Queen of the Headphone Zombies

Dolce

R U Mine // Arctic Monkeys

EMERSON

Fuck. We're lost.

We have been driving up and down some kind of industry park for the last fifteen minutes.

"I think the next left and then a right should get us to the parking garage." Zoe scrolls through the map on her phone trying to find the location. Apparently, my Maps think I'm still back East and tried to send me to a venue in Boston. Freaking technology.

We've been driving blind in the city for almost an hour. Thank fuck that the headliners aren't scheduled to go on until ten. Yeah, I called the venue to find out the lineup. And looked up the set list. And spent the better part of an hour trying to decide what to wear. I'd never spent any time worrying over my wardrobe for a date before. Damn I'm stuck hard on this girl. And damn I need to somehow convince her this is a date before the night is over.

"On the left, like I said." Zoe's voice is slightly irritated as the garage comes into view. So far during the ride in circles around the city she hasn't given me shit for getting lost. But I can tell that mask of patience on her face is wearing thin. I may have pissed her off when I doubted her navigational skills a couple of times on the way here. Okay, a couple dozen times. I am a complete idiot. I should have graciously taken her navigational advice. I'm trying to get this girl to like me, but half the time all I seem to do is annoy the hell out of her. So far, our non-date has not started off so well.

And there it is suddenly in front of us, our final destination. I swing the car into the garage and find an empty space.

"Thanks." I say shutting off the engine. "Um, I guess I owe you for saving my ass in the big city, huh?" I say trying to lighten the mood.

She just shrugs and mumbles, "Whatever," before gathering her bag and her jacket.

She gets out of the car before I have a chance to scramble out and open her door for her.

Crap. Minus points for getting lost and minus points on chivalry. I get out and make my way to her side.

"Taking that?" I gesture to the jacket. "It gets pretty hot during these things."

"But it's cold outside." Zoe looks at me like I am the idiot I've demonstrated myself to be so far tonight.

The expression on her face is one I'm far too familiar with. She is about two beats from getting pissed at me. The last thing I need to do is seem like I'm trying to boss her around. I need to tread lightly. "True. I'm just usually pretty sweaty after a concert, with all that jumping around in mosh pits and all." I give her a wink.

Zoe looks at me with a dry expression. "Got something stuck in there?"

Looks like the Emerson Wink has finally failed me. So far so not good for this 'date' but I'm not giving up. "Are you ready?" I offer her my arm attempting to be a gentleman once again. My parents aren't around to judge me, but tonight I want to take care of Zoe. And I need to turn this around, quick.

Zoe looks at me suspiciously then huffs a deep breath, takes my arm, and changes the topic immediately. "How many concerts have you been to, anyway?" She asks.

I answer easily, finally relaxed that we've found the place and are about to enter my version of a religious experience. "Couldn't even keep count. Back East we lived downtown so it was easy enough to find a cover band on the weekends or some type of festival in the park." That was, when I was able to come up with a cover story for my father that included either studying or spending time with the kid of some rich asshole he admired. I don't bother to say any of this to Zoe, however. The last thing she needs to hear about is to hear about my family issues. I'm trying to impress this girl, not depress her.