The Last Good Thing About This Part of Town

The next week seemed to drag by too slowly as Patrick and Joe eagerly anticipated the show on Friday night, but it also seemed to go too fast as they spent more time with Julianna. She went to Patrick's house every day after school, partly because she just didn't want to go home but mostly because she really wanted to get to know these guys better. She only had two classes with Joe, so hanging out at school as a trio was not an option, and she found she actually looked forward to the end of the school day now.

However, Patrick and Julianna were not able to spend time just the two of them since that night in his car, and he wondered if she planned it that way. She was skittish around people, he noticed, especially people she potentially cared about. She would open herself up to a certain point then retreat back into herself if she felt someone was getting too close. It was infuriating and intriguing to Patrick because as soon as he thought he was gaining ground in their friendship, she would distance herself just as quickly. But he wanted to know why she was this way. What made her so distrusting of people? She seemed to have parents who, though misguided in their treatment of her dreams and abilities, loved and cared for her, and she got along with her twin brother despite their polar opposite worldviews.

Julianna introduced Patrick and Joe to Jonathan when they got out of their cars in the school parking lot on Monday morning. As much as he hated to admit it, Patrick felt intimidated by the tall, lean, athletic kid. As soon as Jonathan and Julianna stepped out of their tan Range Rover, she greeted Patrick and Joe with a smile and a wave, but Jonathan was much more serious. He shook hands and said few words as he hefted his hockey bag onto his back then went off to find his team mates. And that was the only interaction Patrick had with Julianna's twin brother. He did not seem too overly protective of his sister, and based on the way Julianna talked about him, Jonathan was definitely the responsible leader-type working to get ahead and prove himself to the world. Julianna cared very little about being a leader or being in the spotlight and she rebelled against social conventions and others' opinions of her. Though Patrick knew she did care what other people thought of her. At the very least, she wanted people to respect her views even if they did not necessarily agree or even like her. The thing that really drew Patrick to her, though, was her ability to treat others the way she wanted to be treated. She never had a negative thing to say about her peers, and yet she was realistic and honest.

On Friday, Julianna met Patrick at his car, a gray 1986 Honda Civic, when school ended. Joe and the band guys had to be in Chicago by 4:30 to set up for sound check at 5:30, so he left as soon as the final bell rang. Julianna's parents wanted to meet Patrick before he drove their daughter to a rock concert in the city, but when they pulled into her driveway he just sat there, gripping the steering wheel.

"You gonna come in?" Julianna unbuckled her seat belt and let it fall into place behind her.

"Eventually," Patrick worked his hands on the plastic steering wheel, making the muscles in his forearms jump. "Maybe."

"Come on, Patrick, they're just people. They're not scary or intimidating. Pretend they're Joe's parents or something."

"Wow, you're so sympathetic. I can't handle it."

"Paaaaatriiiiiick," she drew out his name as she shook his shoulder with both her hands, "it's going to be fine. You're sweet and non-threatening and they're gonna love you...as much as they can love someone besides themselves. The sooner we get in there, the sooner it will be over and we can get to Chicago."

Patrick looked over at her smiling face, her big brown eyes shining in the October mid-afternoon sun, and decided he would do anything to continue seeing that face; genuinely happy, excited about the night ahead.

"Ok, let's go in."

Inside, Patrick tried not to look impressed by the Toews' house, but he was sure he was failing as he stood in the foyer and gazed up at the twenty-foot ceiling and double-spiral staircase. He wasn't sure but the floor looked like it was made of marble and the sun shone through the skylights over the upstairs loft, filling the entryway with rays of light that looked like God Himself would ascend the stairs at any moment.

