Kindred Souls

“What was wrong with this one?” My best friend, Alivia Ellis, asked as soon as I walked through the door of the house we shared in Gilbert, Arizona.

I had just gotten home from the blind date she set me up on that I wasn't looking forward to. With the 'clank' and 'jangle' of my keys hitting the table by the door, I sighed, “He was a Pisces.”

She rolled her eyes and went back to the homework spread out across the coffee table. “That is such a bullshit excuse.” Her pen was flying across the note cards. It looked like she was doing definitions.

I collapsed next to her and proceeded to take the five inch heels I was wearing off. My feet rejoiced at the freed feeling, “But, it's enough.” I countered as I spread out.

“No, it's not. A good excuse would be he's still living at home with his parents, is a deadbeat, and only talked about World of Warcraft all night.” She said, not looking up from her text book. “Not that he wasn't the right sign.”

Alivia was a Cancer, so our friendship worked. Being a Cancer meant that she had a more practical approach to life while I did not. We evened each other out. She didn't care much for astrology, but I knew that she was every characteristic of the sign she was born under. The fact that I didn't give any potential lover the time of day when I found out they weren't compatible with a Gemini annoyed her to no end.

“You never know, Lee, one of these guys you blow off might be the one for you.” She had stopped writing and was looking at me now.

“Not likely.” I brushed it off and she sighed in annoyance while rolling her eyes.

“How would you know?” She shot back, “You haven't given anyone the time of day that wasn't an Aquarius, Aries, or Libra.”

“You forgot I sometimes work with Leos.” I was ticking her off. This subject always did, “And that's not true; Ben Reed in high school was a Taurus and I dated him all of Junior year!”

“You guys fought through that entire relationship.”

I smiled, “Exactly! We aren't compatible at all.” Once again, she rolled her eyes, “The signs don't lie, Aly.”

My best friend shook her head and went back to her flashcards. Alivia was studying to be a sonogram technician and was almost done. It was something she'd wanted to do since she was a Sophomore in high school and now at almost twenty two, her dream was almost going to come true. In the meantime, though, she bartended at a bar in Tempe, near the Arizona State University campus.

Me, on the other hand, I planned weddings. It wasn't something I always wanted to do because I didn't necessarily want to get married, but it was, at the moment, fun. I didn't go to college or anything; school wasn't my thing. Instead, I did odd jobs here and there before settling on wedding planning. I got bored of things quickly, so I knew I was going to need to figure out my next move soon. Not yet, but soon.

“Leland,” I wasn't paying attention to Alivia anymore. Instead, I was scrolling through the channels on the TV, “I want you to go on a date one time and not worry about what sign the guy is.” Her asking me this was like asking Kanye West not to be so full of himself. I stared at her, “Are you having a nervous breakdown?” She chuckled “It won't kill you to give someone a chance for once.”

I thought about it. If I actually did something like this, it could potentially be a big waste of time, but really any date Alivia set me up on was a big waste of time. It could also be a way to prove to her that my theory was right, “I'll think about it.” She smirked and went back to her homework.

I was very scatterbrained, so I had completely forgotten about everything Alivia asked of me. So a week later when she brought it up again, I reacted the same exact way.

We were at Happy Endings, the bar Alivia worked at. I was keeping her company while the bar went through a lull. She was complaining about how much she wanted to be in a relationship and I was mentally gagging.

Alivia was a hopeless romantic, while I was not. I didn't swoon at heart shaped pizzas and little gestures. I hadn't been in a real relationship since Ben Reed in high school and that was four years prior. I dated, sure, but nothing too serious. I had fun. I was perfectly fine being alone and single. It was hard for someone to keep my attention long enough anyways.

“We need to find you a guy, though, Leland.” Alivia said as she took inventory of the bottles on the counter behind her.

I rolled my eyes at her idea, “I'm totally fine, Aly.”

She turned around to face me and shook her head, “You're going to have to settle down sooner or later.” I wanted nothing to do with the conversation we were about to get into, so I was grateful when the door opened and customers walked in, needing her attention. She shot me a look before greeting the light ginger haired boy sitting at the end of the bar. I chuckled as I lifted the bottle of raspberry wheat Shock Top to my lips.

The guy must have been a regular because Alivia seemed to know him. I didn't know how I would feel if a bartender knew who I was.

The door opened again and two more guys walked in, “Hey, guys!” Alivia greeted happily over the sound of an old The Doors song.

“Hey Aly.” One of them said. I wasn't paying much attention, but when he called her by her nickname, I was intrigued to see who these boys were.

