|Concrete and Gold||dave grohl|

Chapter Twenty Eight•Rescued

One week later, Eliza found herself in the same position as seven days before. She got dressed up and headed out with her friends. She took the walk to the bar, feeling giddy.

As soon as she made her entrance, Julia knew something was off.

"Is everything alright? You seem nervous."

"Yeah, I'm ok." Eliza lied.

They shared drinks and small talk, and while they were at the bar, Eliza was startled when the back door flung open. It was Taylor, lugging in a piece of his drum set. She felt their nerves spike and her cheeks flush.

"Oh, I get it now. I saw you talking to him last week. Anything you'd like to share?" Julia said, teasingly.

"No, all we did was talk for a couple minutes last time. I didn't even get his number." Eliza shrugged, trying to play it off as if she wasn't nervous.

She sat and watched as the band set up their equipment, hoping Taylor wouldn't notice her lurking behind the bar.

They were eventually ready to play, and Eliza's group made their way to the stage. Thankfully, they were a few rows back this time, so maybe Taylor would even notice.

Taylor counted off into their first song, and just as he began to play, he looked up from behind his drum kit. He immediately spotted her, causing a wide grin to spread across this face.

Julia noticed this, and looked over just in time to catch Eliza blush.

Taylor's band played their set, giving Eliza ample time to simply observe him.

"He's cute." She thought, watching as his arms crashed to the beat of the song.

They finished, and the band began to tear down the stage they had set up. Eliza and Julia went back to the bar and finished up a few more drinks.

"I can't pretend like I didn't see that." Julia said, giving her friend a nudge.

"I've talked to him once. He probably just recognized me and smiled."

Julia sipped from her drink, shooting Eliza a smirk.

Just as Eliza ordered another drink, she felt a hand brush against her shoulder. She turned around, and saw Taylor standing there.

"So, you're stalking me now. Is that what this is?" Taylor said, adopting a joking tone so Eliza would know that he wasn't serious.

"Yeah, I guess that I am." She shrugged. "Are you here to buy me another drink?"

Taylor was caught off guard, letting out a small chuckle. "I'll get your next one, don't worry."

Julia stood up off of her chair. "I better go check on the rest of the group." She said as she hurried away, but not before she could shoot Eliza a wink.

Taylor sat down in the now vacant seat next to Eliza. He ordered himself a drink and happily took it out of the bartender's hands.

"Do you always wear swim trunks or is that just a drumming thing?" Eliza asked, glancing down at the bright blue trunks he was sporting today.

"It's a lifestyle, man."

Eliza laughed. "Do you even own any pants?"

"Maybe like, three pairs?" He said, counting on his fingers and also laughing. "Well, over in Laguna that's kind of what everyone wears."

"So, you're from Laguna?"

"Yeah, well I was born in Texas. Moved to Cali when I was young."

Eliza smiled. She liked the breeziness about him. It felt like he could never be stressed about anything, ever.