His Public Confession Was a Lie, So I Stopped Loving Him novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Open Mic

Rory signs up to sing at the Larkin Room to take it back, and meets the sound-booth student who asks if it is true she said yes.

On Monday I decided I was done letting other people say my name.

Sage found me sitting on the floor of our room with my guitar in my lap and no idea how to start.

"Okay," she said. "The whole school thinks you're the girl who got dumped on the steps."

"I know."

"So take the steps back."

"How?"

"Open mic is Thursday." She tapped the guitar. "You've got a song. I've heard you hum it in the shower."

"I didn't write it for an audience."

"Nobody writes it for an audience. Then they get one."

I did not say yes. I said I would walk by the Larkin Room and look at the sign-up sheet.

Sage walked me there anyway and stayed outside on the steps.

In daylight, the Larkin Room was smaller than I remembered.

It had long windows and a low stage at one end.

The sound booth was a platform against the back wall, with a desk full of dials.

A tall man was sitting behind it with headphones around his neck, coiling a cable over his elbow.

He had dark hair, black-framed glasses, and a black sweater with the sleeves pushed up.

I knew his face.

At my last open mic he had said, "You're on whenever you're ready."

My hands had been so cold that night I couldn't feel the strings.

He saw me and stopped coiling.

"The list is on the clipboard," he said.

"Thanks."

He did not go back to work. He watched me find the pen.

My name was the only one I couldn't write steadily.

"Rory Beckett," he said, reading it upside down. "Thursday."

"Yes."

"Three songs, or fifteen minutes."

"One song."

"One is fine." He put the cable down. "Can I ask you something?"

I waited.

"Is it true you said yes? Out there on the steps, to him."

My stomach dropped, because it was the first time anyone had asked me instead of telling me.

"I said yes for about two minutes," I said. "Then he explained what yes was for."

His jaw moved.

"What was it for?"

"A favor to him." I put the pen back on its string. "He wanted my roommate."

He looked at the stage, not at me.

"I heard the end of it from the back of the crowd," he said slowly. "I didn't hear the part in the middle."

"What were you doing at the back of the crowd?"

"Working." He picked up the cable again. "Thursday. Sound check is at six. Bring a capo if you use one."

His voice had gone flat and polite, and I had the strange feeling I had said something wrong.

I went out to Sage on the steps.

"Well?" she said.

"I signed up."

"I knew it."

"The sound guy was weird."

"Which sound guy?"

"The tall one. Glasses."

Sage thought about it. "That's Ben O'Doherty. He's a grad student. He lives in the same house as Preston."

I stopped on the top step.

"Preston's housemate runs the sound at the Larkin Room?"

"Half the house works somewhere on campus. They get a discount on rent." She shrugged. "Ben's okay. He never talks."

I looked back at the doors and told myself not to read anything into it.

Then I went home and practiced my song until my fingers hurt.

On Thursday night, I walked into the Larkin Room at ten to six in a denim jacket I had borrowed from Sage, and Ben was already at the board.

He gave me a capo without my asking and tested my guitar through the speakers.

"Is that loud enough?" he said.

"It's fine."

"It sounds better lower." He turned a dial. "Don't go too loud and don't push. The room is better than people think."

For the first time since Saturday, someone had told me something true about my own singing without wanting anything for it.

By eight o'clock, the Larkin Room was packed.

I stood behind the curtain at the side of the stage, listening to a girl play a ukulele badly and a boy do magic with cards.

The front row was empty, and then it wasn't.

Brooks came in first, hands in his pockets, grinning.

Behind him came a line of Preston's friends, about ten of them, all holding their phones up in front of them.

Preston came in last and sat down in the middle seat.

He winked at me through the gap in the curtain.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend