Sweetie You Had Me

Sweetie You Had Me Chp. 10

"Pete Wentz replied."

Ryan called me two weeks after he dropped out. He made demos for the other two songs and got Pete Wentz to listen to them.

"He said he liked what he heard and he wants to come out to see us practice."

"Ryan, that's awesome!" I was almost speechless. "You see, I told you that something good was coming."

"You did, too," he laughed through the phone. "So Pete's coming tomorrow. He said he's close by, so he'll check us out."

"He'll like you guys. I promise. It'll go well, don't you worry," I comforted.

We said our goodbye's and I wished him luck.

~~ Ryan's Point of View~~

I had just gotten off the phone with Alyssa. I was sitting against the wall next to the kitchen doorway of the apartment. She was right. He replied. Something good was happening. I began to smile to myself thinking about her. If Pete liked us, that meant we were probably going to record an album somewhere. It seemed so unreal.

"Ryan are we gonna go over the songs again?" Brendon asked, his head in the refrigerator.

"Yeah. We'll do once just the band and then add your vocals the second time through."

"Okay. Ready when you are."

Brendon walked past me and into one of the bedrooms. He stopped abruptly halfway through the door and came back toward me. He sat down next to me with his bottled water in his hand.

"Come on Ryan, what's up?"

"I just told Lys about Pete coming by. Something wrong with that?"

"Well, I'd say something was wrong if you hadn't asked her out yet. Are you past your little awkward, lovey, intimate, sleep-together thing you call a friendship?"

I started to laugh a little. Only because it was true. "No, not yet."

"What the fuck do you mean 'not yet'?" he gave really exaggerated air quotes. "Ryan. Seriously! Do something! You have to let her know, in actual words, that you are in love with her!" he had such bewilderment on his face just talking about us.

I was still laughing. He was so annoyed that it was funny. I swear he was about to explode. "I don't think I'm ready yet."

"Not ready." He turned his head and looked at me for the longest time. "Not ready my ass Ryan. How many years have you known her? What is it, 5 years? And your telling me that you are not fucking ready? You know what, I'm ready to drive you back to college right now, and we're not leaving until you ask her out. It only took me like three or four days, not even a week, to ask your cousin out. You could be having the time of your life right now if you got your ass out of this thing you have yourself in right now."

I rubbed my forehead. I knew he was right. I looked at him. He was still staring at me with annoyance and disappointment. "Look, when things start to die down and we are past this Pete Wentz thing, I'll ask her."

"Don't keep making her wait. I don't know a single girl with her type of patience. You better hope she doesn't find someone else."

I knew I had to do something soon. I knew I never wanted to lose her.

••••

It had been a week before I got another call, or even a text from Ryan. I kept wondering how the practice with Pete went. Every possibility ever imagined flew through my head. Would they get a label? Would they move on to write an album? Or would they be bumped back to the beginning, left to create a new band with a new sound again?

It was a week after the practice with Pete. I finally got a call from him.

"Ryan, tell me anything."

"Your coming to Maryland with us. We just got a label."

I couldn't help but let out a scream. "Ryan oh my gosh! This is insane!"

"I know I can't believe it!" he said in his 'calm-excited' tone.

"When do we go?"

"June," he paused for a moment. "Hey uh..."

On Ryan's side of the phone Brendon was standing next to him mouthing, "Ask her, ask her!"

"Uhh..." Ryan didn't know what to do.

Brendon was practically jumping up and down. "Wi-..." he couldn't do it. "So are you coming with us?"

Brendon buried his face in his hands and slid to the floor.

On my side of the phone I started to feel butterflies in my stomach. Maybe he was going to ask me out... Nope.

"Of course I'm coming! I would never miss out on a chance like this."

"Okay great. Come by the apartment next weekend. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"I'll be there."