Never Too Late

Lucy's Point of View

As I drove to the venue, my phone started blowing up with texts from both John and Mason. I ignored them both, concentrating on the drive instead. The night had been a shit-storm thus far, and I was praying that Jack’s show was at least going to be a good time. I’d never heard his band play before, and I was looking forward to checking them out. Plus, the fact that Nathan would be there didn’t hurt.

The parking lot was super crowded but thinning out as I pulled in, managing to get a spot somewhat close to the door so I could keep an eye out for Lacey and Nick. I took the opportunity to check my messages. I opened Mason’s first.

“Dude, I’m so sorry for inviting John too, I didn’t know he was gonna make such an ass of himself,” it read. He’d then followed that up with, “I feel like such a dick. Please tell Lacey that I’m so, so sorry.” There was one final text from him after that. “Also let her know that I’m here if she needs a shoulder to cry on.” Mason had added a winking face to the end of that message. I rolled my eyes, closing out of his texts. Leave it to him to make the whole ordeal about him and penis.

I glanced around the parking lot to see if I could spot Lacey and Nick, but still didn’t see them, so I decided to take the opportunity to check my messages from John. There were a shit-ton, all definitely drunk texts. They all said that he was sorry, and that he didn’t mean to hurt Lacey again, and all the other usual bullshit. Finally, the last message he’d sent asked, “How do I get her back?”

I set the phone down, fighting the urge to text him back, beyond irritated that he’d even be asking me that and pissed at what had just happened between him and my sister. I tapped the wheel with my fingers and then picked up my phone again, my fingers tapping across the screen. “Give it up, dude. She doesn’t want you back. Might have something to do with you being a cheating dickwad. Lose our numbers, and get fucked.”

Just as I had finished sending the text, I spotted Nick pulling into a space a little ways across the parking lot. I shoved my phone in my jacket pocket and stepped outside to meet them. The venue was a total dive, the outside shabby and falling apart. It gave off a rough, kind of dangerous vibe, but that was exactly the kind of energy I liked.

“Hey,” I called, waving to Lacey and Nick so they’d see me. “You guys find it okay?”

“Yeah, we passed it on accident and had to turn around,” Lacey explained, then eyed the building. “This isn’t a costume kind of place, is it?”

“Probably not,” I told her, now wishing that we’d stopped off to change before we’d made our way to the show. “Jack’s band goes on in like ten minutes though, so nothing we can do about it now.” I shrugged and led them inside, pausing by the door, which had a sign that read that the place was twenty-one and up.

“Are we still gonna be able to get in?” Nick asked, crossing his arms.

“It should be fine,” I replied, shrugging. Nathan was a year shy of twenty-one and he was there, so it didn’t seem to be much of an issue. “As long as no one does anything stupid, then no one should bother us about IDs.”

We got into the bar without incident, no one even at the door to check IDs. Half of the place was a bar, while the other half was a really poorly lit seating area, dance floor, and stage. I could see Jack’s band setting up, and it was pretty easy to find Nathan, who was sitting at a table at the edge of the dance floor.

“Hey,” I greeted him. He was sitting by himself, which struck me as kind of odd since he’d originally said a bunch of people from the store were supposed to come. Secretly though, I was pretty happy; I loved having one on one time with Nathan, even though it also made my stomach flip-flop the whole time. He was cute and charming, and that made me fucking nervous.

“Hey!” He turned to smile at us, looking like he was probably a little drunk. “You made it, I wasn’t totally sure if you would. No one else did. How was that party though?”

“It was…interesting,” I said, not wanting to get into a whole explanation of the night’s events. Besides, aside from the Lacey and John confrontation, the party had been a bit of a bore. “How were the other bands?”

“Shitty,” he answered, shaking his head. “The only way to listen to that garbage was to start drinking.”

“I see,” I said, laughing a little. I pointed to Lacey and Nick, introducing them to Nathan. “This is my sister Lacey, by the way. And her friend Nick.”

“Hi,” Nathan said, giving them both a little wave, then kind of narrowing his eyes at Nick. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Nick shifted a little uncomfortably, probably not too happy about being recognized. “Uh, maybe.”

“He’s Nick Jonas,” I clarified for Nathan quietly. There weren’t too many people around, but the last thing the night needed was for there to be another scene. The people at the bar didn’t seem like that kind of crowd, but it was better safe than sorry. “We carry his CD in the store.”

“That’s why I recognize you, okay,” Nathan said, snapping his fingers and smiling drunkenly. “Cool, man. Nice to meet you both.” He pointed towards the bar. “Hey, they’re not checking IDs up there if you want a drink.”

“I’m good, thanks,” Nick said. “I’ve gotta drive.”

“I could go for a drink,” Lacey said, heading off to the bar.

I sighed, but didn’t try to stop her. If anyone needed a drink after all that bullshit, it was Lacey. Besides, at least she wasn’t driving.

Nathan told me a little more about the other bands and how there was a huge turnout for the second band, which was fronted by a guy from another Trader’s Haven location, even though that band sucked ass. Lacey came back a few minutes later with her rum and Coke, and Jack’s band started. I took a seat next to Nathan at the table while Lacey and Nick stood. The band was super loud, but ultimately kicked ass. Towards the middle of the set, Jack stopped, mumbled something unintelligible, and then for some reason yelled, “And Nathan! And Lucy! You’re awesome!” and then continued playing.

After Jack’s band finished, Nathan and I stood up to go see him at his little merch setup. Nathan stumbled as he hopped off the chair, though he managed to catch his balance pretty easily.

