Green and Gray

“What do you mean he invited you to his band's show tonight?” Ryder asked the next morning as I scoured my closet for a good outfit to wear for my second date with John. Was it a date? I assumed so.

“His band is playing at the Marquee tonight and since he'll be gone by tomorrow he wanted me to go tonight.” I explained as I debated on the color jeans I wanted to wear.

“Oh, Honey.” There he went again, thinking I was naïve, “are you sure you should go? I mean, he is leaving tonight, probably never to be seen again.” I rolled my eyes while throwing my favorite pair of jeans on my bed and adjusted my iPhone between my shoulder and ear.

“Ryder, he lives here in Tempe. He'll be back next month. And who knows if anything else will happen between us after these two days?” I was really only trying not go get my hopes up.

“Babe, you want something to happen. You like him. If you didn't, you wouldn't be going tonight.”

I rolled my eyes again, searching for the perfect shirt or blouse. “I'm going because I had fun last night.”

He sighed, almost mockingly, “Poor, naïve Sparrow.”

Growing more angry with my gay friend, I sighed in annoyance, “You know what, I have to go and get ready, so I'll talk to you later.” Before he could bring me down any further, I hung up. I threw my cell phone onto the bed where it bounced and settled against my unmade sheets.

I really had no idea why I was still friends with Ryder after all the years of ridicule and insults. I guessed it was because it was easier to be friends with him than not be friends with him. We had gone through a lot in high school and I knew when it came down to it, I would stick by him through anything. And even though he was a pain in the ass, I knew he would do the same for me.

When I got out of the shower and into some lounge pants and tank top, I got a text message from my sister, Ryver – who was the youngest of the twins.

“What are you doing today?” Great, she wanted me to do something with her.

“I'm seeing as how at the Marquee.”

“Oh”

“Why, what's up?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping.”

“I'm getting picked up at 2:30.”

“Why? Who are you going with?”

“This guy...”

Not even ten seconds after I put my phone down, it began ringing against my countertop in my bathroom. I'm not going to say I was surprised, because I wasn't. I was a little annoyed, though, that I had to turn down “Shakedown on Ninth St.” by Ryan Adams down.

“You're going with a guy?” Ryver asked excitedly when I picked up her call.

“I am, Ryver.” I needed to blow dry my hair, but I couldn't with her on the phone. This annoyed me, but I assumed I wouldn't be on the phone with her that long.

“Tell me about him!” Her excitement hadn't gone down.

“There's not much to tell, Ryv.” I explained as I tapped my fingernails against the countertop.

“What's his name? How'd you meet? Is he cute? There's always much to tell, Sparrow.”

I sighed lightly, “His name is John, we met at Starbucks, but we had been at the same restaurant for lunch before that. You can look up “John O'Callaghan” on Google and you'll see a picture of him.” I rattled off answers to her questions.

“Look him up? What?”

I smiled evilly even though she couldn't see, “Just do it.”

“Okay, hold on; Google is loading.” I waited as she typed out his name an waited for the page to load.

“Whoa.” She gasped, “He's gorgeous.” I grinned, “And that's saying a lot coming from a lesbian.”

I laughed, “I know!”

“So, he's in a band?”

I nodded, “Yeah. His band is playing tonight.”

She squealed, “I'm so happy for you!”

I rolled my eyes. My annoyance vanished, though, when I heard the guitar strums of “Gimmie Sunshine” come on over the computer speakers in my room. “Ryver, it's barely our second date and he's leaving for the rest of tour after tonight anyways.”

“He'll be back, though. Just have fun tonight, okay?” It was weird that everyone was excited that this one guy wanted to go on a few dates with me before his band went on across the United States.

“I probably will. I have to get finished getting ready, though.” I hinted at getting off the phone.

“Oh, okay. Sorry for keeping you.” I smiled as she apologized. Ryver was always the nice, sweet one who wanted the best for everyone. “Love you.” She said which I returned then hung up.

My hair was already pretty dry when I got off the phone, so it would only take me a few minutes to dry the rest. My phone began ringing before I could get even a majority of it done.

“What!?” I barked when I answered without looking at the called ID.

“Uh, is this a bad time?” I recognized the voice as John's and my eyes immediately widened.

“Oh! No, sorry.” I apologized, completely mortified. “People haven't been letting me have a moment to myself all morning, so I didn't even look at my phone when I answered because I was annoyed-” I rambled, embarrassing myself even further.

He chuckled, though, “It's fine, Sparrow.” I smiled at his voice, confident and charming rather than insecure and stuttering like before. “I was just wondering if I could pick you up at two instead because our soundcheck got moved up.”

