Ketchum, ID

ch 1 - jo

When I clocked in for my shift today, I knew I was in for some sort of chaos. Friday nights at Ketchum-All were always something. What I was not prepared for was my manager telling me we were hosting our first ever open mic night.

"And how do you know people are actually going to participate? What if they're so boring our ears bleed. Alex, what were you thinking?" I asked them in a panicked tone.

"Well, Jo," they said, playfully nudging me. "I put up fliers everywhere, posted about the event on every social media possible, and I even paid to put an ad in the paper in case any old timers want to come and serenade us with Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald," they added with an eyeroll. "Besides, Fridays are always busy. And with you as our eye candy behind the bar, I planned on people getting drunk enough to throw caution to the wind. Come on, live a little."

"All I'm saying is, if I have to hear one Morgan Wallen song, you can consider that my formal resignation," I deadpanned.

"Come on! You know I would never let that happen in my bar. Also- what makes you think our Halloween-themed, queer-owned and operated bar is going to attract those kinds of people?" they asked in a mock-offended way.

Alex had a point. Stepping into my place of employment and getting to wear whatever I wanted every single day, knowing I was going to be surrounded by a fully queer staff and management team were definitely perks of the Job. Well, those and Alex. Alex and I had been friends since freshman year of college when our roommates decided to introduce us because they discovered we were both from Idaho. Turns out we had gone to different high schools, but the same elementary school. Ever since then, we've been attached at the hip. Alex even decided to move back to Ketchum with me when I dropped out, and they finished their degree online.

After we moved back home, we knew we needed to do something to keep the small town exciting, so we opened a Halloween themed bar. Everyone on staff being queer came as a bonus because all of Alex and I's friends wanted a part of this exciting new adventure we were embarking on. Thus, Ketchum-All was born. Since Alex actually had a degree, we had decided they would be the bar manager, and since I was always the friend designated to make drinks for our movie nights, I was designated lead bartender.

Fast forward 6 years, and Ketchum-All was a raging success. We had the occasional drag night, college nights, all you can drink nights, girls/gays/and theys nights, and live music at least twice a week, but this was the first I had ever heard of an open mic night, and of course it had to be tonight.

As I wrapped my apron around my hips, I watched as people slowly started to trickle in. Alex got up and made the announcement that open mic would be starting around 9:30, and they started to set up all of the stage equipment. This was how it went every Friday; crowds didn't really start to pick up until around 9:30 or 10:00, so Alex was capitalizing on that by giving the bar a shout-out saying I was offering liquid courage. I rolled my eyes as Alex blew me a kiss and started making everyone at the bar's orders.

Finally, Alex got up and announced that the first participant in the open mic night was a guy who I had already served 3 lemon drop shots to. He sang a very mediocre version of What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction, which gained him quite a few admirers in the crowd. When he stepped, or moreso stumbled, off stage, he came back and sat at the bar while at least 4 different women came up and offered to take him back to their place.

As the night went on, open mic night seemed to be a huge success. After a loud rendition of Mr. Brightside by The Killers, a slam poetry reading or two, a couple more average-to-bad covers of songs the entire crowd could sing along to, and a surprisingly good performance of the guitar solo from Lynrd Skynrd's Free Bird, I saw 3 people walk into the bar. They didn't look over at me, but that was probably a blessing because I was hardcore staring. They varied in height, but the shortest caught my attention. The platinum blonde one was carrying one guitar, the tallest was carrying two guitars, and the shortest was carrying what looked like foot pedals. They looked like they were ready for more than open mic night, but they also managed to fit right in with the crowd of almost 200 people that had gathered over the course of the event.

As I was proudly staring at the three women looking for a table, Alex had managed to sneak up on me behind the bar and scare the shit out of me by placing their hands over my eyes causing me to shriek and drop the glass that I had been polishing.

"Alex! What the fuck!" I shouted over the loudest performance of Tequila I had ever heard.

"I'm sorry! I didn't think you'd drop what you were doing!" they replied in a snarky tone. "I guess this probably is not the time to ask you to sing a song with me," they mentioned under their breath.

"Absolutely not. I have paying customers-" I started before Alex cut me off.

"WHO WANTS TO SEE THE PRETTY BARTENDER SING A SONG WITH ME?!" they yelled to anyone who was in earshot, of course causing everyone to cheer, and start chanting my name.

"You heard the people, Jo! Come on!! Jo! Jo! Jo!" Alex chimed in with everyone.

As I looked around the bar, I saw the three that came in together, seemingly engrossed in their own conversation, not paying any attention to the chanting going on at the bar. That was, until the shortest one glanced over at me and smiled the absolute cutest lopsided smirk I had ever seen in my entire 27 years of life.

"Fine! But I'm taking a shot before I get up there. And what are we even going to sing?" I asked Alex as I started pouring myself a double shot of Malibu.

"Don't even worry babe, I've got that covered," they said with a smirk. "It'll be just like our nights at Kitty's during college! Surely you haven't forgotten our signature song," they looked at me with playful hurt in their eyes and threw their hand up to their chest, clutching their imaginary pearls.

"I swear to-" I started as Alex dragged me out from behind the bar.

Well. Here goes nothing I suppose.