The Dip and the Resurface

Part 21

Tyler

"She still looks fabulous, huh?" I said to Josh as we watched Ivy walk away from us.

"Even more with that distinctive look of hatred for you she's got going on," he sent me a crooked smile.

"Yep - it's definitely more serious than I thought," I sighed.

"Get her on her own and apologise. She'll melt like butter in your hands, I'm sure."

"Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure," I said and scratched my chin.

"You should have seen the look on her face when she noticed you. I swear; right before her eyes turned to hate, there was a small spark of...intriguing happiness."

"Intriguing happiness?" I laughed a little.

"What do I know. You're the one who's good with words," Josh muttered with a shrug and grabbed a glass of champagne from the table next to him.

Fuck she looked good, I thought to myself. Much better than I had remembered. Much better than what was good for her. I had thought that seeing her again wouldn't have the biggest effect on my decision of leaving her, but her intense look had been enough to tip me over the edge. I wasn't even remotely close to done with her.

Whenever I got quiet, Josh had a habit of blabbering about nothing in particular, and I had to endure an hour of his empty words before Kanye West finally opened the ball.

-

The award show was coming to an end and I was getting gradually more and more nervous as our song - the last act of the night - was getting closer.

After what I would classify as a fairly alright show by Bruno Mars, Ivy came back to our table "You're up in 20 minutes," she said without looking at me, "Mr. Bellamy, if you'd please follow me. Sophie will be waiting for you backstage."

"This is it," Josh said and patted me on the back, "nervous?"

I reassured Josh with a nervous smile and followed Ivy out the door with Josh and Matt on my heel. The way her hips swayed with every step she took was very enticing and I felt myself getting almost hypnotised. She looked over her shoulder with a stern face, almost as if she could feel my eyes burning a hole in her dress. For a fraction of a second, we had eye contact and I was reminded of exactly why I had fallen for her in the first place.

As if I was hypnotized, I followed her through several rooms and hallways until we were behind the stage. She pointed to our instruments and handed Josh a pair of red Zildjian drum sticks.

I took a deep breath before picking up my bass. Matt had already pulled the strap of his guitar over his head and was looking at me with a patient look on his face, "ready?" he asked me with his London accent.

When they announced us on stage, I let Josh walk in front of me. I loved the fact that he let me hide behind him as he knew I wasn't always comfortable walking on stage. The roar that normally followed whenever Josh and I walked in had been replaced by a polite clapping from the audience, and I couldn't help but smile at my own ridiculous nervousness. All of a sudden it felt very grown-up to stand on stage in a suit in front of so many snooty artists. Especially because Josh had yellow hair and looked like a little happy kid standing there beside his drums.

"Let's give 'em hell," I laughed to Josh who sent me a wink before he sat down.

I took a deep breath before I stepped up to the microphone. I knew that if this performance went well, nothing in the world could stop me.

-

"That was amazing!" Matt Bellamy said as we emerged from the stage, "Way better than practise!"

"Shit, that was good," Josh panted beside me.

"Well done, mate," Matt patted Josh on the back.

The three of us chatted for a bit and Matt ended up giving me and Josh his phone number if we ever wanted to do a collaboration between our two bands. As Matt had thanked us for a good night and had gathered all his stuff, Josh and I couldn't stop talking about how glad we were that we had said yes to this gig.

"We have to do some sort of celebration!" Josh said excitedly.

"Definitely!" I thought about finding Ivy and explain everything, and the thought of actually talking to her made me happy, "I'm absolutely not ready to go home! Should we get a drink?"

"Yep!" Josh said and went straight for the bar. He came back two minutes later with two draft beers.

We sat down at our table from before and started talking about how much we were looking forward to going home tomorrow. While Josh was jabbering about his mom's homemade cold slaw, I scouted the room for Ivy and quickly found her very colourful dress. I was glad to see that she had stayed behind for the afterparty as well.

"Should I go talk to her?" I asked Josh.

"The longer you wait, the harder it's going to get," he said.

"What - now?"

Josh shrugged, "rip it off and get it over with. Plus, she just saw you on stage. And you looked pretty cool, so she'd be stupid to refuse you."

With a nod, I emptied my beer, left my seat, and started walking towards her. I was feeling pretty confident and had already started considering my opening line when a guy snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to his side.

I stopped dead in my tracks and suddenly had trouble breathing. What the fuck was he doing? And why the fuck was she looking so dreamily at him? I looked back at Josh who was now standing on his two feet, with his lips pulled into a straight white line. He was looking between Ivy and me with a pained expression on his face.

I turned my gaze towards her again, and saw her laugh at something that the airhead beside her had said.

I spun on my heel and turned towards the exit. "I need some fresh air," I said as I stormed past Josh who was still scouting in Ivy's direction.

As I was out the double doors, I looked around for something that I could kick. Not that I was angry. I was just frustrated with myself and my inability to just tell her that I hadn't meant to hurt her. That I wanted nothing more than to go back to her place and eat spaghetti without sauce and talk about all the bands she hated.

I sat alone for a couple of moments before Josh emerged with his lips still pressed tightly together. He didn't say anything but just sat down next to me and looked at the stars with me.