NewU Pt. 09

"And next up, we have Spenser!!" Tara announced through the mic to the cheering, applauding crowds. A minute or so later, a tall guy in a blue checkered shirt hopped up onto the stage to the cheers of a table somewhere to my right. Taking the mic from Tara, he started bouncing on the spot as the first few bars to Luke Combs' Beer never broke my heart. To the guy's credit, he was pretty good. A decent amount of alcohol in his system had robbed him of the stage fright that seemed to hamper so many of the performances. By the time he had reached the end of the song, the crowd was supportively clapping and singing along... Thanks to the overhead projector that was displaying the karaoke screen onto a hanging projection screen behind the stage. His voice, although not able to match the power and smoothness of the song's original artist, did a pretty decent job of hitting all the right notes, and he didn't seem like he needed to use the screen for most of the lyrics either. The man was obviously a genuine fan. He finished with a comical, flourishing bow and then hopped off the stage, heading back over to his rapturously cheering table through a sea of slapped backs and shouted congratulations.

"Alright! Give it up for Spenser!!" Tara yelled into the Mic, eliciting another round of applause from the crowd. "I think that one deserves a free drink. Whadya think, Bob?" she grinned across the room as every eye in the place turned to face Bob. Bob flipped her the bird with a smirk, causing a wave of laughter to erupt from his patrons. "There we are, Spence," Tara laughed, "I tried. Now, trying to follow that amazing performance, we have..." she looked down at the slip of paper. "...Olivia!!"

The crowd went wild again, especially the screaming cheers of her friends who were on their feet applauding encouragingly, as the object of my desires headed to the stage from her seat. My eyes immediately locked on her. She was just as exquisite as I remembered.

Those dark brown locks with caramel highlights streaked through those loose waves, reflecting the colored lights flashing around the stage. Olivia with a radiant smile on her face took Tara's hand and was helped to step up to the stage. Her jeans, just like the last time I saw her, looked like they had been painted on. The only other way they could have possibly been put on was to melt her and pour her into them. Above that was a red and black lumberjack shirt, unbuttoned and open around her generous cleavage, provocatively tied across her belly button, with just the slightest hints of a black bra beneath it. A white, fur-lined plastic-looking cowboy hat hung off her back with the cord around her neck.

Both Jimmy and Lori looked over to me, Jimmy smiling widely and Lori mouthing the word "wow" to me, before I turned my attention back to the stage.

If, as I suspected, she still thought I was the shy, unassuming guy she had teased in this very bar only a few months earlier. Then this outfit was chosen, knowing exactly what it would have done to the old me.

The music started playing, the first few bars of the intro sparking a recognition in my mind as I realized what song she was going to be singing: Jo Dee Messina's Heads Carolina, Tails California, a slow smile stretched across my face, as an idea formed in my head.

It was time to introduce Olivia to the new me.

By the time Olivia brought the Mic up to her lips, she had the attention of almost everyone in the room, as her hips swung in time with the rhythm and she did a hair flick worthy of Rita Hayworth. By the time she had made it to the first chorus, her table of friends had emptied themselves onto the dance floor which separated the stage from the crowds and tables. For most of the time up until now, her attention had been on her girlfriends, bouncing and dancing in front of her. But as she settled into her groove, finding her confidence, her eyes started to wander over the crowds... looking for me. A simple thought made sure she wouldn't spot us. I had a surprise waiting for her. Although I felt that momentary pang of sadness in her stomach at not finding me watching, I knew it would be worth it.

I don't know why it surprised me so much, but she was good.

She was very, very good.

Heads Carolina, Tails California

Somewhere greener, Somewhere warmer

Up in the mountains, down by the ocean

Where? It don't matter

'Long as we're going

Somewhere together,

I've got a quarter

Heads Carolina, Tails California

With her hips, and now her shoulders, both still swaying in time with the rhythm guitar in the background, she had the undivided attention of the entire bar. Even Bob had taken a pause in pouring drinks to watch. The vast majority of the crowd was clapping along to the beat, as she effortlessly navigated the second verse.

