Surprise

3 days had passed, and I didn't talk to David anymore. I felt he was avoiding me. I decided not to insist. I went for a walk at night... I had my mind full of everything that was going on. I brought my guitar with me, he was my confidence partner… I was walking adrift, and before I knew it, I was getting on the bar that David used to work before AI. I loved to go there and watch him doing his acrobatics with bottles... the bar was nearly empty, there were only like 3 people left. But it seemed even emptier somehow...

I sat at the furthest table I could find. I got my guitar and started playing some old songs, some of those that David had recorded… All of the sudden, I felt that familiar inspiration…

I finished the song without truly understand it… where did it come from? Weird...

...

My birthday was coming. I was finally turning 21, and I decided to throw a big party to celebrate. One of my friends said I could use his place, which was very cool. I invited everybody, and I asked Matt to call David too… He said he couldn't confirm, because he had a "full schedule". He was gonna try.

The big day had finally arrived. The party was awesome, everyone was there. The music was powerful and people were very excited. Even some old romates from Australia were there, they had come to visit USA. When I looked at the door, I couldn't believe my eyes…

"LARA!"
"ANNE!"

I ran towards her and hold her very tight. Lara was a great friend of mine, who left to live in Brazil a couple of years ago, and since then, we hadn't seen each other. At last, something good was happening after a lot of disasters…

We talked a lot, she introduced me to her brazilian boyfriend, Rodrigo. What a cutie pie! And he was very polite, seemed to be a wonderful person... my friend is so lucky...

"What about this madness, Anne, David is famous now?"

"Tell me about it... I knew this was gonna happen someday..."

"Talking about him... where is he? I haven't seen him..."

"It's because he didn't arrive yet… You know how it is... a lot of obligations now… but he said he'd try to come…"

"What's that look on your face? Is something wrong?"

"No, it's just... we had a little argument, that's all…"

We talked a little bit more and I left to talk to some other people… It was almost 11:45... he was really not coming?
I met Joey, a guy who lived nearby and neither Matt nor David were really fans of him, they thought he was a jerk. He asked me to dance and I said yes. We danced for a while with some break for drinks. Things were getting hot, our lips were almost touching…

"Am I interrupting something?"

I nearly jumped. David was standing a couple of meters away, gazing unpleasantly at us.
He turned around and began to leave the room. I followed him.

"You are late."

"My interview got delayed. But apparently I wasn't missed at all…"

I was walking very fast and It was hard to follow his steps…. We stopped at the balcony, which was empty.

"Wat the hell were you doing with your arms around that jackass?"

I was getting angry.

"What wrong with you, David? Wanna play the older brother part now, after everything that happened? Just a "Happy Birthday" would have been enough!"

"It's not that, It's just that I don't like this guy and I don't want you near him..."

"Now I can see that you haven't changed a bit David, just your hair... You're still as immature and selfish as you always were..."

"What about you? What has changed about you? I know exactly what to expect from you, always taking risks, always making the wrong choices!"

"That's what you think? Am I always wrong? Am I that predictable to you?"

"Yes, you are! Prove me wrong! Surprise me with something different!"

I couldn't think of anything else... with tears in my eyes, I pulled Dave by his shirt and kissed him. He almost pushed me away... He resisted, but gradually surrendered himself to the kiss, it was tense... he was sweating… I backed away from him and said:

"Different enough for you?"