I Was Already Gone novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Early

The Hartwell Theater held six hundred people, and on Saturday night it was full.

I sat in row eight between Roxie and Gus, with my hands on my knees.

Laney sat in the front row, in the green dress, with a program in her lap.

I had known she would be there, and it still went through me when I saw the back of her head.

A woman in a dark blazer took the aisle seat on Roxie's other side.

She didn't introduce herself.

She just pulled a notebook out of her bag and clicked a pen.

"That's her," Roxie whispered. "The scout."

The lights went down, and Brecken walked out alone with a guitar.

The room cheered before he'd said a word.

He took a long, easy look across the crowd, and he found Laney in the front row, and he pointed at her.

Everybody went "aww."

"This one's about her," he said. "It's called 'Last at the Door.'"

He played it the way he always did.

The warm voice, the half-smile, the pause before the chorus that made the whole room lean forward.

Six hundred people sang the hook back to him.

"I'm always last at the door."

I stared at my knees.

I had written that line on my parents' back steps, with a pencil stub.

I did not look at Laney.

When it ended, the applause went on for a full minute.

Brecken waited, hand lifted, with his head a little bowed.

"Thank you," he said. "Thank you. I have something new tonight."

Roxie's shoulder pressed against mine.

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