"Keep walking," Julianna gently prodded him with her hand on his back. They went down a short hallway with a bathroom on one side and another door, probably leading to the basement, on the other wall. The hall opened up into a huge kitchen, dining and living room area that was even more impressive than the entryway. Tall, six-paned windows on the back wall of the living room allowed light in, and the ceilings were at least eight feet tall. A television as big as Patrick was tall was attached to the wall adjacent to the windows, facing a glass coffee table and a brown leather sectional. Two leather recliners on either side of the room also faced the TV. An ornate wooded dining table was the centerpiece of the dining room, and the kitchen was probably as large as Patrick's entire house. Everything was professionally decorated. A tall, slender woman in a white pantsuit and heels stood at the sink arranging a dozen yellow roses in a vase. Her nails were perfectly french manicured, and she was the spitting image of a taller, slightly older Julianna.

"Hi, Mom," Julianna greeted, standing next to Patrick on the other side of the granite-topped kitchen island.

"Oh, hi, hon," the women looked up from her flower arranging and wiped her hands on a towel that was draped over the edge of the sink. "You must be Patrick." Her heels clicked on the shiny wood floor as she made her way over to Patrick and held out her hand.

"Yes, hi, ma'am," Patrick shook her hand, surprised by her firm grip.

"You can call me Mrs. Toews," she smiled and pushed a strand of her perfectly laid brown hair behind her ear, revealing large diamond earring studs. The teenage boy suddenly felt very small and poor in this immaculate house with this immaculate woman. He now regretted his choice of slightly ripped, old blue jeans and a navy blue 'The Stereo' T-shirt with his black Converse and ever-present beanie. This morning he looked rock and roll, but now he just felt sloppy.

"Where's Dad?" Julianna asked.

"He'll be home in a few minutes. He took Jonathan to hockey practice," Mrs. Toews explained, going back to her flowers at the sink. "So, Patrick, you go to school with Julianna and Jonathan?"

"Yes, ma'--Mrs. Toews," Patrick corrected himself, rubbing his hands together then wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans.

"Hmm, that's interesting. How come we've never heard of you until now?"

"Mom!" Julianna warned, her eyes telling Patrick he did not have to answer that underhanded question.

"Uh, well, Julianna and I just met. She was my friend Joe's lab partner recently," Patrick ignored her silent cues. He figured he answered her mom's questions, not matter how snobby they may get, the more likely he would be able to prove that he was not intimidated by this woman and her money. And maybe he could prove that he was worthy of her daughter's attention.

"And this Joe is the one in the band?"

"Yes! Mom, we already talked about this!" Julianna impatiently cut in as a tall and equally distinguished older gentleman came into the house from the garage door off the family room.

"I'm just trying to get to know your friend, Julianna," Mrs. Toews retorted, then smiled at her husband. It was all very Stepford.

"Hi, honey," the man, whom Patrick assumed was Mr. Toews, kissed his daughter on the cheek then went to his wife and repeated his greeting. Then he went to Patrick with his hand extended. "And you must be Patrick?"

"Yes, sir," Patrick shook the man's hand politely.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, young man," Mr. Toews appeared to be much more jovial and informal than his wife. "I guess I'm supposed to tell you no funny business with my daughter and have her home at a reasonable hour."

Patrick like him. "I will, sir."

"Dad," Julianna rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

"I'm just trying to do the right thing, sweetie. I've never had a teenage daughter dating before."

"We're not--" "Dad!" Patrick and Julianna protested at the same time.

"We'll be home by one," Julianna told her parents. "We're leaving now." She started to push Patrick toward the door, then turned back and hugged her dad. "Bye. Thanks. Love you." She reluctantly hugged her mom, too.

"It was nice to meet you," Mr. Toews said to Patrick as Julianna ushered him out the front door.

"See? Not scary once you get past the ice queen," Julianna said once they were back in Patrick's car.

"Yep," Patrick started the car and backed out of the driveway. "Your parents are nice."

"No, my dad is nice," Julianna corrected him. "My mom is...complicated."

Patrick didn't know her or her relationship with her mom well enough to offer a comment so he kept his mouth shut.

"Come on, Patrick," Julianna prodded, "you can be honest. What did you think of my parents?"

