My Hero

I'm currently getting dressed for my evening out with my sister and her friends. She had made sure that I remembered that we were going out with the help of five text messages and an hourly reminder after I got home from work. Now that it's about eight at night and our reservations are at nine, I decided to get ready.

I had laid out a strapless, black knee-length dress with a nice and subtle turquoise trim. I also had my new black Louis Vuitton pumps, that Katie had gotten me, laid out and ready to go, even my black clutch was set out. All I had to do was fix up my hair and makeup then get dressed.

As I was curling my hair, my phone began to vibrate on the counter next to me. I looked down to see who was calling and grinned when I put it on speaker.

"Well, hello," I giggled softly.

"Hello to you too, Bella," Joe chuckled. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"No, sir. I'm getting ready to go out. My sister likes to drag me out of the house to help me regain my social skills."

"I think you have great social skills," he admitted easily.

I placed my curling iron down and said, "Yeah, well my sister disagrees."

"It's okay though. I know how bad you want to hang out with me," he joked. "I'm free tomorrow, all joking aside, and I really want to hear your work."

"I'll give you my address tomorrow," I promised as I began to pin back some of my hair. "We can have a little jam session."

"Sounds like a plan. I have to go, Kev and Dani are dragging me out with them tonight. Something about dinner to catch up or what-not."

"Oh, so you're in the same situation I'm in."

Joe let out a sweet, airy chuckle before saying, "I guess so."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow when you come in. I have to finish getting ready."

"Okay. Bye, Bella."

"Bye, Joe."

***

"You are absolutely going to adore Mike," my sister gushed as we drove in her new Jetta to a restaurant where we are meeting her boyfriend, a girl that she works with and her significant other, and then this Mike guy.

"That's great Katie," I muttered. "Really."

"He is a male model that I met at work the other day, you'll honestly love him!" She continued.

Katie is a designer and she works at Elle where she picks out clothes for photo shoots, that's part of the reason she had me move in with her. This job calls for her to travel a lot for extended periods of time and she needed someone to watch her house. She loves her job though and gets paid extremely well, as do I, so it works out for her.

"He is funny, sweet, romantic! Oh, my God you're going to love him!"

"You keep telling me this, Kathrine. You know, blind-dates aren't going to help me."

She just shook her head as she pulled into the parking lot of an up-scale Italian restaurant. Katie didn't say much more until we got out of the car. I watched, with my clutch tight under my left arm as she straightened out her dress and checked her hair in the reflection of her overly-tinted windows before grinning at me.

I knew I was going to hate this.

As we walked into the building my heart began to race and when I saw the familiar face of Katie's boyfriend, Bryan, I knew that I was officially stuck. Next to Bryan was a girl who was holding the hand of the man next to her, then there was a rather lonely looking fellow who I assumed to be Mike.

My assumptions were confirmed when the man walked over to me and held out his hand, "I'm Michael, you must be Isabella."

"That's me," I smiled, politely shaking his hand in response.

Mike was a pretty decent looking man, although he did kind of look like someone familiar. His short hair was spiked in a kind of Rob-Pat type thing, instantly that was a turn off. I didn't want to date a fictional vampire wanna-be and that's what he looked like. His had strong facial features, just like said vampire and he kind of seemed socially awkward.

It's official: My sister had set me up with a Rob-Pat stand-in.

When we were seated, I was suck next to "Rob" facing the back of the restaurant, the only thing in my sight was an empty table and the rather large window above it, allowing moon-light to shine in. My sister and Bryan where to my right at our circular table and the other couple was to Mike's right.

"I'm Luke and I'll be your waiter for the night," a man, around our age, said. "Can I start you off with something to drink?"

"How about red wine for everyone?" Bryan suggested.

"I'll take water, I don't have the taste for wine," I admitted.

The waiter nodded then walked off leaving Katie and the other girl, who's name I still didn't know, staring at me like I was crazy.

"Didn't you just turn twenty-one? Like a month ago?" The girl asked. "Why aren't you drinking, when I turned twenty-one I got wine every time we went out some where nice."

Alcoholic.

"I just don't want it," I muttered. "Trust me, it's not going to kill me."

"Sarah, leave her alone," my sister said with a smile.

So the alcoholic's name is Sarah.

"She obviously has a reason as to why she isn't drinking tonight," she continued. "Liam, control her, before she offends my sister." The tone Katie used obviously made it clear she was joking at that I was the butt of the joke.

Mike looked at me and noticed my bothered expression. He smiled softly and placed his hand on my upper thigh, instantly making me feel uncomfortable. "It's alright. It's cool to see you don't drink like that."

I just shook my head and pushed his hand away. "I'm going to the bathroom. Kat, if y'all order before I get back get me the sausage marinara."

Before anyone could reply, I got up and walked away. I passed the bathroom and walked right out of the building, taking a seat on a small wooden bench right outside. I just needed to get away without my sister knowing exactly were to find me.

