“Guys, please, can we just take a break,” Carter whined and he stretched over the couch, his legs hanging over the backrest and his head nearly hitting the floor, “we’ve been working for three days straight and actually have three full songs written. I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty impressive. But, please, let us stop for a while and go out to have some fun!”

I looked over the paper and laptop we had on the coffee table and sighed, “but didn’t we want to--”

“No. No, we did not.” He sat up straight and glared at me. “We can keep revising these songs as much as we like, but we’ll never get anywhere that way. I’m pretty satisfied with what we have. All we have to do is record it. Remember, these are practically just demos. Plus, taking a break and coming back always lets you think of better new ideas.”

Before I could protest, wanting to perfect it all in such a short period of time, Charlie decided to speak up as well. “I agree with Carter. We need to take a break, this can’t be healthy. We’ll come back tomorrow and continue; we have that small recording space booked, so we can hear what it sounds like then.”

“Honestly, Ireland, I think they are right,” John agreed already showing that he wasn’t going to pick my side here.

So, I replied with a shrug and a nod. “Ok, fine, any ideas for what we should do?”

“Oh, let’s go to a club!” Carter suggested in an excited tone. He would often go to clubs, have drinks, find a guy to have a one night stand with, and then continue on with his day.

Charlie frowned and shook his head, pointing out what John was probably thinking as well. “Um, I don’t think a gay bar would be suitable for us…”

“No, you idiot, just a ‘normal’ club,” he rolled his eyes and turned to me, “it would be good for you. You know, let loose a little, talk to some people, have drinks be offered to you, get over Jack…”

“Come on, don’t force her to get over Jack like that. She can do whatever she wants,” John scolded with a stern look, already claiming the official dad-role in this band.

“Exactly, I don’t need to get over Jack,” I argued and crossed my arms in annoyance, “because I’m already completely over him. He, however, has been trying to call me ever since I stole his suitcase.”

As if on cue, my phone started buzzing again. I didn’t even have to check the caller ID to know it was Jack. Honestly, I didn’t know what he wanted from me. He made it pretty clear that he would be off so much better if we weren’t in any sort of relationship anymore. I just granted him that wish. Maybe he was pissed because he wanted his suitcase back? Seemed like a plausible reason to me.

But I would never figure it out, because all I did the entire time was send the auto-response message over and over again, and I did it again this time.

“Even more a reason to go to a club!” Carter tried to persuade. “You can meet somebody new there!”

“Or maybe ease into it with something a little less serious.” Charlie wiggled his eyebrows and stood up, stretching out causing his bones to click back into place.

“As much as I hate clubs, why the hell not? We have to get out of here for a little bit,” I gave in, clearly seeing that there were two people who really wanted to go, “just one thing, I’m not hooking up with anybody.”

“If you say so.” Carter jumped up and started pulling on my arms.

Not even John complained. Trisha and Emily were staying at Trisha’s parents’ house for the time being because Emily kept interrupting us and they hadn’t been there in a while. So, there wasn’t really anything holding him back. Of course, he was going to stay 100% faithful, though. He wasn’t the type of guy to even think of doing anything of the like.

We all piled into one of the cars, John obviously being the one who said he’d stay sober to drive us back, and Carter instructed where we had to go. I took out my phone and smiled when I opened Snapchat without the annoying log-in screen being the only thing I could see. I had my own account now with my own followers and my own control over it. Nobody could tell me that I should protect myself.

“You need to unfollow Jack on everything,” Charlie snatched the phone from my hand and started scrolling through my new-but-not-really-new-more-like-retrieved social media accounts. He went through everything from twitter to Instagram. “The first step to dealing with a breakup.”

I rolled my eyes but let him do the job; I was going to do it eventually anyway. “The thing is, though, that I’m already over it completely.”

And that was the truth. Sure, I had that break down when it had all happened, I had realized that I ruined my chance at ever having anything remotely close to what John had, but with how Jack and I had been acting we also wouldn’t have achieved that. I actually had been so much happier the last couple of days while staying with John than the past weeks with Jack. Nothing was forced, there was no fighting, and they actually believed me when I said that I didn’t have depression. Surrounding myself with better people was the only solution I needed, even though I still had horrible dreams and flashbacks. However, my drastic improvement did not mean that I didn’t despise Jack anymore. Of course, I still did.

For the first time ever, I actually had a Snapchat story and it could be viewed by anybody who wanted to. I put my username on twitter and everything gradually started gaining a lot of followers. The only thing we still needed to do was put up the message of me joining the band on the band page, and I’d officially fit in completely. My life wasn’t going to be as boring as I had expected it to be.