I smiled softly, “Why don't I just meet you there?” It's 1:30 and I'm barely blowdrying my hair.” I explained to him.

“If that's what you want. I'm sorry I couldn't pick you up.”

“It's totally cool. I'll call you when I get there, okay?” He agreed and we said our goodbyes. The rest of the time I spent getting ready I wasn't interrupted, thankfully.

I arrived at The Marquee around four PM and dialed John's number. He picked up on the fourth ring and informed me that their tour manager would be out to get me and take me backstage. When I got out of my car and made my way to the front of the venue, I was met with a long line of teenage girls wearing too many rubber wrist bands and bright t-shirts. I wondered if these girls thought they looked good.

“Sparrow?” I whirled around at the sound of my name and saw tall guy in a gray shirt with a feather on the front. He had short dark hair and scruff along his jaw. “I'm Max.”

I nodded as recognition crossed my features, “Oh, hi.” I smiled.

He smiled back, “Hey.” He lifted his hand and handed me an all access wristband, “Here, this will get you backstage. Don't take it off until the show's over or you'll be kicked out.” I nodded as he secured it around my wrist. “He's been antsy all day.” He smirked in a low voice and I smiled.

“Really?”

He nodded, “He can't wait to see you.” Then why are we still standing here? “Come on, I'll take you to him.”

Max led me to a room in the back where I found John sitting on a couch pushed against the wall parallel to the door. His phone was in his hand and his right leg was bouncing up and down in an antsy way.

“Johno, your date is here.” His head immediately popped up and his eyes met mine. A bright smile spread across his lips and he jumped up from his seat.

I heard snickering from deeper inside the room. My eyes drifted away from John and landed on two of the guys who had been at Starbucks the day prior. “Ignore them; they're idiots.”

Once again, my eyes drifted back to John and I couldn't help but to smile back. There were butterflies in my stomach and my hands began to sweat. I hadn't felt like this since high school when David Franks told me I was pretty.

“Did you find the venue okay?” He questioned in concern.

I continued to smile, “Yes. Uh, I've actually been here before.” I admitted. He looked like he wanted to kick himself in the head.

“Oh.” The other guys snickered again and John rolled his eyes, “Come on, let's go somewhere where there aren't immature idiots eavesdropping on our awkwardness.” I laughed while he led me out of the room and down the hall.

“So how are you?” He asked politely as we walked beside each other. I didn't know where he was taking me, but I honestly didn't care.

“I'm good.” I smiled softly, “How about you? How's tour life treating you?”

He shrugged while shoving his hands in his pockets, “It just started. Ask me in a month when there's a week left and I haven't showered in eleven days.” We shared a chuckle. Then there was silence.

I recognized the route we were taking - we were going outside. “Do you want to head down the street and have an adventure until I have to get ready to go on?” He offered just as we were about to get to the door.

“Yeah, I'm up for whatever.” He shot me a smile then placed his hand on the doorknob.

“We're going to have to be quick, though, okay? If we don't power through, I'll be stopped.” I nodded. And then we were outside in the semi-cold weather. We started in the direction of the road away from the line of fans. I could hear a few of them yelling his name, but he continued walking. “I'm usually not an asshole to the fans, but we're going on an adventure.” He smirked down at me when we turned the corner, out of the fans' vision. His fingers laced between mine then and I couldn't fight off the smile on my lips.

“Tell me, Sparrow, how did you end up with such an awesome name?” I snorted in spite of myself. “What, you don't like it?” He asked with a small laugh.

“It's not that I don't like it, I just don't like how much I was made fun of for it when I was younger. All of us got teased because of our “weird names”” I shrugged.

We were approaching the intersection where we could either continue on to Moeur Park or make a left and pass the Rolling Hills Golf Course.

“What are your sisters' names?” He asked curiously.

“Clover, Winter, and Ryver.” I watched his face for a reaction. It stayed blank.

“Are you fucking with me?”

I shook my head, “What's worse is that our middle names are all where we were conceived.”

“But Winter and Ryver are twins, right?” I nodded. “Do they have the same middle name?”

We stopped at the light and waited to cross the street, “Winter's is Chandler and Ryver's is Arizona.”

He faced me, “That's kind of fucked. What about Clover and you?” The light changed and we continued on with our adventure.

“Clover's is Cayman after the Cayman Islands and mine is Alaska.”

He smiled down at me, “Alaska isn't bad. Sparrow Alaska L'Amour. It sounds very elegant.” I couldn't stop the smile from forming at his compliment.

“Well, it could have been Sparrow Deadhorse L'Amour.” I chuckled.

He tugged me along to a picnic table at the park, “Deadhorse?” He questioned almost horrified.

