A.S.A (Van McCann fanfiction)

One

I didn't want to come, not really. It was Joe who'd persuaded me to come to this shitty bar only hours before. He thought it'd make me feel 'better'. Oh god, who is he kidding? A night out with five mates, ridiculously expensive drinks and-

"Abby?" Rolling my eyes, I heard the seat next to me move as Joe sat down cautiously in the chair. "Abby?" He said again, waving his hand in front of my face trying to get my attention. "Look, me Oli, Matt, Alex, Tan and Zoe are over there if you want to come join us? It's just-" As I let him ramble on about how he wanted me to join them, I tuned into my surroundings more. The bar which I'd come over to alone earlier was not as busy as I once expected it to be this time on a Friday evening. To my left there were a few punters talking about nonsense to the bar man whilst to my left, Joe was still going on about some bullshit and behind him, a few couples.

Just then, something caught my eye, opposite me was a badly lit platform which was probably used for performances of some musical kind. A dark figure was setting up a guitar and a microphone but I couldn't see their face due to how shit lighting in this building was.

"That sound good?" Joe asked me obviously finished with his ramble I'd zoned out of.

"W-What?" Slowly, I turned my head back to meet Joe's blue eyes which were laced with concern. He sighed. "Look Abby, do you just want me to drive you home?"

"No?"

"You obviously don't want to be here-"

"No shit." He laughed with disbelief at my attitude.

"Why are you being so difficult Abbs? I'm just worried about you, we all are." He said looking back over to our group who were all joking around about some drinking game. "I just don't want you to get like you were...before." I could barely hear him over the talking and light music ringing through the room.

"I'm fine, I just need to be on my own Joe." Taking a swig of second drink of the evening, I didn't even have to look at Joe to see that he was pissed off with me. "Fine, see you later." He said dryly before walking back over to the table I'd started off at earlier this evening.

Suddenly, the lights throughout the room dimed - except for the ones on the staging area. Tugging at the sleeves of my leather jacket, I slowly looked up through my eyelashes to see what was going on. Oh great, a musical performance. This wasn't exactly what I needed.

"One one, two two." The guy who was about to play said into the microphone. Rolling my eyes, I finished my drink and ordered another vodka and coke. Three. As the barman gave me my drink, I was just about to stand up when the guy performing started playing his guitar. As soon as he started, I instantly recognised the song and started to wish I hadn't. Memories that I thought I'd discarded came flooding back into my mind from last year, when Sam left. God, I told myself I'd never mention him again, but everything I did always came back to him. However, as I sat there with my head in my hands, the stranger started to sing, and it was different.

"On the corner of main street

Just tryin' to keep it in line