All Yours Somehow

“Has he spoken to you yet?” Holly asked.

“No, but I guess I’ll just see him there,” I said as we finished getting ready. We’d found out the details of tonight a couple of days ago and already Holly was pestering me about John. I couldn’t wait to meet up with everyone else so that she would go off and find some random guy for the night.

The Maine’s drummer Pat had organised for everyone to go round his for the evening and have a barbecue and hang out in his backyard since it was huge. When we arrived, there was already a lot of people there and I immediately recognised many faces I knew.

“Hey Hannah, hi Holly,” Pat said as we walked in the backyard.

“Hey Pat,” I smiled. “How was tour?”

“Yeah, it was awesome, played some really great shows,” he stuttered out. “Feels good to be home though.”

“I bet!” I laughed.

“Well if you guys want a drink, go help yourselves, and I think the other guys are around somewhere if you want to talk to them,” he told us before heading off to talk to someone else.

Holly and I walked into his kitchen and made ourselves drinks and said hello to a couple of people we knew in there.

“So have you seen him?” she asked me as we walked back outside.

“Seen who?” a familiar voice said next to me.

“You actually,” Holly laughed. “I’ll leave you to it,” she winked and walked away.

“Hey pretty girl,” he said, grinning at me. “I missed you.”

“Me too, it’s been a while,” I smiled. “Did you enjoy tour?”

“Yeah, it was probably the best tour we’ve ever done,” he told me.

“That’s great! I’m glad you’re home though.”

“Oh really?” he asked, moving his head in closer and placing one hand on the side of my face to pull it to his. He pressed his lips to mine and I closed my eyes, placing my free hand on his side. As he pulled away, he looked deep into my eyes. “I’m glad I’m home too.”

“John, I want to say something,” I began, taking a deep breath. Over the past week or so, since the stress of college had begun to fade away, I had started thinking more about what was going on between me and John.

“What is it Hannah?” he said, as if he thought I was about to put my defenses up.

“I just wanted to say that I can’t wait for our date whenever we end up going,” I smiled.

“Oh,” he smiled back. “Well, we better arrange it then!”

We decided that we’d go two days later, John was going to come pick me up from the apartment at 7pm and take me out.

“I’m so excited for what I’ve got planned,” he told me. “But I want to keep that a surprise until we go.”

“Right well, let’s forget that for now,” I told him. “Tell me about tour!”

“Yes, tour! Oh god,” he said. “Where to begin?”

We spent the next couple of hours talking about everything. Tour, recording, college, exams, family, friends. I didn’t even notice how much time had passed. Nor did I notice who had come and gone from Pat’s backyard. I forgot how well me and John did actually get on, even just as friends. I had really missed him, even if I couldn’t admit it before.

Once we had finally exhausted all the topics we could think of that we could catch up on, we separated and began speaking to other people. As I went to the kitchen to grab another drink, I recognised the brown haired boy stood in the doorway.

“He really likes you, you know,” Halvo said, not actually looking directly at me, more focussed on something out in the yard.

“I know,” I nodded, walking past him to grab a bottle of beer.

“Then why do you keep stringing him along?” he asked, turning to me.

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are. There are so many girls that would kill to get John’s attention the way he gives it to you,” he told me. “Yet you just shrug him off like it’s nothing.”

“Halvo, I can’t help that I wasn’t ready before. But for your information, we’re going out in a couple of days time, properly this time,” I told him. “I like him too, but it’s a lot to go into a relationship.”

“Just a warning though, Hannah,” he said more quietly than before. “He might really like you, like I said, but I’ve known John since we were kids, and no matter how much he likes a girl, there’s only so long he’ll chase you for.”

I looked at him and his face was completely straight. It was make or break.