Read Moving Forward (Moving Neutral, Book Three) for Free Online Page B

were.
    Blake is here , I thought to myself, smiling with excitement.  Tonight, for better or worse, we were moving forward.  All I could do was cross my fingers and try to keep calm.
    The crowd was bigger than the one at Liv’s first show — even unadvertised, a show like this got a pretty good draw through word of mouth.  It was the kind of show that I would have died to go to in high school, but I wouldn’t even have been cool enough to know where it was. 
    Taking a quick glance at the stage, a guy I didn’t recognize was testing Blake’s electric guitar, twisting the controls on an amp and playing chords to test the sound.  I immediately turned away — even if Blake wasn’t out there yet, I had to get out of eyeshot of the stage, fast.
    “ Actually, nevermind,” I said to the bartender, catching his eye before he could pour my drink.  “I’ll get one later, thanks.”
    I left a dollar on the bar as a tip, and he looked at me sympathetically — for a second, I wondered if he recognized me, but I figured I was just being paranoid. 
    On the other hand, wi thout the full story, he probably just thought I was stalking my ex-boyfriend. 
    Sigh.
    I walked down a hall, away from the stage.  Finding the women’s bathroom, I ducked inside and stood there, looking at the mirror.  At least Blake wasn’t going to see me here. 
    I texted Liv to tell her where I was, and then put my phone away.  The bathroom was grimy and graffiti-stained, like most of the New York music venues I’d been to. 
    I looked at myself in the mirror, the only thing in the room that appeared to be relatively clean.  It was funny, sometimes, how the last few months had changed me.  In high school, I’d thought everything through — my role was always the voice of reason against Madison’s crazy plans.  But here?  It was like I couldn’t quite slow down, hurling myself from one thing to another with none of the careful analysis and planning that used to be my trademark. 
    Honestly , I didn’t even look the same.  Blowouts and gorgeous clothes and professional makeup had made a big difference in my appearance. 
    Sometimes, t here were moments in an unfamiliar mirror when I barely even recognized myself. 
    Staring into the mirror, a different girl looked back at me than the quiet, not-even-popular high school senior I’d been a few months before. 
    Tonight , I could actually pass for the girlfriend of a rock star. 
    I took a deep breath, and tried to reassure myself. 
    Hopefully Blake would see it that way too.
     

 
    Chapter Ten
     
    I abandoned hiding in the bathroom a few minutes before the show started.  When I came out, it was even more crowded — seventy five or a hundred people clustered tightly around the stage, more than double the group from Liv’s other show the week before.
    I squeezed my way into about the middle of the crowd, hoping she’d see me.  I’d wanted to wait backstage, but we were too worried Blake would glance back during the show and see me. 
    So I stayed where I was, shoved a little too tightly against a guy on one side and a girl on another.  Whatever , I figured.  It was a concert — it was weird that I’d gotten used to watching them from backstage, with drinks and snacks and space.
    Blake wasn’t on stage for the first song, but Liv’s band was clearly in the zone and the crowed seemed to be having fun.  By the middle of the song, she finally found me in the crowd and broke into a smile.  I smiled too — it was all going to go smoothly.  It had to.
    W hen they hit the first song’s final chords, I felt my heart jump into my throat. 
        “You guys,” Liv’s voice bellowed over the crowd as she took the mic.  It was a little unusual for a bassist to speak that much on stage, and I heard a rustle go through the crowd.  “We’ve got a very special friend here tonight, and I wanted to introduce him to all of you.” 
    Her smile was completely contagious — half