A few hopeful guys had pulled themselves onto the floor with her friends. Doing their best to dance along with the group of girls who, under normal circumstances, were already a reason to get up and make a fool of themselves. But they weren't there to flirt or pick up guys, although that may happen later. Right now they were cheering on their friend, whose singing had captivated the audience, and whose hair was doing that same thing with the flashing neon lights that had enthralled me the last time I had seen her.

The second verse came and went. Olivia was halfway through the bridge when a simple mental command pulled Tara's eyes to mine. She hadn't seen me since the accident either, and her eyes wrinkled with a genuine smile as she waved. After smiling and waving back, I pointed to my own chest and then to the stage.

Taras's eyes widened. She had been teasing me to get on stage to sing for as long as I had known her, but even when blind drunk, she had never been successful. She held her hand in a fist to her face, miming holding a mic, and mouthed the word "you?" across the room to me. I nodded and flashed my eyebrows with another smile. Tara pursed her lips into a mouthed "oooh" and rubbed her hands together excitedly. She flashed a look down at the slips of paper before coming back to me, drawing a lowercase N in the air with a finger and raising her eyebrows at me, asking if I wanted to go next.

I shook my head, lifting up one finger, and then mimicking her N back to her, replying through sign that I wanted her to put me in after the next singer had finished. She grinned excitedly and nodded before turning her attention back to Olivia, as the last chorus came to an end, and the song approached those long held notes at its climax. I turned to look at Jimmy and Lori, who had stopped their fawning to watch Olivia, only to see the entire exchange between Tara and me. Jimmy's jaw was practically resting on the table, Lori was grinning maniacally. At least one of them approved of my plan. I smiled at Jimmy and winked. "Go big, or go home!"

"I've created a monster!" He shouted back over the music to the giggles of his paramour.

We were interrupted by the end of Olivia's song as the entire bar exploded into almost riotous applause. If that Spenser guy before her had thought he had received a good response to his performance; he was quickly corrected when he was shown how the Queen's Head properly applauded an act that had impressed them. Almost every table was on their feet, and with no chance of her spotting us now, even without my mental commands, our table did the same. Whereas Spenser had bowed and relished in the attention of the room, Olivia covered her mouth with her hand, giggling from the adrenaline coursing through her. She gave a shy - and adorable - little wave to the crowd, before stepping off the stage into the waiting arms of her friends. All of whom wrapped her up in a celebratory hug, unceremoniously ignoring the guys who had joined them, and dragged her back to their table.

Tara gave me a look, wiggling her eyebrows. I just shook my head with another smile before she picked up the mic. "Well Fuck me, Olivia, with a performance like that, you should be here every week! Ladies and Gentlemen... and Bob... Give it up for Olivia!" The Crowd went wild again. Another resounding cheer and another thunderous round of applause echoed around the room. Olivia herself had been swallowed up by the sea of people, so I couldn't see her reaction as Tara picked up another slip of paper. "Okay, Matthew, Bon Jovi is not a country singer. Better luck next time. That means next up is..." she paused as she rifled through the offerings. "...Gavin!!"

Gavin, a wispy-haired guy who looked to be the cruel recipient of some early-age male pattern baldness, seemed to benefit from the crowds' euphoria over Olivia with his welcome to the stage. Kenny Rogers' The Gambler warbled out of the speakers as Tara glanced excitedly back across the room to me. I held a finger to my lips, telling her not to announce me as she had just done to Gavin. I wanted this to be a surprise, and she got the message, flashing a wink back to me and nodding.

Gavin was, well, he wasn't bad. He just lacked the confidence to really carry the song. The irony of my thinking that way, considering he had the balls to get up there at all; something that I would never have done in a thousand years, until recently, was not lost on me. It took the rest of the crowd coming to his aid, singing along with the chorus, for him to find his groove.

It had always sort of surprised me how supportive the crowd could be. I assumed it was due to them taking the same stance on singers as I had. It took guts to get up there, singing was not easy, and singing to a crowd was even harder. Despite the actual people in the crowd changing from one week to another, they were never anything less than appreciative of anyone who chose to sacrifice themselves to the karaoke gods. As far as I was aware, only one person had ever been booed. A drunken jock frat boy type, who had changed the words of Good Charlotte's The Anthem, into a song sung by soccer fans. The new words were wildly offensive at best, downright racist and misogynistic at worst. The crowd had not seen the funny side.

