Status: Finished Short Story
A Lovely Catastrophe
A Lovely Catastrophe
He was the kind of guy about whom you couldn’t really decide if he was really beautiful or really somewhat ugly. His crooked teeth looked adorable when he smiled but still dorky, his sunglasses screamed ‘rockstar’ just as much as ‘possible idiot’. The only thing I knew was that he had managed to catch my attention.
“Evening, lovely,” he said and offered his hand for me to shake and I wondered why he acted so formally. His fingertips felt rough, like the ones of a guitarist, so maybe I wasn't that wrong about him being a rockstar.
He bought me a drink, he asked me to dance, he touched me in a way that made me shiver and it was all far too obvious. I didn’t mind.
One hand on my lower back, he led me to a dark corner of the club and for a moment I thought he was going to do me right there but he just pushed me against the wall and smiled. Planting small kisses on my neck he whispered, “Do you want to go back to mine?”
I hesitated.
“I don’t usually do this,” I said but he stayed silent. “I guess you do.”
I chuckled and there was nothing he could say so I just nodded and he knew it was alright.
I didn’t know why I hadn’t immediately left afterwards but he had snuggled up to me and it had felt good. He had fallen asleep about ten minutes ago but I felt wide awake so I just laid there, listening to his heartbeat and feeling his breath upon my face. He smelled of sex and the second I realized I felt cheap.
Struggeling to get out of his embrace I tried to vanish unnoticedly but obviously, I failed.
“Where are you going?” He asked sleepily.
“Home. Isn’t this how it works?”
For a moment his eyes lingered on me before he composed himself. “Yeah, yeah of course.”
With one last smile I disappeared out of his life.
When I had first met her I hadn’t been able to decide if she was really naïve or just kind of greedy. I still hadn’t come to a conclusion but now I really didn’t care anymore, as long as someone promised me I would be able to see her again.
By Monday, several people had asked me about my quick exit at the party, by Wednesday it became clear no one could tell me who she was, considering I didn’t even know her name and nobody had seen me leave with her. By Saturday I knew I wouldn’t get her out of my head again that easily.
I tried going back to the place where we had met but she wasn’t there, so, having no other idea what to do, I stayed miserable for the rest of the weekend.
I couldn’t believe how much time he still took up, how often I was actually thinking about him. A one-night stand wasn’t supposed to still be on my mind days later. But he was and it was troubling me as I wasn’t concentrating on my studies or on my social life or on anything really. My best friends were scolding me but I didn’t know what to do, my teachers were telling me off but I just continued to doodle hearts in my notebook and it was then that I realized I didn’t even know his name and if this wasn't stopping soon or if I wasn’t going to be able to see him again soon this would turn into a small catastrophe.
Four days later, Joel decided it was enough, so he took me to Bath to visit his sister, a lovely young girl I had know for most of my life. However, when we arrived I had to realize she wasn’t that young girl at all anymore, considering she was in her last year of university.
“No, Joel, I’m glad you’re visiting me, seriously, it’s just not the best of times with my exams coming up,” she said and grimaced.
“Appearantly it’s never a good time to visit my super busy sister."
I wasn’t even listening.
I was hiding behind one of the bookshelves of the library we were currently walking through. Looking at her.
“Aled? What on earth are you doing?” The fact that Joel was almost shouting in a deadly silent library wasn’t exactly helping me in trying not to catch attention.
I buried my head in my hands, groaning in furstration. “Just… Just go on, I saw an interesting book,” I muttered.
“An interesting book? You’re in the maths section!”
Damn. Why couldn’t he just leave so I could let the ground swallow me really quickly? I feared coming out of my hiding spot would lead to her seeing me and for some reason I didn’t really want that. I was so awkward.
“Just go on,” I whispered determinedly. “I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”
“Okay, dude.”
My plan was just to stay hidden for a little longer and then try to disappear out of the library unseen, when everybody had turned their attention back to their books. It didn’t work.
“Friends can be embarrassing, huh?”
I almost jumped, not having noticed someone come up to me. Well, not someone – her. She put a book back onto the shelf. I looked at her. No bare legs, high heels, make up. Just her, plain but more attractive than I’d ever found a girl.
“You don’t think I’m hiding from you, right?” I asked, wanting to make sure she didn’t consider me a total coward although I really was.
“Oh, no, why would you? I’m sure this book about trigonometry is really of your interest.”
I wasn’t even bothered by the comment because her smile was so adorable I thought I might melt, so I blurted out, “Want to go out for dinner?”
I had learnerd he was neither a rockstar nor an idiot but the first one he was indeed trying to become. He was currently aiming to get the demo he had recorded with a bunch of friends sold to some record company. In exchange I had told him about my courses at university and how I would like to become a maths teacher one day. It was funny how well we actually got along, considering it had started with a one-night stand. It was even funnier how it didn’t stop with that one dinner.
