Beautiful

Blane sat in the band building, surrounded by all the other percussionists, they were waiting for Mr. P to show up and make his “important” announcement. All his so called important announcements consisted of, “don’t eat pizza and coke in the band building.” Or, “don’t smoke in the bathrooms.” She laughed to herself. Mr. P always looked sad when he had to scold them. He loved these kids like they were his own.
She turned her attention to the boys sitting around with her in a circle. She and Annie were the only two girls in percussion, but Annie was a bitch so she stuck to befriending the guys. She glanced over to the corner where Annie was sitting, playing her Gameboy with headphones on. Blane couldn’t understand why she had stayed in band this long. no one wanted her here, and she sure as hell didn’t act like she wanted to be here. Annie gave her a dirty look and she turned her attention back to the guys. This was her family, if anyone DARED to hurt her; they were there to protect her. She smiled at them as they argued about Evans drumheads vs. Pearl drumheads.

“Hey guys.” The big metal door slammed as everybody turned to see Mr. P enter.
“Yo, Mista P!” Chris Rite, captain of the drumline, class clown, and gangster wanna-be, jumped up and saluted him.
“Sit down, stupid.” Caleb, Chris’s twin brother, grabbed him and pulled him back down.
“Hey P man.” Blake said lamely.
Blane looked curiously at him. He didn’t seem to be as upbeat as usual, his neon blue hair seemed dull, and he was unusually pale. She was worried, and for the moment, anything she was going through was unimportant.
Her best friend needed her.

---
“Any of you guys ever heard of a band called Green Day?” Mr. P smiled at all of them mischievously.
Everyone looked at Blane. It was no secret that Green Day was her favorite band.
“Yeah, why?”
Mr. P smiled really wide. “They wanna put you on their next album.”
Everybody burst out laughing. “Yeah, right.” Michael, one of the tenor players said between laughs.
“I’m serious.” Mr. P said. The laughter died down a little. Caleb, still choking from laughing so hard, managed to cough out a, “uh huh. Sure.”
“No, really, I’m serious.” The look on his face made everyone stop.
“You’re not kidding, are you?” Chris asked.
“No, they’re on their way here right now to discuss recoding.”
Blane’s jaw dropped, nearly to the floor, “No way!”
“Yeah way!” came a voice from the door. Everyone turned, to see the three punk idols standing there.

---o---
Billie smiled at their shocked faces as they crossed the room.
“Why?” Caleb asked in disbelief.
“It was my idea!” Tre said proudly, jumping up and down, “all me.”
Everyone who wasn’t too awed to laugh did.
“So this is how it’s gonna work…” Mr. P said as soon as the three other men had arrived at their little circle in the far corner of the room.
“You’ll be doing a lot of work with Tre because he writes all the percussion stuff for the band...” Billie said.
Yeah, but I don’t know the first thing about all this stuff you play…” Tre added.
“That’s where you come in, Derek.” Mr. P finished.
Everyone looked over at Derek. He looked so happy that he could wet his pants.
Billie smiled, recognizing the look in his eye. He knew that look all too well.
“Are you serious?!” he nearly screamed.
“Yup.” Billie said, still smiling.
“This is your chance, Derek.” Mr. P said to him, “all that music editing and arranging you did for me paid off.”
“This rocks!” Derek said, throwing his hands up into the air in triumph.
Billie chuckled.

---o---
“Blake?”
It had been two hours of discussing “recording” (it had started off that way, but soon moved on to other topics) and they head managed to set practice dates where they would write and edit as well. Blane was tired and ready to go home.
“Yeah?” he replied, looking up at her from his chair, apparently coming out of Lala land.
“Can you give me a ride home?”
“Yeah, sure.” He replied, not really enthralled in the conversation himself, and ready to leave, “see you guys.”
“Bye.” Blane added.
The other guys all mumbled their goodbyes before turning back to their conversation. They quietly walked out to Blake's car, and Blane waited till they were in the car and buckled in before she said anything. “What’s wrong, Blake?”
“What do you mean?”
“A best friend is the one who can look at you with the biggest smile on your face and still know something’s wrong. Blake, tell me.”
Blake sighed, “Karenna broke up with me… You were right, Blane, she’s a user, and I don’t want her back. I just…… can’t believe everything I felt was fake.”
“Let’s go to the park, Blake.”
“What?” Blake blinked in confusion.
“Come on,” she put her hand on his shoulder, “let’s go to the park and talk.”

---o--- O ---o---

They were sitting at the picnic table, after Blake had just finished spilling everything out for Blane. “… and I just keep going from one bad relationship to another. Its like everyone at that school considers people an accessory.”
“I know what you mean.” Blane replied to his rants. She, herself, had fallen victim to a record number of seriously bad relationships.
“Oh, Blane, I’m sorry,” he said, shifting his attention from himself, “I completely forgot, I’m so-“
She held up a hand to stop him.
“It’s fine, really, I’m over that.” She said to his apologetic face.
“I know, but… I’m sorry.”

Blane felt a water droplet on her arm. She looked up at the grey clouds in the sky and she smiled at Blake.
“It’s going to rain.”
He looked up into the sky, the rain, now falling in considerable amounts. “We should get in the car.”
“Why?” Blane asked, still smiling and getting up from the table. She walked out into the middle of the basketball court. Blake followed her. “Because it’s raining.” He said complainingly. She smiled at him, “but I love the rain.”
“Whatever.” He said, turning to walk away.
She grabbed his arm, the rain was pouring now, “Blake!” she smiled, “Come on.”
He stood there, looking at her for a moment, “all right.” He huffed.
She smiled as she stepped back from him and held her arms out, spinning around, her face upturned. She was laughing.

He grabbed her and started tickling her. She squealed; “Blake Theodore Masters, you know I do NOT like to be tickled!” she smiled.
He winked at her, mischievously and she took off running. He chased her around the basketball court until he had her cornered against the chain link that surrounded it.
“You lose, little girl.” He said, smiling at her giggles. His smile faded, slowly, and before either of them could think, he leaned in and kissed her, and to Blane’s surprise, she kissed back, gently wrapping her arms around his neck as he placed his hands on her waist. They just stood there, locked into each other, not caring about what would happen next.

She pulled away, mumbling, “I’m sorry,” before she put a hand over her mouth and ran away.
This can’t happen. She thought. It was an accident. He’s your best friend. She sighed, “Then why did you kiss him back?” she asked her reflection I the car door.
No answer.

---
Blake got into the car and just stared at the steering wheel. For what seemed like hours, they just sat there in silence.
He sighed, “Blane…”
She stopped him, “no, I think I need to say something first.” She shifted in her seat, “this would never work, Blake, you just went through a break-up, you’re not thinking straight. And…” she sighed, “you’re way too good for someone like me. You can do so much better.” She could feel the tears coming before they even started.
“Blane, don’t say that.” He reached over and put his hand on the side of her face, “that’s not true.” She pulled away, “yes it is, Blake, we both know that, the school knows that, everyone knows it.” She opened the door and got out.
The rain had stopped now, and there was nothing to hide her tears from him. She made her way back to the basketball court. He got out and chased after her, “Blane!” She stopped in the middle of the court, her back to him.
He walked up to her, “Blane, please.”
She turned to face him; he reached out, cradling her face in his hands, as he wiped her tears away with his thumbs.
“I love you.” He said, looking straight into her vibrant blue eyes.
She pulled his hands away, looking at the ground, “please, just take me home.” She said, walking back up to the car.
He sighed.

“But it’s true.” He said to himself.