The guy in question had been back a few times since then, and had put his name down to sing again each time. But Tara flatly refused to call him up. When he had complained about it, Tara, a woman more than capable of looking after herself, had called him an immature little prick; and told him that if he didn't like it, he could call the DILLIGAF hotline. He had made something of a scene before Bob, far from what you would call a small man, had very un-gently tossed the guy out by the scruff of his neck. I had pulled her aside later and asked what that meant.

"Dilligaf," she had said with a smirk. "D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F... Does it look like I give a fuck"

I promptly bought that woman a drink.

Finally, Gavin finished his song, stepping off the stage to a round of applause that only seemed muted because of the appreciation shown to the act before him. Nonetheless, he received the customary slaps on the back and handshakes as he wandered back to his table. A girl hopped up from it and gave him a searing kiss, which probably made him forget where he was, let alone forget the lack of confidence in his performance.

"Alright, Gavin!!" Tara yelled into the mic to another round of applause. "It's never easy getting up, especially for your first time, and you did great. You are welcome on my stage anytime you like, my good man!" The crowd applauded again as Gavin sheepishly raised his bottle to her from his seat. "Okay, now this next performer is someone I have been trying to drag on stage for aaaaages." She grinned, her eyes fixed on me. "C'mon up, handsome!"

I flicked a glance at my two friends, Jimmy still grinning like an idiot as Lori winked. "Knock 'em dead, stud." She slapped my ass as I stood to the chuckles of the people around us who had realized Tara was talking about me. In the few seconds it had taken me to walk from our table to the stage, I had made the startling realization that I couldn't actually sing. Of course, a quick trip into my bunker changed that and by the time I hoisted myself up the knee-high step and whispered my song choice into Tara's ear, I could not only hold a tune but had the silky smooth singing voice, the power and vocal range to pull this off. I even added a little gravel to my voice, just something to have a little more effect on the panties of every girl watching. I had almost forgotten about the effect my powers were having on the female portion of the room, until a distinctly feminine wolf-whistle sounded from somewhere towards the back.

I cast a quick look over toward Olivia's table. Her back was to me, and she was in the middle of a conversation with one of her friends, meaning she hadn't actually seen me yet... Perfect... One of her other friends had though, and unexpectedly - to my mind, at least - recognized me. She was about to tap Olivia on the shoulder when I brought my finger to my lips again and winked at her. She grinned wickedly, nodding and dropping her hand, immediately starting to fidget excitedly in her seat as she watched. This whole setup couldn't have gone any better if I had scripted it.

Being a tribute to the song that Olivia had performed, Cole Swindell's She had me at heads Carolina seemed fated for this moment. Not only did the lyrics almost exactly match what had happened so far tonight. But the opening few bars of the song were pretty much identical to Jo Dee Messina's version. So much so, that a smile was forced onto my lips as Oliva frowned, hearing the song and thinking, briefly, that someone else was performing the same song she had, before turning round. Her eyes widened in surprise as she finally saw me on stage.... Looking straight at her.

"I was out with the boys, catchin' up in a neon light

Didn't know 'til we walked in, that it was karaoke night"

Her face lit up as she realized what was happening. A smile more radiant than anything that I had seen from her before that moment lit her face as her friends started cheering and clapping, a few of them giving her excited little nudges. As my smooth yet slightly gravelly voice flowed out of the speakers in near perfect tune, thanks entirely to the internal editing station of my bunker, she turned herself around to face me properly... her entire, undivided attention on me. That thought alone was enough to have me scurrying back into my shell a few months earlier... Not anymore

"She was in a circle of girls, chasing a shot with a lime

She was laughing, they were daring her to get on the mic

One of them walked up and turned in her name

The next thing I knew, she was up on the stage

By the time the first few lines of the chorus had arrived, almost everyone in the bar knew what was happening. Olivia's friends dragged her out of her seat and towards the dance floor. Lori had done the same to Jimmy. In the space of a few short lines, a small but quickly growing crowd had formed on the dance floor. Front and center, that stunning, shocked smile still on her face, was Olivia.

