Feelings and Fortitude

“Well Valerie, I used to hang out with a bad group of people. I actually almost joined a gang. Honestly if it weren’t for Nik, Troy, and Jacey, I’d probably be a totally different person than I am. I owe them a huge thanks, but I made them promise to never talk about my past. I didn’t want people to think differently of me.” Looking down, I continue, “I hope this doesn’t scare you off.”

“You don't have to worry. It’ll take a lot more than that to scare me off.” Smiling at me, we walk back to our friends.

“So the cats out of the bag Mark?” Troy says smiling.

In a stern voice I say “Shut up Troy, I swear I’ll still kick your ass if you bring this up again.” Never could I have imagined having so many new friends. “Hey, since we won, let's go get some food to celebrate it.”

“Yes, that sounds awesome. I am starving.” Nik looks into his wallet to check his money, “You know what, I just got my allowance so it’ll be on me today.”

Since Nik was going to be paying for the group, we let him decide on where we would go. Without saying where he just leads the way. We find ourselves standing outside a karaoke bar. Confused, I looked around to see if anyone else felt uncomfortable, but everyone was happy with the choice. Even our new friend Takao was smiling.

“Karaoke huh? I’m not much of a singer, but I’ll definitely enjoy some of the food.” I said. We walk into the building and Nik starts to explain himself.

“Well, I wanted to pick a place that hopefully our new friend would enjoy and this seemed like the perfect place. A group of friends celebrating in a fun way.”

“Really awesome choice Nik. I love Karaoke, I can’t wait to show off my voice.” Jacey brags.

As we entered the building, we were immediately noticed by the manager of the bar. “Hey aren’t you those kids that just won that talent show?” He says. I responded “Wow word does travel fast huh?” The owner continues, “Yea my son was in the competition too, I didn’t realize how talented his schoolmates were. You guys were fantastic.” We thank him then head into our room.

“Hey let's wait until everyone is hungry to order food, that way we dont distract anyone from their singing.” Nik said. “Well Jacey, let's hear this voice you’re bragging about, you're up first.”

Jacey smiles and picks her song, as she begins singing, Nik begins to smile, “Mark do you think she would be mad if I started singing? I freaking love this song.” I look at him and say “I don't know man, I say do it, we're here to have fun, I doubt she’ll get mad at people joining.” As Nick picks up a mic and joins Jacey, I start laughing, Valerie looks at me with a look of disbelief.

When Nik starts singing, it startled Jacey, she looked at him and smiled and continued. As they finished their mini duet, I noticed how both of them stopped and stared at each other, it seemed as if they were each in their own world. As I sat hoping that Nik would make his first move, we hear Troy from the background yell “Are y’all just gonna stand there or are you gonna kiss?”

After Troy spoke, Nik cleared his throat and said “Thanks for letting me sing with you.” and he walked out.

Jacey, looking as if she was going to cry, came over and sat down next to the group. Valerie and Takao go to check on Jacey and make sure she is ok.

Feeling uncomfortable, I decided to say “You know, I’m gonna go order food for us, I’ll be right back.” As I scurried to get out of the room I hear Valerie say “Troy why don’t you go help Mark carry everything back”

Realizing that he messed up, Troy walks out with me. “Did I say something wrong? I just did what most friends do to one another.” I look at him, smile, and say “Yea but in this case, one of the friends has a crush on the other.”

Astonished, Troy blurts “How am I supposed to know she likes him, how the hell do you even know?”

“It's not that hard to figure it out, you don’t need a degree to see the way Jacey looks at Nik.” I sarcastically say.

As we head to the restaurant area we see Nik sitting by himself just looking at his phone. “So this is where the party went?” I say as we approach Nik and his table.

Before we can say anything else Nik apologizes, “Guys I’m sorry I don’t know what happened, something just came over me and I had to leave.”

I looked at Troy, expecting him to apologize, instead he said “Man you ruined the mood. You should have just kissed her.”

“Troy, it's your fault I left, if you didn’t say anything this whole situation wouldn’t have happened.” Nik says.

Troy responds, “How is this my fault? Just because you're a coward and afraid to realize your feelings, maybe you would’ve kissed her, and wouldn’t need me to push you to do it.”

“Wait what? Nik likes Jacey? And you knew? Wait, why didn’t anyone tell me?” I say while looking around.

“Yea Mark it doesn’t take a degree to figure out NIk likes her. He’s always going to see her perform isn’t he.” Troy smirks at me.

“Nik, is it true, do you really like her? If you do, you should just tell her. What’s the worst that's gonna happen?” I say while I read over the menu.

“That’s real rich coming from you Mark. You like Valerie, yet you won’t tell her. You should know how hard it is to express your feelings to the girl you have feelings for.” NIk states.

“Alright, let's do it together. I’ll confess if you do, let’s order some food and take it back to them.” I brazingly say.

We order the food and while we wait for the food Troy starts to make jokes. “While we all are confessing, maybe I should tell Takao. I mean I know I barely know her, but I can tell we have a strong connection, just by the way she looks at me.”

In unison both Nik and I tell Troy “Shut Up!” and we all start laughing.

Once we get our food we head back to our room. Once we get back we notice that all the girls have left.

“Where did everyone go?” Nik Questions.

“What’s that by your stuff Mark?” Troy asks.

I grab the piece of paper, “It’s a note” I say, “We went to Jacey’s house. We don’t think it’s a good idea to be around you guys right now. Please just enjoy yourselves and don’t worry about what happened. -Valerie” When I finish I get the feeling that it was divine intervention.

“It kinda feels like we weren’t supposed to confess.” Nik says as he sits down. “Well I don’t care. I am gonna tell her how I feel. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Alright, let’s figure out how and when you are gonna do it.” Troy continues, “We don’t want you to ruin another chance.”

“We are leaving right now, I don’t wanna wait for later. Do you know where she lives, Mark?” Nick asks me.

“I’ve been to her house before for a band thing. But I don’t think it's the right time to go to her house unannounced.” I say with concern in my voice.

Nik looking as determined as ever grabs me and says “If you always wait, the right time will never come. You have to create the right times and stop waiting. Live without leaving regrets.”

I reluctantly tell Nik where she lives and we start to make our way there.

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We arrive at Jacey’s house and Nik hops out of the car.

Nik looks at us and asks “Are you guys gonna come with me or what?”

Troy opens the door and says “You know I’m gonna take my chance to see more of Takao, so I’m in.”

“I think I’m gonna stay in the car,” I softly say while I pull out my phone.

Before they get to the door we all hear Valerie’s voice “You guys shouldn’t have come.”

“I’m sorry Valerie, I just couldn’t wait to talk to Jacey, can you get her to come down.” Nik loudly shouts.

“She doesn’t want to talk to any…” before Valerie finishes her sentence we hear Jacey, “It’s fine, I’ll go down and we can talk.”

The door opens and out walks Jacey by herself. Nik looks at Troy “Stay here.”

“What do you wanna say Nik?” Jacey asks.

“Well, I like you, and I wanna know if you’d go on a date with me.” As he said this I look at Valerie, and see a tear start to roll out of her eyes. Then I look at Troy to see him standing there with a smile. It seems that everybody is anticipating waiting for her to accept his confession.