I met Van down at a bar called Bizarre in Bushwick and it was, well, bizarre alright. I was with my friends, Georgina and Lexy but they were already drunk dancing with some college students we met the previous nights, when Van approached me at our table. He told me that he liked my face and thought that I needed another drink in his thick English accent, which sounded rather corny to be honest, not the accent, but the way he said it while bitting his lower lip. I was however flattered to say the least. It's not every night that some random blue-eyed British guy would come up to me saying that he likes my face. And so I let him buy me a drink and we swapped names. We talked about nothingness for a whole fifteen minutes - he was mumbling about doing a gig somewhere, probably trying to impress me with the I-am-in-a-band card but since I live in New York, where almost everyone is or wanting to be in a band and trying to make it in the industry, I was not made up by that kind of bullshit. That was when I dropped the question. For the record, I was already drunk before he bought me the drink. And I have a reputation of being a blabber mouth while intoxicated.
"What do you want based on this conversation you are making tonight?"
He tilted his head at me, eyebrows raised, probably surprised that I was being direct. "Excuse me?"
"You walked up to me in a half-packed bar, you bought me a drink and you told me a little bit about yourself. Are you genuinely looking for someone to talk to so you could have more serious conversations before you settle for commitments or are you trying your luck to see if you could get in my pants?" I pursed my lips.
"Whoa. Are New York girls all this direct?" He chuckled.
"Maybe," I shrugged. "Can a Brit boy answer my question?"
"Uhm," he licked his lip. "It all depends on who you're with tonight, I guess. I don't want a boyfriend jumping onto me with a punch or something."
"I don't do boyfriends," I rolled my eyes. I lied. Okay, maybe not really. I just broke up with my boyfriend because he was sleeping with some bitch from work.
"Great. I don't do commitments." The grin on his face grew wider. Oh boy, he wanted to get in my pants. I just knew it.
"Oh," I raised my eyebrow. "Just for the record I am not a hooker."
"I know that," he laughed through his nose. "Can't a lad be nice to a lady, buying you a drink and all that."
"Thanks, I guess," I lifted my glass, looking at it thoughtfully for a few seconds, before looking at him again.
"But... You look like you need someone to spend the night with. I mean, if you want me to, I am up for it," he murmured, sipping his beer, suggestively eyeing at me. This boy was a starer. He has been vacantly staring at me without breaking any eye contact and it was annoying.
Truth be told. Van came to me at a perfect timing - I was trying to forget about my stupid ex and I was actually kind of well, in the mood for meaningless sex. I blame grudge and loneliness for that. Plus Van had declared that he was a no-commitment guy. And he was no way from New York with that kind of accent. Hence, he's perfect. We could have sex just for one night and not see each other ever again. No commitments. No strings attached. No heartache.
Ha! But life was laughing at us.
We ended up having sex more than just once. In fact, we have been doing it for months. It turned out that Van was really in a band - I swear the name of the band was weird. They were called Catfish and The Bottlemen and I chuckled every time he said it. The band was in New York, finishing an album and the band had rented a place just a couple of blocks away from me. Although the initial intention was to only have sex, we both ended up being friends too.
Georgina kept on telling me that I needed to understand the risks of getting involved in those kinds of friendship as sometimes feelings were being played, but I would just laugh and shrug it off. Van and I, we didn't really share any feelings towards each other, other than just pure friendship. Sure, we had sex whenever we feel like it, that's what people who didn't want commitments do, but when we were not tearing each other's clothes off, we were actually good at being just friends.
I didn't have to worry about making phone calls everyday or texting every minute or having to tell him my whereabouts, which was extremely awesome. It felt really nice not to be emotionally attached to anyone and quite frankly, things were getting much more simpler for me. I could now focus on figuring my life out and a career path that suited me - I work at Urban Outfitters and my mom thought I was not ambitious enough.
"Brynn," I heard a knock at the front door. Grunting, I shuffled my way to the entrance and yanked the blue door of my apartment open.
Van was grinning. Holding up a CD in his hand.
"Guess what?" He smiled, making his way into my apartment.
"What?" I nonchalantly asked.
"This is the finished album!"
"Oh, wow. It's actually happening, huh?"
"I know! I am so excited I've been shaking since afternoon! Do you know what this means?" Van asked in a rather high pitch voice.
"That you finally going to get your mom the jacuzzi she wanted?" I chuckled.
"Hey, how'd you know that?"
"You told me that about 50 times already," I laughed.
"Now that the album's complete, we are jetting off back to London next week. Our label will be releasing the first single to get people buzzing about it before the release. And then we are going to decide on the final artwork....."
Honestly, I stopped listening when Van told me he was going back to London.
"You're flying off to London? Like for good?" I asked.
"Well, not for good. We'll be back," he muttered. "I just can't believe this is finally happening Brynn! I am buzzin'!"
"Congratulations," I smiled.
"So, let's celebrate tonight! Drinks on me? "
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The Blue Door (Van McCann Fanfiction)
FanficVan and Brynn are friends with benefits - they both have agreed to the terms, but what happens when one of them starts to fizzle?