Chapter 2:
Its quite a nice night out tonight, Neela thought to herself. She was standing outside in the back garden waiting in line to refill her cup from the keg. Do people our age still have Beer kegs at parties? She wondered as she reached the front of the queue. Well I guess most of Ray's friends do have the mental age of teenagers anyway. Neela realised she must have been smiling at her thoughts as a guy standing near her smiled back to her as though in response. He's pretty cute actually, she thought as he walked over.
"Hey, I saw you standing over here by yourself and thought that you looked as though you could do with some company", the guy said when he reached her. He was wearing jeans and one of those random band t-shirts that Ray always seemed to wear.
"Always", Neela replied.
"Great. I'm more then happy to perform my gentlemanly duty", he said
"Duty?", Neela said faking looking offended.
"Pleasure, I meant", he said smiling. "you look capable of taking care of yourself"
"Good coz I wouldn't want to have to hurt you to prove it", Neela said laughing.
"Yeah I don't really wanna have to go to the hospital at this time of night", he said.
"Oh that's ok, I could take care of you right here", Neela said.
"I work in the ER" she explained at his confused face.
"Oh well in that case its your duty to take care of me", he said jokingly,
"I'm Ash by the way", he said holding out his hand.
"Neela", she said shaking it.
"So you know that I'm a doctor, but I don't know what you do", she said.
"I'm in a band".
Aren't they all, Neela thought to herself.
"And I also do some work in graphic design, doing promotions"
"Wow. Your so much more creative then I am", Neela said
"I'm sure you have many talents of your own", he said grinning.
"Well…"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray had been talking to Melissa for some time but it wasn't really going the way that he had planned. Usually by this point in the evening, the girl would be all over him but Melissa didn't really seem to be that interested. However, the longer they talked though, the more Ray began to like her. He found out that she worked in marketing and that she had the same music tastes and even same food tastes as Ray. She was gorgeous and seemed to be outgoing.
"I'm in a band", Ray was telling her, "you should come to a gig of ours sometime". This had to make her interested. All the girls he knew were into the rock star image. Except maybe Neela.
"Maybe", Melissa said looking around, "I'm kinda busy at the moment".
Ray face fell at this. He had found his perfect girl, and she wasn't even interested.
"Well how about I take your number because we have a gig coming up soon and I can give you a ring"
"Er… I don't think I can make it. It was nice talking to you", and with this she turned around and strode away.
Ray stood there gob smacked. She didn't even wait to hear when the gig was! I can't believe she just gave me the brush off . What did I do wrong? Ray scowled. It wasn't that much of a big deal, even now he could spot a girl with blonde hair standing near by who was looking at him interestedly. But it really was. He had genuinely liked Melissa. He hadn't just wanted to get her into bed.
All of a sudden Ray wasn't really feeling the party vibe anymore. I wonder if Neela's ready to go yet? He had a quick search of the house and found her coming down the stairs.
"Hey. Are you ready to go?"
Neela looked surprised, "Oh I thought I was going to have cab it back. What happened to that girl you were chatting up?"
"Nothing", Ray frowned.
Neela smirked, "Don't tell me Dr Rock got knocked back".
"Lets go", Ray said moodily.
"Hold on I just wanna say bye to this guy that I met". Ash had gone to get some drinks for them and Neela had gone to the bathroom meanwhile but she now she couldn't see him anywhere. Oh well, its not like we were going to hook up or anything. At worst he'll just think I was rude leaving without saying bye but I'll probably never see him again anyway.
Neela walked back to Ray who was gazing sullenly across the room at the girl in the green dress, "Ok lets go".
