This Is Not an After School Special

"Where are we going?" I asked suddenly, noticing for the first time that I had no idea where we were.

"Relax," Josh told me, turning on his signal light with a flick of his finger. "We're not going to the studio tonight."

"Then where are you taking me?" I felt like I should have been panicking, but I was totally calm. I trusted Josh a lot more than I thought I did.

"I'm kidnapping you. But don't worry, I'll still have you home by ten. Something tells me that having the cops on my ass for abducting you wouldn't be all that fun."

"No?" I grinned. "I think it would be fantastic. Maybe I should abduct you instead, then I could find out for sure."

"Maybe some other time. For today, there's something that I want to show you. It's really nothing special, so don't go getting your hopes up, but it means something to me."

I couldn't suppress my excitement. I didn't want to let him see just how much his surprise was brightening my terrible day. In fact, his presence alone was helping to do that.

Another rainstorm had started that morning, and I'd forgotten my jacket. Matt had laughed at me when I'd gotten completely soaked in my short run from my front door to his truck. I'd failed a test that I'd thought had went fairly well, but I was afraid to admit it to my parents for fear of being grounded. So I'd stuffed the paper away in my locker, hoping that it would wind up forgotten, along with everything else that had been lost in there during the short time since the semester had started. When Josh had arrived in my driveway, however, the dark cloud hovering over my head lightened considerably.

"So where is this place, then? Is it some secret hideaway in the middle of the city that no one else knows about?" I pestered him for some information. Curiosity had never been something that I could hide well.

"No, people know about it. There were people there when I went there for the first time."

I frowned. "I don't get it."

He laughed lightly at my perplexed and frustrated expression. "You will, don't worry."

He pulled up to a curb and dug a couple of coins out of the otherwise empty ashtray. When he got out and reached the sidewalk, he fed the coins into a parking meter. I climbed out of the car and joined him as he ducked through a heavy wooden door and into a small, dark cafe.

There was low, pleasant music flowing from one corner of the room, where a guy in his mid-twenties was singing a ballad. Josh led me up to the counter and ordered us each a coffee, then he sat down on a nearby couch to watch the performance. I sat with him, still a little confused.

"Is this where you come to think? Or are you secretly one of those people who come to poetry readings and snap your fingers instead of applaud?"

Josh's shoulders shook in silent laughter as the waitress brought us our coffees. "No, I wanted you to see that guy," he waved a hand loosely in the direction of the singer.

"Is he your friend or something? I don't recognise him."

"I was in his shoes for my first public performance. I played here years ago."

"Seriously? How long have you been doing this kind of stuff? And why doesn't anybody know about it?"

He sipped his coffee and shrugged his shoulders. "I've been doing it my whole life, really. And people just don't pay that much attention to me. I know what you're thinking: Josh, that's unbelieveable. Everyone loves you," he chuckled to himself. "But I'm not exactly the most popular person in that school. The people who need to know have known for awhile. Or they're just learning now," he smiled, resting a hand on my knee.

I leaned against him gently. Right then, the man who was singing hit a sour note, and I winced.

"I hope you were better than that," I whispered, hoping that no one else would overhear my criticism.

"I guess you'll never know."

"Well I know that you're better than that now, so I'd say it's probably a safe assumption that you were good then, too."

"I may never fully understand why you have so much blind faith in me."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm just trying to be nice and offer some reassurance."

"Josh! Good to see you, man!" A male voice rang out from somewhere across the room.

I felt like the person who had yelled should have apologised. The guy on the stage looked flustered, and he appeared to have forgotten a few words in his own song. I looked over to attempt to see who had called Josh's name. It didn't take me long to figure it out, since a boy our age was rushing over. He had a mop of blonde hair and was wearing an apron, indicating that he was employed at the coffee shop.

"It's been awhile, Cory," Josh greeted him as the other boy reached us. "This is Becky."

Cory shook my hand, giving me a welcoming grin. "Hi, Becky, nice to meet you. Are you Josh's..." he paused, trying to decide how to end his question.

"Girlfriend," Josh offered the information that Cory had wanted.

Cory smiled and nodded. "So Josh is showing you all of his haunts, then?"

"I guess so," I replied. "I mean, he must come here a lot if he's made friends with the staff, right? No offense," I said to Cory. "I don't mean that you're just an employee, or anything."

"None taken, don't worry. Has he taken you to the studio yet? I've never been there, but I know that he spends a lot of time there."

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I've been there a few times, actually. Not since we started dating, but I've still been there."

"You can't have been dating very long," he seemed to be deep in thought. "Josh was here two weeks ago alone."

"We were just friends at that point. We only started dating this weekend."

"But we went out before that," Josh jumped in. "It just became official this weekend."

Cory glanced around the room. "It looks like I've got some work to do. You guys should hang out here more often. It was nice to meet you, Becky. See you later, Josh," he waved as he headed across the room to clear a recently vacated table.

"You might not be the most popular guy at school, but something tells me that you make friends everywhere you go," I told Josh confidently.

