& if it's fate, our paths will cross again x3

Chapter 2: Two small Basildon dudes

It's already dark outside as I'm heading home. My head is filled with thoughts about Vince. Why does he want to spend time with me out of a sudden? We've been in our group for some months now but I've never really thought about meeting Vince in private. I barely know him and even though I find him quite interesting and talented, he doesn't seem like a funny person to spend time with nor don't I know if we have any common interests besides music. The only reason I'm in his band in the first place is Andy anyhow since he's friends with Vince and has introduced me to him. Furthermore, he never seemed to be fond of me as a person due to me being late almost every time we meet, he even seems quite pissed about it. Another thing I recognised as well is that he rarely smiles, I'm not even sure if I have heard his laugh before our recent conversation.

As I arrive at home, my family's already asleep. After I take a shower I'm going to my closet. I need to search a while until I finally find it. There it is, my photo album in which I've carefully collected important moments of my life so far. I open it somewhere in the middle and find pictures of my schooldays. Most of these show me with my former classmates and some with the few friends I had, especially Andy. Vince is indeed on a few pictures but I never really noticed him. After all, there's nothing very remarkable about him if you ignore his really defined cheekbones. He's certainly not tall, even smaller than I am, probably one reason why he doesn't stand out. He has green eyes like me and blonde hair, which isn't nearly as curly as mine though. It isn't styled as well which means Vince looks pretty normal in his school uniform. On almost every picture I see of Vince he is standing in the background and isn't smiling which makes him even less noteworthy. But who knows, he probably thinks the same about me.

I close the album and put it back on its place. As I'm lying in my bed, the memory of our conversation still doesn't want to leave my head. How is it possible that we never met each other or had a proper conversation when we were at school? Even after graduating, we both were still friends with Andy but he didn't introduce us to each other until Vince looked for someone to join his band. I absolutely have no idea what we should do tomorrow too when we meet for the first time and it's not to rehearse his songs or work on our musical success. Since I'm extremely shy, I also hope he'll start a conversation, if we have mutual topics to start with. Another thing that keeps me awake is Dave. He's nice, but he really seems weird to me, especially his extroverted behaviour. I don't like to admit it but maybe I'm also annoyed by the fact that Vince seems to genuinely like him, that it was okay for him to come later today even though Vince cares a lot about punctuality and that it was all my fault he invited Dave to arrive later. I never thought Vince liked me and I didn't care until now, he just wanted me to play in his band and I do because there's not much left that I can do in my free time besides playing and writing music. But now he has invited me to meet him and I agreed.

When I open my eyes, it's been the first time in a week I get up without an alarm disturbing my sleep. My clock tells me it's about 10:40 AM, I haven't woken up that late in quite a long time. When exactly did I fall asleep?

After spending my day with nonsense, like tidying my room and writing down some personal song ideas, I finally get ready for my meeting with Vince. I'm not sure what I should wear, so I just put on a simple shirt and jeans combined with my usual hat and coat.

As I arrive in his street, he's already waiting in front of his house. "Hi Mart, I'm really happy you had time to meet me today." He's approaching me and gives me a tight hug, something he usually never does. "So, do you have a destination or do you want us to drive to London and see what we can do?" "Whatever you want, Vince. We can go to the cinema or eat something, I don't have a certain idea." We get into his car and drive towards London. During our journey we don't talk much, we rather sing along to the songs from the radio or look at the landscape. When it's silent, I catch myself looking in his direction quite often trying to analyse his face which leads to me noticing his glimpses as well. I don't know why but I suddenly think he's quite pretty; His side profile really brings out his cheekbones and his concentration while he's driving makes him kinda attractive.

We spend our evening watching "Private Benjamin" and going for a small meal afterwards.
"To be honest, I never thought you'd be such a funny person. It's a shame we didn't go out earlier.", I say, still giggling about Vince's comments throughout the movie. "You're right," he replies, laughing as well, "but at least we're spending time together now. By the way, you look very good without your hat on." He puts his hand in my hair and starts to rumple it. "Oh, thank you, I'm not sure about this, though, I don't really like my curls.", I respond, stroking my head and trying to put my hair back in its place. I can feel myself beginning to blush. "That's weird, I love them and Dave seems to love them, too." Dave, did he really just feel the need to bring up his name? "What do you think of him?", I ask. "Well, he's a good singer and seems nice. I'm sure we have a real chance of becoming successful with him as our frontman.", he answers, "...If you don't like him, you can say it, I'll find somebody else.", he continues with a straight face. "No, it's okay. I just don't know what I should think about him, we barely know each other." He smiles and looks into my eyes and I can't help doing the same.

When we leave the diner I check the time; it's nearly midnight. "Do you want me to bring you home?", he asks, touching my shoulder. "Yeah, let's drive back to Basildon." We get in his car and head home.

After an hour Vince stops in front of my house. "Mart, I really want to thank you for this great evening, haven't had this in a very long time." "Same Vince, thank..." He's grabbing my face and puts his lips on mine, faster than I can realise. I close my eyes and let it happen, put my arms around him and it feels like an eternity until he finally lets go of me. "Maybe you should go home before someone sees us. See you tomorrow!" "Aight, good night Vince." He smiles at me and I smile back before I turn around and enter my house.