It's Our Time to Shine
Think Like A Verb.
Jepha’s question really had me thinking.
Why was I really here with the guys?
Suddenly, I felt my stomach turn and I began feeling nauseous.
“Uhm…”, I began, not really knowing what to say.
“Oh, come on – you know we wanted you to come with us from the first day!”, they all smiled, making me exhale as I laughed with them.
“But, Lina – that’s an awesome shoulder bag. Where the hell did you find it?”, Jepha then asked excited, pointing at my newly-purchased bag that Bert had just bought me.
“I just saw it behind some other shoulder bags. It was kinda hidden, but it somehow caught my attention, I guess.”
“How much did it cost?”
“$25.”
“For real? I paid nearly $50 for mine!”
“Too bad, dude”, Bert added cocky while looking at him with a grin.
“It suits you, though”, I smiled.
“You think? Not too ‘gay’?”
“Definitely not.”
“Thanks”, Jepha replied, rubbing my head as we all headed out of the store.
“So, what now?”, Dan asked.
“I have no idea. I’m full, so I’m not hungry. I’m not thirsty and I don’t feel like shopping anymore, so what the hell are we suppose to do then?”, Quinn sighed with a resigned look upon his face.
“What about going to a park? I bet there’s a nice one around here somewhere”, I suggested.
“Yeah, great idea!”
“Is that a park over there? Like, the area over there with the pond?”, Jepha asked, pointing.
“Let’s check it out!”
We all started walking towards the area, which supposedly was a park, and crossed the street.
I felt a warm hand gently slipping into mine, now seeing Bert’s sweet smile meeting mine as I looked up at him.
“Yep, it’s a park!”, Jepha announced, discovering all the benches that were spread all around the park along with the trees and bushes.
“Oh, look – ducks!”, Quinn squealed, immediately starting to run towards them.
The ducks all fled in terror, petrified of what they saw coming at their direction; a 150-pound killing machine running at the speed of 10 mph while screaming like a madman.
“Hah! Meet your superior, duckies!”, he shrieked while laughing.
“Quinn! Poor ducks…”, I said, feeling sorry for the feather-covered animals.
“Sorry. I just love scaring ‘em.”
“And they’re pretty much the only ones that lack enough brain intelligence to do that too”, Bert grinned.
“Shut up, I can be scary.”
“You, you can’t”, Jepha laughed.
“Yeah, dude. The only things you manage to scare are cats and other stupid animals”, Dan added while bumping gently into Quinn’s shoulder.
“Whatever”, Quinn responded sourly, before blowing it all off with a smile.
“Hey, we gotta take pictures and document our awesome trip to the park!”
“Yeah, sounds rad”, Bert agreed, making him get the digital camera out of his backpack.
“Take a picture of me with the ducks while I scare ‘em again!”, Quinn said, handing Jepha he camera.
“I’ll show everyone I’m scary.”
And so he was off.
Quinn ran towards the flock of ducks, scaring them half to death yet again while screaming as if he were paid to do so.
The ducks fled everywhere; some plunged straight into the pond in hope of diving to get away, a few flew away, while others fluttered in total desperation as they were trying to avoid Quinn’s terrifying shape.
“Whaddaya think about that, huh? Scary enough for ya?”, he shouted, flipping both the ducks and the camera off.
“… Very, uhm, convincing, dude”, Jepha grinned, turning off the video function on the digital camera.
“I might as well have been Jack the Ripper himself”, Quinn said, walking cocky towards the rest of us.
“Poor ducks”, I said, sympathizing the ducks while trying to hide the fact that I find it being amusing.
“Dude, you gotta lay off scarin´ ‘em. What if some park keeper or somethin´ comes and throws us the hell outta here?”, Dan asked laughing.
“I’ll knock him down!”, Quinn responded, receiving nothing but rolled eyes from all of us.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m bored”, he continued. “How about headin´ to Nippon Budokan?”
“Yeah, sounds good. There’s nothing better to do around here anyway”, Jepha agreed, before we started walking.
