Stand And Be Strong

I was in the kitchen, pouring various bottles into a cup, when Dan found me. He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “I’ve been looking for you” he said, “Nice costume by the way”. He and I had decided to dress up as pirates for his party. Casey came as a sailor and Max was a Navy seal. Josh had dressed up as a medieval king while Matt took on the role of a knight. And Chris, well I think he was supposed to be Robin Hood.

There had to have been at least a hundred people in Dan's flat. It was crazy. "come dance with me" Dan said, pulling me with him out into the living room. We danced to a few songs. They were fast songs, the type they play at the clubs. I was getting pretty buzzed from my red plastic cup. God knows what I poured in there. I was still relatively sober, but I decided to have a little fun anyway.

I turned to face away from Dan and he moved his hands lower on sides as our hips moved to the beat. I put my hands on his neck and started grinding on him. His hands tightened on my hips. He was into for a few minutes, but then moved away from me.

"Riley" he said, causing me to turn to face him. "I like you, a lot, but neither of us are entirely sober and I don't want to fuck it up. I think we should just take it easy for a little bit, yeah?"

"yeah" I nodded and he walked quickly away from me into another room. If he liked me, why didn't he want to dance with me? I had always thought Dan was attractive and I had grown to like him more as we became friends. I never thought he had shown any interest in me and I didn't expect our relationship to go anywhere, I was just dancing on him for fun.

It was weird to hear those words come out of his mouth. To be honest, it hurt a little. It was kind of like, "I like you but i don't like you". I don't know. Maybe it was just the alcohol in me talking.

I had finished my drink and went to get another before I found Casey sitting down on one of the couches and went over to join her. "Where's Max?" I wondered.

"went outside to have a smoke. What happened to Dan? I saw you two having some fun a little while ago." she said, nudging my arm.

"I don't know. He said we should take it easy and then he disappeared." she nodded in understanding and looked behind me. I turned to see what she was looking at. He was standing near the door with Josh, talking about something. Max came back inside a little while later. After promising we would hang out tomorrow, just us two roommates, she went over to her boyfriend, leaving me alone on the couch.

Dan's P.O.V.

"I just don't want it to be like the last time" I told Josh.

"well then you have to trust your bird, mate. She's not gonna do that to you. It'll be fine, just talk to her" be told me. This had to have been the millionth time we had this conversation. I like Riley but I haven't exactly been lucky in the past. I was hiding a lot from her. I had t even told her about the band. I was trying so hard not to become attached to anyone here. I never wanted to have another relationship. I disappear on tour with the band for months at a time and it wasn't fair to be dating someone. But then she showed up one day, having trouble with the lock.

"stop staring, she's too pretty for you" Casey said with a wink.

"I know." I hadn't even noticed her join the group. I was too caught up in my own thoughts.

"I was only kidding! Go get your woman" she laughed, walking down the hall with Max.

"if you have sex on my bed I'll kill you... and she's not my woman" I said, though I found myself walking towards her immediately after.

“we okay, love?” I asked, sitting down next to her. She looked confused.

“of course, we’re okay” she smiled, “I’m gonna get going though, I have a bit of a headache”

“oh, okay. Can I get you anything? Do you need me to drive you home?” she shook her head no and thanked me. I gave her a kiss on the cheek before she walked past me to leave.

I made my way back through the crowd of people to find some of my friends. I had just spotted Chris and Matt when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

Fuck.

There she was, in all her glory, looking just the same as she had 6 months ago. She flashed me her smile, that same smile i had grown to love so long ago.

“Hello Daniel”