"What song are you gonna sing, Max?" Gazzy asked, moving to sit down next to Iggy on the couch. "Oh! Ohhh!! I know! I know!!" Nudge yelled, jumping up and down. "What is it?" I asked warily, not wanting Nudge to give me The Barbie Girl Song, or something like that. She giggled and squatted down to the machine's level. She looked through the CD's Ella had, until she found the one she wanted and popped it into the CD player and choose one of the songs on the CD.
"What song did you pick Nudge?" I asked as she sat down in between Angel and Ella. I sighed and turned around, facing the screen. Soon enough, piano notes began to play, and the lyrics showed up on the screen. I quickly cleared my throat and began to sing.
"I'm so tired of being here, suppressed by all my childish fears. And if you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave. Your presence still lingers here, and it won't leave me alone." I suddenly remembered Jeb, how he had left us and came back again, only to become evil. I pushed those thoughts out of my mind as the lyrics changed, a new verse appearing on the screen.
"These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real, there's just too much that time cannot erase." Memories of being tortured at the school flitted through my mind.
"When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears, when you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears, and I held your hand through all of these years."I remembered how it had been so hard for me to try and protect the Flock when so many people were trying to hurt us. How we were there to help each other when something went wrong. My throat closed up, and I couldn't sing anymore. I wouldn't sing.
I stopped the song and turned to Nudge. "I'm not going to sing this song," I said, fighting back tears. "Awwww why not?!" Nudge asked, seeming genuinely disappointed. "Yea," Ella said. "Keep singing! You're good Max. And this song is awesome." "No," I said, throwing the microphone at Ella. "Not this song." "Please, Max?" Angel asked. I turned to tell her that I didn't want to, when I say the bambi eyes. I tried my hardest not to give in, but those bambi eyes were just so cute! I sighed. "Fine." I mumbled. Nudge, Angel, and Ella cheered.
I turned back to the machine and played the song again, fast-forwarding to the part I left off at. Damn you, Angel. I thought at her. She just giggled. You're good at singing Max, she thought at me as I took a deep breath and began to sing again.
"You used to captivate me, by your own resonating light. Now I'm bound by the life you left behind. Your face, it haunts my once pleasant dreams. Your voice, it chased away all the sanity in me." I remembered Jeb again, how I had missed him so much. And then when he returned, how it had hurt so much to know that he wasn't good anymore.
"These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real, there's just too much that time cannot erase. I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone. But though you're still with me, I've been alone all along." The song went on, the instruments playing together harmonically. It drew to a close, with the same notes being played in the beginning.
I took a moment to blink away the tears forming in my eyes before turning to the Flock. Because, you know, that just wasn't my thing. "There," I said, trying to sound angry instead of sad. "Happy?" Nudge, Angel, and Ella clapped. "You were great, Max!" Ella said, smiling broadly at me. I rolled my eyes. "Yea, yea, whatever. Who's next?" I asked holding out the microphone.
Everyone just stared at me, wide eyed like deer caught in the headlights. "Come on," I said, shaking the microphone in my hand for emphasis. "Who is it gonna be?"
Silence.
I groaned. "Ugh, Ella, you go next." I said, deciding that since she was the one who forced me to do this, she had to go next. "What?" She said. "Why me?!" "Because I said so!" I threw the microphone at her and she caught it. But instead of getting up and heading to the front of the couch, she just sat there. "Go, Ella!" I yelled. She muttered something and got up, standing where I was while I sat where she had been sitting.
She thought for a moment, then said, "Oh! I know what I want to sing!"