"I thought they were fine," he responded, keeping his gaze focused on the road in front of him. Julianna let out a disbelieving sound and sat back in her seat, her arms crossed over her stomach. They drove in silence with only Patrick's mix CD playing until he merged onto the interstate toward Chicago. The city was only a half hour away from Glenview, and about twenty five minutes from where they were now as Patrick merged left onto I-94.

"Do you play any other instruments besides drums and guitar?" Julianna looked over at the boy in the driver's seat, his face partially hidden by blonde hair and a beanie.

He nodded his head, "Yeah. Mostly the stringed instruments. I can play piano fairly well, I guess. My dad tried to teach me banjo and ukulele, but I only remember a few chords. I played a little saxophone for the jazz band last year, but I don't really like to play the reed instruments as much."

"So you're pretty much a musical genius."

Patrick's cheeks lifted in a small smile and he chuckled low, "Not hardly. My dad is way more talented and my mom is, like, a piano prodigy."

"How come I haven't met your dad yet? He sounds like a cool guy," Julianna found his love for his parents endearing.

"My parents divorced when I was eight."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"No, it's ok," Patrick shrugged and briefly glanced over to let her know he truly wasn't offended by her question. "They're actually great friends still and I see him all the time when he's home. He's a musician so he travels a lot, and my mom just didn't like all the inconsistency when my brother and sister and I were growing up. What about you? Obviously you like music. Do you play anything?"

Julianna wanted to ask him more questions about his family and Joe and the guys in the band, but he was clearly not comfortable talking about himself so she respected the change in subject and answered his questions.

"Yeah, I've played piano since I was five and I sing a little and play even less guitar."

"How come I haven't seen you in a band class or choir or anything?"

Julianna looked out her window at the passing cars on the interstate and the flat landscape, "I don't like to play publicly. I kinda just want to keep it to myself, you know?"

He didn't but he noticed the shift in her attitude and posture. He chose not to press the issue. She would tell him in her own time...he hoped.

"I really like to paint and draw," she revealed.

"Oh yeah, I remember your art display for the winter showcase," Patrick said. "The impressionist faces were really great, and Joe loved the comic strips."

"Really? Thanks," she responded sincerely. Patrick waited for the self-deprecation to which teenage girls were prone to default when complimented or fishing for compliments, but she just sat on her side of the car and moved her head to the beat of the music. Elvis Costello's 'Alison' was coming through the speakers now and she seemed to know it as she hummed along to the chorus. Color him impressed. A girl who knew of, and seemed to like, Elvis Costello was a '10' as far as Patrick was concerned. Julianna continued to softly hum and sing along to the music, and Patrick just drove, enjoying her throaty, pitch perfect voice and the fact that he was driving to a rock show in Chicago with a girl beside him. Life, at this point in time, was perfect.

They arrived at the venue in time to catch the tail end of Relient K's soundcheck, then Joe's band who, as she found out from Patrick, are called Arma Angelus, went on next. Julianna also discovered that the perk to coming to the show with Patrick was he basically had all-access and, by association, so did she. They went backstage to hang with the guys after their fifteen minute soundcheck. The band's green room was nothing to write home about, but it served its purpose as a place for the boys to dress and prepare for the show then relax until it was time to go on. Andy was walking around, nervously drumming his sticks against anything that made a sound. Tim was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and an open Mac laptop resting on his legs, and Joe sat next to him, looking at the computer screen over Tim's shoulder. Julianna assumed there was a video game happening over there. Pete was lounging on the old, ripped leather couch in the center of the room. He had an acoustic guitar across his lap and was looking at an open journal sitting on the TV tray in front of the couch.

"Hey guys," Patrick grinned wide as he and Julianna stepped through the doorway.

"Hey man," Andy continued to wander around aimlessly drumming, "Julianna." The other three guys just grunted a greeting.

