It Doesn't Matter, Charlie

Chapter 7 - Microphones

I karate-kicked the door in an attempt to knock it down. “This why I hate movies,” I complained, spinning back around to see Charlie watching me, amused, when I failed.

“Why do you hate movies?” Charlie asked, half-grinning.

“Correction: I don’t hate movies.” Charlie rolled his eyes. “I DO hate the fact that they always raise your expectations on reality, when in real life, reality sucks!” I kicked the door again but almost lost my balance and gave up.

“Reality doesn’t always suck,” Charlie said, coming over to search for a nearby person with me.

“Okay, not always. But I want to kick this door down epically and reality is the only thing stopping me!” I stood back and crossed my arms, pouting.

“Well, reality and a few bolts and locks and basically metal in general,” he smiled all know-it-all-ly at me.

“Oh, shut up,” I laughed, not wanting to admit I had nothing else to say.

“Hey,” Charlie said, cupping his hands closer together. “That’s Kristina and Kayley! They see us!”

I looked at Charlie with a raised eyebrow. “Kristina and Kayley?”

Charlie looked back and saw my concerned expression. “My friends, only friends, Aimee. Well, Kayley’s my cousin too, but you know…” he trailed off as we watched the two girls approach the door.

“Charlie!” they both squealed when they pushed the door open. They exchanged hugs and Charlie introduced me as “Aimee from Maine who is good at befriending YouTuber’s”, which made me blush.

“Nice to meet you,” I smiled at the girls.

“I’m Kristina,” the tall blonde on said.

“Kayley,” said the girl next to her. She had bright red wavy hair. “What are you guys doing out here?” she asked.

“We got locked out,” Charlie chuckled.

“Oh my, god,” Kristina gasped, “how long?” I noted they were both American, like it mattered.

“Like a half hour,” I answered. “Long enough.” We all laughed at our stupidity and went back inside the building. Kristina and Kayley ran off elsewhere to get ready, and invited me to come with, but I decided to stick with Charlie.

“Aimee,” Charlie said, spinning around to look at me. He had been walking slightly ahead of me inside that massive room, because he knew where he was going (sort of).

“Yeah?” I asked, turning my attention away from what looked like the beginning of a food banquet.

He looked at our feet. I followed his gaze, but nothing was there, so I looked back up at him and smiled, waiting for his answer. “Aimee,” he said again.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” I giggled, poking him. He looked back up at me, but I couldn’t read his expression.

“It’s just…you seemed rather…” he looked for the right words, “…upset when Kayley and Kristina found us. And well, I have a lot of friends who are girls. And also, why would you be so upset if I…well…if I had a girlfriend anyway ? It’s not like we’re dating…”

I stared at him blankly. Oh god, Aimee, you just blew it. Good job. “Um,” I said, trying to think of an excuse, but I couldn’t. “It’s just…OH MY GOD LOOK!” I had seen something bright out of the corner of my eye and spun around, and Charlie did too. A small fire had sprung out on one of the platters of the banquet table. Granted, it only took two seconds for someone to throw water on it and put it out, it still distracted Charlie from me having to admit that there is a possibility that I like him.

We decided to go back to the backstage area and see who else arrived. We were overwhelmed by the amount of people, really. At least twenty people had arrived, if not more.

“Charlie?” I said quietly, poking him on the shoulder.

He looked down at me and smiled. “Yeah?”

“You go say ‘hi’ to people. I can find Alex, he’s already seen everyone,” I told him.

“You sure?” he asked.

“Positive. See you later?”

“Okay, see you.” We broke off into separate directions to go find different people. I went to the stage to see if I could find Alex. Sure enough, he was sitting at a control panel on the stage.

“Alex!” I called. He looked ups and grinned, then raised up his arm to wave me over. I fast-walked to him, because it was too awkward to run but not fast enough to walk. “Watchya doing?” I asked, placing my hands on the table.

“Last minute sounds checks, wahey!” he laughed. “Wanna help?”

“Sure,” I smiled.

“Go say something in that mike,” he said, pointing to a microphone on stage.

I skipped over and grabbed it, then turned back for his signal. When he said I was good, I said, “Alex dreams about sex in his sleep,” into the mike. This got a few chuckles from various crew members.

“Thanks,” Alex called out to me. I winked at him. He pointed to the next mike and went over to test that one.

“And while he’s awake, too,” I said, confirming the microphone still worked. More laughter filled the auditorium. I continued around from microphone to microphone, making jokes about Alex in each one. When I was done, I skipped back to join him.

“You are the most immature, unprofessional, annoying microphone tester in the world. Congratulations,” Alex sighed, rolling his eyes at me.

“Says the man who dreams about sex twenty-four-seven,” I snickered. He threw his empty water bottle at me. “Go fill that,” he said. I opened the cap, spat in it, then handed it back. He looked at me annoyed, and then we both laughed way too hard. “Okay, last but most certainly not least, go plug in Hank’s guitar,” Alex said.

I turned around to find a guitar sitting in a case in the corner. I went over to it. It had “This Machine Pwns n00bs” written on it. I picked it up and raised it over my head for Alex to see. “This one?” I asked.

“That one,” he confirmed. I put the strap over my shoulder and checked the plug, then played a few chords from a song I wrote when I was sixteen. The chords filled the entire auditorium. “You can play guitar?” he asked me, coming over to join me.

“No, I’m just magically amazing at picking up instruments,” I said sarcastically.

Alex ignored my comment and asked, “Can you sing?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I mean, I sing a lot, but never for other people. I’d probably barf,” I sighed.

Alex nodded. “Takes practice,” he shrugged.

“Which I don’t have,” I said, taking the guitar off me and placing it back in the case.

“Guys!” Hank Green ran out onto the stage. We turned to him. “We’re about to let people go to their seats, come backstage!” he said excitedly. Alex and I looked at each other with wide smiles on our faces, then ran as fast as we could towards the door.