Chapter Text
On any other night, I would be bored out of my skull right now, especially in April. Tonight, however, I'm not. Tonight is supposed to be special. Tonight, we're going to see a concert at William Dewey High School that will showcase some new talented singers. Some of them are high school seniors like me. Meanwhile, the rest of the singers are in ninth to eleventh grade or somewhere in between. Right now, Rose is driving me to the school auditorium in her pink 2002 Honda Civic. It's a beautiful spring night. It's about 63 degrees out, not too hot and not too cold. Rose has the windows rolled down so I can take in the breeze and all the flower pollen in the air.
"Oh my gosh!" Rose exclaims excitedly. "I can't wait to see who will be performing tonight."
"Me neither," I reply. "I bet it'll be a lot of smoking hot babes up there."
Rose just giggles. "Maybe. I just want to see what kind of songs they play. Maybe later, I could ask them to give me their music in person."
"Yeah, I guess you can do that."
And then... Rose and I see it. We see our high school's main campus slowly come into view. As if by instinct, Rose parks the car into the nearest spot on the parking lot, especially making sure to seamlessly press her foot on the brake and shift into park. Once she's done that and taken the keys out, Rose and I then proceed to get out of the car and go inside. We also make sure our tickets are in our pockets like they're supposed to. At the entrance, an official approaches us.
"Excuse me, Miss Harvey?" the official asks me.
"Yes?" I ask back.
"Are you and your friend here for the concert?"
I just nod my head. "Yes, sir."
"You mind handing them to me please?"
"Sure." Rose and I hand the official our concert tickets. "There you go."
The official looks over our tickets before stashing them into his pocket and then gesturing us forward. "Alright, enjoy the concert."
"Thank you!" Rose and I simultaneously exclaim to him.
Soon, Rose and I head our way into the auditorium and sit our butts down on those metal foldable chairs the teachers placed near the stage. We want to be front and center when these singers come out and start performing. Moments later, Principal Yarrod steps out from behind the curtains and onto the stage.
Principal Yarrod is this thin, really pretty Korean-American lady with skin the color of warm ivory and eyes the color of dark honey. She's got a round face with almond-shaped eyes, a tiny nose, and somewhat thin lips. She's got her dark hair all done in a pulled-back pouf, and she's wearing those gold mismatched moon and star earrings that were super popular back in the '80s. Her outfit consists of a short mauve lacy slip dress paired with light blue jeans, a matching pashmina, and matching open-toed high heels.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," Principal Yarrod begins to speak into the microphone. "I'm so glad you could all make it to the annual spring concert. This year, we managed to get some real contenders, including a special little songstress named Sapphire Dahl who's in twelfth grade."
"Ooh, I bet she'll be good," Rose comments.
"We'll see about that," I reply.
I start to zone out as soon as Principal Yarrod announces the first singer who will be performing. For hours and hours (at least, it seems like that), Rose and I sit through a dozen singers who either cover pop songs they've been memorizing nonstop or sing songs they've written themselves (to varying quality). I can't remember most of them, though. I don't know if it's because they're not memorable enough for my brain to keep around or it's because I'm blocking them out as a defense mechanism. Eventually, we've reached the finale. Oh boy! I can't wait to see this!
"Ladies and gentlemen... Sapphire Dahl!" Principal Yarrod announces.
We all start clapping as a girl about my age trudges onto the forefront of the stage from behind the curtain. She appears to have grayish-blue eyes, bleach-blonde hair, and honey-colored skin. Her outfit is nothing but shades of blue: her ruffled dress that reaches her knees is a vivid, vivid blue like you see on the Crayola crayons; her leggings and flats are liberty blue; her cropped cardigan is a cool black kind of blue; her dangling jewel earrings are baby blue; and lastly, her headscarf is a floral pattern with interchanging sections of white and powder blue, just absolutely breathtaking.
Pearl is with her, too. (I think it's her anyway; could just be a girl who happens to look like her.) I saw her lead that girl through the curtains out onto the stage. Just as quickly as she's here, she's slipped through the curtains and disappeared. The music starts playing, and the blonde girl starts to sing into the microphone.
