Oh My, My, My

The show was good. The bands sounded great. But I couldn’t take my eyes off of Grace. Amy, the girl I had met up with, had long forgotten me. I couldn’t blame her; my attention had been nowhere near focused on her.

I had been watching Grace like a hawk. She looked as if she was having a great time. Her and Eric had jumped around, holding hands at times. I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous at the fact. I know its only Eric, that they’re just friends. But I noticed how comfortable she is with him, how super friendly they’ve been lately. Recently, I’ve noticed Eric staring at her when she isn’t looking. I don’t know how that makes me feel. Or maybe I do.

I waited, standing by the booth Kenny and I had taken over during the show, as Eric and Grace made their way through the crowd. Grace was laughing, probably at something Eric had said, when she bumped into a guy.

“S-sorry. I wasn’t paying attention,” I heard her apologize to the turned figure.

He spun around and I froze. Ben Carter. Grace’s ex-boyfriend. “Grace! Hey, I didn’t know you were coming.” He smiled with faux innocence.

I can’t believe that jerk has the nerve to talk to her. I rushed over and with one glance I noticed the panic in her eyes, so I put a reassuring hand on her back while I turned my attention to Ben.

“Ben. What are you doing here?” I asked coldly.

Just as I expected, he immediately backed away, mumbling as he retreated. I glared at his receding form until he was out of eyesight, and then looked down at Grace. I caught her wordless ‘thank you’ before I walked quickly towards the door, where the rest of the guys and Emily were watching our exchange.

“What was that?” Garrett asks.

“Hmm?” I mumbled, feigning ignorance, not wanting to explain. Grace had asked me to keep the Ben situation a secret—she didn’t want everyone to know he had cheated on her—she simply told them they broke up.

“Dude, that guy almost pissed his pants!” Eric said as he came up behind me, clapping a hand on my shoulder.

“What did you say to him?” Kenny asked.

“He just asked what the guy was doing here and he took off. I’ve never seen anyone scared of John O before.”

I ignored my friends as they dug for information, slipping past them into the cool night air. I could sense someone following me, but didn’t look back until I stopped to lean against the side of the building to wait for everyone to catch up.

“Hey man, what’s wrong?” Jared asked. He could always tell when I was upset, even if I had a smile plastered on my face.

“It’s nothing.”

“Yeah, right. Like I’m going to believe that. You look like you wanted to knock that guy out. Who was he anyway?”

“Grace’s ex. Ben,” I spat his name, not liking the taste of it on my tongue.

“Oh. So, what, did he say something to Grace?”

“I don’t know. I walked over, asked what he was doing here, and he left. End of story.”

“Okay,” he drew out the word. “Then why do you look like you want to rip someone’s head off?”

Instead of answering, I turned and started walking in the direction of the van. I hadn’t gotten very far before I heard a familiar voice.

“Hey, wait up.”

I turned to see Grace jogging to catch up with me. Instead of listening, I kept walking. When she did catch up, she put her hand on my arm to stop me.

“What is wrong with you? You’ve been ignoring me for the past two days. Then you show up out of nowhere to scare off Ben, and now you wont talk to me again?” The look in her eyes almost broke my heart. I wanted to pick her up and hold her forever; I hated knowing I was the reason for her sad eyes.

“Ben and I have an understanding. I just wanted to remind him of it.”

“An understanding?”

“Yeah, he’s not supposed to bother you,” I answered with a shrug.

“Okaay. But that doesn’t explain why you’re avoiding me,” she stated, a dozen questions in her eyes.

I haven’t been avoiding you, Grace,” I lied.

“Yes, you have. You can’t lie to me, John. I know Kenny didn’t call you last night while we were talking. You wont walk or sit next to me anymore. And you’ve been avoiding eye contact. Like right now.”

I looked down into her beautiful gray eyes and felt like hitting myself. I couldn’t lie to myself, and apparently I couldn’t lie to Grace, either. I was avoiding her; it was the only solution I could think of to reduce the chances of saying something like how much I really liked her.

“Fine. I get it. I’ll leave you alone,” she said with a frown as she walked ahead of me. Without thinking, I grabbed her hand and started walking with her. I just couldn’t let her go completely.