As usual, I was out on Friday. I went to the same club for the same reason, to see someone. He never saw me though, that was for sure. This particular someone was the drummer of a band that performed on Friday's and sometimes Saturday nights. I listened to the music, but I never really heard anything but the drumming. Some men passed my table during their set, "Man that drummer is one hot chick," they said, throwing suggestive glances to the man at the drums. I started snickering and they turned to glare, "I'm sure he would appreciate the comment," I said through the laughter. It calmed down as the two walked away and I noticed that there was no more music.
The band was heading off stage and I stood up from the chair becoming extremely nervous. I had convinced myself that I could talk to him tonight. And that was exactly what I was going to do. After fifteen minutes, the band appeared from back stage. The vocalist, guitarists, bass, and finally, the drummer. I took a deep breath as he went to sit with the vocalist. Before I got to the table, another girl appeared, complimenting Shinya. I was close to turning around when I noticed she had turned to Kyo and wrapped her arms around his neck. They were joined at the lips for a few minutes before she hopped into his lap.
With another deep breath, I continued on my quest. As I got closer to the table, I noticed that the girl had long wavy black hair with light brown running through it. Kyo was stroking her hair while her head rested in the crook of his neck. They were both smiling and talking to each other as well as Shinya. At last I had reached him and my hand extended forward, tapping the man on the shoulder. Every pair of eye's turned to me and my cheeks burned bright red. "Ehm, Hi," was all I could really manage at this point. Shinya muttered his hello and went back to sipping his water. Kyo beamed and pointed to the chair, "Come join us," he said. The girl nodded, "Yea. I don't like being the only girl at the table."
"You guys were great," I complimented, "I especially liked the drumming." Kyo made a noise I would have expected from a high school student, "Someone has a crush on you," he said with a smirk in Shinya's direction. I felt heat turning my cheeks a bright red again and looked at my lap. "Tooru," I heard the girl say, "You can be so insensitive sometimes." Her voice sounded angry and I looked up to see her on her feet. She shook her hair and turned, heading towards the door and her car, which I really wouldn't have known.
That left Shinya and I alone.
The silence lasted a few minutes before he spoke, "Would you like something to drink." It surprised me but I shook my head, "No thank you," I said, smiling a little. He seemed to look me over. My outfit was a simple, tight black shirt and a sort purple skirt. Boot's climbed my legs to the knees where they stopped. Buckles covered the front. "Shouldn't you be home by now?" he asked tilting his head to the side. "I don't think so, why?" The only thing I could think of was that I was annoying him in some way. This made me even more nervous. "Well, you look a little young to be out here in the club." So that was it. I shook my head, "I'm not much younger that you," and to prove this, I pulled out my drivers license and handed it to him, "See."
He laughed a little and it made me smile. He had a cute laugh. "So, your name is Keiko, ne?" I nodded as he handed the piece of plastic back to me. He held his hand out, "I'm Terachi Shinya." I shook his hand, another blush tinting my cheeks. "I know your name. I've met your bassist before." His eyes brows raised and our hand dropped as the other two had returned. The girl looked annoyed and Kyo looked like he just wanted to leave. "Hey Shinya, who's your friend?" he asked gesturing to me. The girl sighed again, "You don't just blurt out something like that Tooru. You should ask her what her name is instead of saying it like that.
The dark haired man glared at his girlfriend, "Would you not call me Tooru." He shook his head and looked to me, "I'm sorry for being so rude," I could tell he was straining to be polite, "May I ask your name?" I felt as if I was in a situation that if I made one sudden mood, one of the two across from me would pounce and start tearing my flesh off. I responded anyway, "I'm Ichikawa Keiko." He nodded, "I'm Kyo. Please do not call me Tooru." The girl looked at me at, her arms folded across her chest. "I'm Manea Ritsuka," she held her hand out and I shook it.
Kyo looked at Ritsuka, "I forgot to tell you, we've been scheduled to play tommorow. We're playing after that Daisuke guy's band." Ritsuka rolled her eyes, "When did you plan to tell me that?" she asked coldly. Her brown eyes were narrowed toward the man beside her. "I was gonna tell you when we got home." Her arms dropped into her lap and one reached forward for a drink on the table. I was sure she missed the look given to her by Kyo because she downed more than half the glass at once. "She told you about Die then," Shinya said looking to Kyo. He nodded, "We were gonna come she him play because 'it would be rude to decline his invitation'. He was using a mocking tone as he spoke the last part.
Shinya and I were both confused by this. Ritsuka stood, apparently very annoyed now, "Can we just go home?" she asked softly, even though there was still venom forced into it. Kyo sighed and nodded, "Fine." Ritsuka threw apologetic glances at Shinya and I, "See you tommorow Shin-chan. And I'll so you later Keiko-san." We both nodded and the two walked off. As mad at each other as I thought they were, I noticed their fingers became laced together. It was a bit confusing.
