Brian Quinn One Shots

Follow Your Fire: Part 1

Inspired by: Follow your fire - Kodaline

"holy shit, is that Samantha?!" Sal pushes me then Murray, to get our attention.

"What? Where?" I ask, my eyes vigorously searching the park for the familiar face. Sure enough, a few feet away was my old high school girlfriend, my first love. It's been over 20 years since I've seen her but she's as beautiful as ever. Her hair falls down to her elbows and she has a sun kissed tan, one you would never get in New York. Her head is down and she's engrossed in a book, her head bobbing to a beat as I spot headphones in her ears.

Flashback
"Brian, music is way better then comic books! There's no arguing!" Samantha argues, then starting to sing a Neil Diamond song at the top of her lungs.

I push her gently, our feet dangling off the edge of a bridge. "How can you say that? Comic books take you into another world."

"So does music!" She pushes back, verbally and physically.

"Yea, for like 3 minutes. Comics go on for so long. They literally go on for years!" I argue back.

She shakes her head "but you can relate to music, connect to it. That three minute song can tell your entire life story. You can't relate to a comic book that way."

I quickly interject before she could say more "yea, you can! Uhm Superman, anyone who was ever adopted can relate to him." I point out.

"Which is great for that population of people but what about others? There's literally a song for everyone out there. Even the same song can mean different things to different people." She continues to argue.

"There's no way I'm going to win this argument, is there?" I ask her.

She shakes her head and gives a heavy "nope!"

"Fine, I'll let you win. For now." And I lean in to kiss her.

Present Tense
"Hey, give us 15?" Joe calls out to Peter, our executive director.

"Everyone take 15!" He calls out loudly, everyone around starting to chat and scatter for the short break.

I look at Joe "what are you doing?"

"I got you time so you can go say hi to her, maybe get her number so you two could catch up." He replies to me.

I shake my head "naw, man. I'm not going to ask her out, what if she's married?"

Murray says "what if she's not?"

I go to respond to his question but Sal adds on "dude, you've always wondered what she's been up to. You don't need to ask her out but just go see if she wants to catch up!"

I shrug, do wanting to know what she's been up to all these years. "Fine." I grunt and Joe and Murray give me some pats on the back while Sal gives me some words of encouragement I can't hear over the sound of my heartbeat. I walk slowly over to where she is, and she doesn't catch me standing there, too enthralled with what's in front of her. I take a seat next to her and before I could tap her on the shoulder I spot what she's reading. It's not a book, it's a comic book. A classic Batman comic. I smile, and all my fears melt away "whatcha got there?" I say a bit loudly as I tap her shoulder.

"Oh, it's actually an original Ba—" but she stops speaking when her eyes meet mine "no way, Brian Quinn?" She asks, making sure it's me. I nod and smile and she throws her arms around me "holy shit! Hi! It's so good to see you!" She squeezes me tightly and I reciprocate her hug.

"How have you been? It's been a long time." I say as she finally lets me go.

I see her wipe a tear from her eye but ignore it, figuring the sun was too bright. She answers "a long ass time! And I'm good, just taking a break from working at the moment. How have you been? Ive heard something about you and the guys being big TV stars now."

I smirk and chuckle while shaking my head "I don't know about big but yea, we have a TV show. And I've been good, it's great to see you."

She nods her head and agrees "it really is! Are you with the guys now or just taking a stroll by yourself?" She asks.

I wave the guys over and they all come hustling out to say hello. They've all gotten along with Samantha when we were younger so it was a happy reunion for everyone. After everyone gets a hug, she asks each how they're doing. Joe explains how he's married with kids and then she's asks if the rest of us do as well. Murray answers "nah, the rest of us are still single. Come on, does that surprise you?"

She smiles but points to him "not for you" and we all laugh.

Sal then asks "how about you? Married, kids?"

She smiles and shakes her head "none of the above actually."

"Wow, that's surprising." Murray comments.

Before anyone of us could say anything our director calls out "guys, we gotta start!"

"Oh, are you guys working?" She asks, looking around a bit confused now.

Joe answers "we are, sorry. It was so great to see you Samantha!" He leans in for another hug "don't be a stranger."

"I won't, thank you." She hugs back. Murray and Sal hug her next and head off, leaving us two alone again.

"Hey, would you wanna grab dinner sometime and catch up? I'd love to hear all about your TV adventures." She asks before I could ask her.

I nod "I'd love nothing more then to get dinner. Here, give me your number and I'll text you." I pull out my phone.

She lists off her number then says "but I don't text, so call me instead?"

"Of course" I insist making a mental note of that as I put my phone away "I'll call you later tonight." I lean in and give her a hug "see you later Sam."

"Later BBQ!" She returns her nickname with my nickname and I chuckle as I walk away.