*Dan*
The night of the concert comes that next weekend.
Genevieve walks to my place to meet my parents, since they keep bugging me about it. She didn't seem to mind when I told her. Well, I nicely asked her, they told me. That's what parents do though, I guess. But she's very laid back and nice. And I have already met her dad, so this was just natural step.
I open the door to her soft knock probably too quickly.
"Hi," She laughs. I blush because she must have noticed. Oh well, too late.
"Hey," I smile, nervous now, "Come in."
She walks in and as she walks by me, I smell that smell, her smell, vanilla and Genevieve. I notice right away she's wearing a dress. I hardly see her in them. But maybe that's because I mostly see her in a school uniform. The dress is teal and faded looking. It looks beautiful on her. I wonder if it was her mom's.
"Parents!" I call, "Genevieve is here!"
"Your house is so nice," She smiles, looking around.
"Well, thank you," My mom walks in, as if summoned by the compliment on her decorating.
"Had the house built to our specific specifications," My dad adds.
Wow, guys, way to brag. "Guys," I say, feeling my face blush.
"That's so cool!" Genevieve says. I look over at her and smile when she's not looking. How is this girl so nice?
They shake her hand and introduce themselves, as parents do, and we make little small talk.
"It's so nice to meet you finally," My mom says at one point, "Danny talks about you a lot."
I blush, "Mom," I mumble.
She laughs, "Oops," But she smiles, like she knows what she's doing.
Genevieve smiles, "That's sweet," She nudges me with her body.
Thankfully, the train schedule makes us have to leave at a certain time though, so when that time comes, we say bye, get in my car, and drive off to the station.
When we get to the city, it's getting dark.
Genevieve smiles [bigger] once she's out of the train station.
"Look at the sky!" She smiles with such excitement, you have to look.
I look, "It's pretty."
"It's beautiful," She corrects.
I smile big to myself.
We get walking and she's looking at everything in awe, I can't help but smile at her child-like excitement. Over the city, over the sky. Over everything it seems.
We live in a smallish town, so when we get to go to the city, it's pretty exciting, it is. Genevieve has a child-like excitement about so many things, it's a breath of fresh air spending time with her. I'm really glad I'm here with her.
When we walk into our building, there are so many people. So much so that Genevieve takes my hand and leads the way through the people. I'm surprised and I blush, but I'm grateful.
When we get to an emptier area, she lets go of my hand. We decide to get something to eat before the concert. There's something like a food court, so we go there.
We can't agree on one restaurant, so we split up to get what we want, after joke arguing and laughing.
When we meet up at a table, there's this hodgepodge of different foods. That's the only thing to call it.
Huge slices of pizza, orange chicken, McDonald's fries, Chicken fries from burger king, a chicken sandwich from Wendy's, and a M&M McFlurry.
"Wow," I laugh.
"What a spread," She laughs.
I go and get us forks and spoons, and then we dig right in.
"We have to eat this first because it'll melt," She smiles and picks up the M&M McFlurry.
"Oh, is that why?" I tease.
"Absolutely," She smiles and hands me a spoon.
I smile, and she takes the cover off.
"Ladies first," I smile.
She smiles and takes a bite. I smile at her dainty cute eating. Even with the insane amount of M&M's that they put into McFlurries.
"What?" She laughs when she notices me.
"Oh nothing," I smile.
She passes me the cup and I take a bite.
After eating about half, we put it aside. We share all the food equally. It's a buffet of food court favorites.
It's an awesome dinner, and something like this would probably only happen with Genevieve.
When we're near the end of our feast, the chicken sandwich is the only thing left. It's spicy, and my favorite.
We both look at it, puzzled.
"Here, how about this," I say and get up.
She watches me as I go and grab a plastic knife. When I come back, I cut the sandwich in half and hand a half to her.
"Aw," She smiles, "You're sharing your favorite?"
I smile and nod, "Don't tell anyone."
She laughs, "What a gentleman."
