Getting Surreal

Frank’s head snapped over to Jake, seeing him with an arm thrown around a good looking, albeit, sweaty, girl. He had vaguely noted that the music had stopped, but he’d been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t realized that ten minutes had passed and the band was now mingling with the crowd. Coming to his senses, he focused in on this Becks.

Holy shit, she’s hot, Frank thought as he gave her an involuntary once-over. She was dressed simply enough-nothing flashy-with dark skinny jeans and a black v-neck t-shirt. She was tall and slim and had longer, dirty blonde hair that fell messy waves in a very ‘I don’t give a shit’ rock and roll fashion that somehow just worked for her.

Moving upward, Frank’s eyes finally met hers.

Fuck.

Those eyes. He found himself lost for a second, he had never really seen eyes that bright. And he couldn’t even tell what color they were. Were they blue? Green? Gray? Wow.

“Hi, I’m Becks,” she said shyly and stuck out her hand.

“Uh, yeah,” Frank mumbled stupidly, giving her hand a pointed shake. “I’m, uh, I’m Frank.”

“Nice to meet you, Frank,” she smiled at him.

They stood there for a minute in a somewhat awkward silence, sizing each other up as the crowd passed around them, most of the people headed out to another bar or club to spend the rest of their night. “Well, I’m gonna head to the bathroom, you crazy kids sticking around?” Jake asked. Silence. “Right, well, I’ll be right back, then,” he said awkwardly before turning around and leaving.

“So, you look really familiar to me, have we met before?” Becks asked, breaking the silence,cocking her head to the side a little bit. She just couldn’t place him.

“Uh, no,” Frank answered, “we’ve never met. I’m in a band, um, My Chemical Romance?” He watched as her eyes went wide.

“Oh, no way! I really like My Chem!”

“Yeah?” He asked, kind of surprised that she knew of them.

“Yeah, I really like, what is it…” she looked down at the floor in concentration before looking up. “’Headfirst for Halos’? Solid stuff.”

Frank smiled. Shit, he might just have a better shot than he thought if she was a fan.

They fell into another brief silence as Becks shoved her hands in her pockets and looked around awkwardly, not knowing what to say next and Frank wracked his brain for the best way to ask his question. Finding nothing smooth, he ended up blurting out, “so I have a proposition for you,” just as Jake came back from the bathroom.

“Dude, she’s not a prostitute,” Jake said, leaning on their standing table. Frank’s brow furrowed and as he looked between the bemused expression on Becks’ face and the look of pure shock on Jake’s face, he realized the way he had worded that and how it must have sounded.

“Um, no…” he corrected, looking at Becks with wide and apologetic eyes. “That’s not what I meant…I mean, uh…I wanna kinda hire you, can I, uh, buy you a drink?” Becks smirked and shook her head, crossing her arms, highly amused.

“Still not coming out right, but I’m curious, so yeah, I’ll take a beer,” she said with a light laugh. She liked Frank, he was pretty funny, if only a bit edgy, and definitely not bad on the eyes. She wasn’t sure why Jake wanted her to meet him so badly, but she had a feeling they’d get on well.

“Awesome. I’ll, uh, I’ll be right back.” Frank said then made his way to the bar to grab a couple beers, shocked at the turn of events that seemed to be leading him towards the chance at a guitar tech and thanking his lucky stars for Jake. Grabbing the beers, he was headed back to the table and saw Jake give Becks a hug then turn to leave. “Where’s he going?” Frank asked Becks as he slid her beer across the table to her.

“He said he had to go meet up with someone. Said to give you a high-five as a thanks for coming out tonight, so,” she held up her hand and Frank high-fived her with a chuckle.

“I’m the one that should be thanking him, really,” he said, following her lead and taking a sip of his beer.

“Oh, yeah?” She quirked an eyebrow jokingly. He nodded with a small smile. He clearly wasn’t going to explain himself further, so she let them fall into another, yet more comfortable, silence as they both took a moment to enjoy their drinks. “So what’s this job offer you said you had for me?”

“Oh, yeah!” Frank said, setting his beer down. “So, I, uh,” he cleared his throat. “I know this is a long shot and I know that you don’t know me and I don’t know you and that what I’m asking you is waaaay outta the blue and probably a little crazy, but, uh…” he watched her questioning face closely, “would you maybe want to come on tour with me and my band as my guitar tech?”

Silence.

He looked hard at the table as he waited patiently for her answer. He had posed a fairly ludicrous question and was trying to give her the time she needed to process.

After a few seconds, he chanced a look at her and watched as she stared at the beer in her hands, seemingly contemplating her drink, a completely blank and unreadable expression on her face. She’d give Mikey a run for his money when it comes to shielding crap, he thought.

Finally, after what felt like ages, she tipped her head back and finished off her beer, setting the bottle on the table and slowly looked at Frank, her expression still unreadable. He rubbed his palms nervously on his pants. This was it.

“How long?” She asked.

“Two tours, eight months, give or take.”

She paused to contemplate.

“When?”

“We leave Tuesday.”

At this, her expression finally changed as her eyebrows shot up. “Like, in three days, Tuesday?”

Frank let out a dry chuckle. “Yeah.”

“Man, you’re cutting it close,” she said, her gaze drifting from Frank to around the venue.

Frank’s hopes were soaring; she seemed like she might actually say yes. He waited patiently for what she would say next, sipping on his beer to help ease his nerves. He would wait all night for her to answer, if that’s what it would take for her to say yes.

“I’d get paid?”

“Yes. Not handsomely or anything. But enough to live by.” Oh shit. Oh shit, she might say yes.

There was another spell of silence, then, “Why me?” She asked, looking at Frank. Well, shit. He wasn’t expecting that question.

“I, uh…” He paused, trying to figure out the best way to explain, then decided to press his luck just a little bit further. He looked at her with a smirk. “You say yes, you get the whole, pathetic story.” They stared each other down, her face blank and his hopeful and cocky.

Her brain was whirring. This meant that she would have to quit her job on the spot and leave her home. Her life would completely uproot, again. On the other side of things, she hated her job, her lease was up in a few weeks anyways, and she was really, really pissed with everybody in this stupid town-especially everyone in her miserable band that had let her get kicked out for no good reason except for undeserved vanity, the sackless assholes.

Maybe an eight month trip around the country would do her some good.

Looking him dead in the eye, she nodded at her empty beer bottle and, matching Frank’s smirk, she said, “You buy me another beer, and I’m yours for the next eight months.”