It had been almost a month now and if there hadn’t been a distance between Bath, where I was studying, and Cardiff, where he lived, he would probably come to see me every day. But there was a distance, so he settled for twice a week at least.
“I love this,” I said as I was walking around the city centre of Cardiff with him on a Saturday.
“Define ‘this’,” he laughed and linked his arm with mine.
“Coming over here, having you visit me, actually just spending time with you,” I answered honestly. “I’ve never had a best guy friend before.”
“That’s… cool.” For some reason that I couldn’t understand he sounded a little hesistant. “I don’t even think I ever had a best friend quite like you.”
We stayed silent for a while as we passed all the shops I would have loved to have a closer look at but somehow he always insisted on paying and I really didn’t want to take any more of his money.
“I don’t have that much time for you today.”
I was wondering why he had invited me over in the first place then.
“We are actually playing a gig tonight.”
I stopped immediately, turning him around and towards me, then placing both of my hands on his faced I asked, “Oh my god, is this true?”
He nodded with the biggest smile and, squeaking a little, I hugged him as tightly as possible. I was happy for him.
“If anything,” I said as I let go of him. “This means you’re stuck with me for longer because I’m definitely staying to see it!”
She was staying. She was staying to see the show.
That was all that had been going around in my head ever since this afternoon. It made me incredibly nervous just thinking about it. At the same time it was giving me some kind of strength.
“Aled! Are you alright?” Iain, one of my band members, asked, patting my shoulder as he sat down next to me.
There were about ten minutes left until we had to hit the stage, so we were currently trying to relax and calm out nerves a little bit backstage while the place was filling up with people. Hopefully.
“Sure, just a little nervous because she’ll be there tonight,” I answered.
“Oh, yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that.” His face got serious and I wondered what he could possibly be on about.
“What’s going on between the two of you?”
“Well, we’re, like, best friends, that’s what she told me today anyway.”
“Are you sure that’s all there is to it?”
“I have no idea what you are on about,” I replied while knowing exactly what he was talking about.
“It’s just… You can’t deny you've changed since you met her,” he made a little thinking pause. “The most obvious thing being you not sleeping around anymore.”
I was about to think of a clever answer that'd get me out of this conversation but instead breathed out in relief when I realized I didn’t have to anymore, as some man came in and told us we had to get ready to go on stage. I couldn’t have denied he was right anyway.
About an hour later, I was wandering around town with the guys. The show had been a success, considering they hadn't even released a CD there had been quite a few people and honestly, the band had been amazing and Aled, as the front man, even more so. Nobody wanted to go home just yet, then again no one really knew where to go, so we just walked around aimlessly.
"I'm very proud of you," I said as I cuddled up to my best friend and his arm sneaked around my waist.
"Thank you, babe." My heart fluttered a little at his use of the pet name. "It was the greatest thing ever. And I'm really glad you were there."
He went to place a kiss on my cheek, but I didn't realize that just then and turned my head towards him and his lips ended up in a very awkward place somewhat on the corner of my mouth.
"Sorry," he laughed embarrassedly. "I didn't mean it like that." He paused. "Actually, you know what? I think I did."
In an instant his lips were on mine, full on, and I was thinking maybe he was just euphoric from the gig but then I realized I wouldn't even care.
Wrapping my arms around his neck I responded to the kiss and only the distant sound of people cheering brought me back to reality. As we pulled apart I saw the guys staring at us, clapping and laughing, and a blush crept onto my face as Iain shouted, "About time!"
Aled just smiled, somewhere between embarrassed and happy, and then turned to me, asking, “Do you want to go back to mine?”
“This actually feels like a flashback,” I said, laughing about his choice of words and as he understood what I was talking about, he laughed along.
"But I think I will take up on that offer."
I didn't remember ever being as nervous as I was the moment I entered his bedroom and he closed the door behind us. His hands softly stroked my arms from behind, giving me the chills I remembered so well from weeks ago.
"Are you alright?" He asked and his mouth was way too close to my ear.
"Yes, of course, it's just... I don't think I ever told you."
"Told me what?"
I wasn't entirely sure about this but I felt as if I wanted to speak the truth.
"Back when we met... You were my first."
The silence that followed made me feel uncomfortable, but then he pressed a kiss to my neck and it calmed me a bit.
"Well, you know what? Word probably got around that I'm not exactly the relationship type and I sleep with quite a lot of people but now I feel I can really say this: You were and will be my last."