He began balancing on a small sidewalk in the park, trying to avoid stepping into the water that was on his right side.
Quinn was too busy focusing on the ducks that had settled down by the pond again, now giving them the evil eye, while Dan was looking up at the sky and peering in the sun’s direction.
I noticed at the corner of my eye that Bert, who was walking next to me, kept looking at me.
“What?”, I smiled, looking up at him with a curious look on my face.
“Nothin´. Nothin´ at all”, he said, smiling while taking my hand. “Everything’s perfect.”
The assuring tone in his voice made me feel calm and peaceful, a feeling Bert never failed to give me.
“Where to now?”, Quinn asked, stopping next to the park’s entrance on our way out.
“Over here. It’s down that street at the crossover”, Jepha replied, leading the way.
I could have sworn he knew every single street there was in this town.
But it wasn’t surprising, knowing that Jepha absolutely loves Osaka.
The traffic was heavy, like every other big city in the world as far as the traffic goes, and Osaka was no exception as we saw the Japanese cars almost plough their way through the street.
I felt Bert squeezing my hand, holding it tight as if he was afraid I might fall behind and get lost.
We were all walking in a line now; Jepha in the lead, Quinn behind followed Dan, with Bert and me at the end, all of us making our way through the crowd of people while trying to get to the crossover.
I hadn’t experienced any of this before – having to actually push your way through the crowd of people to reach your destination.
It didn’t take long before we got to the crossover, met The Used’s manager and headed inside the building where the guys were having their show tonight.
“Fuck, crowds outside gigs like that are crazy! People need to fuckin´ chill”, Quinn said sighing, but blew it off with a smile that I knew all too well.
“Nah, we’ve been through worse”, Jepha responded, having a dreamy look upon his face.
“Where’s the crew?”
“As for now, they’re running a little late, but I think they’re on their way. Just got off the phone with one of them, so they should be here pretty soon”, the manager explained while looking at Bert.
“According to the traffic outside, that would be understandable.”
Me and the guys went to the back room while the manager headed outside, probably to look for the crew as the rest of us found a couch to crash on.
“When are the doors opening?”, Dan asked, putting his feet up on the wooden table that was placed in front of the couch.
“7 pm, I think.”
“You sure?”
“Nope”, Jepha replied grinning.
“Good info, dude. Good info.”
After about 10 minutes of chit-chatting, we could hear loud talking coming outside the room, before seeing the entire crew entering.
“Hey! Sorry, guys – we got stuck in this massive traffic jam. Gotta hate it”, one of them apologized, putting down a large black box on the floor, supposedly containing equipment for The Used’s set later tonight.
“Nah, no problem, man”, Bert said with a smile, lighting a cigarette as the crew headed out of the room again.
“So, now that the shit’s here, wanna go through with the sound check?”, Quinn asked, waiting for an answer.
“Yeah, sure – why not”, Jepha and Dan replied before they headed out.
“Hey, babe, wanna come?”, Bert asked, looking at me with a curious smile.
“Is it okay if I wait here?”
“Of course. This won’t take long. We’ll be right back, okay?”, he smiled, giving me a quick kiss.
I was completely caught off guard as I received Bert’s kiss, not knowing what to say or do as I saw him leaving the room to join the others.
Although we had agreed on taking it slow, he never seemed to stop surprising me.
Still, my mind always convinced me into believing that we were doing just fine.
And I believed it every time.
I sat back in the couch, not being able to resist the thought of putting my feet up on the table as I stared into the wall with absolutely nothing to do.
I could hear the song ‘Wake The Dead’ now vaguely being played in the background, knowing that the guys were in the middle of the sound check.
The thought of leaving the room and join them didn’t, in a weird way, tempt me at all.
Now I just sat there, in the couch having my feet up on the table while humming quietly to the song while lip syncing the lyrics.
Was I having fun there and then?
Hell, yeah.
Why was I really here with the guys?
Suddenly, I felt my stomach turn and I began feeling nauseous.
“Uhm…”, I began, not really knowing what to say.