Carter somehow managed to get us to the front of the line without having to queue and the bouncer let us in without a further word other than asking to see my ID. The last time I had ‘seen’ a club was when I watched Jack’s snapchat story for the last time just a couple of days before. He was surrounded by loud music, drinks, flashing lights, and all the girls he desired. My heart dropped at the sight the first time, but after that I realized how stupid that was. I could have my own type of fun with my own friends. The other time that stood out to me was when I went to a club with him before we got together and I kept teasing him. All I hoped for was that Jack wasn’t going to be there.

John kept an eye on all of us as drinks kept getting poured and bills kept getting higher. At one point, Carter dragged me up on the dancefloor and forced me to dance with him. Usually, I probably would have declined or just danced a little to stay modest, but there was nothing holding me back. With me knowing that he was 100% gay, I didn’t mind dancing sexually with him at all. I didn’t hold myself back at all; we were grinding, practically standing closer to each other than we needed, and laughing like we never had fun in our lives before. All of it was documented on social media.

As soon as we both got too tired to continue dancing, I told him I was going to go to the bar and get another drink since I was close to being dehydrated. Of course, alcohol wasn’t exactly the substance to improve that little implication, but I was still up for it anyway. By no means was I trying to get wasted and pass out, because that was not my goal at all. My goal was to go out and have fun with my friends, and alcohol just happened to be included this time.

Somehow, I had managed to get a seat at the bar and waited patiently for the bartender to notice my presence. I could only imagine how busy and stressful a job like that could be during rush hour. I did not know how they did it.

“Can I buy you a drink?” A male voice with a British accent said from beside me.

I turned towards the source and was quite surprised to see a man who actually wasn’t too bad looking. He had near perfect proportions in his face along with stubble to accentuate his jawline. The most fascinating thing, however, was the way his deep blue eyes contrasted with his dark brown hair. He didn’t seem real, and if he was, he seemed like he came right out of a movie.

“I mean, you could,” I smiled as he sat down on the seat that had opened up beside me, “but I’m not sure you’ll get something out of it unless you’re looking for friendship, because then you’re in the right place.”

“Well, in that case… what do you want to drink?” He smirked as he gestured for the bartender to come over, to which the bartender nodded at him like they already knew each other.

“I was actually going to ask for the old rum-and-coke classic because I was just dancing and am completely parched,” I told him, not even considering to decline his offer. As long as he really did do it for that friendship and respected that choice, it was all going to be ok. Maybe it could blossom into something more later on, but I could not just jump right into that.

“I’ll get you that then.” He placed both our orders and the bartender turned around to make them for us. As we waited, he looked back at me and introduced himself. “My name’s Colton--Colton Lawrence if you want to know my full name as well--and while I might sound British as fuck, I actually have lived here for four years now.”

“Ireland Knight,” I shook his hand and couldn’t help the grin spreading across my face, “I’m not Irish, nor am I a knight, so you could say it’s all false advertising

“And here I was, thinking that I was finally making my childhood dream come true,” he sighed and shook his head at me, “I guess I’ll go have to move on to the next Irish knight.”

“At least I was honest about it,” I pointed out and cocked a brow, happy to have found someone who shared my sense of humor-slash-sarcasm.

“You’re right. I believe I can stay a little longer just because of that.”

“Good.” I giggled as our drinks were given to us. I immediately wrapped my hand around the glass and took a gulp, thanking my new acquaintance for buying it for me. Carter was right, having somebody else buy you drinks really did make you feel good. It was like I was the chosen one.

“So, what brings you here on a night like this?” Colton asked me next, giving me a genuinely interested look even though I hadn’t even started talking yet.

“I’m busy writing some songs for a demo we have to finish by the end of the week with my friends,” I pointed behind myself with my thumb towards where Carter, Charlie, and John were all sitting around a table together, “but they desperately needed a break and two of them really wanted to go to a club, so here we are. Those same two are also really hoping I hook up with someone, but to be honest that isn’t going to happen because I don’t work that way.”

“Why would they want you to hook up with someone?” He laughed as his face scrunched up in confusion.

“You know, the old to-get-over-your-ex-you-should-have-meaningless-sex-with-a-stranger thing. I, however, feel like I’m completely over him. Despite that, I don’t even want to do anything remotely close to it.”

