“A potential?”
I laughed. “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.” It was the first time I’d vocalized that desire to anyone, and it made me feel strangely warm inside. “At least, I’m hoping.”
The girl smiled and extended a hand. “Nice. I’m Margie. I’m dating Brianne, the violinist.”
“Oh, no way. Nice to meet you, Margie.” I thought about it for a moment and then chuckled. “That’s funny.”
“What is?”
“They’re all lesbians. Funny coincidence.”
“Oh. Right? Did you know that the professor who started this collective is queer too?”
“Huh. Must be something in the water here.”
We both laughed.
“Hello,” Kaitlyn said, taking the mic. “My name’s Kaitlyn, this is Brianne on the violin, and we’d both like to welcome Kendra, who we literally just recruited into the group five minutes ago. So… we should have an interesting show for you tonight.”
The crowd murmured with laughter.
“Alright, so keep on checking out that artwork, and remember, every piece is for sale. Enjoy.”
She went over to Kendra and whispered something to her. Kendra nodded and gave her a thumbs up.
You’ve got this, Kendra, I thought. Show me what you can do.
I felt the breath suck out of me like a vacuum as Kendra raised her sticks into the air to count time.
Here we go…
Tak, tak, tak, tak—
Kendra’s hands dropped into a blur. The beat exploded outwards as the sticks flurried around the drum kit, and the three of them broke into an amazing rendition of “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Beatles.
There had been a small number of people who were already watching the stage, but most were looking at the artwork or otherwise preoccupied with their own conversations. The moment the sound of Kendra’s drumming hit the air, there was a startled gasp with some laughter from the people who’d been caught off guard. As the song went on, I saw a lot of the stragglers detaching from the walls to come watch the performance. Some people started to sway with the beat, and others started to sing along, pumping their fists in the air with the chorus, half-empty cups of wine hanging in their free hands.
The expression on Kendra’s face made me laugh—her eyes were wide and she stared at her hands moving in front of her, like she couldn’t believe what she was doing.
She was absolutely fucking amazing. The drums for “Don’t Let Me Down” were fairly simple, but Kendra was adding a flair to them and making them her own. I could easily hear that same precision and variation from her street performance, but now that she was on a real drum set, now that she was home, it was sublime.
“They are really good,” I shouted to Margie.
She nodded. “Dude, Kendra is way better than the guy they’d found before. Holy shit!”
The crowd burst into applause when the song ended. I waved at Kendra, and she grinned and pointed one of her sticks at me, and a little thrill whizzed through my heart. Whoah. That does not happen often.
“Damn,” Kaitlyn said into the microphone, grinning. “It seems like the gods of rock and roll have graced us with a miracle. Kendra, do you know “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen?”
There were some hoots from the crowd, and then cheers
when Kendra gave a thumbs up.
“Badass,” Kaitlyn said. “Because no one can stop us now.”
As the performance went on, Kendra’s expression changed from amazed shock to calm focus. Then her eyes closed and her head tilted back, her face in an expression that transported me back to when I had her on my couch. I felt a shiver of excitement and longing for her, and it was at that moment that I knew for certain that I wanted to be with Kendra.
I noticed that people were starting to wander outside from the gallery, drawn by the music and the crowd’s cheers. What was meant to be side entertainment for the art show had suddenly become the main event, with Kendra’s explosive drums as the backbone and catalyst. People were dancing now, the crowd moving and churning. Unable to wipe the goofy-ass smile off my face, I started to move my body too.