Stally Fan-fiction

Chapter 6: Band Practice

After Danny left, I still sat there, kind of dumbfounded. I still wasn't ready to grasp the concept that I might have fallen for Stevie so I started organizing somethings to keep me busy until I had to leave. Stevie would be here in thirty minutes so I took the time to organize some of my massive DVD collection. I kept white dividers between alphabetized sections, marking them by letter on my big charcoal colored DVD shelf I had a newer pile that I didn't alphabetize in yet so I started doing that. I when my hands passed over a few cheesy rom-coms, it got me thinking a little but I shook it off. I couldn't fully judge how I felt about her unless I was actually around her. As I put the second Avengers movie in its place, I heard the front door and realized Stevie was here. With my lucky Vans already on, I grabbed my bag and headed for the door. Earlier in the week I had texted Ali to see what instruments they had already and she said I wouldn't need to bring anything. I just had that feeling where you think you're missing something but you know you have everything.

I yanked open the front door with my back turned, glancing around my house making sure I didn't forget anything, and when I turned back, I smacked right into Stevie. All I could mutter was an apology while trying to avoid accidentally head-butting her. My face was no more than four inches away from hers and I froze, gawking into her eyes fighting the urge to just plant one on her. She probably thought I was having some kind of mental breakdown or something so I adjusted myself to look semi-normal. "Uh, you have something on your cheek." I lied.

She wiped the side of her face and looked down at her hand and after seeing nothing there, she peered back up at me. "Am I good now?"

"Yeah. Perfect." I started gawking at her again and only realized when she turned her head at me questioningly. "Well, Ali said I didn't need to bring any instruments, right?" I asked closing the door behind me and bounded down my front steps behind Stevie.

"Yep, we have a lot of instruments already at Ali's place." I walked up to her car and hopped in the passenger seat. The car was freezing because the air conditioning was up high and I immediately started shivering. Stevie laughed at me, turning off the vents and opening the windows. As she drove, I could see the sunset in the distance and the light shone on Stevie's hair brilliantly and I just stared at her stupefied again. I started to concentrate on how being around her made me feel. I had butterflies in my stomach but it felt nice. It felt homey to be near her. I looked at her arm sitting on the middle console near the gear shift and I imagined what it would be like to just put my hand in hers. A goofy smiled crossed my face and I looked out the window so Stevie wouldn't be able to tell what I was smiling about. I noticed an odd feeling too though. It's like a weird magnetic connection. Like when you have two magnets close together and when the opposite ends get near each other they pull towards each other. It feels like that. Like I'm supposed to be near her (in a non-creepy way of course). I wanted to just move my left hand so bad. It would only take closing the few inches of space for my hand to meet hers. I ended up just kind of staring at her hand imagining the look of my hand in hers when she lifted it back to the wheel to turn, breaking me out of my reverie. I yanked my hand away and folded my hands in my lap. Should I just tell her how I feel? No, I'd just be setting myself up for rejection. She's with Sarah. Oh my God, Sarah! I haven't even thought about her. How would I feel if the roles were reversed and she was falling for my girlfriend? Part of me was happy to think about her as my girlfriend but I focused back on the matter at hand. I'd be pissed if I were her. Ok, I'll just keep my feelings to myself until either Stevie breaks up with Sarah (which I doubt will happen) or I move on. The latter sounded more reasonable, I decided as Stevie and I arrived at Ali's. It was a nice and quaint condo complex and we parked in a spot designated with a number sequence. It probably matched Ali's mailbox or condo number. The building was eggshell white with cedar wood shingles on the roof, five floors up. I got out of the car and put my hands in my pockets, picking nervously at the stitching.

Stevie turned off the headlights and got out of the car. I followed her lead into the building after she locked the car. The hallway of the first floor was pretty barren and I could see the stair cases were carpeted as we made our way to the elevator in the center of the hall. Stevie pressed the button and it dinged almost immediately and a small family exited so we stepped aside for them. The mother was holding her little girl against her shoulder, and the little girl was staring at me so when the mom turned away from us, I made silly faces. The little girl started giggling and her mom whipped around glaring at me so I just jumped into the elevator. I glanced at Stevie once inside, and she was smiling at me. "What? The little girl reminded me of my niece."

"Aw, you have a niece?"

"Yeah, she's my sister's daughter."

The elevator doors opened on level four and we got off, taking a right and walking down the corridor. There were maybe six different large condos on this floor and Stevie stopped at the one on the end which had a view overlooking a back area with a big pond and some fountains. It was really pretty especially with palm trees strategically placed around the pond. Stevie gave a quick knock on the door and Ali had to have been near the door because it opened almost immediately. "Hey guys!" she said exuberantly. She was wearing a bright pink tank top, leggings and sneakers; she looked ready to go to the gym.

"Hey." Stevie and I said as we entered Ali's condo. I looked around and everything was neat and colorful. Ali closed the door behind us and they both walked down a hallway so I just followed. They led me to a room that had a full recording set up, amps, a full drum set, keyboard, bass guitars, electric guitars and acoustic guitars. I picked up one of the acoustic guitars and started to pluck a few of the strings and they were out of tune. I started to tune it by ear when Ali suggested I look over some songs they had already written. After I finished tuning the guitar, I looked over the songs and they were really good. I looked at the sheet music and we played with some of the notes making tiny differences here and there and it turned into a nice little jam session. We started just playing some covers of songs and then it turned into us making up ridiculous songs off of the top of our heads. We sounded like we were on drugs. At one point I had to stop because I was laughing so hard my side hurt and I was tearing up.

For the while we were just goofing off I had the best time in a while. I saw Ali as not just a goofy person, though she can be really goofy, she was hilarious and clever. I also saw Stevie different too. She wasn't just beautiful and kind-hearted, she was funny, sarcastic, and honest. I started to like her even more, even though I didn't think that was possible. We all had similar humors so we got along great. I could really see myself being really close with both Stevie and Ali. If I can't be with Stevie in the way I want, it's so nice to just be in her presence. I'd rather have Stevie in my life as just friends than not at all. Even in this short period of time, I knew that now. If I do eventually tell her how I feel, I'll never forget that realization.