Classifieds

“William, what if they don’t like me?” Angela was worrying once again and William couldn’t help but laugh.

“You said the same thing about my parents and look how that turned out. Besides, the guys have been waiting for me to be with someone for the longest times, and their girlfriends are very nice. You’ll get along with them, don’t worry.” he reassured her.

They were now at Sisky’s house now where the band meeting/practice would be held. Angela’s anticipation grew as William led her down Sisky’s basement where the band was going to practice. William was next to her the entire time, holding her hand which she gripped a bit too tight for his liking again.

As they descended down the stairs, Angela could hear both guys and girls talking.

“Don’t worry, I talked to the guys last night and they brought their girlfriends over so you can get acquainted. From what they all tell me, they’re pretty serious in their relationships so I’m sure you’ll get along great,” he comforted her.

“Sounds great Bill, but I’ve never really been friends with girls,” she said as the basement came into full view and so did the people in it.

She saw four girls sitting on the couch and the boys were already tuning their instruments. William led her to the guys not knowing what they would think of his first real girlfriend.

“Hey guys this is Angela,” William introduced her.

“Hey I’m Sisky,” said the shortest one and was holding a bass. “Nice to meet you Angela you’ll fit right in with all the other girlfriends on the couch. I’m with Maille, she’s the one with the cute short hair.”

Angela looked over to see a girl with short brown hair cut into a bob covered by a beanie, glasses that hid her hazel eyes. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and waved hello to Angela. She then turned back her attention to the other guys who were waiting to be introduced.

“Okay, so Michael is the one with the Australian accent and he plays lead guitar. The Butcher, that’s not his real name but we call him that plays the drums, and Mike plays rhythm guitar,” William explained pointing to a guy with light, long hair first. He then pointed to another that was sitting down at the drums playing with the sticks and had very curly hair. Finally, he gestured towards someone else who looked a bit more reserved and had hair that was very dark and almost as long as Michael’s.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Angela said politely.

The band practice or meeting didn’t start for a while due to the fact that William and the other guys were working on the many songs that William had written while he was in New Jersey. Angela took this time to try to piece together which girl was dating which guy.

She had already met Maille but there were three other girls she had to get to know if she was going to pass off as William’s girlfriend. First, there was Sabrina, who was short and spunky with red highlights in her brown hair and she was dating Michael. Ellie introduced herself after Sabrina and she was a whirlwind of laughs with her sense of humor and hyper person. Angela guessed that with her personality contrasting Mike’s, they fit perfectly well together. After Ellie there was Cricket who was more quiet and introverted. She meekly mentioned she was dating Butcher.

The many relationships to keep track of was confusing to Angela since she could barely keep track of the one she was trying to pass off as real.

“So, Angela, how did you and William get together?” asked Maille while they were watching the boys run over chords for one of their newer songs.

“He came in to the bookstore where I work at to look at CD’s and we just hit it off from there. Somehow we ended up going out to dinner and he explained how he was in the city promoting the band.” she replied, noticing how smooth her lie was.

“I don’t think they’ll have any problems promoting the band,” Cricket put in.

“Why do you say that?” Angela was clueless and had no idea what she was talking about.

“They’re only one of the biggest bands in the states, Canada and England,” Sabrina explained.

“So you mean to tell me that these guys are major rock stars and William failed to mention that?”

“Yes,” they all said at the same time.

“Wow, I just can’t believe he didn’t tell me,” she sighed. “Could you excuse me for a second?”

Angela left the basement, went outside, and sat in the grass contemplating what she had gotten herself into. How come William had not been totally honest with her? Why was it that her heart felt like it had been punctured?

Back in the basement William noticed Angela was gone. Almost immediately they pointed upstairs to tell him where she had gone. He made it quickly up the stairs and outside after seeing the door was open still.

“Why did you run off like that?” he asked as he sat down on the grass next to her.

“I needed fresh air. Why did you lie to me about how popular your band is?” she questioned back.

“I wanted you to like me for who I am and not just how popular the band is. The truth is, is that I didn’t want you to see me as that guy from that really awesome band. I just want to be known as Bill, you know?”

“I can understand that but I thought we had established trust between us Bill, and what happened in there isn’t really trust at all.”

“You have no idea how sorry I am, but please understand what I told you,” he said trying to comfort her with his arm around her shoulders.

“Bill, I understand, but can we have complete honesty from now on?”

“I promise love,” he kissed her temple.

The Academy Is… was the name of their band as Angela had learned and saying they were good was a huge understatement. Their energy when performing was amazing to Angela. William was incredibly happy when performing and gave it his all.

“I’m not in love, this is not my heart I am not gonna waste these words about a girl.” William sang the last note and practice was over.

“Wow, that new song was amazing. I guess being with Angela in New Jersey has really inspired you to write more music” Ellie commented before getting up from her spot on the couch to hug Mike for a good practice.

“She has a point Bilvy, you used to sit around for days with writers block and the amount of songs you’ve written in a month now is incredible. And it’s all due to that sweet girl you’re holding in your arms. We can all tell that she makes you insanely happy.” Michael said before leaving the basement hand in hand with Sabrina to get some fresh air.

“I think he has a point,” William whispered to Angela who blushed.

“All the girls told me that you can’t argue with Michael so he’s probably right,” she replied.

“Guys, let’s watch a movie!” Sisky said randomly as soon as he set down his bass and walked over to Maille to pull her into a tight embrace.

Every couple sat together soon after to watch Across the Universe. Throughout the whole movie, William sang all of Jude’s parts in Angela’s ear. She looked around at all the other girls in their guy’s arms. Michael with Sabrina, Sisky with Maille, Cricket with the Butcher, and Ellie with Mike. They all looked unbelievably happy and she couldn't help but notice a similarity. Somehow, she finally fit in somewhere and that was in his arms with everyone in the room.