From my seat, I swiveled and took in the appearance of three guys. The two that had entered had joined the one that was already there. The one that called Alivia by her nickname was tall and had short, brown hair with a goatee to match. He was smiling widely at her, which made my eyebrow raise in interest.

“How was tour?” Tour? My eyebrow raised higher up my forehead.

“It was really good. We missed your awesome drinks, though.” I snorted at his horrible flirting. His friends seemed to think he was just as horrible as I did because they both rolled their eyes and immediately looked away in annoyance.

The third one happened to look in my direction and caught my eye. From where I was sitting, I could see his blue eyes. As awkward as it was, I kept our eyes locked and didn't look away. Finally, I raised my bottle and nodded at him. He nodded back and turned back forward.

The last of my beer was swallowed in the gulp I took and I immediately wanted a new one. Alivia was still busy giggling at the bad flirter. His friends looked annoyed still. “Bartender!” I yelled out, just to annoy her.

The smile the bad flirter put on her face dropped instantly when she heard my voice. As she glared over at me, I smiled sweetly at her and she excused herself, “You're a real bitch sometimes, you know that?” She seethed when she stepped in front of me.

I batted my eyelashes at her, “Oh, but whatever do you mean, Alygator?”

Her eyes narrowed at me, “Shut up.” She said through gritted teeth, “Now, what do you want?”

“Another beer would be nice. And for you to tell me who those guys are.”

She rolled her eyes, “They're just a group of guys that come in here all the time. They've been on tour the past month, so I haven't seen them.” She shrugged.

“And you giggling at that guy's bad lines has nothing to do with the fact that you want to bone him?”

She stared at me before grabbing a new bottle, popping the top off and slamming it down on the bar in front of me, “Drink your beer, you bitch.” She said then started back to where the bane of her sexual frustrations was sitting, having a short conversation with his friends.

“Love you, too, Alygator!”

“Fuck you, too, Bumble Lee.” She smiled innocently at me and I flipped her off before taking a large drink from my new bottle.

We had the tendency of calling each other by the nicknames we hated just to annoy each other. We had come up with them when we were kids and at first they were cool, but they got annoying and dumb as we got older.

My mind was off, wandering again and I lost track of time. It wasn't that long, though. I knew that for a fact. Growing bored of sitting by myself and looking like a loser, I got up from my stool and walked over to where my best friend was flirting with the guy from before and his two friends were discussing some random topic I wasn't very interested in.

All of them turned to me when they realized I had joined their group, “Yes?” Alivia asked and I smirked.

“I thought since I gave up my night to come hang out with you while you worked, I'd actually hang out with you instead of sitting by myself like a loner.”

She rolled her eyes, “What could you possibly have given up tonight that you'd rather be doing?”

I took offense to her words, but didn't show it, “I have other friends, you know!” I defended, “And a job. I could be getting work done.”

She raised one of her eyebrows at me, “Well,” She turned to the three, “this is Kennedy, Jared, and Garrett.” I smiled politely at the bunch, “Guys, this is my best friend and all around pain my ass, Leland.”

They laughed at her introduction, but I just glared, “Feeling's mutual, Babe.” She blew me a kiss before getting back to her conversation with Kennedy. I sighed in annoyance before going over and sitting on the stool next to Jared, the light ginger. Him and Garrett, blue eyes, looked at me. “So how long have they been building up to having sex?” I asked nonchalantly then took a sip of my beer.

They both seemed mildly surprised by my bluntness, but that was all something I had become used to. I was a very blunt person, but no one really figured that from my looks.

“Almost a year now.” Jared said.

My eyes widened, “Wow, tell your friend to man up! Lord knows Alivia won't do anything about it.” I watched as Alivia laughed at another one of Kennedy's ridiculous jokes.

“Trust me, we've tried. He's just a pussy.” Garrett's voice was deeper than I imagined.

“I might have to intervene soon.” I smirked and they laughed.

After we all took drinks out of our respective bottles, Garrett spoke again, “Hey, I like your hair.; it's cool.”

I smiled at the compliment, “Thank you.” My hair was always a conversation piece seeing as it was a light purple and white color.

“I want to dye mine green.”

I laughed, “Mine was green two months ago.”

His eyes widened and a smile seemed to instantly spread across his face, “Really?”

I nodded with a laugh, “Yup. I had it like that since the beginning of the year.”

“How often do you dye it?” Jared asked.

I resisted the urge to laugh at the fact that I was having a conversation with two guys about my hair, “Once a month, maybe.”

“Isn't that bad?”

I shrugged, “If you don't take care of it.”

“Are you naturally blonde?” Jared continued to question.

I shook my head, I have brown hair,” I pointed to Garrett, “much like yours.”

