It's Not A Question But A Lesson Learned In Time

It's Not A Question But A Lesson Learned In Time - Chapter Twenty-One

"Wait a minute... You aren't a total freak?" He winked. "Honestly. They'll love you. You don't have to impress them. And they'll be totally cool with you tagging along."

"Wow. You're hilarious, has anyone ever told you that? Ok fine. But if they hate me I will never forgive you for making me go." Brian laughed and then headed for the door.

As we walked to the pub we continued our usual conversations about random, pointless things. I've been feeling a lot better about this recently, I don't feel so alienated anymore. I know Hannah tried her best to make me feel "at home" but it didn't necessarily make it easier to feel like I actually belonged here. At least now that I've started hanging out with people more, and started being able to get along with them I feel more at ease and less of an outsider.

When we got to the bar I followed Brian inside and straight toward the back where he greeted a table of four people, who looked about the same age as Brian - early twenties - already sat with drinks. There were three guys and a girl sat around the table, and it took me a second to register that Brian had sat down and was introducing me to them.

"...This is Frankie. Frankie that's Simon and Gavin, they're my flatmates, Lewis, a friend from college and my girlfriend Becca." He pointed around the table at each as he introduced them.

"Hey Frankie. Nice to meet you." Becca smiled, leaning across the table to shake my hand.

"You too." I replied generally before sitting in the now only free seat around the table, in between Brian and Simon.

"Drink Frankie?" Brian asked as he stood up again, grabbing his wallet.

"No thanks, I'm ok for now."

"Come on Franks. My treat." He waved his wallet at me. "Everyone else has one..."

I looked around the table and saw everyone with pints of beer or similar.

"Ok... I'll just have half a pint of... Whatever's there." Brian rolled his eyes but nodded and walked up to the bar.

"So you're from America?" Gavin asked after Brian had gone. I nodded, suddenly losing my ability to talk. "Where abouts?"

"C-California." I coughed. "San Francisco." I specified, although not narrowing down any further to Oakland.

"Ah sweet. I went there a couple years back... Can't really remember it though, drunken week." He grinned. We all laughed and then the topic was changed. When Brian returned with our drinks he put a pint of lager in front of me, I looked at him and he just shrugged as he sat back, putting his arm around the back of Becca's chair and joining in the conversation.

The evening generally passed pretty quickly. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it was going to be, and I ended up having a good time.

"So Frankie, What about you? Have you got any significant others back home?" Becca asked when the subject got changed to various relationships and hook ups that the group had all experienced. I felt myself blushing, although I have no idea why. Maybe just the sudden attention on me. I shook my head.

"What?! You can't be serious." Simon scoffed. "You can't tell me that in a big place like San Francisco you don't have guys falling at your feet, you're pretty damn fit." I covered my face with my hand as I laughed at his slightly drunken comments. "What? I'm serious!"

"I swear to god. There's no one. I went out with this one guy a while back, and it... It ended pretty badly, and I've kind of sworn off guys in that whole area now."

"Because one relationship ended badly? How badly can it end for you to swear off guys completely?"

"Not completely... Just in the San Francisco area. And it's hard to explain what happened..." I didn't want to give the full details. The main reason I've sworn off all the guys is because they only want me because they think they'll become famous, or get lots of money because of my dad. And I don't want that. That's why I don't like people knowing who I am, their opinions of me or their attitudes towards me change. Fortunately Joey and I were kept just enough out of the limelight when Green Day were still going, to not be too well know outside of Oakland and San Francisco... Well, maybe California. And even then, I tried to keep out of the way, but when my dad started teaching a lot more people made the connections... The fact I look a lot like my dad not helping the situation.