∆ Week in P∆r∆dise // Bastille

Icarus is Flying too Close to the Sun

A few minutes later, we pulled up at this fancy Italian restaurant.  We were all underdressed for the atmosphere of this restaurant, but no one cared.  We unloaded from the mini van, and walked up to the front door.  The guys had made reservations earlier so that we could get preferred seating, outside.  The sun was still high in the sky, and bright as ever.  Dan insisted on pulling out my seat for me, then sitting himself next to me, in-between Reily and I.  Will sat to my right, and Woody next to him, then Kyle and Reily; that brought us back to Dan then me.

Reily saw Dan and Will surround me, and flashed me a concerned look.  I sent her a pleading one back, but then shook my head as to tell her to not worry about it.  The waiter came over a little after we started looking at our menus and we ordered, starting with Kyle then going around going to Kyle’s left.  

“Uh, I-I’ll h-have um the caesar salad, please.”  I had a problem with eating big meals in front of guys.  I was getting over an eating disorder, and was scared about what they thought about how or what I was eating.  Reily knew that this was getting my anxiety up, she could tell from my stuttering, and my tone of voice.  Dan noticed something wrong as well.  He shot me a concerned look, but I ignored him.  

 

After awkward conversations, not involving much contribution from me, the waiter brought our food over.  I barely touched mine, as I was surround by guy who I barely knew, and was nervous.  Dan saw, and nudged my arm.  He began eating his Chicken Parmesan, and I looked up at him, then shot my eyes over at Reily.  They continued their conversation about sports, then changed it to music, where I finally contributed my knowledge.  “Cam, how about you?  What do you listen to?”  Dan asked, and Reily snorted.

“Show tunes.  She’s a theater geek!” Reily laughed, and I felt myself blush.  I looked down at my barely half eaten salad, and started to pick at it again.

“Like what?” Dan asked as a follow-up question, and I looked around the table to a bunch of eyes waiting for me to answer.

I hesitated, thinking about how to answer without making me sound like a nerd. “I-I uh, well my friend is producing a production of The Phantom of the Opera, and cast me as Christine, so I’ve been catching up on that soundtrack.” I looked down, feeling my face turn red, even redder than it was before.  “But then I like a lot of Pop-Punk and Rock, and such…” I trailed off, but capturing the guys’ attention again.

Will looked over at me and smiled, “In Phantom as in the lead?  You must be phenomenal.”

“Not really,” I chuckled.  “We’ve been planning this production for the past seven years.” 

“But that’s a huge accomplishment! Like that’s big!” Dan put his arm around my shoulder, and I didn’t know whether to lean into him, or pull away.  Stupidly, I moved away from Dan’s grasp, and he took his arm off, not knowing what to do.  The conversation changed again, to something I wasn’t too interested in, and I kept my head down whilst finishing my salad. 

 

“You guys should come with us over to DownTown Disney and hang out.” Woody looked around at Reily, then over to me as the waiter left the check on the table.  I tried to hand him $40 for mine and Reily’s food, but he wouldn’t take it.  All four of the guys pitched in with Kyle and Dan paying extra for Reily and me.

“Come on, let me pay.  You guys don’t have to do that.  It’s no big deal.” I begged them to let me pay, but Kyle, Dan, Woody, and Will all protested.  I eventually gave into their offer, and backed off.  

Woody and Will led the group through the down stairs of the restaurant and through the front door.  “Do you guys have weeklong passes to Disney?” Kyle asked Reily, and she nodded, lost in his deep brown eyes.  “So do we!  Why don’t we just hit Disneyland for tonight?  That would be better than just going shopping!”

“But we don’t want to waste our tickets, since they’re only for five days, and we’re here for six.” I protested, and Reily shot me a death-stare over her shoulder.

Dan snickered, “Okay, then we’ll buy you two one day passes, that we’ll use tonight then you can use your tickets for the rest of the week.” 

“No, I feel horrible letting you pay for everything.”

“It’s no trouble.  Honestly, I’d be honored to take you to Disneyland, even if it’s only for a night.”  I didn’t want to keep arguing with Dan.  I felt like I had ruined this whole night.  For not just me, but Reily as well.  

 

We got to the car, and Reily and Dan wound up switching seats, so that Dan was sitting in the back with me, and Reily in the center aisle with Kyle. Will, the designated driver, turned up the radio to a pop/rock station, and one of my favorite songs, ‘Bad Blood’ by this band called Bastille came on.  I almost lost it, because it was my favorite song. 

“Really? This again?” Will jokingly moaned and Woody laughed along with Kyle, Dan and Will.

Reily obviously didn’t catch onto their sarcasm, “You don’t like this song?”

Dan started singing in the backseat, and I automatically joined with him.  We actually laughed together, and I was coming out of my awkward slump.  Kyle turned in his seat to look at me, and winked at me.  I paused for a second and just listened to Dan’s voice.  He was THE Dan Smith from BASTILLE!  How did I not put this together!

“What… you-you’re… Kyle, why didn’t you tell me!” I stuttered.  I felt so stupid that I didn’t know who they were.  “You’re Ba-Bastille?” I was confused, and shocked at the same time.  Reily didn’t put it together either, and was still confused.

Woody turned in his seat, “You mean you didn’t know who we were?” 

“No, I don’t look into what bands look like.  If I like their music, then I like their music.  It doesn’t matter to me who makes up the band.  I mostly just pay attention to their music, to be honest.” I kept looking from Woody, to Will, to Kyle and then to Dan.  I couldn’t believe that I was in a car, and I had just had dinner with one of my favorite bands.  “I literally used to listen to ‘All This Bad Blood’ on repeat for days on end.  I love that record so much.” I was trying to contain all my shock, and the urges to scream and cry whilst asking Dan to sign my phone case or something stupid like that.

Dan looked down at his lap and put his hand up to the back of his neck.  He was blushing, and I knew that I should just shut up, and not talk because I’ll just make a fool of myself, over and over. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.  For the record, I was trying to whisper to myself but it didn’t really work out like that.

 

As soon as I said that, Dan’s head shot up, and he put his hand on my knee. “Why?  You like our music, that’s a good thing.  I love getting to know our fans! I love our fans.  There’s absolutely no reason for you to be sorry, sweet heart.”  I blushed.  I know I did.  My face turned bright red, and I looked away from him and out the window.  For not wanting to come out tonight, I was surprisingly cozying up to Dan nicely.