Indestructible: Reinforced

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

     October 2009

     First Deliberate Hangout

     I stepped out of the Ford that my mom let the driver drive us around in at seven-thirty and readjusted the strap of the blue handbag I was carrying. I was wearing a white shirt with thin blue and brown stripes, a pair of Levi’s denims, and brown knee-high boots. My hair fell down my back in waves. I looked okay.

     “Alright, Gaby.” I muttered to myself after I’d asked the driver to go home for the night, and headed to La Canon. “You can do this.”

     I pushed open the heavy wooden door and stepped into the bar. The concentrated smell of alcohol, perfume, and cologne assaulted my nostrils. A Jay-Z song was just coming to an end and the speakers were quite for a split-second. Then a new track started.

     I smiled as the intro music for I Gotta A Feeling started playing. I decided to take that as a good sign. My gaze roaming the tables and the bar, I willed my heart to stop beating so hard. I wanted to stay cool. I didn’t want to appear needy or pathetic. Avy had advised me against that.

     “I gotta feeling..that tonight’s gonna be a good night..”

     I sang along to the first couple of lines then something caught my eye. A hand, at the back of the bar, waving.

     I glanced at the owner of the hand and my heart started beating fast again. Josh stood up and walked over to me with a face-splitting grin on his face. He was wearing a red, blue, and white flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a white undershirt that was a stark contrast against his neck and the small part of his tan, well-defined chest that wasn’t covered by the shirt, black denims, and a pair of red All-Stars. He looked fine.

     “Hey, so glad you could make it.” He gave me a quick one-armed hug then stepped back to look at me. “You look really nice.”

     “Thanks.” I blushed. “You too.”

     “Why, thank you, Cassidy.” He smiled broadly at me. “Alright, my friends are over there. You can just wave at them and we can hang out for a bit. Or if you want we can go sit with them.”

     Shit! He was asking me to choose between hanging out with him alone or hanging with him and his friends. If I chose the first one, then he’d know for sure that I liked him. And if I chose the latter then he’d think I wasn’t interested in hanging out with him alone, thus hinting that I was friend-zoning him.

    “Would they mind if we didn’t go over and say hi?” I asked and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m fine either way.”

     “Well, they’re a bit intense, if I’m being honest.” He laughed shyly. “I don’t think you can take them right now. So maybe, we could go over and say hi then just hang out on our own for a bit? If you don’t mind.”

     Wow! I’d gotten him to make the choice himself without knowing what I was doing. I was good! “Yeah, sure, that sounds fine.”

     “Cool.” He smiled and stepped aside to let me pass. “After you, mademoiselle.”

     I giggled and walked past him. I felt his fingers lightly brush the small of my back as we headed to his friends’ table at the back of the bar. There were two guys and two girls there. The girls were beautiful, a brunette with grey eyes and a redhead with green eyes. The boys were okay-looking compared to Josh. One had chocolate-colored skin and brown eyes. And the other was blond with blue eyes, but he was a bit chubby.