After I pass her a half, we do a kind of 'cheers' motion, and laugh. Then she takes a bite and makes a kind of 'yummy' face. I smile, and we eat the rest of our sandwich.
After cleaning up, we sit back down.
"I'm stuffed," She puts her hands on her stomach.
"Me too," I laugh.
"That was an awesome dinner though, we should do that again," She smiles.
"I agree," I smile.
A few minutes later, we find our seats in the concert theater, and make ourselves comfortable.
"These are amazing seats," She looks around in that same child-like awe from earlier.
"I tried to get the best ones I could," I reply, but quietly, because I don't want it to sound like I'm bragging or something.
"You're so sweet," She smiles at me, "You did not have to do this."
"I know, but I wanted to," I smile, and hopefully not blushing at her calling me 'sweet'. Good thing there's dim lighting in here.
"Thank you again," She smiles big.
"You're welcome," I smile.
She looks out at the stage, and then I watch her amazed face scan the whole place.
"Genevieve," I say.
"Yeah?" She looks at me.
"You look really nice tonight," I smile.
"Thank you," She smiles and looks down shyly, "So do you."
I look down at my kind of wrinkled white button up and feel like I don't even compare to her.
"Thanks," I smile anyway, and try to smooth down my shirt when she's not looking.
We're in front of a railing so we stand up and lean our arms on the railing, looking out all around us.
We look at the stage, that's beautifully lit up with twinkle lights absolutely everywhere to show off the set. It looks like a play. The set is centered around her last album that the tour is for "Shatter Me", which happens to be Genevieve's favorite, even though she loves all of them so far. And her absolutely favorite song is "Take Flight".
"The set is beautiful," I comment.
I'm excited too, now. It's like Genevieve's excited vibes have rubbed off on me. I've heard her stuff because of Genevieve, and it's really good. The place is packed.
"It is," She smiles at me now. And I smile back.
"This is so cool!" She says excitedly then, looking back at the stage.
I laugh, she's so excited. It makes me smile. This is why I did this. I'm so glad she wanted me to come.
As we're smiling at each other, the lights start to dim more, which causes us to look up, look at each other quickly, and then sit back in our seats.
Once the music starts, Genevieve eyes are locked on Lindsey and her look of awe is permanent.
The performances are amazing. She plays the first 6 songs straight through. Ballet dancers surround her and dance away to her tune(s). It really is like a play. No one talks, but a lot is said.
After the first 6 songs are done, there's a half hour break before the rest. Me and Genevieve decide to go outside and just take a little walk for some air and to see a little more of the city.
"That was...amazing," She smiles, looking ahead.
"It was really good," I reply, smiling at her amazement.
We stop at a pier and look out at the water. The moon is reflecting off the water and setting the mood of the night just right. I think Genevieve notices too, because she's looking out at the water. She doesn't talk much, but just being around her right now brings this sense of calm and comfort.
We sit on a bench nearby and she sits with one leg under her other, facing me, letting the other hang off the bench.
"Can I ask you a question?" I ask.
"Of course," She looks at me now.
"I guess I'm just wondering what your fascination with Lindsey Stirling is when you play guitar and your mom was a rocker," I say, kind of laughing along the way to make sure she knows I'm just curious, not judging.
"Well," She smiles, "Yes, I love rock music, as my mom did. But my dad loves classical music. He introduced me to Lindsey a few years ago and I was drawn in and started listening to her all the time, especially when painting. I guess I'm just...amazed by her. She creates these songs with just her violin, with such passion and talent. And on the other side, she's just a good person. She's quirky and cool and not afraid to just be herself."
"I can understand that," I reply, "She's very cool."
She smiles and nods, then looks back out at the water again. She has such a fascination with water for someone with a phobia of water.
"You know, you've got some Lindsey Stirling in you, you know," I say.
She looks at me again, "What?" She laughs.
"You bring passion and talent into painting and playing guitar. You create beautiful things with just paint and your hands. You're also a good person. You're quirky and funny and cool and fun; and you're not afraid to be yourself," I say, blushing, "Or, you don't seem to be."
