Ryan: Total Shock

Jaime looks towards Carter and he gives her a small nod.  She turns back to me.  “So, hey, some of us are going to the diner today after school.  Wanna come?”

“Me?” I say, incredulously and pointing a finger at my chest.

“Yeah, you,” Carter says, his smile nearly taking my breath away.

I look quickly between the two of them.  What the hell is happening?  “I, um, I have a piano lesson right after school,” I say.

“Oh,” Carter says, his smile toning down in wattage.

“Oh, really?” Jaime pouts.  “That’s too bad.  Well, we go there often.  Maybe you could come another time?”

“Uh, ok….” I say hesitantly.

“Yeah,” Carter says, his smile brightening again.  “You know, I work there.  We get a discount, so you can come with us another time.”

I just stare.  Jaime Collier and Carter Moore are asking me to hang out with them.  Has hell frozen over?  

“Here you guys go,” Jaime says, handing Carter the music to pass down the row.  She looks at me, smiling widely again, “Let Carter know when you’re free.  We’ll all go out sometime this week.”  With a quick wave and a strange look at Carter, she  walks back to her seat in the saxophone section.

That’s it.  I’m clearly delusional.  What for the love of Mary and all that is holy was that?

“Here,” Carter says, passing me the sheet music.  His hand grazes mine and seems to linger for a second.  Get a grip, Ryan!  “So, you play the piano?”

“Uh, yeah,” I say, immediately falling back into my defensive, sarcastic tone.  “You’ve seen the Jazz Band play.  I play the piano there.”

“Right,” Carter says, a weird expression on his face.  “Cool.” He turns to the sheet music in front of him.

Shit, what the hell is wrong with me?  He was being nice and I just had to shoot my mouth off.  Doesn’t matter.  It’s not like any of that meant anything, right?  Both of them were being nice.  Why, I don’t know.  But that’s all it was, right?

“Alright guys,” Mr. Lark calls, snapping me out of my thoughts.  “Let’s try this out.”

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    “Holy shit, that was hard!” Jax says after we run through the piece three times.

“I know!  What the hell is Lark thinking?” I say, eyes widening as I start circling parts with tricky slide work to practice later.

“At least you guys don’t have a solo,” Carter says.

“Yeah, but you sounded pretty good,” I say absentmindedly, still looking at my sheet music.

“Thanks, Ryan,” Carter says.  The way that he said my name makes me turn and look at him.  He is staring right at me, smiling this lopsided smile, his gray eyes sparkling.

Flustered, I say, “Well, it’s true.”  I am blushing and this makes Carter’s smile widen.  If he smiled any more, his face was going to split in half.  What is going on?

“So, when are you free this week?  I can always get the group to hang another day so that you can come out with us.” Carter is still holding my gaze.  His left hand holds his horn, while the hand closest to me fidgets with the keys.  It’s almost like he was nervous.

“Ummm…” I trail off.  My mind was blank.  This week?  I didn’t even know if I could look away from his face to figure out something to do in the next minute.  What is happening?

“Or, you know, we could always just go together."  Carter finally looks away and shuffles to the next song.

“I’m sorry, what?” I blurt.  Did he just ask me out?

“You know, you, me, and Jaime,” Carter says quickly, still not looking at me.

Soooooo, not a date.  Or some kind of weird date that I didn’t think that I would be into.  "I’ll, uh, have to check my schedule,” I say slowly.

He looks at me sharply and I quickly say, “I have two lessons every week and a family thing one day.  I’ll have to get back to you.”

“Oh, ok,” he says.  There’s that disappointment again.  Why is he acting like this?  “Well, let me know, ok?” he says as Mr. Lark raises his baton.

“Sure,” I say, slowly as I turn to face my music stand.

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For the rest of Band, my mind is a mess.  I don’t think that I played a single correct note, let alone carried a tone.  Mr. Lark keeps giving our section disgusted looks.  He eventually tells us to pack up and get ready for the bell.

Carter walks away quickly and I just sit there, staring for a minute.

“You cool, Ryan?” Jax asks me.

Shaking my head, I give him a tight-lipped smile. “Peachy.”  I get up and walk to my instrument cubby.

“Ryan!” Ayo calls as she, Lucy, and Jess come over.  “We saw Jaime and Carter talking to you.  What happened?”

“Dude, it was weird,” I quickly fill them in as I put my trombone away.

“Bitch, that boy was asking you out!  What the hell are you doing?” Lucy all but shouts.  We all stare at her.  Lucy is soft spoken and rarely curses.   This is not at all like her.

“I know, I know,” she says, waving her hand in our faces.  Then she scoots behind me and pushes me towards Carter’s group of friends.  “Go get your man!”

“What?” I say, confusion and anxiety written all over my face.

“Talk to him!” Ayo hisses in my ear, giving me her own push.  Jess giggles while shooing me towards Carter's group.

Looking over my shoulder, I slowly walk towards them.  He and Jaime both see me coming and their faces light up with bright smiles.  Deep breath.  I can do this.

“Figure out your schedule?” Carter asks, turning to face me.

“Um, yeah, about that.  Can I talk to you real quick?” I say, pointing towards the soundproof rooms with my thumb. We have several soundproof practice rooms in our band room, all with big windows in the doors so that nothing shady (read sex) can happen in them.  Perfect place for us to talk real quick.  

“Sure,” Carter says, starting to follow.

I check my wrist watch.  Ok, five minutes before the bell.  Plenty of time to figure out what was happening.