When the Sun Comes Up

Gabe stifled a yawn with the back of his hand; he was looking forward to a warm shower and going out to dinner with Ryland.
He opened the door and found everyone sitting on the floor passing around a box of Lucky Charms and trying to talk above each other.

“Gabe’s here!” Claudia exclaimed as if trying to change the subject.

Nate grinned, “Oh Gabe you wanna watch something funny. Play it for him Vicky!”

Gabe pulled his sweat shirt off and set it on the couch before taking a seat on the floor beside Ryland and taking the box of cereal from Kait. She didn’t meet his eyes but gave him a toothy grin before turning her attention to Vicky hooking her video camera to the TV, and Claudia trying to smother Nate with a couch cushion.

“What’s going on?”

Alex grinned, “Just watch it, it’s fucking hilarious.”

“No,” Claudia whined, “can’t we have one person in this room who hasn’t seen me humiliating myself?”

Kaitlin giggled, “oh c’mon, we’re just joking besides it’s pretty funny.”

Claudia sighed, “fine but I’m out of here.”

Gabe watched as she got up and straightened her dress. She then pulled on her coat.

“Oh come on don’t be all pissy,” Nate said getting up and placing a hand on her shoulder.
She shrugged it on and buttoned her coat, “I’m not. I’m late I’m going out with Ryan tonight.”

Gabe hadn’t heard of anyone named Ryan. Besides he thought she was with Pete, “who is this Ryan guy?”

She rolled her eyes, “Ay Gabriel, it’s just one of the kids in the band Pete signed. He’s the only one that’s eighteen and he’s staying in an apartment near Pete’s place.”

Gabe again reached for the cereal this time keeping the box. “Why is he staying here? Why not stay back in wherever he’s from.”

“It’s sad really, his mom ran out on him when he was a kid and his dad died recently. He really had no reason to stay behind. Since Pete is recording up in Chicago, I promised I’d keep him company.”

“oh,” Gabe felt guilty for having asked, the kid’s story sounded too much like Claudia’s now he knew why she cared so much.

“Does anyone know where my purse is?”

“I’m pretty sure I put it in my room,” Ryland got to his feet, “here I’ll show you.”

She shook her head and rushed, “no I’ve got it.”

Gabe noticed it was weird between the two of them, he wondered what had happened today.

“Are you ready to laugh your ass off Gabe?” Vicky asked with a huge smile.

Claudia came back into the living room, “ugh at least wait until I’m gone. Bye guys, Gabe do not and I mean do not try to bring up this video later on because I refuse to talk about it ever again.”

Nate snickered at her words.

She glared at Nate but then turned her attention to Alex “Alex you’re still gonna drive me right?”

He nodded and got up, making sure to zip up his hoodie before following her out of the apartment.

He turned to Kaitlin eager to have an actual conversation with her, “what exactly is so funny about this video.

She smiled, “oh you’ll see.”

Vicky started it and then moved back to sit next to Nate.

The video started with Kaitlin at the counter of Starbucks, Ryland was taking her order, and in the background he could hear Alex and Nate talking. Kaitlin turned around and rolled her eyes at the camera.

“Come on get that thing out of my face.”

Vicky turned it to Claudia.

She smiled, “dude stop, aren’t you supposed to be filming the band.”

“Come on do something.”

Claudia stuck out her tongue then put her head down on the table.

Vicky gave up on her and turned it to Ryland briefly before turning it back to Alex and Nate.

“Guys,” she exclaimed! We should sexually harass Ry!”

Nate bounced in excitement, “oh yes guys let’s do it.”

Alex chuckled, “how exactly do you plan to do this?”

“Umm . . . oh here hold this.”

The camera shook a bit but then Vicky was on camera. She dug around in her purse.

“Yes! I have a Twinkie in my purse!”

“What are you going to do with,” Claudia paused then her eyes widened, “what, no seriously
that is so gross. Who is going to do it?”

The camera focused on Vicky, she shook her head “not me I’ve got to film it.”

The camera turned to Kaitlin. She laughed, “Umm yeah okay I’ll do it.”

The camera was handed back to Vicky. She pointed it to Nate who seemed to not like the idea.

“What’s wrong Nate?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know it just doesn’t seem right if she’s willing to do it. It’d be much funnier if it was you or Claudia.”

“Why? Besides I can’t I’ve got to film.”

He shrugged, “because if you don’t want to do it you won’t be able to keep a straight face. So Alex are you gonna do it or is Claud?”

“I don’t mind,” Alex laughed.

Ryland’s voice cut them off, “Kait Boss, Suareasy, Nasty Nate, Vicky-T, and Claud.”

“Well then he can do it,” Claudia said standing up and dragging Kaitlin with her to get their drinks

The camera followed them for a bit before turning back to Nate and Alex. Alex shrugged, “I’ll do it I really don’t mind it actually sounds kind of fun.”

