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"So don’t do it for yourself," Brit adds, "do it for him"

She finishes just as he reaches me "All set?" Garrett checks "I can’t tell you what a life-saver this is," he adds, letting out a breath "I owe you one"

I catch ht I can’t let hiot hih

"Ready," I nod, even as my pulse does a panicked tap dance in e area "Here she is," Garrett announces proudly "Let’s get the show started!"

I look up to find a hundred faces staring back atand expectant

Holy crap My stoht into the ot you" Garrett steadies ," he says, checking the sound levels, then passes it tosqueeze of my shoulder "Just pretend it’s you and me You can do this, I know you can"

Hebreath, and look up at the crowd again

Big mistake

"Uh, hey everyone," I whisper into the mic The crowd shifts, impatient

"We can’t hear you!" someone yells

"Sorry," I say, too loud this tie and cover their ears

Oh God, I can’t even !

I send a desperate look to Garrett, wishing I could flee for the door, but he just set started," I uitar over my body

"Sometime this year would be nice!" another voice cohter, and I can feelwith humiliation What am I supposed to do now? I look around the rooht inoing to play!

This is it, I realize ht here on the stage: everyone watchingfor me to fall apart, to prove I’m not so perfect after all I can’t hide behind clothes and ood manners and polite chit-chat It’s all on me Only me