“That's the town my parents were in. They were there trying to save the arctic fox or something very hippie-ish.” I sat on one of the benches and he took the one across.

“So your parents are hippies?” He asked, placing his hands atop the redish table.

I thought about my parents. They tried to do their part and had strong feelings about the environment, but it was mostly my mother. “They think they are, but they've stopped gradually. My mother was a full on flower child and went with the flow of things most of the time. My dad wasn't when he met her, but he was in love, so he followed everything she did. My mom's quite the free spirit.” He was smiling softly at me. “What?” I laughed.

“You seem to really love your parents.”

I shrugged, “My mom is an amazing woman and my dad is amazing for being able to keep up with the things she does. I have a lot of respect for the both of them.”

“I feel the same way about my parents.” I nodded at him, “I was a big shithead when I was in high school, but they put up with everything I did and loved me regardless.”

I pursed my lips, “What's one thing you know your parents were extremely disappointed about with you?”

He let out a deep breath and looked off, thinking. “Wow.” He breathed, “Probably when I told them I wasn't going to continue on with college.” I watched him, getting a feeling that we were about to have a somewhat deep conversation. “I came home one day after a really good band practice and told them that I was wasting my time and their money by going to ASU. I wanted to make a living playing music and I felt that I wasn't going to get that when I was at school most of the day.”

“How did your parents react?”

“They thought I was making a big mistake and wanted me to get a degree, but were supportive still the same. When The Maine got signed, I'd never felt more accomplished in their eyes. Or when we headlined our own tour over the summer and my mom started crying at one of the shows because she was so proud. It just feels good knowing that I proved them wrong.”

I reached over and squeezed his hands. “I don't really know you, John, but I'm sure you're a really great guy and your parents are lucky to have such a wonderful son. They raised a good one.”

He smiled brightly at me, “Thank you, that means a lot.”

I grinned and kept my hands connected with his. His hands were rough and calloused but warm and I never wanted to let go. In a weird way, I felt completely safe with him, like this was it for me and I was perfectly fine with that. You know how you meet someone and you just feel that little something with them. I was feeling that something and it was weird. It was weird to think that I was completely fine with spending the rest of my life with someone I knew so little about. I didn't know if it was his charm or if it was instinct. Everything felt so natural with him and I loved it.

I watched The Maine's set from the side of the stage and was just so captivated by all of their stage presence. Prior to them going on, John introduced me to every member and I hung out with them while he warmed up his voice. That left me alone with them for about thirty minutes, but I genuinely enjoyed their company almost as much as I enjoyed John's.

After their set, John grabbed my hand and pulled me back to their dressing room, where he changed out of his tan cowboy boots and switched out of his sweat-drenched t-shirt. When the other guys started spilling in along with some family members and friends, John grabbed a beer then asked if I wanted one. I declined, saying I still needed to drive home.

I sat with Garrett and his brother Trey while John ran off to say goodbye to his parents. I liked the Nickelsen brothers. They were amusing and both had the brightest blue eyes I'd ever seen.

“Sparrow,” Garrett began as we lounged on one of the couches in their dressing room. “I just wanted you to know that John is really into you.” Trey nodded in confirmation from next to him then took a sip of his Busweiser.

“Okay?” I questioned in confusion.

“He normally doesn't date, so this is weird.”

My brow creased further, “Why doesn't he date?”

“I don't know, really.” Garrett said, “We all thought he was pretty asexual until you showed up and gave him a boner.”

“Uh,” I said, slightly horrified and caught a little off guard by his choice of words.

“Okay, I'm back.” I turned and looked at John, not changing my expression – which consisted of a partially dropped jaw and a dumb, blank look. “What happened?” He turned to Trey and Garrett, “What did you idiots say?” I closed my mouth finally as the two brothers shrugged innocently. “Uh huh.” He said skeptically then turned back to me, “Let's go talk somewhere, yeah?”

I obliged and let him pull me from my seat and lead me out of the loud, packed room.

“Sparrow,” He stopped and I turned my body to face him. Before I could say anything, his big hands were gently cupping my face and he was softly pressing his lips to mine.

He was kissing me and I was kissing back. Fireworks were going off in my head and butterflies were let loose in my stomach. I was smiling stupidly when we pulled away.

“I like you, Sparrow.” I really liked the way he said my name. “And I really wish I didn't have to leave tonight because I want to get to know you more. I want to know everything about you. I don't even care if that sounds creepy as fuck.”

I couldn't stop smiling, “Well, how about we keep in touch while you're gone and see what happens when you get home?” I suggested because at the time it seemed like the most logical thing to do.

“December couldn't come sooner.”