Jared looked over at Garrett's messy brown hair then back at me, “If I'm not mistaken, you have to bleach your hair to do that, right?” I nodded, “Sounds like a lot of work.”

I shrugged again and took a drink, “I've been doing it for a while, so it's almost second nature by now.” We were all quiet. All we could hear were the giggles coming from the girl I called my best friend. I raised an eyebrow at the flirting couple and rolled my eyes. I noticed Garrett do the same. This intrigued me, “Well, anyways, as much as I would love to stay and stand around, but I think I would be having a lot more fun at home.” I downed the rest of my beer and set the bottle down on the bar. This caught the attention of Alivia.

“You're leaving?” She asked as she straighten up.

“You have everything under control and you don't need my company anymore.”

She pouted, “Fine. I guess you can go.”

I laughed then turned to walk to the door. My sudden turn made me lose my footing in my heels, but I quickly grabbed onto the first thing I could. It ended up grasping back, “You sure you're okay to drive?” Garrett asked as he held onto my arm.

I laughed again, “I'm fine. It's just these fucking heels.” Still holding onto his arm, I brought my foot up and leaned down to slip out of my four inch heels. The added height had made me eye level with Garrett, but now I was eye-level with his collarbones. My grip on his arm loosened as did his on mine.

“Wow, you are short.” He mused.

“I'm 5'4”, I'm not that short.” He raised his hands in defense, “Anyways, it was nice to meet you two. If he ever grows the balls, we will be seeing more of each other.”

They both laughed, “I'm sure it'll happen eventually.” Jared said, “Until then, it was nice talking to you.”

“Isn't he great?” Alivia sighed out like a lovesick teenage girl right when she walked through the door of our house.

I was lying on the couch with my kitten, Ryan, sleeping on my stomach, reading the latest issue of Nylon Magazine with Florence Welch on the cover. As soon as I heard my best friend, I lowered the magazine and watched her. She had this look on her face that made me want to roll my eyes. She was so smitten. Never had I ever experienced the whole “smitten, head-over-heels, floating on a cloud” thing.

With another dreamy sigh, she collapsed into the loveseat closest to the door, falling into it from over the arm rest, “He's just so cute and he has the best smile. Ugh, and his voice.” I raised an amused eyebrow at her gushing, “Lee, I think I'm in love.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes then lifted the magazine back in my line of vision, “I heard your sexual tension has been growing for a year now. Thanks for telling me.”

Even though I couldn't see her, I knew she was rolling her eyes, “There's nothing really to tell. Him and his friends come into the bar when they're home from tour, which is hardly ever. He didn't even really start talking to me until last December when he and a few of his friends came in during a lull. It's all just been a bunch of flirting and no action.” She suddenly got a dark look on her face, “I need the action.” She said through gritted teeth.

I laughed at her pain, “Sexual frustrations.” I sang in the tune of Snoop Dogg's “Sensual Seduction”.

She groaned, “It's so horrible, Leland.” She sat normally on the chair and looked at me. I lowered the magazine again, “Why won't he ask me out? Am I not pretty enough?” Oh God, here we go again, “Does he not like my tattoos? No, that can't be it; he has a tattoo. Maybe I'm just some girl he likes to flirt with to get free beer.”

“Aliva,” I cut her off, “stop being so fucking insecure. That guy likes you. He just doesn't have the balls to ask you out. I bet he dragged his friends there just so he could see you. I also bet they just got in from tour yesterday and his first thought was how much he wanted to see you.”

I grew up giving Alivia a variation of the same pep talk. I was most definitely an expert on giving her relationship advice despite how low my relationship count was. But I guessed no matter how many relationships you've been in, you could still give someone hope with theirs.

Alivia pouted, “Then why won't he ask me out? It's been six months of mindless flirting and nothing else.”

I wanted to roll my eyes, get up, and lock myself in my room away from her dramatic non-relationship, “Because he's a pussy. If you like him so much, why don't you ask him out. He'd probably say yes.”

She gave me a look, one I knew all too well. It was the same one she gave me every time I suggested she asked someone out, “Yeah, and let me just grow some confidence while I'm at it.” She said sarcastically.

I gasped in mock excitement, “Yeah! You should totally do that, too!”

With a roll of her eyes, she stood up and walked across the living room to the hallway., “I'm going to bed because I have school in the morning. Don't be up too late doing nothing.”

“Okay, Sweetie, I'll try not to!” Sometimes the way we talked to each other made us seem like we hated each other. That was not the case at all. We just liked to push each other's buttons.

In reality, I adored Alivia because she had been there for me my whole life. Her and her family took me in when I had no where else to go and I would forever be in debt to her. I loved her like a sister. She was the only family I had.