The male beside me seemed to notice my confusion. "They fight all the time," he said. My head turned towards him, "They always make up?" I asked. He nodded and then seemed to get a bit nervous. "Anyway, I was wondering if you would want to come again tommorow and maybe we could go have coffee after the show." I was defiantly surprised by this. Neither one of us knew each other well enough but maybe we could get to know each other. I nodded, "Sounds fine. But if I don't sleep tommorow night, I'm blaming you." He smiled and nodded.
After a moment I pulled out my phone and rose quickly, "I'm so sorry, I've got to go." He looked startled but he nodded anyway, "I'll see you tommorow," he said. I smiled and gave him a quick, and awkward, hug before rushing out of the doors. In the clear night's air, I began to realize that the one man I had been pining over for weeks had asked me out for coffee. A huge smile broke loose and spread as I swiftly drove away from the neon signs around the club.
I went through my usual haste to make it to the club. Tonight promised to be something of an adventure. Later on, I had a date of sorts with Shinya and it would maybe lead to something else. At least, that's what I was hoping for. He might not want it to progress and understood this, even as I paid the bouncer and slipped into the crowded club. I paused to look around for any sign of Kyo, Ritsuka or Shinya. My looking efforts found nothing until I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around, nearly knocking Ritsuka over.
"Hey, Shiny-chan said you'd be coming. Come on," she spoke over the loud noises around us and pulled me towards a table with three drinks on it. She sat down and it took a seat next to her. I took notice that the table we were at sat near the stage and we had the perfect view of the show. Ritsuka pushed a drink towards me and smiled. I took it and sipped at it, never being one to drink. "I noticed last night that when you started to drink, Kyo gave you an odd look. What was that about?" I asked. I knew I was being nosey but I couldn't really help it. She sighed and set her drink down, "Tooru almost died the first time he drank and so he worries about me. I was just mad last night or I wouldn't have drunken it that fast."
I nodded, not really wanting to pry further. But there was one thing that I was curious about, "Did you two make up?" I asked. Ritsuka smiled and nodded, "We always do. Though, this time we didn't make up till this morning but when we both got to talking…well," she paused, obviously lost in the morning's events, "Let's just say that we both got a bit of pleasure out of it." She laughed lightly and a spokes person for the bar come on the mic before she could finish and introduced a band. As the band members came onstage, I noticed that the guitar player had unusually bright red hair and he seemed to wink at Ritsuka who just glared at him.
I looked at Ritsuka, "Do you know him?" I asked as they started playing. She looked at me and nodded angrily, "He hit on me the other day and insulted Tooru-kun." I nodded, not pressing the matter further. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Ritsuka was staring at me. "What?" I asked turning to look at her. She giggled, "I noticed, you got Shin-chan to say more than he's ever really said to us before. Tooru and I were really surprised." I arched my eyebrows, "Is he normally quiet?" I asked. She shrugged, "Well, he usually keeps to himself. We don't even know his phone number. But you got him to ask you out and he seems excited.
My cheeks turned red again and our attention was brought back to the band that launched into their second song. They didn't sound bad but they didn't sound good either. It more so sounded like they didn't rehearse too often. They were off beat and the vocalist seemed to get a bit annoyed by this. They finished this and played their third song before heading off stage. We watched for the band to leave the stage area and soon enough they did. The man with bright red hair headed towards us. "Hey ladies," he said taking a seat next Ritsu-chan, yes I already had a nickname for her.
I nodded, "Hello. I'm Ichikawa Keiko," I said with a smile. He smiled in a cute way, "So you're the one Shinya was telling me about. Nice to meet you. I'm Andou Daisuke." I smiled back and clapped with everyone else as Kyo and Shinya's band appeared on stage. Ritsuka seemed to Daisuke as Kyo came to the mic and gave her a smile that had something else behind than just a hello. He addressed the crowd and they launched into their three song set. They played a song that I had dubbed my favorite already and transitioned into the other songs that I had grown to like as well.
As they played another man came to our table, addressing Daisuke though. He talked to him about helping to form a new band he was going to call La:Sadie's. Daisuke told the man that he was in a band and the man, whose name I thought was Kaoru's, talked him into joining this new band. Soon enough, Kyo and Shinya had joined the crowd. Shinya took a seat next to me while Kyo took Daisuke's abandoned seat, also taking Ritsu-Chan's hand into his own. The other two approached our table so that all of us could hear this new man. "Hello, I'm Niikura Kaoru. I have a proposition for you two." He was speaking to Kyo and Shinya. Not Ritsuka and myself.