"Hey, Beautiful."
"You know, I know you only invited me because Jensen canceled on you. I'm only counting this as a date because it gets me closer to the fifth date." Sandy smirked as Chris slid into the driver's seat of his truck.
"Naw, it's not like that. I wanted to invite you all along, but I only had two tickets and Jensen gets all pissy if I don't invite him first. He's fragile."
"Uh huh." Actually she was pretty sure it was true. Well, except maybe the fragile part. Anyone that could survive what he had couldn't be too fragile. "Well, I guess I can excuse it then."
"Good." Chris smiled as he pulled into the bar. "Besides, I wanted you to meet Steve anyway. 'S not right the only examples you have of my friends are Jensen and Mike. Makes me look bad."
"Steve's the good one? I thought you were supposed to be the good one?"
"After me. I'm the good one. Steve's the sensitive one. Mike's the crazy one. Tom's the boring one. And well, you know Jensen's the evil calculating genius. Alexis is trying to replace Pete as the slutty one now that he's in California," Chris explained as he waited for the bouncer to draw smiley faces on the tops of Sandy's hands.
"Huh. Funny. Those are almost the same types my friends have."
"Really? So which one are you?"
"Would it really be any fun if I told you?"
~*~
If Steve was the sensitive one and Jensen was the evil genius, Sandy thought she should probably reevaluate Jensen a little, because Steve had barely said one word to her since they found a table.
First she thought he was annoyed it wasn't going to be the guys' night that was originally planned, so she tried to stick to guy-friendly subjects. After all, she was cheerleader in high school. She knew all the rules to all the sports. Then she tried talking about music. She might not know as much as Chris or Steve, but years of dance classes kept her from being a total dunce. She even toned down any flirting with Chris in case Steve was feeling like a third wheel.
Finally, she excused herself and called Jared from the bathroom.
"Sandy? Aren't you on a date?"
"Is Jensen in the room?"
"No. He's holed up with Organic. What's wrong?"
"This is the date from hell. If they want to hang out more after the last band, I'm getting Amanda to call with a fake emergency."
"What happened? You've been on the phone with him all week. I thought you liked him."
"Steve happened. Why didn't you tell me he's an asshole?"
"Steve? Because he's always been okay with me? I mean, I've only hung out with him a couple times with Jensen, but he seemed all right."
"So it's just me? He likes you and he hates me. Because, damn, does he hate me. I've tried everything. He's just sitting at the table ignoring me."
"Well what's Chris doing about it?"
"Same thing I'm doing. Trying to make this suck less and failing. It's not his fault. It's really not. He keeps glaring at Steve when he thinks I'm not looking. He probably would have just walked out already if they didn't need to check out the drummer in the last band. I guess he's just filling in today and they're thinking he might be able to fill their spot."
"Well, I guess that's something."
"Yeah." Sandy sighed and tried to steel herself to go back to the table. "I better get back before they think I died in here. But if I'm not home in an hour and a half, tell Amanda to call and fake her death."
Chris and Steve were both facing away from her as she walked back to the table. The music was off while the last band finished sound checks.
"So what? You've been on one date with her and I'm the asshole?"
"No. The first part is irrelevant. You're just the asshole. Not because of Sandy. Just because you're acting like an asshole. What the hell is going on with you? You're making me look like a saint." Chris sighed and rested his head in his hands.
"So you can be an asshole and I can't."
"No. Because you aren't one. You didn't do this to Jared. You didn't do this to Tessa or Alexis. You didn't even fucking do this to Stephanie."
"Maybe I should have."
"Sandy is not Stephanie. The fact that she's sat here for two fuckin' hours trying to talk to you more than proves that."
The last band started playing and ended the conversation there, giving her the chance to find her seat at the table again. At least they couldn't talk over the music and if she was lucky, they could get out after the band finished.
~*~
"I'm so sorry. You gotta let me redo this date. This can't be our second date." Chris leaned his forehead against the steering wheel and damn, did he learn those eyes from Jared?
"No, but only because I have to know the story and I really deserve credit for this date."
"Guess so. But you're still actually going to give me a third date after that?"
"Yeah." Sandy sighed and shrugged. Chris still liked her, so it really shouldn't bother her that Steve didn't. But people usually liked her. Or really, people always liked her. Even in junior high and high school, when everything was awkward and her life crumbled around her, everyone still liked her.
"It's not you. I really don't think it's you. He's been kind of an ass for the last couple weeks. I thought he was just stressed about finding a new drummer and he'd chill out and relax tonight. If I thought he was gonna be like this, I wouldn't've walked you into that."
"Really? Because it seemed like his mood went downhill the second he saw me."
"I know. But maybe it was more about not wanting to meet someone new tonight and less about you. He's really been off for a couple weeks. He says it's nothing, but maybe he's pissed at me for something. I'll get Jen to talk to him, okay?"
"I don't want him to hate me more." Sandy picked at her jeans. She'd already seen what they put Jared through and she'd heard what happened when Mike didn't like Tom's last girlfriend. Jensen liked her, but if Steve hated her, that might be just as bad.
"Naw, Jensen's been worried about him too. He bitched at Jensen last week for no reason, so he had it coming before tonight." Chris took her hand as he pulled up in front of the dorm. "I'm sorry sweetheart. Really. You didn't deserve that. I'm kinda amazed you still want to go out with me."
"Well, it's not like he tossed me in a van and interrogated me about my sexual history."
"And yet I'm pretty sure Jared was less uncomfortable then than you were tonight." Chris brushed a hand over her cheek as they stopped in front of the door. He always insisted on walking her to the door. Said his mama wouldn't hear of him dropping a girl off at the curb.
He smiled a little and started to pull back, and maybe that made sense after how the date ended up. Except she really planned to kiss him tonight and it wasn't his fault Steve decided to be a jerk. So she stepped forward and pressed her lips against his. There was a little surprised gasp against her lips before he kissed back. His lips were soft and warm against hers and pulling away was a lot harder than she expected, but she wasn't going make out on the steps of her dorm with Amanda probably spying upstairs. So she pulled away before the kiss could deepen and flashed him a sly smile before ducking inside the dorm.
~*~
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