I rolled my eyes. “I can’t believe he had the audacity to want us to learn what’s going to be on Thursday’s test.”
Joey chuckled at my reaction as he pulled from his parking spot. “Where am I dropping you off today, Ellie?”
“Josh wants to hang out at his place. You guys want to join?”
Before I could turn her down, could formulate any excuse to get myself out of watching Josh try to talk and breathe at the same time, Joey answered for me. “Tempting as it may be, we have some stuff to take care of. Maybe we could all hang out this weekend if my hours at The Bistro aren’t too severe.”
After we dropped Ellie off, I turned to Joey, eyebrow raised. “So, what do we have to ‘take care of’? Did I miss something?”
He found my question somehow amusing, snickering as we made our way back toward Marmara again. “It’s a surprise. I know you sort of hate them, but in the short time we’ve known each other, Ash, have I once led you astray?”
The dormant side of me screamed from wherever she was tucked deep inside that yes, he absolutely had, but she wasn’t the side that was out to play that afternoon. “No, but still,” replied the girl in control as we parked at The Bistro, “if it involves me, I’d kind of like to know what’s going on.”
“Well, you’ll find out momentarily,” Joey told me as he grabbed my hand and led me inside. “I promise that it isn’t bad.”
The dining room was speckled with customers enjoying a late lunch. The atmosphere was alight with brisk, casual conversation, complemented by the soft, traditional Italian music coming from the speakers that dotted the walls along the ceiling.
“Bambini!” Rosetta yelped excitedly when she saw us from her spot behind the register situated by the door, her sugary voice welcoming us inside. Before she could get much else out, an elderly couple approached the register, their check and a small collection of bills in hand. “Pull your father into his office,” she told Joey, “and I’ll be back as soon as I’m finished with these folks.”
Joey led the way through the restaurant, pausing briefly to say hello to a few people he recognized in the dining room. He somehow kept all the names and stories straight, knowing just what to ask and say to make everyone smile along with him. As we walked through the swinging double doors and into the kitchen, the entire staff greeted him with warm welcomes as soon as they realized who it was. I’d gotten good at forgetting his enormity, but sometimes, I couldn’t help but to notice it.
He motioned to his father, who nodded and asked for a second to finish plating the food he’d just made. Whatever we had to take care of, Julian and Rosetta seemed to be in on the whole ordeal, but I didn’t have any time to ponder what it could be before Joey ushered me into his father’s on-site office.
While he answered a quick text on his phone, I stepped toward the desk to examine a small collection of photographs that Julian had on display. The one of Joey as a child, his cheeks chubby and his smile dominating the rest of his face, piqued my interest. Just as I turned to him to comment on it, the same boy swept me up into his arms. Wordlessly, he began to move our bodies in time with the music coming from the radio in the kitchen, which was separate from the concerto playing in the dining room. A relatively indie band with a somewhat upbeat tune played seemingly just for the two of us, the singer crooning in sugar-sweet metaphors about the puppy love he had for a pretty girl that he knew.
“Hello,” I smiled coyly. “Can I help you with something?”
As the song picked up in tempo, so, too, did our swaying, eliciting a buoyant giggle from the both of us. “No,” Joey smirked bashfully back at me, “but you could do me the honor of dancing with me before my parents show up.”
He leaned his forehead down onto mine, and I found myself wrapping my arms around his neck gently, giving in and dancing with him. When the words came back in after a brief instrumental break in the song, Joey began to sing along. His carefree spirit was contagious and spread to me as well, and I let myself sing with him, both of us giggling and crooning about our feelings. When the song ended, rather than singing the last line, Joey opted to kiss me sweetly on the lips instead.
Rosetta’s voice broke into our fairytale as his parents filed into the office, perching in the seats behind the desk. “You two have all night to be adorable together,” she commented with something of a knowing smirk, “but we only have a few minutes to talk before we have to get back to work.” Her son and I separated, looking sheepishly at one another with reddening cheeks, like two school kids with crushes.
Joey plunked himself into one of the cushioned chairs in front of his father’s desk, and I hesitantly sat in the one beside him, wildly unsure of what he had up his sleeves. Under the desk, out of his parents’ sight, he swung his hand over and grabbed onto mine, locking our fingers together. “As you guys may or may not know,” he began to say, “Ashley’s birthday is two weeks from Friday.”
“I didn’t know that,” Julian replied, regarding me with a grin. “Happy birthday in advance.”
As I nodded to his father in silent thanks, Joey continued. “I already checked, and it isn’t booked that night, so I was wondering if maybe we could borrow the private room and get some food together so we can have a little party to celebrate.” The three of us looked curiously at him, my expression the most severe of all. We’d barely talked about my birthday, save for the fact that it was coming up, so this was something of a surprise. I’d never really had a birthday party before – Ellie and I would always do something to celebrate, but I never had enough friends to warrant an actual party, and I still wasn’t sure that I did. “I’ll put in some extra hours between now and then, if it would help sway your decision. I just really want her to have a nice birthday this year.”
