The Hush Society Presents..., Izzy Matias [cat reading book .TXT] 📗

as the other bands who are on tour with Dan and Ella. She lists down the hub heads of The Hush Society in each respective city and describes the logistics. My head swirls at the names. As exciting as it all seems, there’s too much information to take in.

My fingers go to autopilot and drum.

I strain my neck to glance at our tour route. There are red circles in the cities Amber, Benji, Cassie, Eric, and I are to visit this summer. I get a glimpse of a few of them: Liverpool, Bristol, Brighton, London, and Manchester.

Touring is like trying to solve a maths problem.

My foot taps random beats and my fingers continue drumming.

I want to go out and explore. Bring my guitar with me and scout the area for parks—or better yet, discover a musical gem in this lofty city.

As much as I know how important this meeting is, my eyes can’t help but meet the skyline out the window.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Northern Quarter is a restaurant and bar in a neighborhood with the same name. Its façade is a mint-green colour with the name in capital letters. My denim jacket is perched on the backrest of the chair. The air is sticky, but I don’t mind. It’s like being in the mosh pit, except it’s ten times stickier in the pit.

Eric, Benji, and Kai have drifted off to another area of Manchester whilst Dan and Ella stayed at their flat to sort out their leg of their tour. Cassie offered to show me around when Amber Skye rang to ask us to meet up. She insisted they take me here, to one of their regular hangout spots.

"This is a must visit for virgins of Manchester!" Amber announced as we entered the place earlier, only to settle at the table outside.

Amber’s been telling us about her childhood mate for the past ten minutes. "Girl, I bumped into him at the supermarket. He kept asking how I was doing, even about my progress. And you know what he said?"

"What?" Cassie leans in.

"Never ever compare yourself to other artists!" Amber mimics in a higher tone, grabs Cassie’s arm, and gives her this wide-eyed look. "Ever!"

"Some people can be so nosy, can’t they?" Cassie says, shaking her head.

"It’s so ironic that the very person who compares himself to others is lecturing me about it," Amber says with annoyance as she takes a sip from her tea.

"Maybe it’s too hard for him to bite that habit off," Cassie says, "so he’s passing his wisdom to you, in hopes of avoiding a fate like his."

"Yeah, yeah." Amber rolls her eyes.

"You said you’d try harder. You have to." Cassie turns Amber’s arms to her and clasps them with her fingers.

"I am." There’s a slight quiver in her voice.

I raise a suspicious brow to Amber, but stay silent. I can tell it’s a personal issue.

"This lady is a life-saver." Amber nudges her elbow on Cassie’s arm. There’s a faint blush in the latter’s face.

"You don’t owe me or anyone an explanation," I interrupt and hold my hands up. "It’s okay."

"No, I want to share this."

"Okay." I glance at Cassie. Her full attention is on Amber.

Amber’s eyes flicker from the table. Her hands run through her pink hair. "I struggled with anorexia for a long time." Cassie pats Amber’s arm, and the latter half-smiles before continuing. "But throughout it all there was one thing constant and that was my song-writing. I’d constantly compare myself to every girl out there and it took me a while to debut at a gig."

The Amber that’s in front of me, the one I’d walked in on at the basement of Tokyo Drift performing solo on stage with nothing but her ukulele, is an assured gal. How did she become this confident?

"The night I debuted as a singer, I overheard someone commenting I’d never break out into a scene if I looked like a skeleton. You’d think that being thin is what a lot of celebrities are into these days, so I never expected to hear that sort of comment. And that’s what woke me up."

Cassie is in awe with her, like a proud mum. I take a good look at Amber and notice she’s thinner than Cassie, but not in a sort of unhealthy way. Sometimes we don’t notice the things that hold us back until someone calls us out. But even then, it’s a hard idea to digest that it’s something we do to ourselves that holds us back.

Amber takes another sip from her cuppa. "I wanted to make it so bad that I knew I had to face my low self-esteem issues. I went to a healing centre and therapy. There’s this stigma about going to therapy. If you need help, you need to go out and ask for it."

Wow. Loads of people shy away from the idea of going to therapy, but not her. It can’t have been easy, but she did it anyway. Hearing her confide in me makes me respect her even more.

"A few weeks after I got back, one of my mates brought me to a Hush Society gig where I became mates with Cassie. She bugged me to debut at one of her gigs when she heard that I wanted to be a singer." She glares at Cassie at first, but lights up with a big grin before continuing. Cassie laughs. "It took me a while to let other people listen to my music again because I’d always compare myself to others. It was a hard habit to break since it was ingrained in me to compare my weight with others for a long time…I guess that habit spilled over to music, but I’m glad I’ve slowly stepped out of that trap."

What a gal! She chose to overcome not just her anorexia, but that part of her that kept telling her she wasn’t good enough. She’s a warrior. A survivor.

"I always told you you’re awesome!" Cassie teases, nudging Amber’s arm.

"That’s what