Forki One-Shots

The Girl at the Coffee Shop

Luke

"Welcome, welcome,"the grey-haired man said."Come on in."

I decided that this was most likely the owner of the coffee shop that was hosting one of the Nashville sets of "Coffee and Christian Music", a Winter Jam tour. He led us into a small room with chairs, tables, and floor-to-ceiling windows. 

All of us-my band- for KING & COUNTRY, Francesca Battistelli's, Lecrae's, and Kari Jobe's immediately crashed. It may have only been 10 a.m., but we were already tired, since we'd had to get up at FIVE. (Now I know why Joel is so tired all the time. It's exhausting to get up.) Three waitresses take out order. I get a latte. Timmy rolls his eyes, then orders some fancy $10 concoction. 

"Are you guys ready?" Lecrae asks wearily. 

"After a power nap, yes,"Kari answers, her eyes shut. 

Only my left, Mod snoozes away. On my right, Vince is busy snapping a rubber band in his wrist to stay awake. 

"We'll be alright,"Joel says softly,"after we drink 12 cups of coffee."

"Yeeee,"Ben mumbles. 

Time passed. We had a mini Acapella rehearsal while the crew set up. Then, at 10:58, we went "onstage".

That's when I saw her. A lovely dark-haired girl, sitting in the middle on my left, leaning on the wall. And it wasn't just her beauty that captivated me. Her eyes-the windows to her soul-looked so sad. And I wanted to know why. 

"You're staring,"Vince says. 

I blink and look away."No, I wasn't."

"Stop embarrassing me, Luke, and get your in-ears in,"Joel orders, smirking. Behind him, Franny stands, trying not to laugh. 

"Har har,"I say dryly, before walking away. 

|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\

I dropped my mic! Frick! Now they're gonna think I'm stupid. Now she's gonna think I'm stupid. 

Luckily for me, the mic fell behind the big drum with the crest that the guys broke. Unluckily, I hit my nose. But besides that, our set went well. And I noticed that during "Light It Up", "Sane", and "Love's To Blame", there were tears in the mystery girl's eyes. At one point in "Sane", she was actually crying. 

Then, at the end of the show, the best thing happened:

The mystery girl came and talked to us. 

"Hey,"she said softly, her eyes shining with tears. "I just wanted you to know that I was planning on killing myself today. But then I heard you sing, and I didn't anymore. So thank you."

I was stunned. 

"No, thank you,"Joel told her,"for being so vulnerable with us. It means a lot."

"You're welcome."

"What's your name?" I asked, ignoring Joel's little grin. 

"Courtney."

"Well, Courtney,"I say nervously,"would you like to, um, go on a walk or something?"

Please say yes.

"Sure,"she replied. I took her hand, then we walked out the door before the guys could say something stupid and embarrassing. 

"Running away, are we?" Courtney teased. 

"Perhaps,"I replied with a grin.