“Oh, come on – you know we wanted you to come with us from the first day!”, they all smiled, making me exhale as I laughed with them.
“But, Lina – that’s an awesome shoulder bag. Where the hell did you find it?”, Jepha then asked excited, pointing at my newly-purchased bag that Bert had just bought me.
“I just saw it behind some other shoulder bags. It was kinda hidden, but it somehow caught my attention, I guess.”
“How much did it cost?”
“$25.”
“For real? I paid nearly $50 for mine!”
“Too bad, dude”, Bert added cocky while looking at him with a grin.
“It suits you, though”, I smiled.
“You think? Not too ‘gay’?”
“Definitely not.”
“Thanks”, Jepha replied, rubbing my head as we all headed out of the store.
“So, what now?”, Dan asked.
“I have no idea. I’m full, so I’m not hungry. I’m not thirsty and I don’t feel like shopping anymore, so what the hell are we suppose to do then?”, Quinn sighed with a resigned look upon his face.
“What about going to a park? I bet there’s a nice one around here somewhere”, I suggested.
“Yeah, great idea!”
“Is that a park over there? Like, the area over there with the pond?”, Jepha asked, pointing.
“Let’s check it out!”
We all started walking towards the area, which supposedly was a park, and crossed the street.
I felt a warm hand gently slipping into mine, now seeing Bert’s sweet smile meeting mine as I looked up at him.
“Yep, it’s a park!”, Jepha announced, discovering all the benches that were spread all around the park along with the trees and bushes.
“Oh, look – ducks!”, Quinn squealed, immediately starting to run towards them.
The ducks all fled in terror, petrified of what they saw coming at their direction; a 150-pound killing machine running at the speed of 10 mph while screaming like a madman.
“Hah! Meet your superior, duckies!”, he shrieked while laughing.
“Quinn! Poor ducks…”, I said, feeling sorry for the feather-covered animals.
“Sorry. I just love scaring ‘em.”
“And they’re pretty much the only ones that lack enough brain intelligence to do that too”, Bert grinned.
“Shut up, I can be scary.”
“You, you can’t”, Jepha laughed.
“Yeah, dude. The only things you manage to scare are cats and other stupid animals”, Dan added while bumping gently into Quinn’s shoulder.
“Whatever”, Quinn responded sourly, before blowing it all off with a smile.
“Hey, we gotta take pictures and document our awesome trip to the park!”
“Yeah, sounds rad”, Bert agreed, making him get the digital camera out of his backpack.
“Take a picture of me with the ducks while I scare ‘em again!”, Quinn said, handing Jepha he camera.
“I’ll show everyone I’m scary.”
And so he was off.
Quinn ran towards the flock of ducks, scaring them half to death yet again while screaming as if he were paid to do so.
The ducks fled everywhere; some plunged straight into the pond in hope of diving to get away, a few flew away, while others fluttered in total desperation as they were trying to avoid Quinn’s terrifying shape.
“Whaddaya think about that, huh? Scary enough for ya?”, he shouted, flipping both the ducks and the camera off.
“… Very, uhm, convincing, dude”, Jepha grinned, turning off the video function on the digital camera.
“I might as well have been Jack the Ripper himself”, Quinn said, walking cocky towards the rest of us.
“Poor ducks”, I said, sympathizing the ducks while trying to hide the fact that I find it being amusing.
“Dude, you gotta lay off scarin´ ‘em. What if some park keeper or somethin´ comes and throws us the hell outta here?”, Dan asked laughing.
“I’ll knock him down!”, Quinn responded, receiving nothing but rolled eyes from all of us.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m bored”, he continued. “How about headin´ to Nippon Budokan?”
“Yeah, sounds good. There’s nothing better to do around here anyway”, Jepha agreed, before we started walking.
He began balancing on a small sidewalk in the park, trying to avoid stepping into the water that was on his right side.
Quinn was too busy focusing on the ducks that had settled down by the pond again, now giving them the evil eye, while Dan was looking up at the sky and peering in the sun’s direction.
