Chapter 9
Friday finally came along – after a long and extremely boring week – which had Ella pacing up and down the lounge room as nerves continued to pick up about going to the little bar that Erin informed her about during the week for her performance. Ashlyn and Whitney were sitting on the sofa just watching her with slight amusement on their faces, one was surely ready to just burst out with laughter any minute, but they gave each other a look to challenge who could hold it in longest. So far they were both doing extremely well.
“Ella?” Ashlyn’s voice finally sounded through the apartment, but the brunette didn’t seem to hear her as she began to rub her hands together nervously. Ashlyn almost cracked then but one look towards Whitney who had a smirk on her face - as if to dare her to let the laughter spill from her lips - made her quickly back track to a normal state.
Whitney just let out a small breath as she rolled her eyes and turned her attention to her other best friend, they had another ten minutes before they had to leave. “Els!?” She tried this time, but still to no avail. Ash and Whit both turned to look at each other before mentally counting to three in their heads.
“ELLA!” The both spoke loudly in unison.
Stopping in her tracks, she flinched slightly at the loudness as her eyes widened, she then looked towards her best friends in confusion. “What?”
Once again they both did everything in their power to not laugh as they finally got her attention. Whitney quickly looked away as she shook her head, while Ash just blinked a few times in amusement. “You’ve been pacing for the past fifteen minutes.”
“Oh…” Ella let out sheepishly as she ducked her gaze, she then made her way over to the arm chair and flopped down on it, letting out a massive breath.
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Finally it was time to leave and the other two gave congratulation glances for not bursting out with laughter due to Ella’s nervousness. They made their way down to Ashlyn’s Jeep and all got in before making their way to the bar. Once they arrived, Ash parked the car in a vacant spot, turned it off and turned to look at Ella who was slightly jittery in her seat.
“It’s like you are going on a date, Ella. Calm down, Babe,” she spoke in amusement as she looked in the rear-view mirror at Whitney who just had a smirk playing across her face.
“Right, yeah, no date… It’s not a date. Of course it isn’t,” Ella mumbled out as she looked from
her hands to the blonde and then out the window.
“Wow, okay. Let’s go inside before you explode,” the blonde quickly spoke as she looked at the two with a nod and then got out of the car. “Plus, I want to see if the other three are here already.”
“No, you just want to see if Ali is here already,” Whitney let out teasing as she chuckled slightly, she hip bumped Ella, which cause the girl to chuckle as well.
Rolling her eyes, Ashlyn sighed and shook her head. “Shut up.”
As they walked into the building, Pinoe was the first one to spot them. “Hey, there you guys are!” She yelled as she raised a hand to get their attention.
Ella smiled as she heard Megan first and she pointed to the table where the three were sitting, making their way over, they slid into the vacant seats. “Hey,” Ella let out with a smile and Whitney followed.
“Hey, Princess,” Ashlyn whispered as she leaned in and softly kissed her, this caused everyone to let out a fake groan of disgust. “Seriously shut up!”
“Hey, baby,” Ali smiled as she kissed her back, ignoring the noise coming from her friends.
“Are any of the Canadian here yet?” Whit asked the three girls and they shook their heads no.
“Alright, well I will go order us some drinks, you girls right?”
“Yeah, we are fine, thanks.” Pinoe responded to Whitney as she held up her nearly full beer glass.
“We pretty much just got here.”
“Alright,” she smiled as she turned and headed towards the bar to order three beers.
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Erin was more excited about performing than anything else, that her mind was only slightly on the fact that Ella would be there watching her perform. It was probably a good thing because she was able to mentally prepare herself for the night ahead and the fact she will be singing in front of most likely drunken people shouting out absurd things.
Following getting ready, the Canadians all made their way down to the the cars; three in one and three in the other like they always traveled. Once they got to the bar, Erin was feeling a little nervous as she sat in the car for a moment getting herself together, she always did this before a performance though, it was just to get her in the zone and relax her a little.
Finally she was ready and they headed into the bar, instantly they spotted the Americans at a table and made their way over to it. “Hey, girl’s,” Carm beamed as she went around hugging them all, the rest followed in tow, finally Erin at finished up at Ella and hugged her just that little bit longer which made everyone smirk knowingly, they knew they were on their to being something and everyone was really happy. Although Ash, Carm and Whit knew the struggles Ella was going through.
“Hey,” Erin whispered into Ella’s ear.
Beaming, Ella melted into the Canadian’s embrace. “Hey, yourself,” she smiled. “You ready to perform?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she spoke softly again.
The American just smiled and as they were pulling apart, she quickly kissed to Musician on the cheek causing her to blush a little as she coughed slightly, it also caused Ella to blush a little herself.
“When are you going on Erin?” Pinoe asked curiously as she took the woman’s attention away.
“Uh, when they finally start, there are three people before me.”
“Alright, cool. Want a beer then?” She asked to new arrivals and they all nodded yes. “Carmelina. You. With me!” She pointed at the curly haired girl with a smirk as she gently grabbed her shirt and pulled her away, it made the rest of the group laugh.
When the beers arrived they all toasted to a fun evening and began chatting about their week, no one really had anything interesting to say, but it didn’t really matter because the performances were starting.
“I should probably head up and get ready, see you after my song,” Erin smiled to the group and they all wished her good luck.
Ella was quick to grab the woman’s hand and gently squeeze it in encouragement and Erin felt ten times better about all of it.
Half way through the first performer’s song, a really cute guy approached the ladies and went straight to Ella, the rest of the girl’s were too caught up talking to even realize. “Hey, don’t you work at Electrical Beats?” He asked in a friendly tone.
“I Do,” Ella nodded.
“Ahh! I thought I recognized you, I see you most mornings on my way to work. I’m Anthony,” he smiled. “I don’t really know anyone here, so, I was wondering if I could hang with you lot?”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Anthony,” Ella smiled and then nodded. “Of course you can. I’m Ella,” she held out her hand.
“Lovely to meet you too, Ella,” he shook her hand and sat on the vacant seat next to her.
“So, what are you doing here all by yourself if you don’t know anyone?”
“Oh, I was meant to come here with a date, but he texted me a few minutes ago saying he couldn’t make it, thought I would just stick around and get to know a few people and enjoy the performances.”
“Ohh, that sucks, sorry to hear about that.”
“It’s cool.”
They continued to speak, getting to know one another and laughing at some of the things that were said. The laughter had caught some of the girl’s attention and they looked on in confusion at who the guy was and why Ella was so chummy with him, they just hoped he would leave before Erin saw, but somehow they didn’t really think it was going to happen because they were too engrossed in their own little conversation to know what was going on.
Just as the second person finished and the third person got up to begin, Erin looked out towards where her friends were with a smile – that was until she saw Ella laughing with a guy and looking really comfortable with him. Her heart dropped to her stomach and now all the hype she had built up had left her and she suddenly didn’t feel like performing, but she had to suck it up and do it, because the rest of her friends came out to see her.
“God, this is going to be a long night…” she sighed as she tore her gaze away from the duo.