I Was Already Gone novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Original

On Thursday night the Kettle and Spoon was so full that people sat on the floor by the stage.

Roxie had put a sign on the door that said SOLD OUT, which was a joke, because the open mic was free.

Nobody laughed at the joke, because it was true.

I stood by the sugar station with Gus and my guitar and watched the door.

Laney came in at ten past eight.

She wore her own jacket this time, not Brecken's, and she stopped just inside to look at the crowd.

She found me across the room.

She nodded once and went to stand by the back wall, with her arms folded.

Roxie called my name third.

"Elliott Marlow," she said. "He's done this once before, and look what happened."

Everyone clapped.

I sat on the stool and tuned the guitar, and nobody hurried me.

"I'm going to play a song you've all heard," I said. "I'm going to play it the way it was written."

The room went still.

I did not look at the back wall.

I looked at the little wooden floor, and I played the first chord.

It was slow, slower than the radio version, with the bounce taken out.

I sang the first verse as I had sung it two years ago, on a Tuesday night in a vocal booth with Brecken watching through the glass.

"I counted the porch lights. I never knocked."

A girl near the front put her hand over her mouth.

I sang the chorus, and the whole room sang it back to me quietly, the way you'd hum to someone sleeping.

"I'm always last at the door."

Then I reached the second verse, the one that was missing from the radio version.

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