"This is special," Julianna said sarcastically to Patrick. "So glad I got to go backstage to meet a bunch of rock stars." Patrick grinned wide then walked over and plopped himself on the couch beside Pete. Julianna hung back slightly, still unsure of what to do or what was appropriate behavior in a green room. Joe must have noticed her discomfort because he used Tim's shoulder to push himself up off the floor and pulled up a piano bench that was just sitting against the wall, placing it across from where Pete and Patrick sat on the couch, talking riffs and lyrics. Without saying a word, Joe sat on one end of the bench, made eye contact with the timid girl, and patted the empty space beside him, all at once making her feel safe and accepted. She went and sat next to him and wondered why they were never friends before now. At least, she considered him a friend. She didn't really know what he thought of her, but he was considerate.

"Where's your girlfriend?" she asked Joe.

"She has to work tonight," Joe shrugged and ran his hand through the dark, curly mop of hair on his head. But she wondered if there was more to it than that. She had only met Lindsay that night they went bowling, and the whole time Joe and Lindsay were very physical; she sat on his lap, or he wrapped an arm around her when they walked together, but that seemed to be the extent of their relationship. They did not regularly call each other or keep track of what the other person was doing, and Lindsay worked a lot so she was rarely around. Joe did not come across like he cared that she was missing his show, and he never complained about her absence, but Julianna still wondered if he wished Lindsay would put more effort into the relationship. He didn't offer up any more information, though.

"Hey, did you see we got an A on that lab assignment?" Julianna leaned into him, gently jabbing him in the side with her shoulder.

He smirked, "Yeah, I did. Good job, partner."

They continued to talk about Chem class and their next lab assignment, then the conversation naturally evolved into talking about music and bands, and Julianna discovered she really enjoyed conversing with Joe. It was easy. When he was on a topic he was passionate about he wore his emotions on his expressive face, and he was like an open book; honest and willing to go with the flow of the conversation. And he was so damn funny.

Patrick glanced up from Pete's lyric journal to see Julianna and Joe sitting side-by-side on the piano bench, engrossed in their own conversation. Sometimes Joe would say something that caused Julianna to bust up laughing. The sound was so genuine and natural and he felt a pang in his gut. Was it jealousy? 'What is wrong with me? Joe is my best friend and has a girlfriend. He's just being himself.' But still, Patrick wished he could make her laugh so openly. She looked so comfortable talking to Joe, not like the tense person she was in the car. Then he remembered that he knew more about her private life than anyone else in that room. That was what made her seem uncomfortable around him at times. Pete noticed his friend's attention was no longer on writing a riff for the new lyrics he had written.

"Dude, you're staring," Pete pushed his left elbow into the younger boy's ribs, jolting the kid back to earth. Patrick cleared his throat and looked back down at the journal in his lap as he felt a hot flush starting up his neck. Pete set his guitar aside and turned his body to focus on his friend. "What's going on with you two?"

"Nothing," Patrick shrugged but did not look up at Pete.

"And that's the problem, isn't it."

'Damn Pete and his skills of observation.' That is what made him a great lyric writer, but it also meant he could read people better than the other guys. And Pete was not the type to ignore things or keep them to himself.

"It could be," Patrick said vaguely, avoiding eye contact.

"Man, you have gotta take chances once in awhile," Pete shook his head. "Girls are not gonna just throw themselves at you, especially not girls like that."

"Why not? They throw themselves at you."

"Because I'm shallow and good-looking," Pete grinned, showing off his straight white teeth. "And I'm incapable of maintaining a real relationship. Believe me, smart girls like her stay far away from me. The girls I've been with would eat nice boys like you alive...hey, that's a good line." Pete took his lyric journal from Patrick and scribbled some words in the margin, then closed the book. Patrick heaved a big sigh and fell back into the couch, bringing his hand up to rest on his beanie-covered forehead. At that moment, Andy walked by and tapped his sticks on the arm of the couch. For a guy who was usually so calm and collected, he sure had an abundance of nervous energy before shows.

