First Comes Friendship

Chapter 3: The Friend Zone

It was a Friday night like many others during the winter in Montreal, brutally cold and windy and although the smart thing would have been to stay home, many university students still braved the weather to go out and party with their friends. Elle and I were at my place waiting for some people to show up so that we could go clubbing as a group. That night we were checking out this new trendy spot called Blue. It was the type of place that you could only go in either if you were famous or on the guest list. The line was always unbelievably long to give people the impression that it was the place to be. Luckily for us, Elle knew one of the bouncers who had arranged for us to be on the list so we would hopefully be able to get in without any problems or too much waiting.

Elle was looking especially fabulous that night. She was wearing this knee-length deep blue dress that brought out the colour of her eyes even more. The dress was backless and had a deep v-neck at the front. She had on large cascading earring covered with little crystals that drew attention up to her face and she was wearing leather black stiletto boots that showed-off her great legs. She was simply breath taking. There was no doubt in my mind that guys would be lining up to buy her drinks tonight, not that it would be different from every other night.

Elle and I had been getting together before going out for a while now and it was something that I was looking forward to every week. Tonight, she had come over early and it was nice to be able to spend some time alone with her. She was such a fascinating person and the more I got to know her, the more I wanted to hang out with her.

We were in my room listening to some music. I was sitting at my computer, and she was lying on my bed. Our tastes in music were very similar, we both enjoyed alternative, hip hop and classic rock. I remember the first time I looked at her MP3 player, I was actually shocked to see just how many of the same artists we both cherished.

We were drinking some random mixes that Elle had come up with based on what she had found in my liquor cabinet and we were chatting about Blue and what we had heard about it when a song came on. It was How's It Gonna Be by Third Eye Blind. Elle started singing along with her eyes closed. She looked so peaceful, so calm while she sang. It was a whole new side of her I had never seen before. She had such a nice voice, almost angelic. I could have listened to her sing for hours.

"I wonder how it's going to be when you don't know me How's it gonna be when you're sure I'm not there. How's. How's it going to be when there is no one there to talk to, between you and me 'cause I don't care? How's it going to be? How's it gonna be?" She stopped singing for a moment and looked up at me and asked me something that truly got me thinking.

"Was there ever someone in your life that was so important to you that for a moment you wondered how life would be without them?"

The tone of her voice was so serious, so unlike her usually bubbly self that I was unsure how to answer her question.

"You mean other than my family?" I said seriously.

"Yes"

"Not really, you?"

I wondered if I should have said yes. I did not want her to think that I was not a caring guy because I did care, I especially cared about her.

I stared at her for a moment, silent. She was looking down, but I could still tell that she was fighting back tears. She finally almost whispered an answer.

"Yes..."

I could see that she wanted to talk about it, and judging how upset she was I figured it was a guy.

"Tell me about him"

She looked up at me as if she wanted to say "how did you know it was a guy?" and proceeded to pour her heart out to me.