She giggles and looks down. Then she tucks some hair behind her ear and looks back up at me.
"Thank you, Dan," She smiles into my eyes.
"You're welcome, Genevieve," I reply.
She smiles.
A girl of few words sometimes maybe, but with Genevieve, it's not hard to see what she's feeling.
When we get back to our seats, Genevieve looks even more excited. Her favorite song is coming up.
When it does come up, her face changes. As if she could look even more amazed and child-like with so much excitement inside her already. Music isn't just sound, nature isn't just stuff around us; these things make her feel.
I think once the song starts, she starts crying. I don't notice until after the first bass drop. I hear a sniffle and turn toward her. She looks kind of embarrassed and wipes a tear from her cheek nearest to me. I don't know what to do so I leave her be. I let her feel.
But then once the second verse comes around, I take her hand, kind of telling her it's okay to cry, it's okay to feel. This song is more special to her than I realized. Than maybe she realized, even.
She doesn't look at me after I take her hand, but I see a little smile appear along with the tears. She can't keep her eyes off the stage, and I understand. We watch the dancers spin all around Lindsey, while she looks so concentrated, playing her violin with such ease.
After the song is over, I take my hand away, and I slightly look at her, just to see if she's okay. She smiles at me and takes it back, squeezing it, and mouthing "thank you" as the applause roars around us. I smile back.
When the concert is over, every single person stands up and gives a long rounding applause until Lindsey leaves the stage after thanking everyone.
It takes a long time to get out of there, but Genevieve has my hand still, so we don't lose each other, again.
She leads the way, even though neither of us know clearly where to go. I'm a little weird in crowds so I'm glad I'm with someone who naturally takes control over some things.
On the train, Genevieve leans her head on me and closes her eyes.
"Wonderful night," She smiles sleepily and seems to doze off a little bit.
I smile and let her peacefully doze.
Close to our stop, I have to meanly wake her up.
But she's not grumpy. She just smiles sleepily, and we get up to leave the train. Always smiling.
When we get to my car, I notice her hugging herself and rubbing her arms a little.
"Are you cold?" I ask her before we get in the car.
"Maybe a little," She laughs sleepily, "But I'll be okay."
"I might have a sweatshirt in the back," I say, "Do you want it?"
"Maybe that would be nice," She smiles. Never wants to bother anyone. Even though she isn't, ever.
I smile and go into the back seat. I find a sweatshirt of mine in the back seat that's always in here just in case, I guess, Mom's idea. It's just a plain black sweatshirt. She's already in the car, so when I get in the driver's seat, I hand it to her.
"Thank you," She smiles.
"No problem," I smile.
She slips it on and zips it up. It's big on her, but she doesn't look silly, she looks comfortable and just as beautiful as before.
We smile, and I get driving because I know she's tired. I don't think she makes it long after she gets home from work at 9.
But she just leans her head against the headrest of the car, sweatshirt sleeves over her hands, and looks out her window.
Genevieve never complains.
When we get to her house, it's just past midnight. Honestly, I'm tired too. A lot of excitement tonight.
We both get out of the car, and walk to her front door slowly. We face each other and smile.
"Thank you, again, Dan, so much," She says genuinely, "I'm sorry I cried."
I kind of laugh, "Don't even worry about it."
She smiles.
"Happy birthday," I smile.
She smiles and then hugs me. I hug her back and the hug tightens.
When she looks at me, we're so close I realize that I could kiss her. I could kiss her right now.
But I don't.
She goes to unzip the sweatshirt as we separate.
"Keep it, you can give it back to me when we see each other next," I say.
"Okay, thank you," She smiles so sleepily.
"Goodnight, Genevieve," I say her name with a twinge of French accent, which makes her smile with teeth.
"Goodnight, Daniel," She replies, showing those teeth again.
I laugh.
I watch her go inside, hear the door lock, see the light inside turn off, then I put my hands in my pockets, and walk back to the car.
I should have kissed her.
~*~