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I took in her bright san in the background

“You…love karaoke” I searched for the words “Why?”

“Aw, Huey, it’s great It’s fun, and it feels like a treat when people pick songs you like Every now and then you get legitiers But even when people are bad, they’ve chosen to let the world see that they’re bad in the service of having fun It’s brave Plus I like to look at people and try to guess what they’re gonna sing”

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head

“Well, consider yourself scheduled for Tuesday nights for the rest of your natural life”

She gave uns she shot at me, and winked, then moved off to help the customers who had just walked in

In the karaoke corner, a girl sang a ballad that I vaguely reh school It felt like a hundred years ago She had a decent voice but was clearly nervous As the song bled to silence, she covered her uessed Johi would say she was being brave

I wouldn’t know

Derricka enthusiastically called up the next victims

They wound through the crowd, the wo the man by the hand She moved easily and seemed confident, her short, dark hair bleached in the front and her shoulders set The guy trailing behind her looked slightly less enthusiastic, but when she grinned at hirinned back

He was small and slender, with intense dark eyes and a dreamy smile His hair fell to his chin in messy broaves that he shoved back distractedly

I assuue out at the guy in a way that said friends or siblings

The song was projected on the screen behind theh “Ten Hour Fall,” by Riven

Theo Decker, the forer of Riven, was my best friend Caleb Blake Whitman’s partner When I’d coht about Johi rinned and said I should do all-Riven karaoke

He’d been joking, of course, and I’d left the song choices up to Johi—with a firm ban on They Die Roses, The Elsewheres, Danny MacDoyle, and post-1997 Marble Jubilee—but I looked up whether there even were Riven songs available,his There were only two songs available, and I told Johi to get theotten about it until now

When the first chord played and Theo’s lyrics streaked across the screen, I didn’t look away Thethe ed self-consciously, but when he began to sing, he was good Really good