He Told Me To Walk This Way

To the Boiler Room

Steven was sitting on the couch in his apartment, smoking a joint and getting ready for his gig at the Boiler Room bar. I was sitting a cushion away from him reading a magazine. Joe was tuning his guitar with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Angela, my best friend, was sitting on the couch ignoring everyone and looking in a mirror.

"You girls really can't come tonight?" Steven asked, looking at me for the most part.

I looked up from the article I was reading about The Stones. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I gotta go to my Aunt Rose's party thing. Her girlfriend is going and my mom said I have to go." I said, trying to sound as calm as possible. The truth was it was killing me that I was going to miss a show.

"Shit. I forgot your Aunt was gay." Steven said, dazed from the weed.

"Yeah, me too; Ever since she divorced my uncle it's been so unreal."

He nodded in return.

"My mom said I have to stay home tonight; so no, I can’t go." Angela looked at her watch. "In fact, I should go now. But Ginger, if I can, I'll stop by your Aunt's little party." She stood up and pulled on her tall brown leather boots and picked up her bag. "Bye, Gin." She said to me and then walked out the door.

"You know, I should probably go, too. I have to get ready. Good luck, guys." I said mainly to Steven.

"Okay, but you both owe me blowjobs for missing this." He said jokingly.

"Yeah, right" Angela chimed as the door shut behind both of us, leaving the guys to do whatever it was they did without Angela and me around.

In the hallway Angela giggled. "He's such an ass sometimes."

"Yeah, but I...he's really nice. We've been friends for a long time..."

Angela stopped walking and leaned up against the wall, signalling me to stop as well. She was giving me a look. First, I tried to ignore it because I knew what it meant. "I already know."

"What do you know?" I asked, playing dumb. Maybe she'd just drop the whole thing.

She smiled slyly. "I know that you like Steven." She looked really pleased with herself. I could tell that in the moment she said this, my cheeks turned bright red. Dead Giveaway, I thought.

I stared in disbelief. "How do you do that?"

She started walking again. At the end of the hall an old man was standing by the stairway looking out the window. He was probably about sixty five and looked like he might be a janitor. I stared at him for a minute, contemplating whether I really wanted to walk by him or not. After sizing him up, Angela spoke. "I see how you look at him. You love him."

"Who? That guy?" I asked, laughing.

She chuckled. "No. Steven, dumbass."

"Oh, right. Well, I don't know..."

How could she know this? I had tried so hard to keep it to myself. Steven was an amazing person. He was tons of fun and could be really sweet. It was easy for me to fall for him, and the truth was I'd been feeling this way for a while. I was going to tell him at first, but after he started gaining fame I'd decided not to. He was spending most his time with the band and groupies. If we did try to go out or anything, I knew it would end badly and I didn't want to risk our friendship and end up an emotional wreck.

"Okay. Maybe I do. Don't say a word to him." I said fiercely. A sinister smile came over her and I knew what it meant. She had just hatched some genius plan, and no matter how hard I would try, I wouldn't be able to stop her from whatever it was.