Intermission - Get together (part 1).

To say Eric was out of his depth would be an understatement. He’d never gone out to drink, never been to a love hotel, never hung out with more than two people until very recently and even then that was usually playing games with some friends from childhood. He felt uncomfortable and, in truth, he was tempted to make up an excuse to get out of hanging out that evening. But…

Remembering Oliver from high school freshman year and seeing him now… It was like seeing two completely different people. Yeah, there was the obvious, superficial stuff, like him getting his growth-sprout and bulking up a fair bit, but that was nothing compared to being in the same room as him.

He talked, he bantered, he threw deadpanned jokes… That outcast, whom Eric pathetically felt superior to back in the day just because he could talk, now oozed confidence worth envying. And Eric did envy it, badly. If he could have even a small fraction of that confidence, he was sure he could finally turn his life around. But since he didn’t have it, he decided to fake it.

‘What would Oliver do?’ had become an annoying yet everpresent question in Eric’s mind. Somehow, against all odds, that mindset helped him get a girlfriend, so when he started thinking he didn’t want to get together with his classmates to have drinks, he asked himself ‘what would Oliver do?’

The answer came easily. He’d be afraid, he’d be nervous enough to want to throw up… but he’d go. He’d go because change didn’t come from standing still. Eric had learned that in his own flesh by now.

He didn’t want to dress to impress, but Oliver did say the place was fancy. A black shirt with a long-sleeve purple T-shirt underneath and clean blue jeans. That should be enough. He had showered in the morning, but he decided to do it again before leaving anyway because of what had become his greatest shame. His girlfriend had once commented that ‘he should shower more often’ and that had nearly made Eric burrow his whole self in a hole. Later she had explained that it was because his long hair got greasy awfully quickly, but the trauma of thinking she’d called him stinky remained.

Eric found the hotel easily. It stood out, after all. Lot of lights did the trick. It didn’t look like any regular hotel, which Eric found counterproductive. Didn’t love hotels try to keep a low profile to avoid drawing attention to the people coming in and out?

He waited outside because there was no fucking way he was going in alone. He did text the others to tell them he’d arrived. Steven said he’d be there soon while Luna texted that she and Ruby were parking their car in the underground lot. The two girls actually came out of the hotel to meet him.

“There was no exit to the street from down there,” Ruby explained.

“We only got a glimpse, but holy crap, the place is nice…” Luna said. The carpets, the chandeliers, the doors… hell, even the door knobs look expensive.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking we shouldn’t let Steven cover the whole bill,” Ruby said.

“Even though he makes more money than us?” Eric said as a joke, but Ruby didn’t seem to take it that way.

She frowned and crossed her arms. “You want to take advantage of him?”

“That’s not what I… Um… Sorry.”

“Man, do you always default to seeing the worst in people?” Steven asked, coming from behind Eric. He patted him on the back and smiled. “Dude’s just making a joke.”

Ruby pouted.

“She does have a point, though,” Eric said, feeling thankful. “This place looks expensive. We should share the bill.”

“Nah, let me do it just this once, at least. That is, unless you all go crazy and try to drain my wallet. If you do that, I’ll walk out on your drunk asses and leave you to Oliver’s wrath.”

Luna chuckled. “What? The wrath of a wet puppy?”

Eric sighed. “You’d be surprised.”

His three classmates raised an eyebrow. “Really?” Ruby asked.

“Oliver is quiet, but he can be… intense.”

“Beware the anger of a gentle man, huh?" Steven muttered with a grin. “Man, that guy is interesting.”

“He doesn’t swing that way, Steven. Move on,” Luna teased him.

“And it sucks, but that’s not what I mean. Sorry, but since I listened to his music, I really want to start a band with him.”

“Aww, more than us?” Luna pouted with crossed arms.

“I don’t watch anime, so J-pop has never been my thing, but you girls ARE good. I do want to start a band with you all, but I’m less willing to let go of Oliver.”

“Did he really captivate you that much?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah. I’m not shy in admitting that I think I’m technically better, but I see so much potential in him and I selfishly want to be part of it. I want to try playing something he writes.”

“...”

Potential. Eric didn’t see it, but he meant that in the sense that he wasn’t good or insightful enough to understand something as vague as potential. Did he have potential? He didn’t know. He did know that Oliver was good, though. Better now than he was four years ago.

“I do have one of his songs stuck in my head,” Ruby admitted. “I think I understand what you see.”

“Oh, so you listened to his stuff for real?” Steven asked with a teasing smirk.

“Yeah…” both Ruby and Luna admitted, sighing like they’d just lost a bet.

“Good. Now, I hope we got talks of Oliver out of our system, because I don’t think he’d like people to talk about him behind his back,” Steven said.

“But we just did that,” Eric pointed out.

“Aaand he doesn’t need to know,” Steven said, smirking with a finger over his lips.

Eric chuckled.

He kept it to himself out of embarrassment, but Eric also wanted to be in a band with Oliver and Steven for similar reasons. They were good, and Eric wanted to be part of that.

He still wasn’t sold on Ruby and Luna, though, if only for… personality reasons.

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