The lyrics . . . they were beautiful.
A lump formed in my throat when I realised it was a song about the promise Risk and I made when we were kids, to always do everything together and have each other’s back. It could have been depicted a million different ways, the lyrics weren’t straight forward, but that was my take and I just knew it was the right one. I could hear what he was saying . . . I could hear him.
A tap on my shoulder startled me as the song drew to a close. I turned to my right and found Chris right there.
“He’s looking at you!”
I turned my head to where Chris was pointing and I realised Risk was speaking to the audience, but looking right at me. I missed what he said, but when he held his hand out, I fully understood what he meant. He wanted me to go out on stage to him. Me. On stage. I reached into my bag and fisted both of my inhalers.
“Go to him!” Chris bellowed in my ear. “Get fucking out there!”
He pushed me from behind and I stumbled onto the stage, just barely catching my balance to avoid falling flat on my face. I wasn’t completely on the centre stage, but I wasn’t hidden by the side stage any longer. I glanced up at one of the huge screens next to the stage and my wide-eyed face was plastered up there for the thousands of fans to see. Screaming erupted when I forced myself to walk towards Risk. I knew the hardcore Sinners who followed the band in the media knew who I was instantly.
I closed the distance between myself and Risk, his hand came up to cradle my face instantly. I latched onto him like a spider monkey would its mama.
“Breathe,” Risk lowered his face to mine. “You’re okay, everything is okay.”
I nodded, inhaling and exhaling.
“That’s my girl.”
“You’re amazing, Risk.”
He squinted and I realised he was reading my lips, his in-ears made it impossible to hear my voice. I smiled, letting him know I was okay and he relaxed. He lifted the microphone to his mouth and said, “Sinners, I would like to introduce you all to the original Sinner, the very woman who discovered I could sing and pushed me into making music. Miss Frankie Fulton.”
I lifted my hands to my ears and laughed when the crowd screamed and cheered for me. A pair of black, lace underwear was thrown my way and it landed on my shoe. I kicked it off with a yelp which Risk, and the others, laughed over.
“I wanna sing my Cherry a little song.”
I put my inhalers back into my bag and placed my hands on my cheeks, feeling my face burn through my make-up. Music to another song began, I recognised it from the instrumental of ‘Think Up Love’. I didn’t look away from Risk as he began to sing, I tried to focus on what he was singing, but I was too overwhelmed with him to keep up. He came to a stop in front of me and held the microphone out to me. My heart dropped. I stared from the mic up to Risk and suddenly felt sick.
Risk’s smile slowly faded and the urge to run away was climbing up my spine. He reached out and took hold of my wrist, I knew he could feel how fast my heart was beating when he touched me.
“Risk, please. I can’t.”
His hold on my wrist tightened, he lowered his mouth to my ear.
“What’s wrong? Just say the words if you don’t want to sing them.”
I couldn’t move. I could only shake my head. Confusion filled Risk’s ice-blue eyes, he didn’t understand what was going on.
“Please, Frankie,” his voice filled the stadium. “Please. Sing your song.”
I couldn’t move.
“I don’t . . . I don’t know . . .”
“One word, Cherry.” He suddenly glared down at me. “Just sing one fucking word of the song. Of any fucking song.”
The mixture of anger and confusion in his eyes was overthrown by a wave of hurt that filled his gaze. He knew . . . he knew I didn’t know his songs. In that moment, we weren’t on a stage in front of thousands of people, it was just the two of us. I knew Risk forgot about his surroundings, I was his entire focus. He processed me not knowing any of his songs.
I saw his heart break.
A body came up behind Risk, it was May. I saw his blood red hair out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn’t look away from Risk’s eyes . . . they had glazed over with tears. I blinked and my own tears fell.
“You don’t know any of the words . . . d’you?”
The crowd nearly lost their fucking minds when I shook my head. Their screaming and booing was almost unbearable, but the sounds blended together the longer they carried on. I knew exactly what they were thinking. Risk had announced me as the original Sinner and I just threw that special honour back in his face, and the lads’ faces too.