Living for the Music

The reception hall was five minutes away. I found a spot fairly close, which was a bit of a surprise to me after the large number of people I’d seen in the church.

Maybe some people weren’t invited to the reception, my brain mused.

Well, duh. They can’t afford to feed that many people.

You should feel special. They must like you.

Well, I hope they like her! She only lived at their house 20/7 for seven years.

But-

I cut myself off as I walked into the reception hall. The last thing I needed was to get funny looks from people if I accidentally yelled at myself out loud. I didn’t need anyone else thinking I was crazy.

I made my way over to the side table and picked up the card with Ms. Sophia Mueller – Table 23 written on it. I scanned the room, quickly locating table 23. It was fairly close to the dance floor, and it had a good view of the head table. I sat the little card on one of the open plates and draped my coat over the back of the chair before wandering away.

I joined the crowd that had gathered by the drink counter. Everyone else seemed to know people. I was surrounded by a constant stream of laughter and loud voices. I felt awkward as I walked around aimlessly, searching for a familiar face.

“Hey.” I turned at the sound of the male voice. I caught sight of the boy who had spoken and immediately turned to look behind me. Because boys like him don’t talk to girls like me.

He was absolutely gorgeous. His eyes were a shade of gray I’d never seen before, and I found myself staring. As he smiled, revealing perfectly straight teeth, I realized he must be talking to me, for some crazy reason.

“Hey,” I squeaked back.

“I’m Jared,” he informed me.

“Sophia,” I managed.

There was a moment’s pause before he spoke again. “Can I get you a drink?”

“Does it involve waiting in that long line over there?” I asked.

He laughed. “Well, yes, but it’d be a lot funner for me if I had a pretty girl to wait with.”

I tried not to stare at him in astonishment. Had he actually called me pretty? Either he was really smooth, or this dress really was magic. Or he was just a player. “Are you seriously talking to me?” I finally asked. “There’s not some gorgeous blond behind me that you think you’re communicating with?”

He looked mystified. “Um, no. I’m pretty sure I’m talking to you. Unless there’s a gifted ventriloquist somewhere.”

I laughed in spite of myself. “Sorry, I’m just not used to people randomly coming up to me.”

“I didn’t think it was that random,” he shrugged. “I just wanted to meet the prettiest girl in the room.”

Okay, he was laying it on a bit thick now. But I had to admit, I liked it. It had been a long time since a boy had shown interest in me. Aaron tended to scare everyone away. “I don’t know about that,” I smiled. “But you get an A for effort.”

“Well, let’s go wait in line and I’ll see if I can do better.”

I laughed again and followed him towards the bar.

To my surprise, what looked like a line actually wasn’t. We easily found an open barman to give our drink orders to. “What can I get you?” he asked.

“I’ll have a kiddie cocktail,” I murmured, aware of how childish it sounded.

“You sure?” he wondered. “You don’t want something a little stronger?”

I shook my head, not wanting to admit I was under age. “I’m driving home.”

“Come on, one drink won’t hurt,” Jared laughed.

“No,” I repeated firmly. “I’ll be fine.”

He didn’t push me any further. “I’ll have a beer,” he told the barman. “Whatever you have on tap.”

I couldn’t help noticing the man didn’t ask for an ID. They either assumed everyone was over 21, or they trusted people to make smart decisions. As I watched Jared, I couldn’t help wondering how old he really was. He had to be in college, at least. Maybe Nathan’s age?

“So why were you invited?” he asked. He winced, as if realizing how that sounded. “I mean, are you friends with Nathan or Gabby?”

“Nathan,” I replied. “I live next door to him. Well, I guess he doesn’t technically live there anymore, but we grew up together.”

“Cool,” Jared nodded.

“What about you? Nathan or Gabby?”

“Both,” he shrugged. “I go to Penn with them.”

“Cool,” I echoed. Well, at least one mystery was gone. He had probably just turned 21, assuming he was in Nathan’s grade. Year. Class. Whatever you call it in college.

The man came back with our drinks and we both moved away from the counter. A small group of college kids called out to Jared, but he just nodded at them and continued leading me towards an empty table. There were no seats to it, but it was just the right height if you stood by it or leaned on it.

“So why didn’t Nathan ever tell me he had a hot neighbor?” Jared mused, taking a swig of beer. “I would’ve come to visit him a lot more often.”

“His family wasn’t really home,” I pointed out. “You wouldn’t have seen much of me in England.”

“True,” Jared nodded, looking me up and down. “And that would be a shame.”

“Would you stop?” I asked. “Please?”

“Stop what?”

“Flirting with me,” I mumbled. “It makes me uncomfortable.”

Jared threw his head back and laughed. Loudly. I wanted to melt into the table as half the room turned to look at us. “Stop it,” I whispered.

He immediately smothered his laughter. “I’m sorry,” he managed. “It’s just that you… that me flirting with you…” He looked like he was trying very hard not to start laughing all over again.

I blushed, taking a sip of my drink so I didn’t have to look at him. “Well, I’m glad to provide you humor. Now, if you’ll excuse me I should go sit down.”

“Hey,” he protested, grabbing my wrist as I started to walk away. “Don’t go. I’m sorry. I’ll stop laughing.”

I hesitated, and he seemed to sense he almost had me. “I really am sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you, I was laughing at… well, what you said.”

I sighed, not seeing the difference, but I let him pull me back to the table. “So no flirting or laughing. Anything else I should know?”

“You can laugh,” I corrected. “Just not really loudly. I don’t like people watching us.”

“But it’s so much fun,” he teased. “You should love being the center of attention.”

I shuddered and he laughed again, quietly this time. “Or not, I guess.”

“Definitely not,” I agreed. “I’m more than happy to stand in the background. Let someone else handle the lead.”

Jared opened his mouth to say something, but a dinging noise made us both pause and look around. Tom was motioning for everybody’s attention. “Hello, everybody, and thank you for coming. At this time, we’d like to ask everyone to find their seats so we can formally begin the reception.”

“I guess that’s my cue,” I sighed, pulling back from Jared.

The boy nodded. “Yeah. But I’ll catch you later, okay?” I nodded half-heartedly, and he caught my hand again before I could leave. “Hey.”

I turned to look at him expectantly. “Save a dance for me, okay?”

I felt a smile slide across my face. “We’ll see,” I teased.

“Not good enough,” he breathed, pulling me closer.

I felt his body next to mine, making it a little hard to think. “Okay,” I finally promised. “Come find me.”

“Count on it,” he murmured, and his face was suddenly very close to mine. I stood there for a moment before pulling away. He let me go, finally dropping my hand. I turned to walk back to my table and saw Seth standing in the doorway with the rest of the wedding party. I smiled at him, but he seemed to look right through me. Face falling, I walked the rest of the way to my table in silence.