Why was she here?

Abigail continued to stare at me with a confused look, unsure if I was going to respond to her question. I paused for a moment, debating how to appropriately address her arrival.

"Um, I'm actually here with a friend."

Abigail slightly cocked her head to the side, as if she was doubting what I said. Had she assumed that I didn't have any friends from just the short contact we had a few days ago? Well, she wasn't really wrong is she did assume that.

"Oh, I'll excuse myself. I didn't realize the spot was taken."

As she began to pull herself up from the seat, I motioned for her to stop with my hand. She hesitated for a moment before returning and plopped back down, still with that same confused look.

"It's fine. They're not really going to be sitting here anyways."

"Oh, did you get turned down for another dinner?"

That stung. While I'm sure she meant it as a joke, it still hurt nonetheless. I put it at the back of my mind realizing that she couldn't possibly have thought that I would take it as insulting and continued on.

"No, it's actually a girl here with her band. I figured I'd come see them before we start working."

Abigail's ears seemed to perk up at the mentioning of a band. She glanced up to the closed stage and then back at me. Was there some correlation that I was unaware of?

"Oh, they're playing here? What's the name of their band?"

Her interest in the subject set off a red flag in my mind. Something about the tone she had used when asking the question told me that there was more to it than simple curiosity. It almost felt like an interrogation question than anything. I knew it would come back to bite me but I answered it anyways.

"I think she said the name was Lonely or something," half muttering the name hoping that she would simply dismiss it and move on to the next idea that crossed her mind. The mood dampening look on her face told me that she would not.

"So, they're still trying I guess."

Abigail seemed to glare out past the club floor, staring into a nonexistant void. The warm color faded from her cheeks, replaced with a pale chill, her eyes lost in thought. Before I could respond to her vauge statement, she snapped back to and quickly hopped up from the table.

"Sorry, I just realized I need to do something. I'll probably see you Monday."

With that short statement, I watched as Abigail hurried away from the booth and out into the crowd. Without even pausing, she brushed through them and out of sight, most likely heading to the door. I really didn't know what ot make of it, only that there was some connection between the band and Abigail. 

My mind shot back to what Leah had told me before, about the one that left the band. Could it have been her?

As I was staring down at the table, lost in thought, the room suddenly went dark. The floor below began to light up various shades of colors, flashing together in a rapid sequence. From the crowd below, a loud roar begin to rise up. As I peered up at the stage, I could see a small figure from behind the closed curtains. As I made out the figure of a waving arm, I realized it was Leah, signaling to me that she saw me.

As quickly as she appeared, I saw her dart back to where she had come from. From overheard, a voice suddenly opened up, calling down to me and the other attendants in the club.

"Now, we'd like to welcome one of our personal favorites. Everyone give a scream for Lonely, performing the song Rolling Girl, orginally by wowaka."

The song had sounded familiar to me by name. Then it struck me. It was one of the popular songs of a subgenre of J-Rock, Vocaloid music. This was music that was composed with a singer who was constructed from the basic roots of pronunciation of Japanese, an ideal that lead to a revolution in music approach. How would she be able to capture that same feel though? We were talking about covering a song that had a digital singer.

[Begin playing the song here for more immersion]

As I began to question it further, my thoughts were hushed by the sound of a piano. The curtains slowly slid back to reveal the band on the stage. At the front, Leah had taken her position, mic stand and guitar in position. Penny was on the drums in the back while Macey and Weston were on the opposing sides of Leah. It was almost chilling to see them as Macey rolled her fingers across the keys, playing the opening of the song.

The lights below flashed in response to her playing, changing with each strike of a note. As I became entrapped in the sound, I heard Leah's voice break through. It sent a chill down my spine. It sounded like a voice that was noble, but trapped in despair. How could such a tone come from one of her demeanor?

The crowd seemed to rise in emotion with their performance. As the rest of the instruments came in, I watched as they reacted in sync. Between the verses and pacing of Leah's performance, backed with the aggresion of Penny's drumming and Weston's finger plucking, it was so easy to become lost in the music. 

I gazed as the worked the stage, keeping the crowd entrapped from left to right. I began to lose track of my thoughts and became hypnotized by the sound, each and every piece ringing through my head. Before I had even realized it, the performance had come to an end.

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[Song Ends Here] 

As I looked onward, I felt something click inside. I actually wanted to be here, not just as something to do, but as something I wanted to be a part of. I felt the energy of the crowd invigorate me, their loud applause for Lonely's performance spurring me on myself.

An ill feeling suddenly struck me inside. I can't belong here.

No matter what I felt sitting there, watching their performance, this was something that I couldn't do. I would have to go to work on Monday, and this would simply become an experience. I planned on keeping Leah as a friend, but I couldn't let on to her that this was something that I could come to every time. There were other things to take care of.

As I heard my own thoughts within my head, they turned to Abigail. Was this the realization she had come to that had made her leave? I dismissed it, reminding myself that I was merely assuming that Abigail had been the member that had left. She could have seen somebody she didn't like for all I know.

I gave a glum look down at my phone, ignoring the announcement from overhead of the next song. I waited until the lights grew dim, quickly pulling myself from the booth and made a beeline to the curtain Leah had dragged me through. The bouncer, Carlos as Leah had called him, was still standing guard.

