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Ana had a strange feeling in her stomach. It had been with her since she woke up this morning, and she remembered that she was going to meet some of her friends for drinks at a karaoke bar. She couldn’t even remember why they were meeting there; it wasn’t like they needed the gift card awarded to the best singer. Ana wasn’t a big fan of karaoke. She didn’t see the appeal of embarrassing herself in front of dozens of strangers just for a 20 dollar gift card.
As Ana pulled into the hole-riddled parking-lot, she noticed a truck. It looked so similar to Eddie’s truck, but she didn’t think this was his kind of scene. Why would Eddie spend his free night without Christopher at a karaoke bar? He was much too calm and collected to sing karaoke. Besides, when she asked him if she wanted to go with her to meet her friends, he had said that he had plans with his co-workers tonight. She opened her car door, but she was hug-tackled by Katie before she could get out and head into the bar. At that moment, while Katie was strangling Ana, she remembered that this was all her fault. Of course, Katie was the one who wanted to sing for a dozen strangers on Friday Night just for a gift card.
“Hey, girl!” Katie exclaimed, pulling back with a smile, “Excited?
“Not at all,” Ana said with a tense smile. She wasn’t feeling up to this, not today.
“Well, too bad,” Katie grinned, “Everyone else is already here. I knew I would have to convince you to stay, so I waited out here for you.”
“You know me too well,” Ana stated. Katie just kept grinning before dragging her inside.
Immediately Ana was bombarded with bad singing and dim lights. ‘This is why I hate karaoke,’ Ana thought dimly, shaking her head at the thought. She glanced around, surveying everything. She caught a glimpse of the rest of her friends already gathered around a table. They were right in the middle of the dining area.
“Who all decided to come?” Ana asked, “I can see Cat and Ethan on stage, but who else?”
“Well, Jake had papers to grade,” Katie said, exchanging a commiserating glance with Ana, “But everyone else could come; Cat, Ethan, Belle, Rose, and Scott.”
Ana nodded vaguely, pleased with who was there. These friends were all calm, not all wild or crazy. At least now, she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone trying to ply her with drinks to get her to “loosen up, a little.” She had a strike one glass of wine a night policy. She looked towards the bar, wondering if they had any good wine, when she caught a glimpse of dark brown hair out of the corner of her eye. She moved her eyes over slightly to examine a man at the bar. That was Eddie.
“Oh my god,” Ana muttered aloud. Ana could feel her thoughts going into overdrive at the sight of him. Ana had no idea what she should do in this kind of situation. She did not like it when things did not go according to plan.
“What is it?”
“Eddie is here!”
“Eddie? As in your boyfriend, Eddie? Eddie, the firefighter?”
“God! Yes, that Eddie. What is he even doing here?” Ana questioned out loud, throwing her heads up in the air. She immediately lowered her arms and glanced around, hoping that nobody saw her moment of craziness. She shook her head, only just hearing Katie’s reply.
“I don’t know. What did you think Eddie was doing tonight? Didn’t you invite him to come with us?”
Ana glanced up from where she had lowered her head into her hands, “I thought he was doing something with his coworkers tonight! Or at least, that’s what he told me when I asked him to meet my friends.”
“Oh my god,” Katie exclaimed, waving her hands around like a lunatic, “What if he lied to you? What if he is meeting another woman here? What if he is having an affair? This is so thrilling!”
Ana looked at her questioningly. ‘What is she talking about,’ she thought, then realization struck her, ‘oh no, what if she is right?’ Before she could put any more thought or dread into it, Eddie caught sight of her.
She couldn’t quite make out his expression.
“He saw me,” Ana told Katie, then asked her, “Does he look happy, panicked, or indifferent? I can’t tell.”
“He looks pretty indifferent to me,” Katie said with a shrug, “Well, at least, he’s probably not cheating on you; otherwise, he would look more panicked. Right?” Katie glanced at Ana from the side.
“Well, I don’t know. We never really had an ‘Are we exclusive?’ talk so Eddie could just not feel guilty about going out with someone else.”
Katie grimaced at that information, “That does make it harder to tell if he’s seeing another woman.”
Ana looked over to Eddie.
“Oh, he’s coming this way,” Ana glanced at Katie, “What should I do? Do I ask him if he’s seeing someone else? Do I not? What do I do?”
“Ok, chill out,” Katie exclaimed, “Just casually mention that you didn’t expect to see him here tonight, then ask him what he’s doing here.”
“What he’s doing here,” Ana said incredulously, “It’s a karaoke bar!”
Before Katie could reply to her, Eddie walked up to them with a small smile. Eddie reached out his arms to Ana, and he leaned in to hug her.
“Hey, Ana,” Eddie said smoothly, stepping back from her, “What a nice surprise, seeing you here tonight.”
“Hey, Eddie,” Ana said awkwardly before remembering her friends. She gestured towards Katie, “This is one of my friends, Katie. We were just heading over to meet the rest of them at our table. Why don’t you join us for a minute? If you’re not busy?”
Eddie let out a slight chuckle, “No, not busy at all. I’m just here with some of my friends from work. We’re celebrating Hen’s entrance to Medical School.”
