Hurricane

July 2005

Today, I was meeting Pete’s band. They were coming to Chicago today and they were going to practice their songs before leaving to record. I was nervous about meeting them even though Pete kept telling me how nice they were and how much they were going to like me.

They were expected to arrive around 4:30 to meet me before I left. Then when I was gone they were going to practice.

“How come I can’t watch you guys play?” I asked.

“Because I want you to hear us when our songs actually sound good,” Pete said. I rolled my eyes.

“I’ve never even hear what your band sounds like,” I said.

“Go buy our CD then and listen to it,” he said.

“I don’t have any money though,” I said. “Don’t you have a copy I can borrow or something?”

“Surprisingly, no,” he said. I looked at him in disbelief. He didn’t even own his own CD?

“You are weird,” I said. “If I had a CD, I would at least have my own copy.”

“I have my own copy,” Pete said. “I just don’t know where it is.”

“You lost it?” I asked.

“Misplaced,” Pete said, correcting me.

“Sure,” I said. We were silent now. Pete opened his notebook to do some writing and I settled in his bed to take my usual nap.

-------------------------------------------

The first person to get to Pete’s house was Patrick. He was quiet and nice and made the whole meeting new people so much easier on me. I really wanted him and me to be really good friends one day. I could tell he was someone who’s good to have around. Someone who would just listen to you if you wanted to talk. Not that I was going to telling Patrick all of my problems. I had only just begun to really open up to Pete.

Andy and Joe came a few minutes later at the same time. They looked scarier than they actually were. I could tell they would be nice as well.

Throughout all of the introductions, Pete stayed next to me, his arm around my waist in a comforting way. And I was glad. When it came to meeting new people—I just felt so nervous, no matter what anyone tried to tell me.

After I had been introduced to everyone, we moved to the living room. Pete sat between me and Patrick on the couch while Andy and Joe sat in chairs. Pete sat closer to me, leaving his arm around my waist as he talked with his band mates. I was silent, just listening to what they said.

When my mom got here, she honked the horn to let me know. Pete and I stood up together and I smiled at the other guys.

“It was nice meeting you all,” I said, smiling at them. After the guys said their goodbyes, Pete walked me to his front door.

“See,” Pete said as I looked at him. “Wasn’t so bad.”

I smiled at him.

“Yeah,” I said. “It wasn’t so bad.”

“It won’t take long for you guys to become friends either,” Pete said. “They really are great.”

Pete closed the space between us, pulling me closer to him as our lips touched. He pulled away too quickly for my liking and smiled at me.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Pete said. I smiled at him before pulling the door open.

“Bye,” I said. Pete waved and I closed the door. Having Pete’s band here was now a reminder that I only had about a month left with Pete before he had to go and record. And I was going to try and make the best of it.