Free Kill Me by Alex Owens Page A

crooned, “We’ve been here too long...” while I kept an eye on Vera. Finally, she gave me the wink I’d been waiting on. I did just like Vera instructed, providing a little pick-up right before Cassidy belted out, “Do you wanna touch...” and Vera chimed in with a seriously wicked sounding guitar lick. I was just fine playing background and I seemed to be doing an okay job of it.
    Of course, whenever things seemed to be going good lately, they just had to take an abrupt left turn into Weirdsville. The fingers I had on the correct strings began to feel hot and twitchy. I fought to control them as long as I could, but when Vera was halfway through a guitar solo, I lost all control over both of my hands. I looked at Vera for help, but she was too busy looking at the audience we’d accumulated to notice my distress.
    It wasn’t until my guitar solo took off that Vera turned to me with a look of surprise on her face. And just like with the violin, I kicked some serious guitar-playing ass. Vera joined back in, while Cassidy sung her little Irish heart out, “Won’t you please, run your fingers through my hair...”
    A drummer from a few booths down joined in, taking the performance to a whole new level. The crowd started filling in the “Yeah...Oh, yeah” parts and it felt like every person in Florida was focused on our performance. I felt like a Rock Goddess and it was flipping fantastic!
    When the music stopped, cheers erupted from the entire convention hall, all the way back to the stairs. I was a rock-star, beaming out at the crowd. Then I saw Bette standing off to the left of the stage with a smug look on her face. In hindsight, I should have known from the moment that my fingers went AWOL that Bette was nearby. It was disappointing to know that my performance, at least the part that had people cheering, wasn’t one of my own making.
    As soon as the crowd began to disperse, I propped the guitar against my stool and hurried over to Bette.
    “Why did you do that?” I gasped once I reached her, frowning.
    “Do what, love?” Bette did look honestly confused by my question, I’ll give her that.
    “Make me play all great! Like you did with the Violin?” I argued.
    “Clara,” Bette took my shaking hands into hers, and I let go of some of my anxiety. What can I say, since I knew she had that effect on me, I decided to let her use it.
    “We do have a lot to discuss,” Bette said, nodding to the stage, “but I assure you that I had nothing to do with that. You have more than one gift it seems. But we will have to figure all of that out later.”
    I didn’t want to believe her, but the opposite of that meant believing that she’d somehow used magic or something to make me play, and that didn’t make a whole lot of sense either. I was thinking of how to respond when an arm draped over my shoulder.
    “Dang, you little tease!” Vera said, shaking me playfully. “With finger skills like that, you could teach me a thing or two.”
    I decided to let her double-meaning go and offered up a weak smile. “Nah, you’re just a great teacher.” I said weakly.
    Vera wasn’t buying my bull, but she was more interested in Bette at the moment, so she didn’t press me any further.
    “Who’s your friend, Claire?” Vera offered up her handsomest smile to Bette, who only nodded politely.
    “This is Elizabetta. She’s got the best collection of antique instruments here,” I said, wishing Vera would take her arm from around my shoulder. I had a suspicion that it was irking Bette. That or she just didn’t like Vera in general.
    “Cool,” said Vera, looking from me and back to Bette, clearly trying to decide what we were to each other. Maybe once Vera figured it out, she could clue me in as well.
    The three of us stood there for a full minute, smiling politely without either of us coming up with something to say. It quickly moved beyond the acceptable silence rule, and I couldn’t take it. Awkward silence makes me