Whenever I sang my songs
On the stage, on my own;
Whenever I said my words,
Wishing they would be heard,
I saw you smiling at me.
Was it real or just my fantasy?
You'd always be there in the corner
Of this tiny little bar.
Rose and I flock closer to the stage so we can hear her voice more clearly. We wait in bated breath for her to sing again. She gives us what we want.
My last night here for you,
Same old songs, just once more.
My last night here with you?
Maybe yes, maybe no.
I kind of liked it your way,
How you shyly placed your eyes on me.
Did you ever know
That I had mine on you?
"Sing it, girl!" I yell out to her.
Darling, so there you are,
With that look on your face.
As if you're never hurt,
As if you're never down.
Shall I be the one for you
Who pinches you softly but sure?
If frown is shown then,
I will know that you are no dreamer.
I'm blushing like crazy over here, but I'm not sure if she can see me blushing with all the pink lighting on stage. If she could, she would see that I'm practically red from head to toe with how much I'm blushing. Her beauty is so mesmerizing, but I want to hear the lyrics to the rest of the song.
So let me come to you,
Close as I wanna be.
Close enough for me
To feel your heart beating fast
And stay there as I whisper
How I loved your peaceful eyes on me.
Did you ever know
That I had mine on you?
Holy crap, it's like she's singing this song at me and me alone. I think she knows, too.
Darling, so share with me
Your love if you have enough,
Your tears if you're holding back,
Or pain if that's what it is.
How can I let you know
I'm more than the dress and the voice?
Just reach me out then
You would know that you are not dreaming.
Rose stares at her, starry-eyed at the sound of her voice.
Darling, so there you are
With that look on your face.
As if you're never hurt,
As if you're never down.
Shall I be the one for you
Who pinches you softly but sure?
If frown is shown then,
I will know that you are no dreamer.
Just as she's finished singing the last lines, every single one of us in the audience starts to clap and cheer loudly for her. I can see in her face that she's beaming with pride. If I had even a tiny amount of talent that she has, then maybe I would know what it was like to get this kind of attention. I have to see her after this.
"Oh my gosh, you were great!" I call out to that beautiful singer.
She turns around to see me. I guess now she's realizing that I'm the same woman in the audience who caught her attention earlier.
"Oh, uh, thanks," she replies gratefully. "Are you familiar with what I do at all?"
I give with a shrug. "Not really. I only came because my friend Rose wanted to see how I'd like the new talents. I guess it worked because I fell in love with you immediately."
"As an artist or a person?"
"Artist." I pause for about three seconds. "By the way, I'm Ruby Harvey."
"Sapphire Dahl." She reaches out for my outstretched hand and firmly grasps it. "Nice to meet you."
We shake hands for a few seconds, only to find that our handshake is a little awkward for us to handle so we pull away.
"So... you wanna meet up later?" she asks me shyly.
"Sure!" I answer eagerly.
"Great, I'll just give you my phone number." She takes out a business card-sized piece of paper and quickly writes down her home phone number. Then she hands it over to me as soon as she's done. "Here you go."
I blush wildly. "Thanks. See ya around!"
"You too."
With that, we part ways. Wow, Sapphire is incredible, both physically and spiritually. I can't wait to see her again. Once we've left the building, Rose and I make our way back into her car.
"So... what did you think, Ruby?" Rose asks me.
"About what?" I ask back.
"The concert?"
"It was pretty good. That Sapphire, though? She was... amazing!"
"Oh cool. Did she leave a good impression on you?"
"Hell yeah, she did. She's the most beautiful girl I've ever set my eyes on. She even gave me her phone number!"
"Really? That's awesome. You should give her a call some time."
"Yeah." My eyes then widen in realization. "Crap! I should've given her my number when I had the chance."
I can't help but give myself a mental facepalm. Goddamn it. How could I be so stupid? Oh well, I guess next time, I can just tell her my number in person or over the phone.
Rose puts the key in the ignition and starts the car. We then drive off back to my apartment where she happens to be staying right now.