What Makes It Wrong for Us to Fall in Love?

"Alright." Garrett took the microphone from Jawn, who was standing next to Jared and Kennedy after playing about 5 songs on acoustic.

"Uhm, hi." Garrett tapped his nail on the microphone, making a loud thumping sound in the speaker. "Hi." He repeated.

Jawn was confused at first with what Garrett was doing, but he didn't question it anymore. He was tired.

"Uhm," Garrett took a piece of paper from the breast pocket of his plaid shirt and looked at it. "I just have something very important to say."

"Gar, you're not leaving the band, are you?!" Pat screeched as he ran towards him.

"No, Pat, of course not." Garrett reassured him.

Pat walked behind Garrett and rested his chin on his shoulder and tried to read what was on the paper, but obviously didn't succeed at that.

"So uhm, my friend from The Summer Set, Stephen, wrote this down for me last night. Something huge happened," Garrett glanced up from his paper. "Things got steamy last night, and no, don't you guys say anything about sex."

There were laughs.

"There was a small fight and shit, but it's all good now. I got this written down for me after Pat went to sleep last night, and Kenny and Jawn were in the back lounge of the bus. I couldn't write these things down so I got Stephen to do it for me because I couldn't do it myself and he woke up."

A bunch of people in the crowd looked around to see if Stephen was there. Some of them saw us, some of them didn't.

"I, uhm." Garrett squinted at the piece of paper. "I can't.. I can't, uhm, read his handwriting, so I guess I'll have to wing it."

Pat took the piece of paper from Garrett and plumped down next to him, letting one of his arms cling onto Garrett's leg, then he tried reading the writing himself.

"Alright. This is the first time I'm ever gonna say this in front of you guys." Garrett said, with a nervous hiccup following. "I love Pat. Pat is my darling, I like calling him baby. Being with Pat is like.. I don't know, no matter how hard life fucks me, having Pat right here beside me makes everything, absolutely everything, better."

The crowd silenced and began to listen to Garrett more intently.

"Alright? I love Pat. He is my best friend, and the best friend in the world." Garrett wiped sweat off his forehead and continued. "How many of you here have best friends?" Garrett raised one of his hands, telling the crowd what to do, which was to raise their hands if their responses were yes.

Everyone raised their hands.

"How many of you don't love your best friends?" Garrett asked.

All the hands fell back down.

"Alright." Garrett pulled on the collar of his shirt then gulped. "Well, let me tell you something, you guys."

The crowd became more engaged in Garrett's speech.

"Sometimes, things happen between you and your best friend. Good things.. Bad things.. Things that don't make sense.. Things that do.. But let me tell you something: The whole 'promises are meant to be broken' is a fucking huge stereotype. A promise is a fucking promise. And you keep it. And you stick to it, and hold onto it to your grave. How many of you know that I've been best friends with Pat since we were eleven?"

None of them raised their hands, or answered.

"None of you know that?!" Garrett put on a shocked expression. "We've known each other since we were nine. But I sort of thought Pat was weird, so I didn't talk to him. Then we got paired up for a science experiment when we were eleven. It was so stupid, we had to put a Mentos in a bottle of Coca-Cola. Stu. Pid. I hate that teacher. But I actually owe her one, if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have my best friend right now."

Pat looked up from where he was to Garrett and smiled.

Garrett smiled back., then looked at the crowd. "Guys, I promised Pat that I was never ever going to leave him then."

The crowd was speechless so far.

"And I haven't left him ever since. I want you all to be witnesses of me promising Pat I am never gonna leave him."

And the crowd broke into "Awwww!"'s and more "Awwwwwwwwwww!"s.

Garrett sprawled his free hand up. "I, Garrett Daniel Nickelsen, am promising, right fucking now, in front of all of you, that I am never. Ever. Going to leave Patrick John Kirch."

Pat stood up and gave Garrett a hug while all the people in the crowd stood there with smiles form ear to ear and in awe.

"Guys," Pat took the microphone from Garrett. "I'm just.. Gonna try to say something inspiring here. I don't think it'll work out, but it's worth a shot, right? When you finally meet, or find, someone who's never gonna leave you.. Don't let him, or her, go. I want you guys to regret absolutely nothing."

"Alright, alright." Garrett held out his pinky as he spoke into the microphone Pat was using. "I need all pinkies in the air right now, right fucking now." Garrett demanded.

The crowd willingly catered to his whim and soon enough, every single person in the room had their pinkies up.

"Oi, oi!" Garrett pointed at me and Stephen. "You guys too!"

Stephen and I threw each other a "why not" look and put our pinkies up.

Garrett looked behind at Jawn, Jared,and Kennedy, who raised their pinkies as soon as Garrett looked at them.

"Alright everyone." Garrett rasped into the microphone. "I want you all to promise me that you are never going to regret anything in your life, especially when it comes to your best friends. They're the ones who're never gonna leave you, and they're the ones who will always, always be fucking there for you. I want you all to live life without regrets, because life is definitely greater that way. This promise sort of sounds unrealistic, but I want you all to make it to me, alright? I also want you to fucking swear to God, or if you're not Christian, I don't know, okay, it's that expression.. I want you all to fucking swear to me, that you are never going to leave your fucking best friend. Am I clear?"

They all nodded.

"Repeat after me, alright?"

The people nodded again.

"I," Garrett started.

"I," The crowd repeated.

"Garrett,"

"Garrett,"

"No, say your own name. Let's do that again." Garrett laughed. "Pinkies in the air!"

They all straightened up.

"I,"

"I,"

"Garrett,"

"Joan, Maria, Martin, Jon, Cassidy, Gab, Ella, Allison, Eileen, Glenn, Nicole, Riannon, Anna, Christina, Shay, Denise, Shane," and many other names.

"Am pinky-promising"

"Am pinky-promising"

"That I,"

"That I,"

"Will live life,"

"Will live life,"

"To the fullest."

"To the fullest."

"And never,"

"And never,"

"Regret,"

"Regret,"

"The things,"

"The things,"

"I do with,"

"I do with,"

"My best friends."

"My best friends."

"And that I,"

"And that I,"

"Will never,"

"Will never,"

"Ever."

"Ever."

"Leave my best friend because I love him and or her to death, and I would do anything to make him or her happy, and that I'm never gonna stop thanking reality I have him and or her because she's gonna mean the world to me someday if her or she isn't already."

Garrett laughed at the pathetic attempt of the crowd to repeat the words he had just said. Then spoke again. "Don't forget to tell your best friend you love him or her everyday, alight? Promise me you guys won't forget to do that." He bit his lip and continued. "Pinky promise your best friend now."

I watched everyone locking pinkies with one another when I felt my pinky get tugged on by another. I looked to my side and saw Stephen sheepishly smiling. "I'm not your best friend anymore.. But it sort of applies too."

I smiled at him before he pecked at my lips.

"You go be with Kennedy, he has to pinky promise this shit to you too." He winked.

I nodded at him and walked over to the side of the stage.

Kennedy spotted me immediately and trotted over to me. He locked his pinky with mine. "Love you."

Garrett put his pinky down. "I'm proud of you all."

Pat put his pinky in front of Garrett. "Pinky promise me that you'll never leave me?"

"Pinky promise." Garrett interlocked his pinky with his, soon after that, they hugged.