Will It Be Forever

He was late… Addeline rubbed her forehead for a moment as she leaned against the brick wall of her bar. She sighed slightly and checked out her cell phone again for the time. Maybe this was just a waste of time. She looked around again and swallowed hard. She was being stood up. Ouch. “Forget it,” she grumbled and pushed off the wall to leave.

“You weren’t planning on standing me up, were you?”

AJ turned around to looked to see Matt there. She raised a curt eyebrow as she actually watched him smile. Was it even a real one? She sighed and glanced to the ground before looking back at him. “I could’ve asked you the same question,” she said as she crossed her arms in front of her. Matt stuck his hands in his pockets as he went up closer to her.

“Sorry about that,” he told her, “Traffic sucked.” AJ wondered if she could believe that. Did it matter? It wasn’t like they were on a real date anyways. She bit her lower lip for a moment and then made a motion for him to walk with her. “We don’t need a car?” He asked questioningly.

AJ let out a laugh and shook her head. “I thought this wasn’t a real date,” she teased him. Matt made a face towards her. AJ wondered if she had managed to grab his attention and even raise his curiosity a bit. “Besides,” she said lightly as she made her way to her truck. “Who said we had to spend money to have a good time?”

“No one.”

“Exactly,” she said as she grabbed a basket from the back of her truck. “Come on,” she told him, motioning for him to follow again. She had to admit that she was a little nervous about it all. It had been a long time since she actually had the time to do something like this, and she actually felt good about it because she thought it might help him out a bit too.

“Where are we going?” She heard Matt asked. She turned her head to the side to see him walking next to her. She smiled at him a bit and shrugged one shoulder. They were obviously having a picnic and under the moonlight. One would think it was romantic but you could say that AJ wanted to show him that there were other things out there. Giving him a good time would definitely get his mind off of Val.

“Well there’s a beach just right there,” she told him. He stopped and she slowed down. “What?”

“This is…” Matt let his voice trailed off but she figured that he wasn’t going to tell her the rest of what he was going to say. She raised a small eyebrow and fought the urge to question him. There was no use of making things even more awkward than they already were. Why couldn’t he be like any other man? Thinking with his stomach so he can eat food first and ask questions later because in AJ’s opinion, that would make more sense.

Maybe he wasn’t a normal guy.

Addeline had sensed that there was something different about him. She couldn’t place her finger on it and she wasn’t sure she even wanted to figure it out. Maybe it was just the whole brooding man in agony thing. She sighed a bit. “This is just a one time thing,” she finished off for him, “So have a nice time.”

----

She had looked beautiful but Matt didn’t want to tell her that. It had been a long time since he had complimented any woman outside of his normal circle or anyone who wasn’t Val. His eyebrows furrowed together as he listened to her talk. He could detect a hint of a little anger in there. He knew that he wasn’t making the situation any better. As much as he wanted to be positive about things, it was hard.

Zacky’s ‘pep talk’ was shit.

“So what’d you make?” Small talk. He hated small talk more than anything and he wanted to kick his own ass because of it. Son of a bitch. He ran a hand over his face and was tempted to let out a groan but he held it in. AJ was giving him too many ‘I can’t believe I agreed to this’ looks and Matt wasn’t sure if he wanted to see anymore of it.

God, so this was what his friends had been going through all this time with him? Matt shook his head and glanced at AJ. He opened his mouth to say something to him but held it in. “Food,” she replied and looked at him with those hazel eyes of hers. They sort of reminded him of Val’s.

“Stop comparing Matt… You’ll get a headache.”

Matt rolled his eyes when AJ looked away. “Thanks for reminding me,” he murmured to Val’s ghost… Wherever she was. The dark haired woman whipped her head around for a moment and it caught Matt off guard.

“What’d you say?” She asked curiously.

Matt shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied and they approached the beach area that he figured was where AJ had wanted to take him. The moon was getting high in the sky and the stars were shining brightly against the dark sky. Matt watched her go over to a grass part in the sand and take a seat. She patted the spot next to her and he sat down. AJ started handing out the food. “Did you make all this?” He asked. She looked at him.

“You’re not much of a small talker are you?” She asked with a small smile. Matt blushed for a moment and looked away.

“I use to be good at this stuff…”

“There’s always a time for relearning…” Matt looked down. Jesus, she was just too damn perky for him at the moment. He took the container of food that she had given him and opened it up to find potato salad. He looked at another one and found a steak sandwich. He had honestly thought he was the only one who did that. Unless… It was out there somewhere from the Internet. Matt put the food and looked at AJ.

“So you know what happened with Val?” He asked. He watched her body get stiff and then her face flushed red. Oh, he knew it. “You agreed because you felt sorry for me, didn’t you?” He asked and stood up. He dusted himself off and shook his head. “And the food?” He started, “You set this whole thing up because of things you learned from the Internet. Why couldn’t you just ask? Not everything off the Internet is right.”

AJ stood up. “What are you talking about?” She asked. Oh as if she didn’t know. “I made things I like and thought you would too.” Matt let out a laugh and shook his head.

“Yeah… Ok,” he said and turned to leave. “I don’t need this, and I don’t need your pity.” He started to walk off, leaving her there on the beach.