If that ever happens, I’ll make sure to use the article as wallpaper for my house.
Rae
I’m so glad you support me.
Grayson
Of course I do. Good luck tonight, Sunshine.
I heart the message, smiling like an idiot when the stage manager tells me I only have five more minutes. I finish putting my in-ears in and attaching the monitor to my pants. I say my affirmations my aunt Audrey has told me before stepping out of the dressing room and head to where I’m going to enter the stage.
The intro starts, and then I’m being lifted as the floor pushes up beneath me. The adrenaline is coursing through me; I grip themicrophone tightly in my hands to stop it from slipping with how sweaty my palms are.
Closing my eyes, I take one last deep breath. When I open them, I’m in front of thousands of people. The craziest part is they’re all screaming. For me. And everything else fades into the background as the music plays. My focus is on this show, on my songs and on all the people that have come here to see me.
It’s surreal that this is my life. That I get to do what I love, and there’s this many people that support me and also love what I do.
As I perform, I look around the crowd, glancing at people singing along with me. Some are crying, some are screaming. But we’re all here experiencing this together.
I’m in the middle of a chorus when I look up and see a familiar face up in a suite. I have to do a double take and try not to completely lose my focus. But it’s him. Asher Hudson. I haven’t seen him in years since he moved away to train at some prestigious MMA gym somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
Why is he here?
My aunt Audrey isn’t technically my aunt; she’s just another one of my mom’s best friends. When I was a teenager, we all found out she had a half-brother that had to come live with her and her partner, Charlie.
That happened to be Asher.
He kept to himself for the most part. Grayson and Easton didn’t like him very much. He got along fine with my brothers but never seemed to be friends with anyone at all. Then he left, and we haven’t seen him since. Five years, and now here he is at my show in Las Vegas.
I almost miss my cue as the next song starts, but I manage to pull myself together and focus. I never get distracted on stage, but it’s like I just saw a ghost. Now I can’t help but wonder if I’m going to see him after the show is over. He must have come for a reason, and my music hasn’t seemed like the type Asher would enjoy.
I’m going to tell Grayson about this; I bet he’ll have some thoughts to share about Asher appearing out of the blue.
I just want to know why.
CHAPTER 2
Asher
The talk all over Vegas is that Rae Sparks is performing. Even in the circles I run in with the pro fight I’m competing in, everyone seems to focus on the concert happening down the strip. No one knows that I know her, and that we sort of grew up together.
I mean, I moved in with my half-sister at fifteen, so I was pretty grown by that point, but she was a couple years younger, I think. She had her family, her perfectfamily. Everything was perfect with her life. Even now she gets to beperfect.
Not all of us had that. Some of us had to actually work for the shit we want.
But I’m curious about what the hype is about, so I pulled some strings and managed to get a ticket to the sold-out show. When I moved in with Audrey, I met her hockey player boyfriend and learned what it was like to have connections and how easy that made life. It only pissed me off more.
Now, I see some of the benefits of having connections, but the difference is I don’t give a fuck how big of an asshole it makes me to use them.
I’ll admit seeing Rae perform is hot. Her music isn’t mytypical taste, but I can respect how hard she works to put on a performance. Even though she was able to get to where she is because of her family, I can see that she puts in the work to maintain it. And I’ll always respect hard work.
I am going to use one more connection tonight, dropping the right names to the right people. Because I doubt there’s another way to get backstage to see her. I wasn’t sure if I would want to. I distanced myself from my life in Denver when I went to train at Uncaged. The best trainers on the west coast are there, Coach Adam, Caine, and Drew have helped me become the fighter I am.
After the show, I’m led by security backstage. I can’t help but laugh to myself that I’m bigger than the “security” guy. I’m also sure I would be more useful if there was any threat than this guy.
When we get behind the stage, I think I’m going to have to ask to find Rae, but she’s already coming around the corner and freezes as soon as she sees me.
“I knew I saw you.”