Singing "Heads Carolina, tails California"

Maybe she'd fall for a boy from South Georgia

She's got the bar in the palm of her hand

Cause she's a '90s country fan, like I am

Tara, beaming like a giddy schoolgirl, had caught on before anyone else, knowing from the moment I whispered the song's title into her ear. With just as much control over the lights flashing from the gantry above, as she had over the music blasting from the speakers, her time was impeccable. The lights exploded into an energetic, flashing pattern, perfectly in time with the crescendo of the chorus.

Hey, I got a Chevy, she can flip a quarter

I'd drive her anywhere from here to California

When this song is over, I gotta find her

'Cause she had me at "Heads Carolina"

The flashing lights seemed to snap Olivia out of her daze as the crowd behind and around her erupted into cheers. The throng of people on the hardwood floor started to bounce along with the music as I, quite literally, sang to her. What was most surprising was that my mental abilities had nothing to do with any of that. All I had changed was my voice. One of Olivia's friends grabbed her, spinning her around and twirling her into another of her friends, both of them swaying and swinging their hips with the beat as her smile erupted into excited, exhilarated laughter, and she joined in with her friends, dancing, bouncing and swaying her body around the dance floor. But not once, not for a single moment, did she stop looking up at me.

She was pretty sure she had just fallen a little bit in love.

By the time the second verse was over, and the next chorus exploded through the speakers, the entire bar was on its feet. Olivia and her friends, along with Jimmy, Lori, and a whole crowd of strangers, were going wild on the dance floor. The rest of Head's patrons were cheering as loudly and as rapturously as any act had ever received in the long years that this night had been running. Even Bob was leaning against the back bar, watching the show with one of his trademark smiles on his face, letting his staff deal with the few customers who were ordering drinks. Even those people were only partially paying attention to the transaction with the show going on behind them.

The instrumental led into the bridge, which finally led into the last chorus. With perfect timing - and possibly with the smallest of mental nudges - one of her friends pushed Olivia toward the stage, just in time for me to reach out my hand and pull her up with me. I pulled her in tight, my free hand on the small of her back, her chest, her hips, and her thighs pressed back into me as her arms wrapped around my neck. Our eyes fixed on each other as I sang the last part of the last chorus to her.

When this song is over, I gotta find her

'Cause she had me at "Heads Carolina"

And with that, and the final instrumental resounding around the room from the speakers, I closed the last remaining distance between us and kissed her. It was deep, it was passionate, it was everything that either of us had ever imagined...and more. The crowd went wild, cheering and applauding, whooping and whistling, seemingly celebrating the moment with us. With the kiss broken, the beauty in my arms threw her head back, laughing giddily, one hand covering her mouth, before I spun us both to face the room... and we bowed.

We were most of the way back to the table that Jimmy and one of Olivia's friends had managed to make out of pushing two other ones together when Tara got back on the mic. "Well, shit... I'd hate to be the act following that!" She laughed with the crowd. "Not that I have to say it, but give it up for Pete!! And no, handsome, there is no fucking way that you are not getting that cute ass up here every damned week!!... Now..." she grinned wickedly. "Matthew, for trying to choose Bon Jovi on Country night, you're up next, and if you don't have a new idea, you, my boy, are singing Patsy Cline!"

The ripples of laughter were just starting to die down when the hulking figure of Uncle Bob loomed over the table. Placing a tray with enough "usuals" to go around on the table before clapping me on the back with a nod. One that could almost be called proud. He then picked the stetson off my head, dropped it onto Olivia's and, without saying a word, headed back to the bar.

Strictly speaking, a "usual" wasn't something that could be called legal. In simple terms, it was vodka and coke, with no ice - I never trusted ice, I had heard about what it had done to the Titanic. However, in the UK, the amount of vodka that could be put into a single glass was actually codified into law. It was, and is still, called the 'weights and measures act.' That law dictates that a single shot is 25ml, and a double is 50ml. Although a 75ml shot was not technically against the act, anything more than that certainly was.