Nate shook his head, “nope it has to be her . . . I just gotta figure out how to do it.”

Kaitlin and Claudia came back and set the coffee on the table. Everyone sat in silence drinking their coffee.

Nate stood up, “Claud do you mind helping me? I’m gonna buy everyone a muffin.”

She shrugged and followed after him. The camera turned and watched them he was talking to her quietly.

“what do you think he’s saying to her?” Kaitlin’s voice asked.

“I don’t know but it won’t work,” Vicky replied.

The two of them stopped talking and moved up to the counter where Ryland attended to them.

“Oh trust me Nate can be pretty persuasive.”

Claudia and Nate returned to the table carrying muffins. Claudia took a deep breath and held out her hand to Vicky, “Give me the damn Twinkie.”

Vicky’s hand passed in front of the camera to pass on the Twinkie. Claudia turned and glared at Nate before turning back to Kaitlin and saying, “can you get Ryland’s attention?”

Kaitlin waved until Ryland looked over. Vicky had moved because the camera had zoomed out a bit, you could see everyone in the Starbucks.

Claudia unwrapped the Twinkie and looked over at Ryland. She slowly slid the whole Twinkie in her mouth, but she couldn’t keep a straight face. In the background you could see Ryland had lost interest and walked away. Claudia started laughing so hard she spit up the Twinkie in Alex’s Lap. She tried to help him get it off but ended up knocking her coffee onto her dress.

“oh shit.” She mumbled She walked towards the bathroom.

Vicky followed her with the camera. The Women’s bathroom had a sign that said out of order on the door. So she knocked on the Men’s restroom door and walked in. A few seconds later she rushed out wide eyed and red mumbling “oh God!” over and over.

“What happened?” Alex asked while rubbing at his jeans with a napkin.

“I saw Ryland’s pee-pee” She buried her face in her hands.

Her words caused everyone in the video to laugh. The video then ended.

Gabe looked around at everyone laughing. Ryland chuckled but his face was a slight shade of pink. Gabe didn’t think it was that funny but it was still pretty funny. It also explained why Claudia was being weird around Ryland.

He turned to Kaitlin, “She’s not going to talk to Ryland anytime soon is she?”

She shook her head, “after seeing his penis you’ll be lucky if you can get her to sit in the same room as him for longer than five minutes. You have no clue how hard it was to get her to come over here with everyone.”

Gabe shook his head this meant everything was going to be awkward for a while. He then smiled because this had been the longest he’d talked to Kaitlin in a week and a half.

“I’m hungry you guys wanna go grab dinner?”

Kaitlin shook her head, “I would but I’m already going to a friend’s bachelorette party. C’mon Vicky we should get going, we still have to change.”

“I’d go too but I’ve got another date with Jen.” Nate stated, getting off the floor and pulling on his hoodie.

Gabe glanced over at Ryland, he shrugged, “Yeah lemme go put on some shoes.”

Gabe nodded, and went into his room to put on a clean shirt and a pair of jeans.

“Bye guys see you later!” The girls voices called before Nate also shouted a goodbye and the front door shut.



“Thanks,” Gabe smiled as the waitress set his veggie burger in front of him. He wasted no time in digging in.

He watched Ryland play with his fries. He wondered what was up maybe it was because Nate was on his second date with Jen, and Ryland had wanted to ask her out first. Maybe he was still embarrassed that Claudia had seen his dick, Maybe he was worried his co-workers are judging him for having such stupid friends or maybe it was something else entirely.
Gabe was halfway through his veggie burger when Ryland finally looked up from his plate.

“Are my ears really that big?”

Gabe laughed; of all the things he thought Ryland was going to say he had not expected that. “What even- where did that come from?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know I guess, like Claud’s been saying that since we were kids, but only when she was annoyed or when we’re joking around so I always thought she was joking but- I don’t know.”

“Why are you even worried about this?”

Gabe took another bite of his burger and watched as Ryland took a sip of his Coke. Finally Ryland continued his train of thought, “it’s just I don’t know I haven’t had any luck with dating. I guess I just thought maybe it was the ears.”

Gabe wanted to laugh but stopped himself by shoving a few fries into his mouth. He took his time chewing trying to think of what he could say.

“You’ve been on a few dates.”

He shrugged, “yeah but not as many as the rest of you guys, not that I’m keeping score or anything it’s just I don’t know. I liked Jen a lot and I thought she was into me but she’s out with Nate so. . .”

Gabe nodded, “dude I get it trust me I get it, but if she’s with Nate she’s with Nate you can’t do anything about it.”

Ryland chuckled and ate a fry, “I wish one of the girls was here, they have much better advice.”

