What If #justwriteit #fanfic

Chapter One: Brooke

I turned to Alicia, "Sorry, I guess I'm sort of super excited and nervous. Because..WHAT IF?" Which set us all back to giggling like we did in high school.

We were still giggling and spewing out 'what if' stories as Jill rolled into valet parking. We poured out of the car and took a collective deep breath. Jill pulled us into a sort of circle, huddle, "Okay girls, calm and cool. I say we get seated, order drinks and pretend like we know nothing."

Melanie snorted, "That should be easy. Especially for Brooke." Then, to prove she was teasing, she pulled me into a hug and planted a lipstick kiss on the top of my hair-sprayed head. "We're good?" She looked each of us in the eye and received nods, "Let's go."

Like unibrains, we walked in through the revolving doors and made our way to the hotel bar, The Joint. It's where all the hipsters, divorcee's and millennials hung out. And, seeing as we were in our 20's, we definitely had the millennial thing covered.

There were a few vacant tables and we chose a hightop by the wall of windows. The instant we were seated, a tired looking waitress approached us and collected our drink orders.

I stared at the patrons reflections in the window and wondered out loud, "I have a feeling we had the wrong tip. Don't you think this place would be crawling with more people like us if Down Rulers was really going to show up?"

The response I received was dead silence which led me to believe my posse agreed with my assessment, "Maybe we'll give it a little bit. But, if they don't show up in an hour, let's call it a night. I have a long day tomorrow." I was starting an internship at a huge digital marketing agency where I would be doing graphic design. It would look awesome on my resume, assuming I do a great job there.

I inspected my friends who were definitely already looking defeated. The waitress brought our drinks which we quickly downed. Jill flagged down the waitress and signaled we wanted another round. We busied ourselves by staring at each other, making silly faces until we began to laugh.

We started in our our second round and suddenly the atmosphere of the bar shifted. Hoards of girls started piling in, squealing louder than we had been earlier. Out the window, I saw THE tour bus come to a stop and my head exploded. I started shaking Melanie, whose chair was practically on top of mine, "Oh my fucking god, you guys. Oh. My. God."

Jill kicked me under the table, "Calm yourself, woman."

I could tell she was as excited as I was but she was way better at concealing it. I tried to be inconspicuous and use my peripheral vision to see what was going on outside. The bus was surrounded and a couple of big, burly bodyguards were trying to clear a walking path through the bodies of bouncing boobs. Slowly, the band emerged and I almost threw up. Stephen, the lead singer, led the way. Behind him, Jesse and his gorgeous smile stunned the screaming chicks to submission. Jarrod, Ryan and Nathan followed slowly behind the two leads.

The four of us were kicking each other, squeezing hands and trying not to scream like teeny boppers. I gotta admit, it wasn't easy. Not in the least bit. There he was, the live version of the posters plastered all over my childhood bedroom. 3 dimensional is just so much better than flat. Like, so much better.

Alicia frowned, "They're skinnier up close. I don't like guys that skinny."

I rolled my eyes, "Really Alicia? Because Kyle was just so buff." Her last boyfriend was anorexically skinny. And these guys weren't all that skinny, they definitely had eaten sandwiches recently.

She rolled her eyes back at me, "Shut up, Brooke. Ms. Holier than thou. You wouldn't know what to do with any guy, let alone someone like Jesse. Besides, I can almost guarantee, he won't be going anywhere with you."

Jill jumped in to my rescue, "Be nice, Alicia. Or maybe that's not so easy for you to do anymore?" Her tone was so venomous that Alicia simply opened her mouth and then shut it, reconsidering any type of comeback.

I gave Jill a look of gratitude before turning my attention to the front door, "Don't look but they just walked in and are heading to the bar." Now I was glad I was sitting in the seat facing the front of the restaurant, usually it was the last place I liked to be but I could see everything and tonight, I was good with that.

Melanie started dancing in her seat, "I have to see. You guys, I'm turning around. It'll be quick, I promise." She snapped her chair around, her jaw went slack and she whipped herself back to face us, "And then, I died."

Too nervous to even talk, I mean..I was practically face to face with my lifelong love...all I could do was stir the ice in my margarita and let the girls talk amongst themselves.

Picking up my drink and downing it like a rockstar wanna be, I decided to check them out again. The bar had gotten super crowded and loud and I could hardly see them, meaning Jesse, perched at the bar. They were handling the gaggle like the pros they were, signing autographs and taking selfies with dignity and grace. I sighed and wished I had the nerve to push my way through those girls. I think a simple selfie with Jesse would be enough to make my life complete. But, I didn't have the nerve so, instead, I'd have to live vicariously through everyone else.

Jill threw a piece of balled up cocktail napkin at me, "Hey, lets?" She nudged her head in the direction of where they were.

I shook my curls, "You go, I'll just sit here. Anyway, fantasy is always better than reality." Oh good god, I sounded like my mother. That was just wrong.

Alicia was still in silent submission, thankfully. Without saying a word to us, she jumped out of her seat and walked toward the crowd. Melanie shrugged and followed and Jill gave me one last pleading look before chasing after them.

I felt like crying, it made me sick that I was so shy and sometimes gutless. Especially when it came to guys, famous or not. It only took one broken heart to ruin me for, what seemed as though it would be, the rest of my life. "Guys." I whispered to myself.

I grabbed an ice cube from my empty glass and popped it in my mouth. Feeling self conscious for being alone at a table, I took my phone out of my purse and busied myself by checking in on Facebook and seeing what was going on with the rest of my friends. I wasn't going to status update about what a complete wuss I was, that was for sure. Instead, I looked at and liked everyone else's.

The air shifted as I felt someone standing behind me, looking over my shoulder. I figured it was one of the girls so I threw my elbow back and hoped to get whomever it was square in the boob.

"Hey, not nice!" A breathy, laughing male voice with a beautiful English accent breathed into my ear. Let me rephrase that, a familiar sounding breathy, laughing male voice with a beautiful English accent breathed into my air.

Too shocked to actually throw up and crap my pants, I twirled around in my seat. And, I'm pretty certain my hair hit the owner of the voice in the face about a bazillion times.

Standing there, next to me, with two beers in his hand, was Jesse. The bassist. And fantasy love of my life. And, he was offering me one of the two beers.

Without fainting, I took the sweating bottle in my clammy hand and motioned for him to have a seat.

To Be Continued...