The Boyfriend Bet (LDS Fiction) (6 page)

As we entered the apartment, we continued the discussion with Kendra talking about the different places she might find a good, used phone. 

After locking the door and checking our schedules for the next day, we said goodnight and retired for the evening. Kendra went to talk with Liam about his work that evening, and I decided to finish my reading assignment for my class.

Over the next few days, I felt as though my mind was on repeat. I kept asking myself the same questions over and over and over again.

Who was this Patrick guy?

What was his story?

Why didn't he ask me out?

Why couldn't I stop thinking about him?

When would I see him again?

I was tired of asking myself the same questions, especially because I didn't know the answers to any of them.

Finally, I decided to just forget about the bet. Even though I still had until Monday to get him to ask me out, I'd pretty much given up on the idea that I would see him before that point. So, my plan was to buy Kendra the phone, forget about dating for the next little while, and just focus on school. It was probably for the best, because I had a couple of big projects coming up over the next few weeks.

Sunday rolled around, and even though I had given up on the bet, I still looked around in the hallways at church. I’d never seen Patrick at my church before, but it was possible that he attended the same building because of the fact that he was at the barbecue last Monday. There were a lot of churches in the area though, so it was also possible that he attended a different location.

During the three hours of church, I attended all of my scheduled church meetings and really enjoyed the messages that were taught in those classes. In Sunday school, the teacher shared a great lesson about trusting in God despite our questions and turmoil in life. It was the perfect message that I needed to hear to remind me that God was in charge of my life.

I could feel the love of God in my heart and asked Him to help me let go of my frustration and self-doubt that had occurred as a result of me not winning the bet. I wasn’t entirely sure that God approved of the bet, but I knew that He loved me and was confident that with His help I could forget the last several days of worry and move forward.

After church, Kendra and I were walking out of the building to head home. Just as I was stepping out the door, I could hear a guy's voice inside calling my name. "Shara! Shara! Wait for just a minute, are you busy tonight?"

My heart jumped, and my mind immediately went to Patrick. Could it be him? I recognized the voice that was calling after me, but it was a little muffled among the other voices in the doorway where I was standing.

I spun around and started searching for Patrick's face among the crowd, but I quickly realized that he wasn't there; it was my friend Jonathan who was calling my name.

"Hey Jonathan, it's been a while. No, we don't have anything planned tonight, what's going on?"

Kendra shared her agreement, "Yeah, we'd love to get out of the house and hang out with you and your roommates, do you guys have anything fun planned?"

"Nothing big, just a casual hang out at my friend's house. Remember how I told you a few weeks ago that I'm playing in a band? We're having band practice tonight, and I promised that I'd let you know about it so you could come hear us play."

"We'll be there. Count us in," Kendra and I both responded at the same time. We both loved live music, and it would be a good opportunity to meet up with a few friends from church.

"Perfect, I'll see you tonight. Band practice starts at eight o'clock, and we'll probably wrap up by ten o'clock, because we need to quiet down so that the neighbors don't get mad at us for playing too late. Feel free to come anytime. I'll text you the address."

"Sounds great! See you tonight. Thanks for the invite!"

*****

Kendra and I decided to make cookies to share with everyone at the band practice, and we were running a little late waiting for the cookies to finish baking. Liam had stopped by for a little while and Kendra and he had taken a short walk before we left.

Kendra said that Liam was leaning toward turning down the new position at work. The hours were so erratic that not only did he have to get his studying done at odd hours, he wasn’t getting any quality time to spend with her. He had several more days until he had to give his answer, but she was fairly certain he was going to turn it down. He didn’t feel the extra money was worth the sacrifices he would have to make.

We talked a few minutes about it as the cookies finished cooling and I told her I agreed with his thoughts. Money wasn’t everything, but school and getting good grades to prepare for a good career should take priority right now.

*****

Using the address that Jonathan had given us, we walked up to the steps of the house at about 8:15 pm. It was a warm evening and the house windows were open. Through the open windows, we could hear the band playing. There was a note on the front door that said "
Come on in, we're downstairs.
"

Kendra opened the door and I followed her in. It was a typical bachelor pad with retro-70’s style couches in the front room, a giant television, and a few videogame systems. The only thing lacking was the piles of dirty clothes and fast food wrappers. 

As we walked through the front room, I had to admit that I was slightly impressed at how clean and tidy the room appeared, especially considering the fact that a bunch of guys lived in the house.

We followed the sound of the music through the kitchen, to a set of stairs. As I set down the plate of cookies on the kitchen table, I heard them playing "Sweet Home Alabama." The band was pretty good! Based on the sound, I was guessing that there were a few acoustic guitars, a bass guitar, and a drum set. I remembered that Jonathan played the drums; it would be fun to see him in action.

We walked down the stairs into the basement and found ourselves in a big room with the band set up at the opposite end. The main lights in the room were turned off, but there were a few dim lamps in the corners and someone had hung several strands of Christmas lights around the ceiling for mood lighting.

There were other people sitting around listening to the music, and I looked around the room trying to find a place to sit. There was an empty couch against the wall near the lead singer so I headed that direction.

I hadn't gotten a good look at the band members yet, because I was too distracted looking for a seat. So, as I walked over to the couch, I looked up to see if I could find Jonathan in the dimly lit room.

My eyes skimmed past the back of a blond-haired guy playing guitar and singing lead, and I found Jonathan's short brown hair in the back of the group, surrounded by the drum set.

But wait... something seemed familiar about that blond hair. My eyes immediately moved back to the lead singer, just as the song was coming to an end.  He turned toward me and …I couldn't believe it. Patrick was standing there right before my eyes!

