Maybe Then...

Chapter 12: if I weren't so stubborn

If I weren't so stubborn, 

And I weren't so prideful, 

Maybe then, I wouldn't have stirred up tension.

----------------------------------------------------

"How many songs do you think we've gotten down?" Dolan asked as he spun his drumstick in his fingers. Seriously, how do people do that?

"Maybe two or three sound pretty good, one of them sounds okay, but the rest...we'll just work on them and they'll sound better later," Dan answered.

"What, you also got a gig for us?" Cooper inquired.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Just as long as it's not as soon as the dude Kyle has us set up with," I added.

"Actually..." Dolan rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh no, just say it, Dolan," Dan demanded.

"It's this Saturday," he spit out his words in a rush.

My eyes grew wide. This Saturday?

"Oh! No no no no!" Cooper laughed dryly. "That is not happening! I'm not sure when we'll be ready, and I may not be the best at calculations, but I don't think we'll be ready in a few days!"

"Not as a group, no, but I'm sure that Dan and Kyle know a few songs that they can play as a duet. It's a campfire get-together, so they wanted something accoustic. So I figured that, you know, a guitar and a nice voice will do."

It felt like a little bit of the panic in the air had dissapated.

"Well why didn't you just say that someone wants us to play?" Kyle asked.

Dolan shrugged, "didn't want to make Cooper and Amelia feel like I had forgotten about them."

"I, for one, do not feel left out," I stated. "I mean, I still have some suckiness on the bass to fix before I'm ready to perform."

"I don't know," Dan mumbled, "I just think that they're asking for If And Or When and we'll only be giving them a duo."

"If And Or When?" I echoed. "What does that mean?" 

Everyone looked at me for a moment, exchanging confused glances to one another. 

"You're shitting me, right?" Dolan asked with wide eyes. 

"What?" I nodded at him expectantly. 

"If And Or When is the name of our band," Cooper informed me. 

"Oh!" Why hadn't Dan told me? "When did your guys come up with that?" 

"Cooper suggested the idea a couple of months ago," Kyle filled me in. "But we agreed on it a little bit before you came. I'd just assumed that Dan told you the name already!" 

"Well she never asked!" he defended. "Besides, what did you think it was called? Nothing?" 

There was a little bit of harshness in his tone. Reflecting on it, I realized that he was only using a facade of defensiveness because he was embarrassed that the blame could be placed on him. 

"Well, I mean, you could have given me a heads-up and assumed that I didn't know already." Now I was starting to get defensive and passed the blame back to him. 

Thank goodness for Dolan, the 'tough guy' and 'peacemaker.' 

"Guys, it was a dumb misunderstanding, who cares? So can we please just drop it?" 

"Yes, please!" I grumbled. 

"So is that a yes or no, Dan, for the gig?" 

He released a sigh before answering, "okay." 

I felt guilt in my chest for stirring up tension, but, I also felt that at that point, it wasn't an okay time to apologize and go all sitcom family forgiveness time. 

-----------------------------------------

Hey everyone!

So just a little refresher in case you're confused on times and stuff:

It's been five weeks since Amelia and her grandfather moved, and three weeks since she started working at the ice cream parlor.

So do you guys think that Amelia's and Daniel's relationship will get any worse or better any time soon?

And did you notice the correlation between the name of the band and the internal monologues places at the beginning of the chapters?