals All Wounds

Chapter 8

Essence

"Hey, are you up next?" I heard a girl to my left ask as I stood offstage.

"No, I'm after whoever's next." I told the girl without looking over at her.

I wasn't trying to be rude to her, I was just really focused on the guy who was currently performing. Feeling extremely brave, I took it upon myself to sign up to perform at Escape. It's been a few days since I went to the meeting the support group held and ever since I left that church I've been feeling this heaviness on my heart.

As soon as I got home that night I began working on a song to get things off my chest. There was a clear message in this song and I wanted every person who hears it to feel it. It was entitled "It's Not You" and the lyrics were dedicated to women all over the world. Whether they're in an abusive relationship or not, whether it's a thing of the past or something that they've never experienced, I just wanted the ladies to know that they're not the ones to blame. This was a message I still struggled to grasp for myself even though I put it in a song.

"I guess I'm up." The girl said once the guy finished his performance. As she walked out on stage, I finally got a good look at her and I recognized her instantly.

"How y'all doing tonight?" She asked the audience. "I'm Morgan Taylor. I just finished working on this song, the story it tells really hits home, so I hope y'all like it."

She began to sing and I was really blown away at her voice. I've heard her sing before, but hearing her in person was so much better. Not only was her voice stunning, but her song was as well. I could tell she really put her all into the lyrics.

"How the hell am I supposed to go after this?" I mumbled to myself. Her performance was going to be hard to top, but I just tried to remind myself that this wasn't a competition. I just wanted to do my best and make it through the song without throwing up my breakfast.

"Thank y'all for listening." She said once she finished and the audience began to clap. She exited from the other side of the stage and my stomach began to do a million flips.
I stared at the mic from offstage before I finally made my way towards it. I stopped in front of the mic and eyeballed the crowd. Escape always had a nice size crowd because people loved the vibe that the bar had.

"I umm...... this is my first time doing this, so yeah." I said, nervously. I decided to say fuck doing an intro and just jump right into singing my song because the longer I stood there, the more I began to have second thoughts. The beat I selected began to play throughout the place, it was an R&B type of beat with a slow tempo. The entire time I sang the first verse I was extremely nervous, but as I began the second verse I actually began to feel comfortable. Once I was done with the song that's when I noticed Morgan was standing in the crowd watching me perform.

"Thank y'all." I said, releasing a deep breath before walking off the stage. I stood in shock as I listened to all the hand claps. I couldn't believe that I really had the balls to get up there. Like this was actually real life, I wasn't dreaming, I really just sang in front a crowd for the first time. Maybe I should pinch myself, so I know it's real.

"You did really good to say it's your first time." Morgan said as I came down the stairs on the side of the stage. Yep, it's real.

"Yeah, I shocked myself."

"You wanna get a table?" She asked, motioning to one that was towards the back.

"Sure." I said to her, still confused on why she was here and why she would want to get a table with me.

We made our way to the table and sat down before we both put an order in. I've only been here a few times, but from those times I've learned that they had the best wings in the city.