So I turned around and I kissed him, passionately, and he brought me to his bed and, as cliché as this might have sounded, he truly made me his and in that moment I knew, just like he had said, that I would always be. And it might have started with some kind of a small catastrophe, with an awkward one-night stand and the strange meeting afterwards, but by now it had turned into something absolutely lovely. A lovely catastrophe.
“Evening, lovely,” he said and offered his hand for me to shake and I wondered why he acted so formally. His fingertips felt rough, like the ones of a guitarist, so maybe I wasn't that wrong about him being a rockstar.
He bought me a drink, he asked me to dance, he touched me in a way that made me shiver and it was all far too obvious. I didn’t mind.
One hand on my lower back, he led me to a dark corner of the club and for a moment I thought he was going to do me right there but he just pushed me against the wall and smiled. Planting small kisses on my neck he whispered, “Do you want to go back to mine?”
I hesitated.
“I don’t usually do this,” I said but he stayed silent. “I guess you do.”
I chuckled and there was nothing he could say so I just nodded and he knew it was alright.
I didn’t know why I hadn’t immediately left afterwards but he had snuggled up to me and it had felt good. He had fallen asleep about ten minutes ago but I felt wide awake so I just laid there, listening to his heartbeat and feeling his breath upon my face. He smelled of sex and the second I realized I felt cheap.
Struggeling to get out of his embrace I tried to vanish unnoticedly but obviously, I failed.
“Where are you going?” He asked sleepily.
“Home. Isn’t this how it works?”
For a moment his eyes lingered on me before he composed himself. “Yeah, yeah of course.”
With one last smile I disappeared out of his life.
When I had first met her I hadn’t been able to decide if she was really naïve or just kind of greedy. I still hadn’t come to a conclusion but now I really didn’t care anymore, as long as someone promised me I would be able to see her again.
By Monday, several people had asked me about my quick exit at the party, by Wednesday it became clear no one could tell me who she was, considering I didn’t even know her name and nobody had seen me leave with her. By Saturday I knew I wouldn’t get her out of my head again that easily.
I tried going back to the place where we had met but she wasn’t there, so, having no other idea what to do, I stayed miserable for the rest of the weekend.
I couldn’t believe how much time he still took up, how often I was actually thinking about him. A one-night stand wasn’t supposed to still be on my mind days later. But he was and it was troubling me as I wasn’t concentrating on my studies or on my social life or on anything really. My best friends were scolding me but I didn’t know what to do, my teachers were telling me off but I just continued to doodle hearts in my notebook and it was then that I realized I didn’t even know his name and if this wasn't stopping soon or if I wasn’t going to be able to see him again soon this would turn into a small catastrophe.
Four days later, Joel decided it was enough, so he took me to Bath to visit his sister, a lovely young girl I had know for most of my life. However, when we arrived I had to realize she wasn’t that young girl at all anymore, considering she was in her last year of university.
“No, Joel, I’m glad you’re visiting me, seriously, it’s just not the best of times with my exams coming up,” she said and grimaced.
“Appearantly it’s never a good time to visit my super busy sister."
I wasn’t even listening.
I was hiding behind one of the bookshelves of the library we were currently walking through. Looking at her.
“Aled? What on earth are you doing?” The fact that Joel was almost shouting in a deadly silent library wasn’t exactly helping me in trying not to catch attention.
I buried my head in my hands, groaning in furstration. “Just… Just go on, I saw an interesting book,” I muttered.
“An interesting book? You’re in the maths section!”
Damn. Why couldn’t he just leave so I could let the ground swallow me really quickly? I feared coming out of my hiding spot would lead to her seeing me and for some reason I didn’t really want that. I was so awkward.
“Just go on,” I whispered determinedly. “I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”
“Okay, dude.”
My plan was just to stay hidden for a little longer and then try to disappear out of the library unseen, when everybody had turned their attention back to their books. It didn’t work.
“Friends can be embarrassing, huh?”
I almost jumped, not having noticed someone come up to me. Well, not someone – her. She put a book back onto the shelf. I looked at her. No bare legs, high heels, make up. Just her, plain but more attractive than I’d ever found a girl.
“You don’t think I’m hiding from you, right?” I asked, wanting to make sure she didn’t consider me a total coward although I really was.
“Oh, no, why would you? I’m sure this book about trigonometry is really of your interest.”
I wasn’t even bothered by the comment because her smile was so adorable I thought I might melt, so I blurted out, “Want to go out for dinner?”
I had learnerd he was neither a rockstar nor an idiot but the first one he was indeed trying to become. He was currently aiming to get the demo he had recorded with a bunch of friends sold to some record company. In exchange I had told him about my courses at university and how I would like to become a maths teacher one day. It was funny how well we actually got along, considering it had started with a one-night stand. It was even funnier how it didn’t stop with that one dinner.