I noticed at the corner of my eye that Bert, who was walking next to me, kept looking at me.
“What?”, I smiled, looking up at him with a curious look on my face.
“Nothin´. Nothin´ at all”, he said, smiling while taking my hand. “Everything’s perfect.”
The assuring tone in his voice made me feel calm and peaceful, a feeling Bert never failed to give me.
“Where to now?”, Quinn asked, stopping next to the park’s entrance on our way out.
“Over here. It’s down that street at the crossover”, Jepha replied, leading the way.
I could have sworn he knew every single street there was in this town.
But it wasn’t surprising, knowing that Jepha absolutely loves Osaka.
The traffic was heavy, like every other big city in the world as far as the traffic goes, and Osaka was no exception as we saw the Japanese cars almost plough their way through the street.
I felt Bert squeezing my hand, holding it tight as if he was afraid I might fall behind and get lost.
We were all walking in a line now; Jepha in the lead, Quinn behind followed Dan, with Bert and me at the end, all of us making our way through the crowd of people while trying to get to the crossover.
I hadn’t experienced any of this before – having to actually push your way through the crowd of people to reach your destination.
It didn’t take long before we got to the crossover, met The Used’s manager and headed inside the building where the guys were having their show tonight.
“Fuck, crowds outside gigs like that are crazy! People need to fuckin´ chill”, Quinn said sighing, but blew it off with a smile that I knew all too well.
“Nah, we’ve been through worse”, Jepha responded, having a dreamy look upon his face.
“Where’s the crew?”
“As for now, they’re running a little late, but I think they’re on their way. Just got off the phone with one of them, so they should be here pretty soon”, the manager explained while looking at Bert.
“According to the traffic outside, that would be understandable.”
Me and the guys went to the back room while the manager headed outside, probably to look for the crew as the rest of us found a couch to crash on.
“When are the doors opening?”, Dan asked, putting his feet up on the wooden table that was placed in front of the couch.
“7 pm, I think.”
“You sure?”
“Nope”, Jepha replied grinning.
“Good info, dude. Good info.”
After about 10 minutes of chit-chatting, we could hear loud talking coming outside the room, before seeing the entire crew entering.
“Hey! Sorry, guys – we got stuck in this massive traffic jam. Gotta hate it”, one of them apologized, putting down a large black box on the floor, supposedly containing equipment for The Used’s set later tonight.
“Nah, no problem, man”, Bert said with a smile, lighting a cigarette as the crew headed out of the room again.
“So, now that the shit’s here, wanna go through with the sound check?”, Quinn asked, waiting for an answer.
“Yeah, sure – why not”, Jepha and Dan replied before they headed out.
“Hey, babe, wanna come?”, Bert asked, looking at me with a curious smile.
“Is it okay if I wait here?”
“Of course. This won’t take long. We’ll be right back, okay?”, he smiled, giving me a quick kiss.
I was completely caught off guard as I received Bert’s kiss, not knowing what to say or do as I saw him leaving the room to join the others.
Although we had agreed on taking it slow, he never seemed to stop surprising me.
Still, my mind always convinced me into believing that we were doing just fine.
And I believed it every time.
I sat back in the couch, not being able to resist the thought of putting my feet up on the table as I stared into the wall with absolutely nothing to do.
I could hear the song ‘Wake The Dead’ now vaguely being played in the background, knowing that the guys were in the middle of the sound check.
The thought of leaving the room and join them didn’t, in a weird way, tempt me at all.
Now I just sat there, in the couch having my feet up on the table while humming quietly to the song while lip syncing the lyrics.
Was I having fun there and then?
Hell, yeah.
♠ ♠ ♠
HAPPY 1ST WEDDING ANNIVERSARY, BERT!allison is so lucky to have you in her life, and vice versa.
you two complete each other to the fullest.
thank you, allison; for making my hero as happy as he could possibly get. <3
---
well, guys; check out the print screen i posted on this story's comment board.
... i dont think i need to tell either one of you why im so god damned happy. (:
xo,
lina.