“You said you wanted to play,” Nick says with a grin. “So I put your name on the list.” He clearly thinks he’s done something nice for me, but playing is the last thing I want to do. What if I sound too much like myself? What if someone recognizes me? I’d prefer to just blend into the woodwork and watch my dad from afar.

“Do we have an Amanda Pepper here?” my father asks from the stage, squinting into the small audience.

I look from Nick to my dad and then back at Nick again.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Nick whispers. He looks worried. “I just thought you said you wanted to play.”

I think for a second and then nod. “Yeah. Okay.” I make my way up to the stage, where my father smiles at me. There’s a smattering of polite applause.

“Hi there,” my father says as I step onto the stage. “I know you. You’re the girl from the store yesterday.”

I nod, sad that the glint of recognition in his eye reaches back just thirty-six hours instead of sixteen years.

“Guitar, right?” he says, already handing me the one the college guy played the Nickelback song on. I take a deep breath and focus on tuning it for a moment while he steps down. I feel naked and exposed as I stand on the tiny stage in this small room, about to play to probably the smallest audience I’ve ever performed for. I settle onto a stool, adjust the microphone and think about what I’ll play.

“Hello,” I say nervously into the mic, my voice cracking oddly as I speak. I clear my throat. “I’m going to play a song I wrote called ‘Remember Me.’” I glance out at Nick and see him beaming at me proudly. I search the room for my father and my heart sinks when I see him at the coffee counter, his back to me, not paying me the slightest bit of attention. I take a deep breath, strum a few chords and begin the song.

“I can’t believe I’ve lost you,” I sing. “I can’t believe you’re gone.” I strum softly along, getting lost in one of my favorite songs, a song I wrote last year that Mom never lets me play. It’s the first time I’ve ever played a song I’ve written for an audience. Thankfully for the sake of staying incognito, it doesn’t sound anything like a typical Star Beck song.