Steal a Kiss in the Dark

October 28, 2013

Walking off the stage for the last time tonight, I wiped my face off with a towel handed to me by Matt. Throwing the towel back to him I started hopping around before heading outside to sign stuff for fans.

Sold out shows like that always hyped me up, and I could never be more excited to greet fans outside. When we sell out massive shows it always assures me that we're doing something right. It makes everything worth it. We may have lost Mia because of this career but we sure as hell wouldn't want to be doing something else.

I cracked the door open and peeked me head out. Nothing other than the sound of screams filled my ears. Just to tease the fans I closed the door only to open it again a few seconds later. I repeated this about three more times before finally going outside for real.

"ALEX!" I could hear coming from multiple directions. The screaming of your name from the mouths of fans was always amazing. Soon enough my name was joined by girls calling out, "JACK!" and "RIAN!" and "ZACK!"

Girls are crazy, was all I could think listening to the screaming girls. Quickly I signed a few CD's and shirts through the fence. Somehow, one girl got both of her arms through the holes in the fence and hugged me. I would have hugged her back but there was no way I was fitting my arms through the holes, instead, I kissed her cheek which I'm sure she enjoyed more than a hug.

After fifteen minutes of that, the guys and I headed inside to shower, change, and talk about the night's show.

As we were sitting around and talking Matt interrupted. "You guys know how you're playing Charleston on November 14th, right?"

"Yeah," the four of us responded slightly confused. We may get drunk a lot but we knew when and where we play.

"Well, some guy just e-mailed me if he could come and propose to his girlfriend during your set. I guess it's their two year anniversary and her birthday and he wants to make it perfect for her. Would you guys mind?"

"That'd be so cool!" I exclaimed. Love just made me happy. Call me a sap, I don't give a fuck.

"What if it was Mia? What if Mia has a boyfriend?" Jack asked in a happy tone.

"One, that's the day before Mia's birthday. Two, Mia doesn't have boyfriends. Boys don't ask Mia out, remember?" I informatively said.

Rian laughed a little, "Mia's birthday is the fourteenth, dude."

"Are you sure?" I questioned. All of her birthday parties had always been on the fifteenth.

"Yeah! She always had her party the day after because she had her family party the day of her birthday," Rian informed me.

Jack continued, "Plus, Mia moved. New girls are always more attractive. She could easily have a boyfriend because she was hot while she was still here. Guys just didn't like her because they'd known her during her annoying stage and that's all they saw from her."

"I pray that isn't Mia..." I trailed off slightly worried.

"Why?" Zack questioned before taking a drink from his beer.

"Because Alex looooved Mia," Rian teased me. "Actually, I'm pretty sure he still looooves Mia."

"Dude, seriously?" Zack asked with an amused expression, "You never took your chance. She saw you as a friend. Odds are she still only sees you as a friend. If it is her the guy in the e-mail is talking about what would you even do?"

"Tell her to say no," I firmly stated.

Jack then added to the conversation, "She barely knows us anymore, we barely know her. Alex, you need to realize it's been a long ass time. We've all changed. Even if Mia is exactly the same as she was, we aren't."

Even though I didn't want to believe it, I knew they were right. There was nothing that could be done if it was her. Thankfully, the odds of it even being her in the e-mail were so, so small.

"Alex, wake up and smell the roses," Rian sighed, "Mia isn't really our friend anymore. We haven't said a word to her in years."

"I know," sadly, I did know. You can't be considered friends if you haven't talked in forever. "How did we lose contact with her anyway?"

"New numbers and new phones that we couldn't contact transfer," Zack replied.

"I wish Mia was still around," Jack whined. "Her mom said she hasn't even been back to Baltimore once since she moved."

"You still talk to her mom?" I asked slightly concerned.

"Well yeah, I still live next door when we're not touring," he sighed. "She still has that spectacular graduation picture of us in her living room."

"You still go inside?" Rian asked now concerned.

"Dude, Mia's mom is hot. Plus, she's only fifteen years older than us."

"Please tell me you don't bang her mom," I asked almost disgusted.

"All the time," Jack answered with a straight face. "I'm kidding. Her mom's nice to me. She bakes me cookies."

"You didn't, I don't know, think to get Mia's number from her mom?" I asked annoyed at the fact I hadn't gone to say hi to Mrs. Albrecht since a year after Mia moved.

"Oops," he admitted, "it never really crossed my mind to ask."

"Jack, you moron!" Rian yelled throwing a pillow from the couch at Jack.

"Tell me something new," he laughed throwing the pillow back at Rian. How they found this funny, I didn't know. We've gone without Mia's number for years when Jack could have easily gotten it from her mom.

Sometimes, I think that kid needs a new head. His is always somewhere in the clouds, and I really wish he'd come down at some point. He has a big heart, sometimes he's just not smart enough to use it in the right way.

We all sat in an awkward silence for a while. If I'd had a pin I would have dropped it just for a small noise. All I could do is wonder if the guy who e-mailed Matt was going to propose to Mia. Just thinking about Mia with another guy broke my heart.

I bet it is her. I bet he's some muscular guy with dirty blonde hair. Betting all my money, I'd say he probably has blue eyes and straight teeth. He's probably some surfer and tanned. I'm sure she's with some guy who's better than me in every way.

"What if it is Mia," I quietly asked to myself forgetting the other guys were still in the room with me. "Was this whole band thing worth losing Mia over?"

"I know this isn't what you want to hear, Alex, but I honestly think we did the right thing. We reach more people and somehow help them than we ever could have had we stayed in Baltimore. Yeah, this all came with the loss of Mia but we gained so many opportunities. We've been given the opportunity to meet so many new people," Rian calmly said to me. I didn't believe it, though. I didn't want to believe it.

I sighed before asking the obvious question, "Is it selfish that I want Mia all to myself?"

"Yes," Jack stated. "You don't know her anymore. She, I know you don't want to believe it, but I'm pretty sure she'd be in a relationship by now. Mia is one of the most lovable girls on the planet."

"I know," I again sighed. "Do you think she thinks about and misses us?"

"It would be weird if she didn't," Zack admitted, "We, well you two, were there for a majority of her life."

"Do you think she's told her South Carolina friends about us and how we used to be best friends?" I didn't want to stop talking about Mia.

Rian looked up in thought for a second, "Maybe. She might not want people to know or she might tell everybody. That's a tricky question."

I nodded understanding what he meant. For some reason that I couldn't place my finger on, I hoped Mia kept our friendship to herself. If we still had secrets nothing could tear us apart. If she told everybody everything then we'd no longer have or be something special.

Oh, how I hoped it wasn't Mia.