This was why I didn't want to go out with my sister, I couldn't fit in with her awkward fashion friends. I didn't like hanging out with models, especially after Daniel cheated on me with one. I had an easier time connecting to musicians. That's just me.

I sat outside absentmindedly listening to music while groups of people entered and exited the building. After about five songs, I decided to go back in and face the music. I placed my iPod into my clutch and stood up. As I took a deep breath, inhaling the warm, Texan air, I began to walk back inside.

"We didn't mean to make you mad," Katie said as soon as I sat down. "We were only joking around. It's perfectly fine if you don't want to take part in drinking tonight. There's no need for us to pick on you."

"Katie, it's fine," I mumbled. "I've been overly emotional recently, that's all."

Luckily, our food was brought out only a minute or two after I returned. Once everyone began eating, the mood seemed to lighten in everyone except me. I quickly ate my food, not really paying attention to anything, that was until my phone vibrated in my lap.

I placed my fork down and pulled my cell phone from my clutch. The screen said New Message in bright blue letters, reflecting against the picture of sheet music in the background.

Hey, don't look so bored. The message read. I looked at the sender and instantly became confused.

What are you talking about? I replied.

Within a few seconds the sender responded with a simple, Look up. ;)

I looked up from my lap and grinned widely when I saw a very familiar face between Sarah and Liam, her boyfriend. At the back table was a small group of three people, two of which had their backs to me, the third was looking at me dead on.

"I'll be right back," I smiled, not taking my eyes off of the person ahead.

I walked straight to the table with my toothy grin not leaving my face. He smiled a bit wider before standing up and meeting me about half way.

"Hey, Isabella," he chuckled. "Fancy meeting you here."

"I could say the same, Joseph. I'm kind of glad you are here though, I'm really sitting with the world's most annoying people," I explained, turning my head back to look at the table. "The girl in the purple is my sister, and the guy next to her is her boyfriend. The guy next to the empty seat is Mike, the guy my sister set me up with. He looks like Robert Pattinson and clearly has a total lack in manors. I swear he keeps undressing me with his eyes," I told Joe, turning back to look him in the eyes.

"That sucks. My brother and his wife had planned on inviting another girl along so I didn't feel like a third wheel, but I turned it down," he admitted as we stood together in the middle of our two tables. I could feel the eyes on the two of us as we conversed. "I have someone else in mind right now and it wouldn't be fair to lead the other girl on."

"Well, that's awfully sweet of you, Joe," I smiled softly. "Most guys wouldn't be that considerate. You must have been raised well, huh?"

"I guess so."

I laughed lightly and shook my head, "You aren't conceited either. You're perfect."

I watched as his cheeks turned a soft shade of light pink. He looked down at his shoes before saying, "I'm going to get back to the table before Kev and Dani start asking questions. I'll see you tomorrow. Eight o'clock sharp?"

"Eight o'clock it is."

Joe turned to walk away before turning about around and saying, "Let me walk you back to your table." His large smile was definitely contagious.

"It's only about twenty feet away, Joe. I'll be fine."

"I want to meet your...friends."

I laughed once again and smiled, "Fine."

I walked back to the table with Joe right behind me. He pulled out my chair for me before I even had a chance to think about it. I took a seat and soon he gently pushed me in, the whole table watching as he did so.

"Guys, this is Joe. I'm helping him with his new album," I explained. "Joe this is Katie, Bryan, Sarah, Liam, and Mike."

"It's nice to meet you all," he smiled. I looked up at him as he stared down at me, "I'm going to go. I'll see you later."

"Bye." And with that he walked away allowing my sister and Sarah to shoot questions at me.

***

"Kathrine, I'm never going out with you or you friends ever again!" I exclaimed as we entered our home. "That was probably the worse evening I've had since I found out that Daniel was cheating on me!"

"If you didn't go out with me you wouldn't have seen your friend," she pointed out in an attempt to help her case. "He so isn't your type B.T.W."

"I would have been hanging out with him tonight if I didn't have to go out with you!" I screamed. "And you obviously don't know my type because Mike was awful! He was a pure, disrespectful man-whore!"

I looked at Katie as I stepped out of my heals. I was more angry at her in that one moment than I have been since my parents adopted her when we were five. It hurt to even look at her.

I shook my head and just sighed, "Just leave me alone, okay?"

I stormed up to my room, slamming my door behind me. As soon as the door met the frame and it was locked, all hell broke loose and I cried harder than I have in forever. I was so emotional and it was really killing me, but I didn't really care right now. I was furious.

Through my tears, I heard my phone vibrate from within my hand bag. I opened it and grabbed my phone, ready to read the message.

I don't know why, just something told me to text you and say; everything will be alright. -J

I smiled lightly and closed my eyes, instantly feeling a bit better. Even with that short message, he was a hero.