“Wow, that’s something to celebrate,” Anna said though she was confused as to why this Hen was celebrating with people from work, “Oh, we’re just over there.” She pointed towards the others in the middle of the dining floor. They started heading towards them.
“Oh, nice to meet you,” Eddie said to Katie, holding out his hand as they moved.
Katie took his head, grinning, “Oh, I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Kaite,” she exclaimed, hitting her on the arm. Katie just kept smiling unrepentantly.
Eddie laughed, looking at Ana with glee in his eyes. Ana smiled at him sheepishly before they finally got close to her friends. They all looked up at Ana, Eddie, and Katie. Some of them looked confused while the others grinned, recognizing Eddie as Ana’s boyfriend.
“Hi, Eddie,” Belle waved.
“Hey,” Eddie gestured towards her, “I’ve seen you before, right? At Chris’s school?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I teach third-grade history though I have had the honor of being Christopher’s teacher. Ana tells me he is wonderful, especially in class.”
“Yeah, Chris is great. He got all A’s last year.”
“He wrote such wonderful stories last year,” Ana told them, “He was always writing about his dad and his Bucky? Which I did not always understand.”
Belle and the others all raised their eyebrows. Eddie just laughed.
“Yeah, Chris does love his Bucky.”
Scott interrupted Ana before she could say anything, “I’m sorry. Who is Bucky?”
“Bucky happens to be my best friend, Buck,” Eddie told them, “We’ve worked together for over two years.”
“Wait, Bucky is a real person,” Ana exclaimed, “I thought he was just Chris’s imaginary friend.”
Eddie furrowed his brow, “No, Buck is real. Why did you think he was imaginary?”
“Well, Chris always had such exaggerated stories about him. I didn’t think he could be real.”
“I’ve read all of Chris’s stories. They were all pretty accurate except for some of the more serious injuries we couldn’t tell Christopher. Buck is a bit of a trouble magnet.”
“You sound very close,” Cat questioned Eddie.
Eddie glanced at her, “Yeah, there is no one I trust with Christopher more than Buck.”
Ana bit her lip, a little hurt. She hadn’t even met Christopher as his father’s girlfriend, not just Christopher’s teacher yet. Eddie kept saying it was too soon. Her friends all glanced at her awkwardly, and they could see that she was a little hurt by that statement though they didn’t quite know why. Katie wanted to release the tension, so she, like always, started talking.
“Is Buck here tonight?” Ethan asked.
“Oh yeah, he is right over there,” Eddie said, pointing to a handsome blonde man with a birthmark over his eye, “We kind of had to be here.”
“Why?”
Eddie chuckled heavily, “We have to do a duet as punishment for losing a bet to Hen and Chim.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you liked karaoke,” Ana questioned. She thought he was more serious than that.
“I’m not the biggest fan, but Buck can make it fun. He can be silly sometimes.”
“Speaking of punishments,” Hen said, startling the rest of the group. They hadn’t noticed Hen and Chim approaching the table as they had been focused on Eddie’s expressions whenever he mentioned Buck. It was oddly heartwarming.
“We’ve got the perfect song for you two,” Chim declared, raising his pointer finger triumphantly.
“What?” Eddie questioned with a mock-serious expression on his face.
“Oh no! We are not telling.”
Hen pulled Eddie up, “You can find out once the song starts.” She started pushing Eddie up to the stage where Buck was waiting for him. Once they were all on stage, Hen and Chim went to talk to the karaoke master while Eddie and Buck started to chat amongst themselves. Ana couldn’t see their faces, but they were leaning so close to each other. She glanced back over to the other two on the stage, seeing them high-five before clapping Buck and Eddie on the shoulder then departing from the location.
Eddie and Buck looked at each other before shrugging and going over to the lyrics monitor. They both glanced at the words, grinning right as the first chord came over the speakers. Eddie shook his head before he belted out the first line.
“Wouldn't it be nice if we were older?” Eddie had a surprisingly lovely, husky voice. He sounded sexy; Ana grinned before she glanced over at her friends. The girls all looked at Ana with a bit of jealousy. Ana did have the whole package with Eddie.
Katie yelled out to them, “Whoa, The Beach Boys!”
Ana smacked at her arm.
“Then we wouldn't have to wait so long,” Buck sang. His more smooth voice was complementing Eddie’s voice surprisingly well.
“And wouldn't it be nice to live together?” Both of them belted out. ‘Their voices melded together well,’ Ana thought, surprised.
“In the kind of world where we belong?” Buck looked at Eddie with this soft look in his eye. Ana thought the gaze wasn’t very friend-like. She glanced around at her friends. They didn’t seem to think it odd. Maybe she was just too sensitive, seeing things that aren’t there.
“You know it's gonna make it that much better,” Eddie sung.
“When we can say goodnight and stay together,” Both harmonized.
Eddie dropped off, leaving Buck to sing the following two lines.
“Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up,”
“In the morning when the day is new?”
Eddie joined back up for the next two.
“And after having spent the day together,”
“Hold each other close the whole night through,”
Finally, Buck took a break, leaving the following two lines to Eddie.
