𝔅𝔞𝔟𝔶, 𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔢 𝔱𝔦𝔪𝔢 || 𝔨. 𝔥𝔞𝔪𝔪𝔢𝔱𝔱

.15.

Kirk's pov.

I sat a little further forward. Actually, I wanted to practice and go through all the guitar riffs again but at the latest when Stacy sat down next to me, I could forget that. liked her even when she had jealousy issues. She was smart, pretty and funny. Still, there was something about her that confused me. Already on our date she had told me that she is not a fan of rock music. So what is she doing here? And why did she want to come with us?

Didn't she trust me?

Whatever it was, it made me doubt it would ever work out between us.

"Is everything alright Kirky? You look tired.", she asked me looking at me with a worried look.

Maybe a little too worried.
Wait a second.
Kirky?!
What kind of nickname is that? I even like curly better.

I chose to ignore it as I didn't want to start an argument. But that's by far the worst nickname I've ever heard.

"I'm fine Stacy. Do you mind if I go over the riffs again?"

"No of course not. I love hearing you play.", she said.

Lie. That was a lie.

She heard me play once and said exactly the same thing. She didn't like rock music so why should she love my riffs?

Stacy didn't even notice me anymore. She put on the headphones of her Walkman and got into the music. I, in turn, looked around.

Olivia's shock of blonde hair was barely visible next to James's. It's a wonder they didn't look like they were merging but James's hair was a little darker than Olivia's. They were playing some card game with Cliff and Lars. It looked like they were having the time of their lives.

Seeing her smile was different. It made me feel a pleasant warmth even though I'm actually happy.

But was I happy at all?
Was dating Stacy a good idea?
Was it even a good idea to call her?

I don't know.

Already in the bar, when I saw Olivia for the first time, I realized that she wasn't just any woman. She had a completely different charisma than most women I've met and that's exactly what made me curious.

How we danced, how we hardly had to say anything. It was as if we understood each other blindly that night. And it still felt that way.

Olivia made me feel things Stacy could never make me feel.

However, I was just too stupid to see and admit it.

We'd been on the road for a while and by now I was sure that I wouldn't get a riff wrong. I put my guitar on the seat and as soon as I did that, Stacy woke up from her sleep. If she slept at all.

A little confused and still tired she looked at me questioningly.

"Where are you going?", she asked.

I looked back at the table. By now they had switched teams, so Lars and Olivia were playing against Cliff and James. I didn't care if I played alone against the four, I just really wanted to take part.

"Over to the others. I would like to play along.", I said to her and walked to the table.

James was the first to notice me and gave me a happy smile. Cliff was so engrossed in the cards that he didn't see me and Lars was talking to Olivia about something.

"Do you want to play too?"

"If it's fine with you?"

"Of course it is! Why shouldn't it be fine?", James asked me confused about what I had said.

I just gestured at Stacy who was still sitting in our place and seemed to have fallen asleep again. She's really tired even though she got enough sleep.

James slid over a bit so I could sit down as well. Cliff, James and I sat a bit cramped and squashed on a bench. This was nothing that was foreign to us.

There wasn't much room in our garage either.

"What are you actually playing?", I asked since I had no idea what they were playing.

Now Lars and Olivia seemed to notice me too. Apparently their little talk was over. I just smiled at both of them.

"Something like quartet only in teams.", I got the short version from Lars.

Wow. That also helped me to understand what they were playing here. I just nodded and James collected all the cards to reshuffle them. So a new round is started. But Cliff was so engrossed in the cards that he got angry.

"James. We could have won! Why now?!"

"Because Kirk want's to play too.", he said and that was enough.

Cliff now realized that I had joined them and grinned at me in embarrassment. I didn't mind and waited for James to finish shuffling the cards. Wherever he'd learned that, he could probably do it with his eyes closed.

Somehow that impressed me.

I would just never tell him that. My ego was too big for that.

James now distributed the cards and thus a new round "something like quartet only in a team" could begin.