Quietly His Fault

Ch 15

I’m a little worried. I mean don’t get me wrong, I am dying to have Aida hear our music, but I’m worried how she will be with the guys. I already know they like and approve of her, but will she like them?

So I go to her place and let myself in like I always do now and walk into her room where she is sitting at her desk with her back to me reading and clutching Cuddles. “No you shouldn’t act like that! Are you trying to make a fool of yourself?” she yells then hides her face behind
Cuddles and then begins to read again.

I find it so funny because she is very quiet often times, but she is a movie and book talker. She is that girl who always has a comment when she is watching a movie and reading. I love the irony.

I walk up to her chair and spin it around to face me without warning. She squeals and smiles when she sees my face.

“Trying to kill me 14?”

“No, I don’t want to deprive the world of your sheer beauty.” I say in all seriousness causing her to blush as red as a rose.

“Uh… let me grab my purse.”

“Oh I have to say hi to Cuddles.”

“Here.” She says holding the bear over her face.

“Hi Cuddles.”

She takes the bear’s paw and has her wave to me.

Lately Cuddles hasn’t joined Aida and I when we hang out because she is comfortable with me, but today she meets the guys, so I know she will want to bring Cuddles, but I don’t want her to feel shy about it so I say, “Cuddles will you come to practice today? I want your opinion. You can hide in Aida’s purse the whole time, but come please.”

Cuddles nods her head with help from Aida and off we go to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch.

While Aida’s deciding what she wants I catch her playing with her necklace I got her. I’m so happy she loved it; she thanked me so many times. She is playing with the 14 charm which makes me smile. Our waiter comes to take our orders with his eyes trained on Aida.

“Hi I’m Jase, and I’ll be your waiter can I take your order?”

Without looking up from the menu she says, “You first Zach.”

“Water and a chicken sandwich with medium sauce.”

“Yeah alright.” Our waiter says writing down my order before looking at Aida and saying, “you miss?” causing me to roll my eyes in disgust.

“Lemonade, a chicken wrap, with mild sauce please.” Then she hands him the menu without ever looking at him.

After Jase leaves I ask, “Not that I don’t approve because I do, but why wouldn’t you look at our waiter?”

“He’s been eyeing me in a creepy way since I walked in, and I don’t want to lead him anywhere near me.”

Then we continued to talk, eat, once our food came, ignoring Jase, paying and ignoring the number he wrote on the bill, and driving to Nathan’s for practice.

So once Aida and I get to Nathan’s I park, get out, open the door for her, grab her hand, walking into Nathan’s place without knocking, and walk up to Nathan’s room.

“Hi guys.” I say to my three friends who are all scatters across Nathan’s room.

“Hi Aida!” Nathan says from his bed.

“Hi Nathan.” Aida replies which means they’ve met before.

“You guys know each other?”

“Yeah he’s in my music class and I had to sing and play your song “A Different Side of Me” to the entire class.”

“Yeah and she killed it so I started talking to her. I mean dude that girl has pipes! Wouldn’t call us friends yet, more like close acquaintances.”

“Yeah.”

“Well alright then. In the desk chair is the drummer Michael.”

“But you can call me Mikey baby gurl.” He says cutting me off.

“That on the floor is Cameron out bassist.”

The nod to each other in greeting, but I can tell Aida is uncomfortable because she is hugging her purse to her chest for dear life.

“Hey want to put your purse down?” Michael asks her.

She shakes her head ‘no’ and Michael shrugs and backs off realizing it might be a quirk of hers. As long as the purse doesn’t have something harmful in it he doesn’t care where it is he was just trying to be nice which Aida knows, but she hasn’t been in here long enough to feel comfortable.

“Well since everyone is here let’s start.” Cameron says grabbing his bass.

We start playing “This Shouldn’t be Legal” but something about the chorus isn’t right and we all know it. We are trying to fix it to no avail. I’m starting to get frustrated, but I noticed her purse is now just sitting next to Aida on the floor where she is sitting meaning that she is getting more comfortable which means the world to me.

While we try to talk out the problem with the song Aida gesture to Nathan’s guitar and he nods his head saying she can play with it. Then she begins to strum what Nathan taught her earlier and sing, “Leave that to me to live recklessly oh whoao I know this shouldn’t be legal.” As she plays she changes two notes which remove the wrong sound.
We all thank her like crazy because we were getting frustrated with the song. All the thanking, however, I can tell makes her feel special which makes her beam with happiness the rest of practice.

After practice we got to our favorite Mexican restaurant and we all insist on splitting the price of her food to her discontent. She is especially annoyed with me because I also bought her lunch.

I loved having Aida and Cuddles come along, and I know the guys love her because she is down to earth and sweet. By the end the guys were even getting her to talk a little.

After dinner I drove her home and asker her, “So what do you think about our music?”

“Love your music.”

“What about you Cuddles?” I say to the adorable bear who is peaking out of her purse at this point.

Cuddles nods her head with some help from Aida as an answer.

“My dad got me two tickets for a Maroon 5 concert in two weeks, and I was wondering would you come with me?”

“Of course!” I reply to her request.

I apologize that I have to go, but before I leave I kiss Cuddles and her on the cheek before getting into my car and driving home.