“No sex on the first date, let alone first meeting,” he nodded, “I can accept that as a very normal thing.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not sexually attracted to people unless I have a strong emotional bond with them. So, either you’re going to have to become my best friend in a short evening, or you’re going to have to deal with not getting to hook up with me. Easy as that.” I explained easily, not feeling bad about my sexuality at all. Maybe he wouldn’t understand how it was different, but as long as I knew how I felt, everything was all good.

“I thought you said you only wanted friendship.”

“You as in you-plural, not you as in Colton-Lawrence-you.” I slapped his arm and he laughed at me. When he didn’t stop, I pouted dramatically.

He sighed in sympathy and stopped teasing me. “Ok, ok. It’s all good. I came here with friends as well but as soon as they get to drink some alcohol they’re all like ‘bro, we’re going to get laid tonight!’ and I’m not about that. Not because I’m not sexually attracted to people, but because all the one night stands I’ve had have been disasters, so I’ve sworn to myself to stay away from them.”

“So I won’t have to come to your place in the morning to save you from a clingy one night stand. I can deal with that.”

“Sounds like you have some experience.”

“Yeah…”

Our conversation continued in the same manner, practically joking throughout it all. I found out he worked for a management company, and I told him about my problem of finding a new manager. He said he was honestly serious about wanting to help us out, whether he be our manager or hel us finding somebody else, especially when he heard we weren’t just some band that thought they were way bigger than the actually were.

At one point, he asked me if I ‘wanted to get out of here’. With that, he did not mean go back to either of our places, but actually go out for some ice cream. The whole idea started when we somehow got on the topic of our favorite flavors and we couldn’t stop listing things. So, what better way was there to make a decision than to actually go out and compare flavors?

He assured me that he didn’t need to tell his friends that he was leaving, that he always was the last one left over without anybody saying goodbye to him, but I still thought that I had to tell at least John that I wasn’t going to go back with them. Coincidentally Carter had just joined them again, so I got to tell all three of my bandmates in one go. I started off with just saying that I was going to leave, to which both Charlie and Carter whined and begged me to stay, but when I pulled Colton closer and ‘showed him off’, tricking them a little into thinking we were going back to his place, they were completely fine with it while John just wanted to make sure I was going to be ok.

We walked to the nearest ice cream parlor that was still open and both made very large orders. Colton told me to go take a seat while he waited for the employee to finish scooping up all the ice cream we wanted. It just kept piling up more and more. I, of course, got my phone out to post it all on Snapchat out of excitement, but I didn’t think about the possible consequences it could all have. Filming Colton while he was still standing at the counter and zooming in on him might have given off the wrong intentions to anybody watching my story. However, when he came with two cones filled up with five different scoops of ice cream each, I couldn’t help but film again.

“Holy shit!” I gasped as he slid into the chair across from me and I kept the camera on the ice cream. “That’s a lot of ice cream!”

“You asked for a lot!” He laughed in return and struggled to keep them both upright.

“Which one’s mine?” I asked next, eyeing both treats with desire.

“This one.” He handed one over just as my recording ended. “Mine has mint as well.”

“Ew, gross.” I scrunched up my nose in disgust and shook my head, looking at all the scoops I had ordered instead. I had no idea how I was going to finish it and if I was going to, but it was worth a shot.

As we slowly ate the melting ice cream, I made sure to snap more pictures and post them, mainly commenting of Colton’s repulsive obsession with the mint flavor, which he had announced as his favorite flavor. To me, liking it was the worst thing ever. I had my amazing coconut ice cream, which I had never tried before but they somehow had at this place. Having never tasted it before and really liking it when I did, I decided that that was my favorite over anything else. The only sad part was that I knew I probably wasn’t going to eat it for another long while.

“My hands are so sticky,” I groaned as I wiped them frantically with a napkin. The ice cream had dripped down the cone the entire time I had been eating it (I had eventually finished it) and gone onto my fingers. I felt like a five-year-old kid holding a popsicle and getting it all over themselves.

“You should have eaten it faster.” Colton nudged, already having made fun of me about that before. He had finished it around ten minutes before I had, so he didn’t have the same problem I did.

“Stop being so mean to me,” I whined while pouting and trying to give puppy-dog eyes.

“Awe, I’m sorry.” He pouted back and patted my hand in what was supposed to be a comforting manner.

We continued to give each other the sad face until his features suddenly went serious. “If it weren’t for me completely respecting your sexuality, I’d totally kiss you right now.”

Notes

NEW CHARACTER ALERT! NEW CHARACTER ALERT!
What do you believe his role is going to be?