“Hey, you’re not driving, are you?” I asked him.

“No, I came with my friend Ryan, but he left already,” he explained. “I was just gonna call an Uber or something.”

“I can give you a ride home if you want,” I offered, probably a little too quickly. “It’ll at least save you a little money, and I don’t mind taking you.”

“If you don’t mind, yeah, that’d be cool,” he said. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

We talked to Jack for a little while after the show, and then stuck around for an extra hour so both Nathan and Lacey could have another drink or two. By the time we left around one in the morning, we were all hungry so we decided to grab a quick dinner at a McDonalds a block and a half down the street. We walked over and Lacey and Nathan got a table, while Nick and I ordered the food. Despite the late time, the line for food was fairly long and taking a long time.

“So what’s up with you and my sister?” I asked Nick, struggling to find something to talk about. The only thing we seemed to have in common was my sister, and she seemed like the only safe subject.

“We’re just friends,” he said, shifting uncomfortably again. “We bumped into each other in the hallway at school the other day and we’ve just kind of been hanging out.”

“And do you like her?” I continued to question. “As more than a friend?”

He shrugged noncommittally as the line moved forward. “I mean, we’ll see how it goes.”

“That’s not a real answer,” I told him, shaking my head. “Look, what happens between the two of you is not my business. But you saw what happened tonight and I’m not about to let someone break my sister’s heart like that again. So whatever you two end up doing, don’t be a jackass. Trust me, you don’t want to answer to me about it.”

“Totally understood,” Nick nodded vigorously, looking like I’d put the fear of God in him. “I don’t have any bad intentions with Lacey though, I promise.”

“You better fucking not,” I said, then glanced up at the McDonalds menu. “Now what do you want to eat? I’m buying.”

About ten minutes later, we had our food and were bringing it back to the table where Nathan and Lacey were laughing hysterically about something. I had to admit, it made me a little bit jealous. Lacey was way, way prettier than I was; it would make way more sense for Nathan to fall for her than for him to fall for me. I shook the thought from my mind, not wanting to be petty. Besides, I probably didn’t even have a chance with Nathan anyway, there was no use stressing about a hypothetical situation. It had never done me any good.

We all gorged on chicken nuggets, had some laughs, and then walked back to the bar for our cars. Nathan and I waved goodbye to Lacey and Nick, then climbed into my car.

“Have I ever told you how cool this car is?” Nathan asked as we started to drive. “Because it’s really fucking cool.”

“Thanks,” I said, focusing on the road. “It was my mom’s.”

“It’s super badass,” he complimented. Despite the food and time passed since his last drink, Nathan still seemed pretty drunk, kind of just rambling on about different things. He’d been that way all through dinner, fixating on random stuff in the restaurant, and now seemed to be concentrating on the car. “Like if this car was a person, it could kick my ass.”

I laughed. “Okay, okay, I get it, you like my car. It’s pretty awesome, but one thing it can’t do is read minds, so you need to tell me where you live so I can get you back home.”

He gave me the directions to his place, though they didn’t make a whole lot of sense, so I ended up pulling over and having him put his address into my GPS so I could follow that. He was pretty quiet most of the ride, apparently settling into a sleepy state of inebriation as he watched the city lights blur together as we drove past.

“Your sister’s nice,” he finally commented as we were getting closer to his apartment building. I fought the urge to sigh; there it was, the ‘your sister’s hot, is she single?’ question I had come to dread. “So’s her boyfriend.”

“That’s not her boyfriend,” I said, pleasantly surprised by that comment. “They’re just friends.”

“Nah, you don’t look at your friends the same way they look at each other,” he disagreed, shaking his head just slightly. “If they’re not dating now, I’m sure they will be soon. I’ve got a sixth sense for, like, romance kind of stuff. The feelings are there.”

“They’ve known each other for like three days,” I scoffed.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’ll happen for them soon enough.”

“I guess we’ll see,” I replied, nodding slightly. “So this sixth sense thing you’ve got, is it picking up on anything else?” I glanced over at him briefly as I asked since we were stopped at a red light. I smiled a little, hoping it came off as flirty and not desperate or anything like that.

It felt like it took Nathan ages to respond, though in reality, it was only a second or two. “Maybe.”

“Maybe,” I repeated. Well, it wasn’t a no. It also wasn’t a yes, but I’d take what I could get.

We pulled up outside his building a few minutes later, and I put the car in park while I waited for him to get out.

“Hey, thanks again for the ride home,” he told me, one hand on the door handle. “And thanks for coming out to the show. It was…nice to see you outside of work. Maybe we can go again the next time Jack’s band is playing out.”

That was, like, the equivalent of asking me out, right? Or was he just being nice? “Yeah, that’d be cool. I had a really good time.”

I turned to say goodbye to Nathan, and without warning, he leaned forward and kissed me right on the lips. It didn’t feel like a surprise kiss though, just soft and gentle. Still, it had me in total shock. In no way had I been expecting that one. He pulled back after a few seconds, and then bit his lip. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” I said, trying not to appear frazzled. What had he meant, that he shouldn’t have done that? Was I that bad of a kisser? Had he just kissed me because he was drunk and I was being nice by taking him home?

“I’ll, uh, see you on Monday, then,” he said, not meeting my eyes and pushing the door open. “Thanks again for the ride.” Nathan didn’t say anything else, exited the car, and didn’t look back before he headed inside.

I stayed parked for about thirty more seconds, trying to wrap my brain around what had just happened. He’d kissed me with no explanation, and then apologized for it. And then abruptly left. Whatever the fuck was going on, it was sure to make everything awkward.