"Band? Like band band?" I question.
"Yeah... what other kind of band you dork," Kyle retorts.
It was a Saturday night, Kyle had dragged me to some bar and to be honest, I wasn't in the mood. Kyle was my best friend, he really was, and I loved him with all my heart, but sometimes I worried about him. He always had outrageous ideas that never ended well and this seemed to be another one of them.
"It isn't one of those ideas... It's different this time. I swear," he replied as if reading my mind.
"Every single time Kyle... These things never end well. Just play it safe. Go to college, get a job, get married, have kids. Safe," telling him my infamous lecture for the thousandth time.
"Oh please if I wanted to play it safe, I would have to marry you," he said poking me in the ribs.
He was right, our friends and family were convinced that one day Kyle and I would get together. But in pure honesty that would never happen. Kyle was just Kyle and could never be anything more. Our relationship was so awfully platonic, but no one seemed to understand other than Kyle's girlfriend and like 2 other people.
Rolling my eyes I continued, "You went to college, you have a girlfriend. You had a job interview last week. You're halfway there."
He completely ignored my comment and launched into a story about this guy he met at a party who apparently had a band. I frowned at the water bottle in my hands and merely half listened as he filled me in on the details of this fiasco.
"So he should be here in literally a minute," Kyle concluded.
"What hm... what?" I mumbled out, I wasn't listening.
"Dan, he's coming here."
"Oh Dan okay..."
Who the hell is Dan?
The door of the bar swings open in an instant and in steps some marvelous creature. His dark hair stands way beyond his head, only to add to his lengthy stance. His limbs are long and his strides seem confident, I was in awe. I was too busy looking at him before I realized he was walking over to us.
Kyle and the stranger greeted each other in a friendly manner and I shrunk up in my seat... that's Dan.
Kyle gave me a large grin before introducing me to Dan, "This is ______."
"I'm _______, you're Dan," I burst out nervously. Oh my God.
"Yeah that's me," he chuckled in a reply, his voice was beautiful, "I heard a lot about you, it's nice to finally meet you."
And I literally stopped breathing.
Dan manuvered over to the seat beside me, essentially sandwiching me between him and Kyle, which was only setting me up for inevitable failure and embarassment. But the awkward encounter between Dan and I was quickly overlooked as for the two fully immersed into a conversation about the band. I sat between the two mortified, making zero eye contact with anyone, I said nothing, just listened and they didn't seem to mind.
After awhile Dan averted his attention to me, "So, how did you guys meet?"
"Old friends, since secondary school," Kyle beamed, slinging his arm across my shoulders.
Embarassed, I gingerly picked Kyle's arm off of me, "He was taunting me in maths with paper airplanes and I called him out on it, I hated him so much," I briefly evaluated.
Kyle threw back his head in laughter, "She 'hated' me," he said using air quotes, "notice it's in past tense."
After an hour Dan left to go the bathroom, leaving Kyle and I to discuss matters at hand.
"He seems cool," I started hesitantly. Kyle knew me better than anyone. If I showed even the slightest signs of attraction towards Dan, he'd know and humiliate me until I probably withered up and die.
"This band thing could work, Dan's music is insane. If you think he's cool now, when you hear his singing you'll worship him," Kyle praised.
It will seriously not take much for me to worship him.
"Mmmm, can't wait," I vaguely mumbled, keeping a cool façade.
I caught and mischievous glint in my best friend's eyes. He lifted his eyebrows in realization. I felt panic welling up in my stomach. You have to be kidding me.
"Kyle Jonathan Simmons if you say one word to him I will literally-" I was cut off by Dan's reappearance.
Right on cue Dan returned from the bathroom and I turned in my chair to smile at him as he made his way towards us.
From behind me I heard Kyle snicker and it took everything within me to not turn around and kick him in the shins. I made a mental note of the revenge he deserved. Kyle leaned in behind me, his mouth too close to my ear and I was nearly going to swat his face when he whispered almost inaudibly, "Too bad he's got a girlfriend." I could feel the satisfaction on Simmons' face as he leaned back into his chair and his stupid smug grin burned into the back of my head.
My cheeks burned and I crumbled, cue inevitable failure and embarassment.
