You and Me (Plus Everyone In Between Us)

Drugs Can Cool

You know when you do drugs and you still feel like you're on them a week later?

Jokes on you, I've never done drugs, let me tell you that. No one was in a seedy street corner offering me their supply. But I felt high as hell.

I imagine it felt like life was running through your veins and transcending you. It was actually just adrenaline.

I sat back in the waiting area, waiting for the acts to finish and if the judges were going to tell us if we were moving on. I still could not believe that Fairouz Alkaf herself complimented me like that.

I even think I might get in. But I couldn't be too sure. Everyone else was way better than me. Plus, they were good the first time. I was the only person who had to do a second song.

I swear I almost felt my soul evaporate out of my body when that song came on. I loved Ariana, but I had never had a visceral reaction to any song. In fact, I deleted it off all my playlists the moment I sat down.

"Are you Ezra?" a voice came somewhere near me.

I looked up to see the girls from Nebula standing over me. I pushed out an awkward smile.

"Yeah," I stuttered, feeling self-conscious under their gaze.

Now that I look at them, I realize Pink-hair was around my height, meaning Tall-Girl, is well... tall. Like she has to be pushing seven feet from this angle.

"You got mad pipes," Tall-Girl remarked, voice full of admiration. "I bet you're going to make it into the competition."

"Yeah," Pink-Hair agreed. "You sound really good. I was quite literally about to piss my pants on behalf of you when you did your second song."

Memories flashed for a moment. I chuckled out an awkward laugh. "Thanks! You guys were really good too! Like really good."

"Thank you!" Tall-Girl replied. They held out a hand to me. "My name is Grace and this is my girlfriend Janelle."

Mom perked up at the word girlfriend before she narrowed her eyes at them. Damn. Why was she so obvious about it?

"Nice to meet you," Pink Hair – Janelle– introduced. "Where are you from?"

"Toronto," I revealed. "You guys?"

"Fresno," Janelle replied.

"Oh wow," I remarked, acting like I knew where Fresno was even.

"Yeah," Grace said. "Do you go to college?"

I normally would feel an immense sense of dread and shame at this question. But the two of them somehow made me feel safe. "I don't know."

"Don't know?" Grace wondered.

"I mean, I don't know if I'm going to go yet," I revealed. "I'm just kind of existing."

"Oh. Well, Janelle and I go to a community college up there," they said. "We just finished our first year."

"That's great–"

I cut off my incoming applause and turned my eyes to the big screen. Another act took the stage, from a boy who didn't look older than sixteen. He looked Latino, with dark curly locks pushed over his face. He threaded through his curls and the audience kind of hooted.

"Hold on," Janelle said, as she squinted at the screen. "I think I recognize this guy."

I squinted too.

"He's the guy who does K-pop singing covers on TikTok," Janelle realised, repeating my thoughts out loud. "That's Marco Zoido. I've been following him for months. He's really good."