Gabe rolled his eyes but tried to think of what the girls would say. “Well to be fair Kaitlin’s advice would be fairly similar to mine just maybe a little bit nicer. Vicky on the other hand would most likely tell you to go out and find a new girl or to just get laid or something, you know how she is. Claudia might tell you something like. . .uh someone better will come along soon.”

“That sounds about right.”

Gabe smiled, he knew them already. Kaitlin was honest but in a nice way, Vicky tended to think like they did which was probably why they loved having her around she was like one of the guys. Claudia was negative except when it came to other people’s problems then she looked on the bright side.

“Hey do you think Claudia is ever going to talk to me again?”

Gabe shook his head, he may know what kind of advice she’d give but he had no idea how she would handle this. She was an awkward person who continually got herself into awkward situations and had a habit of running from them. He took the last bite of his vegie burger.

“It’s hard to say.”

“It would suck if she stopped talking to me. Other than you she’s the only person I’ve known this long. I mean I know we’re not best friends or anything but she’ll cut you down a peg when you need it. Like back when you thought Midtown was gonna get signed you started getting a big ego and she was pretty much the only person to call you out on it. I mean I would have but ya know I wasn’t really around”

Gabe chuckled, “yeah I guess it is nice to have someone to keep your ego in check.”

Silence fell over the two as they finished off their fries.

“You know she saw Pete’s dick and they’re fine.” Gabe said waving the waitress over.

Ryland chuckled, “I’m pretty sure that’s different Gabe.”

The waitress smiled, “Hey guys can I interest you in a desert?”

Gabe nodded, “Yes you can. I’ll have the chocolate cake.”

She turned to Ryland, “How about you?”

He shrugged, “what do you recommend?”

She beamed at him, “well my favorite is the apple pie.”

Ryland smiled, “sounds good can I get the ice cream on a separate plate though?”

“Yeah I can totally get them to do that for you.”

“Okay thanks”

She nodded, “no problem I’ll bring it out to you guys as soon as I can.”

Gabe watched her walk away before turning to Ryland, “dude she’s so into you.”

Ryland shook his head, “nah.”

“She so is; believe what you want but she so is.”

Ryland shook his head but Gabe noticed the small smile Ryland was trying to hide.

“So do you know if Kaitlin is coming to our show next week?”

Ryland shrugged, “I think so, so if Pete is out of town why are we doing the show?”

“I think he might fly in? Or maybe he’ll have Claud record it. Either way I think it’s stupid he
wants us to play a show; he knows we’re good live.”

Ryland chuckled, “there’s that ego again. I think it’s logical to have us play a show this way he sees how we interact with the audience, it’s not just music that sells its stage presence.”

“Yeah I guess. Y’know I’m almost hoping Pete doesn’t show up. No one would watch our set they’d be too busy fawning over the guy. I don’t mean to sound like a jerk but, you get what I mean right?”

“Yeah I get you.”

The waitress came back over with a tray and set Gabe’s cake on the table before turning towards Ryland She set his pie on the table and beside it set down a small bowl with the scoop of ice-cream. Gabe noticed it wasn’t just a scoop of ice-cream, she had them drizzle caramel and chocolate on top.

He smiled at her, “thanks it looks great.”

“Are you sure I can get some peanuts for your ice-cream if you’d like.”

He shook his head, “no thanks.”

She nodded, “Alright let me know if you need anything else.”

Gabe tried to hold back his laughter when she walked away. Ryland gave him a strange look but shook it off and ate his ice-cream. Gabe shook his head Ryland might be one of the smartest dudes he knew but he was pretty clueless when it came to simple things like flirting.

“This cake is really good.”

Ryland nodded, “yeah it looks good, do you want some of my ice-cream?”

Gabe shook his head, “So Kaitlin hasn’t said anything about going?”

Ryland shrugged, “I haven’t seen her around much but when we do hang out we don’t talk about the band. I think she might go though, why? Are you still hung up on her?”

Gabe shrugged and continued to eat his cake.

“If you are you should get over it, She’s just stringing you along you know that right?”

Gabe didn’t like being judged especially by someone who had no idea what was really going on. He was tempted to try and explain the situation to Ryland but he was a grown ass man and didn’t have to validate his choices, instead he decided to change the subject.

“The waitress is into you. You should ask her to come out and support the band.”

“Why? I’m sure there will be enough people there already.”

Gabe rolled his eyes Ryland was so clueless, “it’s like a no pressure date dude, she shows up and you guys talk in a crowded room and you don’t even have to ask her out.”

He smiled, “you really think she’s into me?”

Gabe nodded and ate the last piece of his cake.

“Yeah hey I’m finished I’m gonna go across the street to that record store there’s something I wanna buy. You ask her and give her a nice tip so she knows you’re interested alright.”

Ryland rolled his eyes, “I’m not sure whether to thank you, or be angry because you’re ducking out on the bill.”

Gabe shrugged, “ask her first then decide. See ya in a bit.”