“Happy times together we've been spending,” Eddie sang out, pointing at Buck before Buck pulled him by his outstretched hand, leading him in a dance. Ana didn’t think this was normal for two best friends. The dance seemed too close, too intimate. Looking over out of the side of her eye, she could see her friends watching her. She schooled her expression, not letting her doubts leak out onto her face.
“I wish that every kiss was never-ending,” Eddie muttered, losing a little volume.
“Oh, wouldn't it be nice?” Both of them sang together while they swayed.
“Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray.”
“It might come true.”
“Baby, then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do.”
“Oh, we could be married (oh, we could be married),” Eddie sang while Buck was a beat behind.
“And then we'd be happy (and then we'd be happy),” this time Buck sang while Eddie was a beat behind. Eddie then dropped off, moving away from Buck but not looking away from him for a second. ‘He hasn’t even glanced at me since he met up with Buck,’ Ana thought, ‘He entrances Eddie.’
“Oh, wouldn't it be nice?’ Buck gazed at Eddie with hope in his eyes. ‘He loves Eddie,’ Ana realized, ‘romantically.’ Buck stopped, letting Eddie take over.
“You know it seems the more we talk about it,”
They both started singing again.
“It only makes it worse to live without it,”
Eddie dropped off.
“But let's talk about it,” Buck sang before stopping. He seemed to be gathering his breath for the last verse. He looked back at Eddie.
“Oh, wouldn't it be nice?” Eddie belted out.
In the last four lines of the song, they sang together.
“Goodnight, my baby,”
“Sleep tight, my baby,”
“Goodnight, my baby,”
“Sleep tight, my baby.”
As the song faded out, the bar bursts into applause. Ana clapped robotically. She thought maybe she should break up with Eddie.
Eddie and Buck started to head off stage, but they were stopped.
Chim grabbed the mike, announcing, “Oh no! You both lost the bet, which means two songs!”
The crowd started clapping, chanting, “Encore, Encore.”
“Ok, Ok, “ Buck declared, grabbing the mike back, “Suprise song again?”
“Oh, yeah,” Chim nodded, heading back to his table. The karaoke master started tapping at his tablet then a chord rang out.
“Children behave; that’s what they say when we're together.” Buck sang, pointing at Eddie dramatically.
“And watch how you play,” Eddie growled playfully.
“They don't understand
And so we're
Running just as fast as we can, holding on to one another hands,” Buck danced, grabbing at Eddie, chasing him around the stage.
“Trying to get away into the night, and then you put your arms around me,” Eddie stopped for a moment, letting Buck catch him. ‘I can’t get in the way of that anymore,’ Ana decided. She glanced at her friends, seeing them look at her with pity. She didn’t want their pity. ‘They were just jealous of me,’ Ana grumbled, ‘Now, they pity me.’
“And we tumble to the ground, and then you say
I think we're alone now,
There doesn't seem to be anyone around.” Buck sang out, swaying with Eddie. Eddie took over for the next couple of lines.
“I think we're alone now,
The beating of our hearts is the only sound.
Look at the way we gotta hide what we're doin'.”
Buck took back over for Eddie, letting him go so Buck could dance around the stage. ‘He still isn’t looking away from Eddie,’ Ana noted.
“'Cause, what would they say?
If they ever knew
And so we're
Running just as fast as we can, holding on to one another hands,” Buck took a deep breath. Eddie grabbed on to him this time, trying to let him rest a moment. Eddie started singing the following lines.
“Trying to get away into the night, and then you put your arms around me.
And we tumble to the ground, and then you say
I think we're alone now,
There doesn't seem to be anyone around,” Eddie let go of Buck’s arms, swinging him out to twirl him.
“I think we're alone now,
The beating of our hearts is the only sound,” Buck trilled. Eddie gazed tenderly at him, starting to sing again.
“I think we're alone now,
There doesn't seem to be anyone around.
I think we're alone now,
The beating of our hearts is the only sound,” Eddie finally looked away from Buck. ‘He is still not looking to me,’ Ana shook her head.
“Running just as fast as we can, holding on to one another hands,” they harmonized. They continued to sing together.
“Trying to get away into the night, and then you put your arms around me.
And we tumble to the ground, and then you say
I think we're alone now,
There doesn't seem to be anyone around.” Eddie drops off, leaving buck to sing the following four lines.
“I think we're alone now,
The beating of our hearts is the only sound.
I think we're alone now,
There doesn't seem to be anyone around.”
Finally, they both started again, finishing out the song.
“I think we're alone now,
The beating of our hearts is the only sound.
I think we're alone now,
There doesn't seem to be anyone around.
I think we're alone now,
The beating of our hearts is the only sound.
I think we're alone now,
There doesn't seem to be anyone around.
I think we're alone now,
The beating of our hearts is the only sound,” Buck and Eddie trailed off, staring at each other. Ana couldn’t stand it anymore. Not saying anything to her friends, she gathered her stuff. She would text Eddie later and break up with him. She was not going to continue dating a man who is so obviously in love with someone else.