His parents exchanged a glance before Rosetta asked, “How many people are you thinking of inviting?”
“A dozen, maybe a few more,” he suggested as I, in my head, tried to come up with that many people who would willingly hang out with me. He continued to speak to his parents, but his focus was on me. “I promise not to let it get too big, but she’s turning eighteen and has never really gotten to celebrate, and it’s a big birthday, so I want to try to make this year fantastic.”
“The extra hours aren’t necessary, Giuseppe,” Julian announced with a grin. Joey’s full name always took me by surprise every time his parents used it, but, having been born in Italy, I’m not sure why I was expecting his name to be Joseph. “You’re a good girl, Ashley, and we’d love to help make this a good birthday.”
We both thanked them graciously for being so generous, and agreed to come back to them with specifics for the night when we had them as we made our way back out of the restaurant. The day before, he and I had decided to have something of a proper date night together after a weekend with our friends, but after much indecisiveness about what to do, we found ourselves in his basement with cartons of takeout Chinese food with rock music playing through the stereo in the corner.
I flubbed down onto the sofa, kicking my legs lazily up onto the cushions. When Joey came back downstairs with a couple beverages, I announced to him, “Hey, there was something I wanted to talk to you about, while we had some time to ourselves.” With the distraction of my impending party out of the way, it was time to get to the bottom of the note I’d received earlier in the day.
Joey grabbed my ankles and hoisted them into the air for a moment, enough time to seat himself comfortably on the sofa before resting them back in his lap. He nodded as he reached for a cardboard tin of noodles, “Go for it.”
I retrieved the sheet of notebook paper from the pocket of my jeans and tossed it to him before grabbing my own container of food. “I wanted to know if you actually knew anything about this, or if they’re just up to something. Forgive my skepticism, but I don’t really have a reason to trust them.”
Silently, he scanned over the note before replying. “I knew,” he finally admitted after a moment, his words muffled by the food in
his mouth. He courteously swallowed before elaborating. “It really chaps their asses that I’ve been with you so much lately instead of with them. They always sort of had the impression that they have to do everything that I’m doing or else I’d like, hate them for their individualism.”
“So, what you’re saying is that they only want to hang out with me because, if you’re doing it, then it must be the ‘cool’ thing to do?” His mouth was full once again, so he opted to nod instead. “I don’t know how I feel about that. I mean, I’m a person, not a trend. Left to their own devices, they don’t like me, but now that you do, they want to like me, too, and just expect me to forget about all the time they spent picking on me for all of the things that you like me for.”
Joey shrugged. “You can’t take those guys too seriously, Ash.”
“Whether I take them seriously or not is one thing, because I doubt wholeheartedly that they’re being sincere in this, but the fact that you’re literally the only reason they want something to do with me is another thing. I mean, I’ll go, but only because they’re your friends. Part of being in a relationship with someone is accepting their friends, but it’s just weird, you know?”
Something I said made his entire demeanor change in a single instant, his face alight with glee that he was trying unsuccessfully to bite back. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
I raise my eyebrow at him. “I said I can try, but - “
“No,” he cut me off. “What did you say, verbatim?”
I briefly scanned back over my words in my head. “I said I’d go, but only because they’re your friends, and part of being in a relationship with someone is accepting their friends, but that it’s weird.” I left the words hanging in the air before him, waiting for him to say something and finally elaborate, but he decided to stare at me with that same bewildered grin some more. “What, is that wrong? Should I not go?”
Joey shook his head again as he set his tin of food back onto the coffee table, shuffling around so that he was lying directly beside me. “That’s not the part I’m talking about. Are you messing with me right now, or did you mean what you said?”
“I’m sorry, but what are you so surprised about?” I asked directly. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re driving at here.”
It took him a moment to find the words he wanted, but his brain kicked back into gear and he quietly uttered, “Ash, you just said you and I are in a relationship.”
“Is that not right?” Nothing was making sense to me. “Are we not?”
His voice still entirely amused, he chuckled as he confessed, “I’ve been trying to figure out a way to ask you to be my girlfriend practically since we met. You just made that whole thing so easy, and I’ve been stressing about it for what feels like forever.”
What did that even mean? Why was all of this dating nonsense to puzzling to me? “Were we not in a relationship before this moment? I’ve never dated before; you’re my first boyfriend, if that’s what you are, so I’m not sure how any of this works.”
“Well, we never made it official before right now.” His grin grew even more as he grabbed my food and set it on the table beside his so that I could better snuggle into him, leaving his arm draped around me as he pulled me in closer. “I’ve been wracking my brain trying to find the perfect way to ask you, and you just took so much weight off my shoulders. Do you have any idea how happy that makes me?”
I always sort of just figured that if you very obviously had mutual feelings, it made you boyfriend and girlfriend. I didn’t realize that we weren’t, much less that I’d unintentionally made it so. As Ellie loved to remind me, I was an “alien” when it came to dating, but I guess that’s just what happens when you’re the world’s latest bloomer.