"When you come to a coffee house alone all the time, the staff starts to pity you and strike up conversations. Cory's become a friend, but I don't hang out with anyone else that works here."

"And what about all your other haunts?" I asked, using Cory's word to describe Josh's usual hangouts.

Josh shrugged. "You'll just have to come see them and find out."

"I guess I will. The only place that I usually hang out is Matt's place, so I don't really have anything to show you in return."

"That's totally fine. I don't have any other places that I go too often, either. But I definitely want to introduce you to some friends of mine one of these days. We need to expand your group of friends."

I grinned. "Yeah, isn't that the truth. I'm kind of pitiful when it comes to meeting new people."

Josh finished his coffee and set the empty cup on the table in front of us. I followed suit.

"You know, you have a knack for cheering people up," I informed him.

"How so? Who did I cheer up?"

"Me," I stated simply. "I was having the worst day ever, but I all but forgot about it as soon as I got to be alone with you."

"You're smitten with me," he bared his teeth in an enourmous smile.

"Smitten? I guess that's one way of putting it."

We got our cups refilled when Cory returned to check on us. He continued to stop by our table every ten minutes or so until we had to leave. I was starting to catch a glimpse of the way Josh acted around his friends. He was constantly making Cory crack up in laughter, and the whole scenario made me deliriously happy. He was being himself around me, and he wanted me to meet more of his friends. Things were definitely going well.

"So," Josh began timidly as we sat in my driveway in the confines of his car. "Did you have fun? I mean, I'd hate to keep kidnapping you like this if the whole thing was a waste of time."

"I had fun," I assured him. "And I look forward to the next time you steal me from my home."

"I'm hanging out with a couple of friends this weekend; do you want to come? It's totally fine if you don't want to. My friends are kind of nuts sometimes, so I wouldn't blame you. Or maybe you want to do something with just you and I. That's cool too," he began to ramble on so fast that I could hardly keep up.

"Relax, Josh. I'd really like to meet your friends."

"Really?" He seemed shocked.

I nodded. "Of course. It sounds like fun."

Josh grinned in relief. "Great. I guess I'll see you tomorrow at school, then."

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."

That awkward, somewhat tense air settled in the car again. It was the same feeling that I'd had after our first practice at the studio; when I'd later learned that Josh had wanted to kiss me. Why would he have a reason to hold back this time? We were dating now, after all.

"Your dad is watching us through the front window," he murmured suddenly, answering my unasked question.

My head whipped around to face the house, and I could clearly see my father's silhouetted figure through the glass. I sighed.

"I still haven't admitted that we're dating. I guess I should go."

"I haven't told my family yet, either," he told me. "So, I guess we'll pick this up again on Wednesday. I promise I'll actually take you to the studio that night."

"No worries," I smiled. "I'm happy with these random, unexpected trips, too."

"Do you want to sit with me at lunch tomorrow?" He blurted suddenly.

I chewed my bottom lip in hesitation. Matt probably wouldn't mind if I did. He was good friends with everyone else at our table, so it wouldn't be a big deal to him if I wasn't there. But I didn't know a single person at Josh's usual table.

"I mean, we don't get to talk to each other much at school," he began his explanation. "So I just kind of thought that it would be nice if we got to be together for our lunch break. But if you don't want to, that's fine. I get that sometimes you don't get to spend much time with Matt, either."

"No, it's not that. It's just that I've never spoken to anybody else that sits at your table."

"So you're nervous about meeting them? That's all that's bugging you about it?" He laughed incredulously. "I could come sit with you and Matt, if you wanted. Or we could find a table by ourselves."

"Come and sit with me and Matt," I told him. "We'll start from there."

Josh's hand touched mine gently. It was the only truly safe way for us to show affection at the moment, since our hands were hidden inside the car and my father couldn't see them through the windshield.

"I'll see you then."

I nodded, unbuckling my seatbelt and opening the door. The interior light came on, zeroing in like a spotlight on Josh's smiling face.

"See you then," I echoed, stepping out of the car and onto the pavement of my driveway.

The rain had slowed to a slight drizzle, but it was still enough to dampen my nearly-dry hair. The front door was unlocked and I let myself inside quickly, not daring to look back at the car that was now backing out into the road.

"There's that blue car again," Dad's voice said ominously from somewhere near the living room window.

I kicked off my shoes and walked inside, finding him still staring out the window at the now deserted street.

"Yeah, that was a blue car," I agreed, not giving him anything to work with.

"What's new with Matt? Haven't seen him around in awhile."

"Matt's busy. And, come to think of it, so am I. I've got to go study." I remembered that my teacher had allowed the class to rewrite the exam that I'd failed, since the majority of the class had done the same. I wondered what that said about her teaching strategies.

"Don't stay up too late."

"I won't. Night, Dad."

"Goodnight Rebecca," he sounded exhausted. I wondered vaguely if he was actually concerned about my relationship with Josh. This was the same guy who was worried about me spending too much time with Matt, after all.

I pushed the thought from my mind as I opened my books in my room a minute later. I really needed to focus on this test. I had plans for this weekend now, so I couldn't let myself get grounded.