As I approached, he put a stiff arm out, causing me to bump forcefully into him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

He definitely sounded upset. Was I not allowed to leave this way? I began to panic, afraid that Leah would spot me leaving and take an ill tone with me once I tried to explain why I left.

"I, uh... I left my wallet back there in the prep room. I was hoping I could get it before anybody got back there."

I wasn't sure if he would buy it, but it was all I could come up with on the spot. He gave his eyebrow a slight raise, suspicious of my lie. Whatever he questioned must have been minor, because he swiftly moved his arm back and nodded over his shoulder. I quickly barged past and made my way down the hallway.

As I rushed down the hallway, I spotted the door I had come through. I barged into it, avoiding looking around too much as I left, hoping nobody would notice me. Fortunately, the man that had greeted me when I had first arrived was nowhere to be seen. I quickly brought my phone within view and called up a cab. It was a good thing I had prepared for one just in case.

While I was waiting for the cab to arrive, the night sky began to drizzle down upon the city. It was a light and misty rain, not one that would soak you but instead clung to your skin like sweat. I glanced around for something to talk shelter under. Just a ways down the sidewalk was a small sheltered bench. I walked over and flopped down onto it.

I pulled my phone back up and flipped to my message inbox. Leah's number was the most recent and I began to think about how I would justify my departure without causing too much damage. I had wanted to stay, but I knew it would only be harder the more I became attached to the idea.

I swiped down to the keypad and began typing, "Hey, I'm sorry that I couldn't stay any longer but I had something that came up. I thought the performance was amazing. Looking forward to getting a chance to come to another one sometime."

Without even pausing to think, I hit the send button. I was just happy to have gotten past it and out of the way. A sickening thought struck me though. What could have come up that required me to leave? I had told her that I didn't have any friends and I didn't have any family that I bothered with. How was I going to justify it now?

The second part caught my attention as well. I had said I was looking forward to coming again. What the hell was I thinking? After convincing myself to keep my distance it, I had just committed myself to going right back. Was I really that stupid. As I felt the nerves in me begin to swell up, I saw the taxi come creeping by and pulled to a stop on the curb.

I looked down at my watch, checking the time. As I hopped into the taxi, I realized I would be arriving at my apartment well before their show was over. So much for trying to hide that I left right away. As I gave the driver instructions on where to go, I looked out the back window as the club slowly disappeared from view. I should have never came here in the first place.

----------------------------------------

I creaked the door open to my apartment, and slung my keys down onto the table, letting the door slam shut behind me. I flung my shoes off of my feet and flopped down on the couch, not even bothering to get changed. I felt awful. I could only imagine the disappointment I would recieve from Leah later.

I turned over on my side, the dividers of the cushions digging into my hip. As I fumbled and fussed, my phone slid out of my pocket and onto the floor, landing with a loud clack. Please tell me it didn't break.

I reached down and picked it up, carefully scanning over the screen. Fortunately, there were no cracks, only the slight smear of my fingerprints. I breathed a sigh of relief and laid it down on the table next to my keys. If it went off, I was guranteed to hear it.

Waiting for time to pass, I became anxious in how I would explain to Leah where I was coming from. Then a thought crossed my mind. Why was I so stressed out in the first place? I had only just met her and hardly knew her. Sure, she called me her friend, but she was probably just trying to make me feel better. She probably does that for alot of people.

Gazing up at my ceiling, I felt a fatigue begin to pull at my eyelids. I considered getting off the couch and going to bed, but somewhere in that thought I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was turned face down in the couch, a slight turn to allow me to breathe.

I gently raised my head, my face half stuck to the cushion, looking towards the windows of my living room. A bright, orange light filtered in through the blinds. I glanced up at the clock, squinting to see the time. 10:23 a.m.

It was alot later than I had wanted to sleep, but I figured it was alright since I didn't have anything to do today anyways. As my sense began to come to me, I darted up over the arm of the chair and looked at my phone. I had forgotten to place it on charge last night. Hopefully it had lasted.

I rolled my arm up past the couch and snatched it off the table. I flipped the screen lock and looked at the battery. 14%. Good enough.

Sliding down to the message inbox, I opened it as quickly as possible. There were two new messages, both from Leah. As I felt my stomach began to feel nautious, I read the first message.

"Carlos told me you lied to him to sneak out the back after our first song. If you didn't want to be there you could have said so."

Well, at least she didn't seem overly irate with me. I figured it would be best to try and explain that I was simply afraid of getting caught up in the show too much. Before I could do that, I looked down at the second message.

"Someone also told me they saw Abigail sitting with you."

It was eerie at how short it was. She wasn't asking any questions, just simply telling me what she knew. This at least confirmed my suspicions to a certain extent. They did have some relation to one another. Of course, it had ot be something like that. Not the, I'm just overthinking things like most people do.

I stared at the messages, not sure on how to take them as a pair. Was she simply stating that there was something I needed to ask about, or was she warning me that she was pissed? Before I could think about it any further, a heard a knock come from my front door. Who would be visiting me right now?