This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales Page B

him. “Does everything look okay?”
    Pippa’s eyes fluttered. “Chaaaaarrr,” she slurred. “I ffffancy you.”
    “You should take her home,” he told Vicky.
    “I have brought her home so many times,” Vicky said. “I just want this one shot, Char.”
    “You’re talking to Pete?” Char asked.
    “I was. Until this happened. Will you take her?”
    “No way,” Char said. “I’m working . If you need to stay with Pete, just call a taxi and send her home in it.”
    “Great idea,” Vicky said sarcastically. “Last time I did that, she paid the taxi driver three hundred dollars in cash and passed out in her elevator. Someone needs to go with her, and it should be you.”
    “No,” Char said.
    “It should be you,” Vicky repeated. “Don’t act dumb; it doesn’t suit you. She wouldn’t be like this right now if it weren’t for you.”
    They stared at each other for a long moment. Finally Char sighed and said, “You know I’d take her, Vicky. But I have to DJ until two o’clock. What do you want me to do, just throw on a mix CD and walk out the door? This is my job . And of all nights, Pete’s here. How fast do you think I’d get dropped if he saw me just put my iTunes on shuffle and take off?”
    “I could DJ,” I offered.
    They both looked at me.
    “Thanks, Elise,” Char said, running his hand through his hair, “but you don’t … I mean, you did a great job playing that one song last week, but that doesn’t mean you can DJ an entire party for an hour, or however long it takes me to get Pippa home and get back here.”
    “I can do it,” I said again. I felt my heart slamming against my chest. “I got turntables and everything. I’ve been practicing.”
    “Come on, Char,” Vicky said. “She’ll be fine. Start can handle itself for an hour. Pippa cannot.”
    Char kept shaking his head.
    “Remember how you believe in me?” I said.
    “Fine,” he said. “Get up there. When this song is over, transition out of this and into something else. If you can do that, then maybe I will accompany Pippa home.”
    “No problem,” I said. I climbed up into the DJ booth, which felt so much farther from the ground than it had last week. I could feel Char’s eyes on me. Focus, Elise.
    I lightly touched the dials and the knobs on Char’s mixer, acquainting myself with each of them. I brushed my hand against the turntables. I looked at the computer. A minute and a half left of “A Quick One, While He’s Away.” A minute and a half to cue up the next song.
    I had practiced this for three nights in my bedroom. That’s not a lot of practice. Char had been doing this for years. Still, I’m not precocious for nothing. As “A Quick One, While He’s Away” came to an end, I crossfaded into “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” Suddenly everyone in the room was pogoing up and down and speeding through the lyrics as one.
    “See?” I called down to Char, trying to catch my breath.
    He heaved a sigh. “Fine. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He gave me a look that clearly said Don’t screw this up, then put an arm around Pippa’s narrow shoulders and guided her out of the room.
    “Yes!” Vicky pumped her arm. She turned to go back to the bar, but then she looked back to ask me, “Are you actually okay up there?”
    “Um…” I was scrolling through Char’s song list as fast as I could. “Hard to say.”
    Vicky nodded, gave me a little salute, and went back to find Pete.
    Time from there passed not in minutes, but in songs. I didn’t look up from the DJ equipment once, and I barely ever took off Char’s enormous headphones. I didn’t think about Char, or Vicky, or Pippa, or Amelia, or Lizzie—I thought only one song to the next.
    Fifteen, twenty songs later, I felt a hand on my back. I spun around to see Char. “You’re back,” I said.
    I took off the headphones and held them out to him, but he waved his hand. “You might as well finish up,” he