Love on the Radio

Chapter 20 - Quick date

Chapter 20 – Quick date

“It’s hopeless. No way I’m going to approach anybody,” Ramona assured us for the tenth time. Yes, we had chosen her to be the victim. “Who the hell would want to go on a date with me? My clothes are horrible!” She twisted the end of the shirt, water dripped on the sidewalk. “See?” She gestured towards her shirt.

“Relax, if finding a date is so hard, then let’s stop traffic?” Howard suggested biting his lip.

“Yeah, we can still do that,” Evan agreed and elbowed Ramona, “What do you say?”

“Or…we can sing a song in public,” I jumped in the conversation, tired of being silent. “Who needs a date anyways? It doesn’t matter if we don’t win, what matters is we have fun, and fun we should have!” I found myself giving a pep-talk which I wasn’t good at.

“Pw, not winning? Seriously, who are you?” Evan raised his brow at me. “What’s the point of a scavenger hunt if we don’t want to win?”

I rubbed the back of my head and let out a sigh. “I was trying to be a good friend,” I shrugged my shoulders, “isn’t it what I’m supposed to do in situations like this – be positive?”

“I say we sing,” said Ramona with a smile, “and I know just the person for it.” Her eyes landed on me. I was caught by a surprise – no, I was in shock! What the hell was that? Me, singing? No, no, no. I hadn’t agreed with that.

“Why?” I shrieked. “What have I ever done to you?”

“Well, for starters, you didn’t want us to win,” Evan smirked.

“I did! I was just giving you a pep-talk, keeping the positive attitude!” I disagreed with them. Helplessly, I switched my gaze to Howard. He coughed his voice clear and threw his hands up surrender.

“Well, you were kind of a buzz kill,” he slowly said. Anger lit to flames inside me. I was furious with him.

“You are no loner my friend,” I pointed my finger at him, lips pressed together.

“Finally out of the friendzone. High-five bro,” Howard grinned and held up his hand. Evan responded by slapping it.

“Let us be thankful for this moment when we don’t have to grieve for our fallen soldier, but to be proud of the babysteps that brought him further away from the friendzone. Amen,” Evan gave a speech. He dropped his head and mouthed ‘amen’ again. “Moving on. Which song will you sing, lovely?”

Minutes later we were at a park, parents were playing with their children, dogs were running around, owners chasing them – people were having a good time. And it all came to an end when I started singing.

“Good luck,” whispered Ramona and crossed her fingers.  Howard patted me on the back and gave an assuring nod.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Evan added and sat down on one of the benches. My hands were sweating and were barely able to press buttons on Ramona’s phone. I rummaged through the songs she had there and finally found Lana del Rey’s Blue Jeans. I liked the song, just not the fact I had to sing it and in front of a crowd. I was doomed.

The music started, the melody carrying me away from the moment. I closed my eyes.

“Blue jeans, white shirt, walked into the room you know you made my eyes burn. It was like James Dean, for sure.You so fresh to death and sick as ca-cancer,“ I sang. I heard someone whistle and allowed myself to open one eye. A few people had come to listen.

“Here, I have speakers,“ a girl said and walked over to me. She connected the phone to the speakers, so the music got louder. I grew more confident knowing that my voice had faded more into the backround, but as my confidence grew, I started to sing stronger.

“Say you'll remember, oh baby, say you'll remember. I will love you till the end of time,” I continued singing. More and more people gathered around, some of them were singing along. Halfway through I decided to stop. It wasn’t said on the piece of paper I had to sing the whole song, I just had to sing in public.

“Keep going!” Evan shouted, amused. Ramona elbowed him in the ribs and gave him a warning look.

I bowed in front of the audience, a smile playing on my lips, curving the corners of my mouth up. I felt happy at the moment.

“Mommy, who is this girl?” A little girl asked, pulling her mother’s long flower-designed skirt. Her beautiful golden locks were bouncing up and down as she stomped her feet.

Ramona disconnected her phone from the speakers and glanced at the clock. “Tick-tock, time’s running out. We need to stop traffic and find a date,” she hissed to me. I rolled my eyes.

“A date? Who needs to find a date?” a boy pushed himself through the crowd and ran his fingers through his hair.

My mouth fell open.

Was life mocking me of something?

“Jace?” I asked, my eyes big from surprise.

“So, who’s the damsel in distress?” He asked, staring at me, then he looked at Ramona.

“Well-,” I raised my hand to point to Ramona but she was faster than me.

“Madison,” she nodded towards me, “yes, she’s our little brave damsel. So, will you agree?”

I was gasping for air. “B-but, I have a boyfriend,” I mumbled silently.

“You really need to step up your game,” Evan chuckled next to Howard. He tried to be serious, but couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sure, when?” Jace shrugged his shoulders.

“Now,” Ramona said as if it were obvious. “In fact,” she pressed some buttons on her phone and raised it, “why don’t you move closer to each other.” Jace stepped next to me. “Good. Now, face her…like a man!” She dictated. Jace did as told. I looked shyly up at him and mouthed ‘sorry’.

“It’s nothing,” he smiled back. From the corner of my eye, I saw Howard whispering something to Evan.

“Perfecto!” Ramona fidgeted on her spot. “Give me a romantic moment, so that even the least romantic person will believe you were on a date.” Evan raised his eyebrow at Ramona’s words.

“You’re worst cupid ever,” he mumbled under his breath.

Jace grabbed my waist and leaned closer.

“What are you doing?” I put my hands on his chest to push him away, but he was too strong.

“I’m giving them a true moment of romance,” he whispered to my ear and planted a kiss on my cheek. A flash on my left and it was like it hadn’t even happened, except Ramona had proof of it.

“Alright, let’s go. Wouldn’t want to be the last ones back, would we?” Evan stood up and gently brushed his jeans clean from the almost non-existent dust.

“Are you going to explain me what’s going on?” Jace asked, smirking.

“One day I will,” I nodded with a smile. Before I could linger for a moment, Evan had grabbed my hand and was dragging me out of the park.

“Young lady, throwing herself at boys, not a proper behavior,” he shook his head and chuckled, “making my buddy jealous and stuff.”

I stopped and made Evan stop with me. Ramona and Howard were ahead of us. “Wait a minute. Howard was jealous?” I couldn’t help but smile. Biting my lip, I looked down. “That son of a b-“

Evan had put his finger on my lips. “Young ladies don’t speak like that,” he said with a smirk and removed his finger. “Damn, now I have bad use of language all over me.”

“He was jealous?” Was all I could think of. Like a lovestruck maniac, I stood there, so Evan had to grab my hand once again, and drag me to our next assignment – somewhere, where traffic could be stopped.

A/N: So, what do you think of Ramona and Evan? I'm loving them and I know it's kind of egoistic to say, but that doesn't change the fact that I love them :D

Let me know how you feel about the chapter.