the new day - samuel kiszka (greta van fleet)

11- mr. brightside

Rowan

That night, Sam and I had ended up saying goodbye to each other not long after I had the whole crying incident. He said it was normal and it was okay to show emotion but I still worried he would eventually find it unfavorable or something. I also knew that I was probably just overthinking it all, but I couldn't help it.

He had walked me back to my door and given me a hug before saying goodnight. He was kind of mysterious in a way. He didn't tell me much about himself or his life, and I couldn't tell if it was because he was really that interested in knowing more about me or if it was him avoiding the subject.

It was a couple of days later, the day of the fourth of July party. I was excited to say the least. I wasn't particularly patriotic, I never have been, but I appreciated the holiday nevertheless. Ronnie texted me and told me the party would start around 3, and a lot of people would be there, including their friends from school. I was kind of scared to meet the other people they knew, but everything went well when I met Danny.

I took a shower and got dressed before heading downstairs. My dad was putting his shoes on to leave for another afternoon shift at work.

"Bye, Dad! Have a good day at work." I said, running over to hug him before he headed out.

"Goodbye, Ro. Don't have too much fun without me." he laughed, "Oh, and tell the Kiszka's I said hi."

"Okay, will do." I smiled as he closed the door. I thew my shoes on and headed over to the house. It was decorated quite a bit, but not in an overwhelming way which was nice. You could tell that there was a lot of effort put into it, which I could only assume was Karen's doing.

I headed over to the back porch where good music and foody smells were coming from. They were definitely right, there were a lot of people that showed up. This didn't particularly help with my nerves but I was happy to get to meet new people. My eyes swept the area, looking for the Kiszka's or Danny. I wanted a familiar face to talk to and hopefully ease me into conversation with the others.

"Boo!" I jumped, turning around as I felt someone suddenly grabbing my shoulders. It was my favorite curly headed Kiszka (definitely not because he's the only one).

"Joshua Micheal." I said in a firm tone. "You cant just scare people like that, what if I had a heart attack or something?" He let out a chuckle.

"Don't worry mama, that wouldn't happen." He gave me a loving hug, nearly squeezing me to death.

"I'm gonna pee if you keep squeezing." I squeaked out.

"Okay, okay. None of that." He responded, dropping me almost immediately. He's always been something else. I continued scanning the party, identifying all of the other Kiszkas as I went. They were scattered about, talking to a number of different people, some much younger and some older. I didn't want to admit it but I was definitely looking for a particular person.

"Ehem..." Josh began, "I know you're searchin' for him." He cracked a devious smile as my face started to blush red. I wanted to beat him up.

"Whatever." I grumbled playfully, stomping away from Josh and towards the rest of the party.

"He's inside, in case you were wondering!" Josh yelled with a laugh. He knew me all too well. I tried to wait a minute because I figured Josh would never let me hear the end of it if i'd went straight inside to look for Sam.

"Hey, Ro." Danny said, shooting me a warm smile as I headed in his general direction.

"Hi, Danny." I said with a smile, "Is Sam inside?" I questioned hesitantly. His face fell a little bit, "I wanted to say hi to him."