It had been almost a month now and if there hadn’t been a distance between Bath, where I was studying, and Cardiff, where he lived, he would probably come to see me every day. But there was a distance, so he settled for twice a week at least.
“I love this,” I said as I was walking around the city centre of Cardiff with him on a Saturday.
“Define ‘this’,” he laughed and linked his arm with mine.
“Coming over here, having you visit me, actually just spending time with you,” I answered honestly. “I’ve never had a best guy friend before.”
“That’s… cool.” For some reason that I couldn’t understand he sounded a little hesistant. “I don’t even think I ever had a best friend quite like you.”
We stayed silent for a while as we passed all the shops I would have loved to have a closer look at but somehow he always insisted on paying and I really didn’t want to take any more of his money.
“I don’t have that much time for you today.”
I was wondering why he had invited me over in the first place then.
“We are actually playing a gig tonight.”
I stopped immediately, turning him around and towards me, then placing both of my hands on his faced I asked, “Oh my god, is this true?”
He nodded with the biggest smile and, squeaking a little, I hugged him as tightly as possible. I was happy for him.
“If anything,” I said as I let go of him. “This means you’re stuck with me for longer because I’m definitely staying to see it!”
She was staying. She was staying to see the show.
That was all that had been going around in my head ever since this afternoon. It made me incredibly nervous just thinking about it. At the same time it was giving me some kind of strength.
“Aled! Are you alright?” Iain, one of my band members, asked, patting my shoulder as he sat down next to me.
There were about ten minutes left until we had to hit the stage, so we were currently trying to relax and calm out nerves a little bit backstage while the place was filling up with people. Hopefully.
“Sure, just a little nervous because she’ll be there tonight,” I answered.
“Oh, yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that.” His face got serious and I wondered what he could possibly be on about.
“What’s going on between the two of you?”
“Well, we’re, like, best friends, that’s what she told me today anyway.”
“Are you sure that’s all there is to it?”
“I have no idea what you are on about,” I replied while knowing exactly what he was talking about.
“It’s just… You can’t deny you've changed since you met her,” he made a little thinking pause. “The most obvious thing being you not sleeping around anymore.”
I was about to think of a clever answer that'd get me out of this conversation but instead breathed out in relief when I realized I didn’t have to anymore, as some man came in and told us we had to get ready to go on stage. I couldn’t have denied he was right anyway.
About an hour later, I was wandering around town with the guys. The show had been a success, considering they hadn't even released a CD there had been quite a few people and honestly, the band had been amazing and Aled, as the front man, even more so. Nobody wanted to go home just yet, then again no one really knew where to go, so we just walked around aimlessly.
"I'm very proud of you," I said as I cuddled up to my best friend and his arm sneaked around my waist.
"Thank you, babe." My heart fluttered a little at his use of the pet name. "It was the greatest thing ever. And I'm really glad you were there."
He went to place a kiss on my cheek, but I didn't realize that just then and turned my head towards him and his lips ended up in a very awkward place somewhat on the corner of my mouth.
"Sorry," he laughed embarrassedly. "I didn't mean it like that." He paused. "Actually, you know what? I think I did."
In an instant his lips were on mine, full on, and I was thinking maybe he was just euphoric from the gig but then I realized I wouldn't even care.
Wrapping my arms around his neck I responded to the kiss and only the distant sound of people cheering brought me back to reality. As we pulled apart I saw the guys staring at us, clapping and laughing, and a blush crept onto my face as Iain shouted, "About time!"
Aled just smiled, somewhere between embarrassed and happy, and then turned to me, asking, “Do you want to go back to mine?”
“This actually feels like a flashback,” I said, laughing about his choice of words and as he understood what I was talking about, he laughed along.
"But I think I will take up on that offer."
I didn't remember ever being as nervous as I was the moment I entered his bedroom and he closed the door behind us. His hands softly stroked my arms from behind, giving me the chills I remembered so well from weeks ago.
"Are you alright?" He asked and his mouth was way too close to my ear.
"Yes, of course, it's just... I don't think I ever told you."
"Told me what?"
I wasn't entirely sure about this but I felt as if I wanted to speak the truth.
"Back when we met... You were my first."
The silence that followed made me feel uncomfortable, but then he pressed a kiss to my neck and it calmed me a bit.
"Well, you know what? Word probably got around that I'm not exactly the relationship type and I sleep with quite a lot of people but now I feel I can really say this: You were and will be my last."
So I turned around and I kissed him, passionately, and he brought me to his bed and, as cliché as this might have sounded, he truly made me his and in that moment I knew, just like he had said, that I would always be. And it might have started with some kind of a small catastrophe, with an awkward one-night stand and the strange meeting afterwards, but by now it had turned into something absolutely lovely. A lovely catastrophe.