"Are you coming to the afterparty?" Pete asked his exasperated friend, hoping a change in subject would keep his mind, even if only temporarily, off of his girl problems.

"I don't know. Am I allowed to go?" Patrick answered but didn't move from his slumped position in the couch.

"Yes, it's an all-ages party. The guys in Relient K are just teenagers, too. We're hanging out at the Bottom Lounge. I mean, there will be a bar, but it will be pretty low-key, dancing, chilling. Does Julianna have a curfew or anything?"

"She told her parents she would be home by one," Patrick said.

"Did you meet them?" Pete grinned and looked back at his young friend, who narrowed his eyes.

"How did you-- Joe," Patrick answered his own question. "Joe told you. Of course."

"Ok, but you didn't answer my question."

"Yeah, Pete, I met them. They're fine. Kinda stuck on appearances like Joe's parents, but whatever. People are gonna do what they do." Patrick hoped that answer was sufficient and that Pete didn't keep pushing because he was not about to betray Julianna's confidence in him. There may not be many secrets between the five guys, but Julianna had a right to her privacy, and since she let him see a part of her life he had a responsibility to respect her wishes.

"Hmm," Pete responded, picking up his guitar again and strumming his fingers gently across the six strings. "I've never actually met Joe's parents. I know what he had told me about them and Andy had met them, I think."

"Yeah?" Patrick gripped the arm of the couch to pull himself back up into a sitting position. He grabbed Pete's lyric journal off the TV tray and flipped to the page they had been on previously. For the next several minutes, as Joe and Julianna talked, Andy drummed randomly and Tim played his computer game quietly in the corner, Pete and Patrick worked on writing a new song. Pete's grasp of the English language and parts of speech made him an excellent lyricist, but Patrick was definitely more musically inclined. It was like he always had a song idea, riff or melody running through his head. Together, he and Pete made a pretty good songwriting team. At quarter to seven, a venue official knocked on the green room door then stuck his head inside, informing them of the time.

"Thank you!" all the boys called out automatically, then they began gathering their instruments, equipment and extra clothes. Suddenly, the relatively docile green room was a flurry of activity and excited boy band energy. Pete stood and put his acoustic guitar back in its case, then grabbed his black and red bass while Joe slipped a slightly holey jean jacket on over his black muscle T-shirt. Andy smoothed back his long brown hair with two hands, adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for the rest of the guys to be ready. Tim set aside his computer and grabbed a water bottle from the 24-pack on the floor. Patrick and Julianna left to find a good spot in the crowd, which wasn't hard to do. There were only about half as many people milling about and waiting in front of the stage for the opening acts than there was going to be by the time Flatfoot 56 came on.

Patrick wasn't sure how Julianna felt about mashing, and it wasn't his preferred method of enjoying a concert, so he chose a spot off to the side of the stage near the stage-right speakers but back far enough to avoid going deaf. The grass gently sloped up so Patrick and Julianna, despite being short and having five rows of people in front of them, still had a great view of the whole stage and would be able to stay clear of the mothers doing their thing front and center.

"This is awesome!" Julianna said excitedly, her big brown eyes shining under the venue lights as the setting sun streaked orange highlights across the sky and through her dark hair. The light October breeze blew a strand into her eyes and he wanted to reach out and push it out of her face, but he put his hands in his jean pockets instead. "You know, I've never been to a concert before. I'm glad I get to be here with you watching a band I actually know."

Patrick was taken aback by her lack of inhibition in that moment, but he was not about to let it go unacknowledged. "I'm glad I get to take you to your first concert." He grinned wide at her and she grabbed his bicep with two hands, wrapping her left arm through his right one and resting her head against his shoulder. He thought his heart was going to pound right out of his chest at the unsolicited physical contact. He tried to tell himself she was just high on first concert euphoria, therefore she was not fully aware of her actions. She was not touching him because she was flirting or into him. But his brain shut off. His heart won out because he hoped for something more. Maybe not tonight, but it was a good place to start.