I Can Taste The Failure On Your Lips

“So you met a guy?” He asked, for the fifth time. He was being very unrealistic, when he said that I should just come home. I couldn’t just leave. What about Petunia? As much as I hated leaving Danny in Maryland, I was starting to like Sheffield. Yes, Curtis, and his band (even though I haven’t fully met them yet) were definitely part of that. Danny couldn’t hate me forever just because I met a guy. And for the main part, I didn’t even know him, basically. He was cute, and tall, and both of those were defiantly on my ‘things that make a hot guy’ list. Plus, Curtis was nice. He really is the only guy that I have ever really had more than a two second conversation with, other than his friend, Inky, and again, Danny’s friends.

“Yes, Daniel. I met a guy. He is nice.” I replied slowly. I was waiting for him to start asking me about the band practice thing, because I didn’t leave that out. Danny was my best friend and the only person, besides Jordan (who only talks about herself), that I could talk to about these things.

“How old is he?” He asked.

“I’m guessing he’s the same age as me. I don’t know, we haven’t talked that much for me to find out.”

“Oh, so he isn’t your boyfriend?” He asked, sudden optimism filling his voice.

“No.” I said. I heard Danny laugh on the other side of the phone. “Some things will never change.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Seeing as he didn’t add on ‘no offense’ like he usually did whenever he wasn’t trying to poke fun of me. So obviously I this case he was.

He laughed again. “Nothing sis, don’t worry about it. Look, I have to go…to…work.” He said. And even though I wasn’t there to see his facial expression I could tell he was lying. “I’ll talk to you later okay?”

“Sure, whatever.” I replied, before clicking my phone shut.

Petunia was staring at me again. “Who was that?” She asked.

“That was Danny, your grandson and unfortunately my brother.’ I replied. She nodded her head and turned back towards the TV.

“Do yeh need the car tonigh’?” She asked.

“Uh,” I thought about it. And then I remembered how Curtis asked me if I was going to their band practice. If I wanted to go, which I really didn’t, I could just walk. “No, I don’t. Why?”

“Bingo Nigh’!” She said cheerfully. I smiled, and nodded. “It’s every Thursday, but my back’s been killin’ me, and I haven’t felt like goin’ in a while.”

“Do you need me to drive you?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Oh no, Dear. I’ve got it. Yeh can come along if yeh want to though.”

“No, that’s alright. I think I’ll stay here.”

She nodded her head, and again, turned back to the News.

===

I never realized how quiet the house was without Petunia. The TV was off, which was unusual. With Petunia here, it would be on, and the volume would be up all the way.

I was waiting for just the right moment to leave the house. I was already dressed, wearing a pair of acid washed skinny jeans, flats, and black ‘Marvel Team Up’ v-neck. Considering what I had been wearing for the past month, I was dressed up. My phone lightly buzzed in my back pocket, and I checked the screen. I had a new text message from Jordan.

hey good lookin hows it cookin?

I smiled, before putting it back into my pocket, and walking back out into the living room. It was 10:45; I grabbed my black hoodie, and started out the door. I didn’t necessarily want to leave, but I didn’t want to seem stuck up either. I didn’t want Curtis to say ‘I told yeh so’, and I didn’t want it to be awkward. I had a feeling that all of those things would happen anyways.

It took a while to get to the house where they held their practices by foot. I underestimated how long the streets were. But, of course when I got there, I was greeted by Curtis’ crooked smile, and blank stares. Curtis turned around and smiled at his band mates before piping out ‘I told yeh so.’

“I knew yeh’d come. Told the boys here I owed them twenty bucks if yeh didn’t.” He said proudly, like he knew everything.

“Well, they need to pay up.” I replied.

“Yeh. Well, let me introduce yeh to e’ryone.” He pointed to the chubby guitarist first. “Tha’s Lee. He plays guitar, like me.” Then, he pointed to Laughing boy, who was again, sitting behind the drums. “Tha’s Matthew, He play’s drums obviously.” He then pointed to a rather tall, shaggy headed boy, who was standing in front of an amp, switching some buttons on and off. “He’s Matt too. Matt Kean, he plays bass.” And then he pointed to Inky. “Last and least, Oliver.”

Oliver sent a glare Curtis’ way before looking at me. ‘Oli’ was all he said, before he went back to doing whatever he was doing. He definitely seemed rather annoyed, or maybe just ignorant. I couldn’t tell, but I knew that I didn’t like him. The other day he yells at me, and today he ignores me. I didn’t know what his problem was, and to be quite honest I didn’t want to know.

This time, instead of covering my ears when they started playing, I actually listened to it. Yeah, Oli’s vocal performance was something, but if you got past the screaming, you could actually hear the heartfelt lyrics that he was singing. They were all very talented. I noticed though, that he never once looked at me. He looked at the floor, the ceiling, the wall, outside at his house, Curtis, Lee, both Matt’s, but he never looked at me. So, whatever part of me was actually starting to fit in was absolutely crushed by this jerk. He definitely made me feel like I was not welcome.