“It’s becoming apparent,” I smiled back at Joey. He laughed, the light of it shining through in his eyes and reminding me of one of the reasons why I was so taken by him. “So I guess I have a reason to make your friends like me now.”
“I don’t care if they like you or not. I like you, and that’s enough for me.” His tone was sincere, and his genuine, warm eyes lingering in mine. “I won’t ever force you to do anything you don’t want to do. If you don’t want to go, we don’t have to go.”
“No,” I told him sternly. “I already agreed, and I’m not backing down. Somehow, all of this feels like some sort of challenge.”
“Honestly, I won’t blame you if you still don’t really like them after you hang out with them,” he said. “They can be a little obnoxious. Katie got picked up by the cops last year at a party because she had too much to drink and decided to wander around town screaming. Jenna thought it was a good idea to let the college guy she was sleeping with give her a tattoo in his dorm room, and then he dumped her less than a week later, and the tattoo got infected to boot. Ben will never admit it because he’s too proud, but I got him into Tragic Magic. That picture of Danny Chatman you did for your art class? I don’t know what he actually said about it, but he knew who it was because he’s actually really into them.”
Hearing him speaking so casually of Danny reminded me of the dream I had that morning. When I got home, he had told me, there would be something waiting for me that I could find on the band’s website. I rocketed out of Joey’s arms and off of the sofa, looking about frantically for the laptop I knew he always kept someplace on the cluttered coffee table. I grabbed it and thrust it at him excitedly.
“Speaking of Tragic Magic, could you take me to the band’s website for a second?” I asked, trying to keep myself relatively calm and collected. “There’s something I’d like to see.”
“Are you the type that has to check immediately when they announce tour dates?” he teased, nudging me in a playful manner as he sat up and took the computer from me.
My stomach dropped when I registered his words, but he was on the band’s website before I could reply. The first thing to pop up in the collection of announcements about what the band was doing was a fresh batch of tour dates, posted sometime earlier that afternoon. I couldn’t possibly explain to Joey how I knew they’d be coming out today, so I laughed nervously. “You know I love them. I have to at least check.”
He sifted through the dates, scrolling down the page a bit before turning to me with a smile. “Well, there’s one I think you should see,” he announced, turning the screen so that I could.
The first show on the tour was a hometown show in Philadelphia, and the night after it was a show someplace in New York City. The third show, though, was what caught my attention. It sat before me like a treasure, and I didn’t want to look away, didn’t want to blink, lest it vanish, just another part of this series of bizarre dreams.
I must have read that line of text a million times, trying to convince myself that it was really there, that it was actually happening.
“April 14th – Collage Street Music Hall – Doors at 7PM – Rhodes, New York”
Chapter Thirteen
The sound of Jeff’s buoyant laughter bellowed through the SUV as we cruised down the main street in Marmara after a long night together at the mall. I almost couldn’t hear him over the upbeat rap-rock song by a band we liked from Seattle that played through the stereo, coercing all of us who knew it into jamming out together. It involved a lot of singing, as well as some less-than-great dancing, and I couldn’t stop giggling. “Ben,” he asked, “why the hell do you keep making that goofy face every time you strum your air guitar?”
Joey and I were up in the front with his group of popular friends from my school crammed into the back, and they’d become something of an air band since we piled into the car. “For your information, Jeffrey,” Ben snapped quickly, waving a hand dismissively, “I’m the air bassist, thank you.”
I won’t pretend I didn’t still harbor some lingering animosity toward the group, but I tried to open my mind to the possibility of them that night, for Joey’s sake. When they weren’t picking on me, they were actually kind of fun. I hadn’t known anything a
bout them other than that they shared a love of tormenting me, and I’d just assumed they were this hive mind of an entity split into five different bodies to maximize their bullying opportunities, but I came to find out that night that they were just as individual as any other group might be. Under their callous surfaces were just high school kids who hung out with their friends and did silly things for a laugh. I’d be lying if I said I was over what they put me through, but I was trying to be a little more receptive now that Joey and I were dating for real.
I considered registering them in my mind as single people rather than just a big, evil conglomerate enough progress for one evening. There was still a way to go before I would consider them my friends, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Admittedly, just to tread carefully, I avoided any and all mention of things that might make me seem like a weirdo. When Jenna confessed that she had a thing for the guitarist of the band we were listening to, I divulged that I always rather liked his brother, the drummer, pulling out my phone to show her a photo of me with the two of them that Ellie took when we saw them at Collage Street the previous summer. Instead of picking on me like I almost expected, Jenna chuckled and insisted we should date them instead of Joey and Ben. We could follow them on the road and live out the rest of our days in groupie bliss. Instead of laughing at me, she laughed with me.
The sudden sight of my house outside the window was the only thing that tore me away from singing absentmindedly as I combed back over the evening in my head, the scorned girl tucked away inside of me desperately trying to tear everything apart and poke holes in everything I thought I was figuring out. Joey put the car in park and turned to the back to address his friends. “You guys wait here. I’m going to go in and say hello to Ashley’s mom really quick, so I’ll be back in a minute.”
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