Life, Love & A Little Coffee

Chapter Fifty-Five: Declaration

It was sunset now and Ada remained busy floating from group to group, accepting congratulations and envelopes, keeping her eye on the crowds in search for Tom who she hadn't seen in half an hour. They packed the yard full to the brim with guests, close to fifty of them or maybe more. It was a strange feeling having a graduation party without a single one of her own friends there.

Almost every guest was a friend of her parents, most she'd known for her entire life but not counting as a friend of hers. Stevie had some friends from high school there as well who wanted to see her while she was in town.

Her grandmother was somewhere in the crowd. She'd spotted her a few times but weaved herself through the groups of people to avoid being spotted, hoping beyond hope that wherever Tom was, he could do the same. The woman was one of her favorite people on Earth and it was disappointing to no longer be the same for her in that moment, but it was what it was and Ada was in no mood for confrontation that night.

"You see your man lately?" Stevie came out of nowhere and asked, linking their arms together and forcing her away from the group she was occupying.

Her mother's drunk friend Mary overheard the comment. "Ada's got a boyfriend! Where is he, honey? I can get the boys together and they can scare the crap out of him. That's a good bonding moment right there."

Ada ignored Mary and quickened the pace away from the group. "What do you know that I don't know?"

Stevie shrugged. "I was about to say 'plenty', but we both know that's bullshit."

They stopped by the stage that remained ignored for the last two hours, but most of the band now seemed accounted for. Their father was behind the drum set and his friend Joe was tuning his bass guitar. Their buddy Chris was sitting on the edge playing an acoustic guitar to his newest girlfriend, who was eating it up, though he did the same thing with every new girlfriend he brought to every one of her father's parties. The backup guitarist who was switched out every year at least, looked nervous as hell and Ada noticed their lead guitarist was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Jack?"

"Passed out in the bed of his truck," Stevie announced with a laugh. "He's vomited twice and I think he pissed himself. Guys already wrote all over his face. He's going to have a hard time washing that dick off his forehead."

Despite everyone in her father's band being at least forty, they were all teenage boys at heart. "The new guy looks like he's going to piss himself out of fear."

"Oh," Stevie began with a shake of her hand and a tug on Ada's arm, "he's not taking the lead."

Stevie turned Ada's body to face the other side of the stage, where she saw Tom stepping onto it. Ada rushed over to the edge of the stage he was standing on. "What the hell are you doing?"

Tom shrugged. "Lead guitarist's passed out somewhere. Jeff asked if I knew how to play electric."

"And do you?" Ada asked. She could only assume he did since she couldn't imagine Tom making an ass out of himself on purpose.

He laughed to himself, running his fingers across the strings she imagined practicing different chords. "Since I was fourteen. I thought I told you I used to be in a band."

Ada remembered that, and the fact that his former band had gotten popular, but she hadn't known how long he'd been in that band for. She'd only seen him play acoustic once and had been inside the house at the time.

Tom kept his feet on the stage as he moved his guitar to the side and bent down as close to her level as he could. "You gonna give me a good luck kiss or what?"