Hello guys, thanks for all the great feedback! I'm a current senior at UNIV, so my schedule is hectic but I really want this series to take off. It's my first series ever, so please be kind ha-ha. I already have the complete story in my head, so just need to move it into paper.
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"Hey A, we're parking outside El Vaso. We'll be in in a bit."
"Ok," I replied to Carol's text, "sounds good Carol. I'm walking towards the door."
A few weeks since we had met, Carol, Sebastian, and I had been hanging out pretty often. They had missed the first gig I had invited them to, but they had assured me they were both going to make it to the next one.
Now, 3 weeks later, they agreed to come see me play at the little coffee shop I had told them about- El Vaso. El Vaso was Spanish for The Cup and it was a small coffee shop downtown where they frequently had bands and performers play live.
It wasn't the most popular place, but I liked the coffee and some of the musicians on here were pretty nice to listen to.
I met Sebastian and Carol at the door after I saw their silhouettes coming up through the window and led them towards a booth near the back of the place.
"Ok, guys," I said, "so this is El Vaso in all its glory - barista over there if you want some coffee." I pointed at the direction of the barista. "I recommend a regular cappuccino. It's not flashy, but its good and gets the job done. They also sell sandwiches and pastries if y 'all want any. I'll actually be up in a few minutes, so you have time to get a something if you want."
"Nah, I'm fine," Sebastian said, "I'll just get a water."
"I'll get a cappuccino, see what Alex is talking about."
Carol left the sweater she was wearing on the table to reserve our seats and we walked towards the barista up front.
"Hey, Kass," I said, "Could you give me one cappuccino and 2 waters, please."
Kassandra - or Kass as she liked to be called - knew me as both a regular customer and a musician of El Vaso.
"Sure thing, A. " She smiled and leaned closer to me. "If you aren't here for coffee though, you must be here to perform, right? What you playing?"
"You'll see," I winked. Kass leaned back and got our drinks ready. After we paid her we walked back to our booth.
As we sat down, I could feel Carol's gaze on me so I asked, "What gives, Carol?"
"Well, the way that girl was leaning almost over the counter towards you made it clear she likes you, Alex. Why don't you ask her out?"
I wasn't stupid, I had known Kass had a thing for me for a while now. She would always flirt with me at the counter, or touch my arm a little longer than normal -I just wasn't into her. Not in a significant way, anyways.
"Yeah," I said, "I don't know. She's not my type I guess."
"Well, what is your type then, dude?" asked Sebastian.
I looked into Sebastian's eyes - God damn! Three weeks later and those hazel eyes still made me feel off, like I wanted him both to stop looking at me and yet continue to look at me.
I didn't know why he asked that. Maybe it was an innuendo, like he wanted me to admit she wasn 't my type because she was a girl and maybe guys were my type. Maybe he knew I had a thing for him and was teasing me about it. Or maybe he was just curious. Sometimes a duck is just a duck.
"I don't know. Not her I guess."
The conversation took a turn away from my preferred type of women to the current musician on stage. He was a 20-some looking blonde guy, not too muscular, more lean really. He was pretty cute with his hair styled to the right side. I hadn 't seen him before but he was playing a piano piece I recognized immediately.
"He's playing Nocturne by Chopin guys. I love this piece."
The piece was a soft, airy melody that reminded me of the feeling you get when you are in that space between being awake and falling asleep. It wasn't boring, not at all, more relaxing, really.
"That's sounds really pretty." Carol said.
"Yeah, it's nice," Sebastian added, "his hands are moving pretty fast, too."
The guy's piece ended and we all clapped.
"Ok, wish me luck guys." I looked at Carol first then at Sebastian, unconsciously taking a second too long looking at his eyes. For luck.
I walked up stage as the unnamed, blonde pianist walked off. "Good job, man." I said.
"Thanks, good luck."
I had a second to wonder how the guy knew my name but I tossed that aside and figured her might have seen me play here befre. I thought about the way his voice sounded. It wasn't too deep or too high- just comfortable. I pushed the guy out of my mind, arranged the stool to where I was more or less in the center and lowered the mic to my mouth.
"Hello, name's Alex. Some of you here already know me." I looked around to see familiar faces nodding agreement. "Today I'll be singing Just to See You Smile by Tim McGraw. Hope you enjoy."
I looked to my right and saw both Carol and Sebastian looking at me. Carol shot me two thumbs up for support and Sebastian nodded in my direction and drank from his water. I grabbed my guitar and strummed my starting note.
"You always had eye for things that glittered, But I was far from being made of gold. I don't know how but I scrapped up the money, I just never could quite tell you no."
I really liked Tim McGraw as a country singer and Just to See You Smile was one of my favorite songs of his. The story of a guy who would do anything for someone just to see them smile - I liked that.
I looked around to see people drinking coffee, socializing but a few of them were doing nothing more than listening to my song. Sebastian and Carol were no exception. Carol shot me another thumbs up. Sebastian only looked at me.
"And yesterday I knew just what you wanted, When you came walking up to me with him. So I told you that I was happy for you, And given the chance I'd lie again."
The last line was my favorite part of the song and I made sure it sounded that way. It was incredibly unfair to know that you could love someone so much, but it still be not enough to have them love you back.
Whoever Tim was singing about was head-over-heels for this girl that even when she told him she was leaving him for someone new, he lied and said he was happy for her.
I looked straight at Sebastian and met his hazel eyes. Damn, like the guy in the song, I really would just want to make him smile and like me. Not love or wanting to sleep with me, just like to have me around- just me- not Carol or anyone else- just Sebastian and me.
"Just to see you smile, I'd do anything that you wanted me to. When all is said and done, I'd never count the cost – it 's worth all that's lost. Just to see you smile."
I finished the song and a good number of people clapped for me. I even noticed the blonde guy hanging out with, what I assume, were his friends in the opposite corner of our booth, stop and clap. I put my guitar back in its case and walked back to Carol and Sebastian.
Carol hugged me, "Alex! That was really good!"
"Yeah, A. That was pretty cool seeing you sing like that."
"Thanks, guys. "
A. He called me A. He used the nickname Kass used for me.
"I've had that song stuck in my head for a while. Glad I could do it some justice."
I looked to my left and saw that Kass was looking back at me and smiling, and so I smiled back and raised my water bottle in her direction.
"Man, she's really into you, Alex."
"Yeah," I looked back at Carol, "I guess so."
"Why don't you want to ask her out, A?"
I turned my head back to Sebastian and couldn 't stop from looking into his eyes. I searched them for clues as to why he was interested in her and me or even better, if he was just interested in me. In the end I couldn't find anything.
"I don't know," I looked back to Kass. She was still looking at me, smiling. "Do you all think I should?" I didn't care about what Carol thought, I really just wanted to hear Sebastian give me a reason not to.
"Yeah man," Sebastian said and smiled, "You should, she seems nice."
I sighed, not the answer I was hoping. "I guess I can talk to her then."
I gave Kass one last smile from across the room. We started talking about what other songs I had sung here and how Carol always wanted a Karaoke machine for her birthday coming up, but all the time I kept thinking about Sebastian and how I was willing to talk to a girl I had no interest in just to see him smile.