I suddenly felt flustered and excited all at the same time. Excited because it was Patrick, and flustered because I was so distracted with finding a seat and saying hi to Jonathan that I didn't immediately recognize Patrick standing in front of me in the dimly-lit room.

His voice sounded great in front of the band, and it was obvious that he was a talented musician.

Kendra must have noticed him at the same time, because as we sat down she grabbed my elbow and whispered in my ear, "You have more luck than anyone else that I know!"

By this point, the song had finished up, and those of us who were there to listen started clapping. As the clapping quieted down, Patrick leaned into the microphone, "It looks like we have a few more people here to listen to our rehearsal. Thanks everyone for coming, the songs are a little rough since we've only been playing together for a few weeks, but we're hoping to have them pulled together before our show."

The band started into the next song, a John Mayer song that had been quite popular on the radio. As I listened to the song, I noticed how comfortable Patrick was behind the microphone. He sang with ease, and his voice was silky smooth. It seemed so natural for him to be the lead singer in a band.

I tried not to stare at him for too long, so I made it a point to look around at the other members of the band. Patrick was singing lead and playing guitar, to the right of him was his red-headed roommate Sean who was also playing guitar and singing harmony. The bass guitarist was to Patrick's right; he was a little shorter and wore a white baseball cap. Jonathan was in the back with his drum set.

I looked around at the people that were there to listen, and recognized a few people from church. I was sure that Jonathan had invited them because he was so excited about the new band he was playing in.

I counted seven other people, plus Kendra and I, totaling nine of us there to listen to the music. Everyone was having a good time, and there were small conversations going on in between songs.

I found that my eyes kept wandering back to Patrick, and I loved the way his dimple came out just a little bit as he sang. At one point, I realized that I had been staring for a little too long, so I quickly moved my gaze to a different part of the room.

It felt as though someone were looking at me, and I noticed another girl leaning against the wall on the other side of the room... glaring at me! When I looked at her, she didn't look away, and instead held my gaze as if to tell me that this was her territory.

A moment later, her eyes moved to Patrick, and she smiled and winked at him.

Now, everything was starting to make sense to me - Patrick had a girlfriend!

No wonder he hadn't followed through with his flirting. He was being nice and cordial to me, and we were having fun with a little bit of teasing here and there, but my guess was that the reason he didn't ask me out was because of this girl.

I felt a little silly, but grateful that I hadn't made a fool of myself in front of Patrick. I leaned over to Kendra and whispered in her ear, "I think that Patrick has a girlfriend. See that brunette over there leaning against the wall? She’s staring me down, and she just smiled and winked at him."

"Darn! I guess that makes sense, I couldn't figure out why he hadn't asked you out yet."

I felt mixed emotions about my discovery. Part of me was a little relieved because it explained why I was having such a hard time getting Patrick to ask me out. But, another part of me felt a little disappointed that he wasn't available, which was surprising because of the fact that I was only trying to get a boyfriend to win the bet. Well, at least that's what I kept telling myself...

I couldn't figure out why he asked me if I was single at the picnic and why he was country dancing by himself on Thursday night. The facts didn't seem to line up. Although I knew that it was impossible to ignore the fact that I had just seen the brunette blatantly winking at him.

Maybe the relationship was just getting started, and they weren't "officially" dating yet? It didn't make sense to me, but I decided that I wasn't going to pursue it because I wasn't the type of girl to chase after a guy in a committed relationship.

We stayed for a while and enjoyed the music; they played a variety of popular upbeat songs. The band took a break around 9 o'clock. I stood up and Kendra and I started to make our way over to talk to Jonathan since we hadn't had a chance to say hi yet. Before we could start at a conversation with him, Patrick walked over to us.

"Hi Shara! Thanks so much for coming tonight.  I’m kinda surprised to see you here, how did you know where I live?" He sounded a little confused about why I was there, and at the same time was welcoming with his smile.

I laughed and pointed to Jonathan, "Actually I didn't know that you lived here. Jonathan invited us. We met awhile ago at church, and he told us about the band practice tonight. By the way, this is my roommate and best friend, Kendra." as I nodded at Kendra.

"Great to meet you, Kendra," Patrick shook her hand.

"It's nice to meet you as well. You guys sound pretty good," said Kendra.

"Thanks! I hope that you ladies enjoy the music, it's been a fun group to play with over the past few weeks. We're going to play until ten o'clock, make sure to stick around till the end. I've got to take a small break before we start up again. I'll be back in a few."

Patrick walked toward the staircase, near where the other girl was leaning against the wall. She smiled at him as he approached; he said something to her and she giggled. I couldn't make out his words when he was talking with her, but it appeared that they knew each other very well.

While I was disappointed that I couldn’t expect Patrick to ask me out, I was also slightly relieved.  My ego had taken quite a beating with all of my self-doubt about Patrick’s not having asked me out yet. As he walked up the stairs, the brunette turned and followed him. Just as she was about to get out of my line of sight, she turned and caught my eye, smirking as if to say, "He’s mine – so there!"

Ugh, I hate girl drama, I thought to myself. She can have him if she's going to act like that.

Kendra and I walked over, said hi to Jonathan, and admired his drum set. A few minutes later, Patrick came back down the stairs with the other girl in tow. She made a point of sitting down in a chair near the front of the room, close to where Patrick was standing. He picked his guitar up again to start the next song.

Kendra and I sat back down on the couch, and again I could feel the girl's eyes on me, almost as though she was trying to bore a hole through my head with territorial laser beams coming out of her eyeballs. I wasn’t used to being the recipient of that kind of attention. Sure, I liked it when I caught a guy’s eye, but this girl was making me feel very self-conscious and unnerved.