It was Saturday, just after five and I was standing in Joe's garden holding an umbrella over his barbecue while my friend was turning the burgers over.

It had been an unexpectedly sunny afternoon and, as all Scottish people do, we decided it was great barbecue weather after just the slightest hint of sunshine. Naturally the weather had taken a nasty turn in the blink of an eye but we were committed now and wouldn't stop.

"Will Angie not be pissed off that her umbrella's going to smell like burn now?" I asked.

"Nah. Knowing her cravings, she'll actually enjoy it," He laughed in reply. Angie was out at a friend's, leaving Joe to fend for himself. Hence the impromptu garden dinner.

"Fair enough," I shrugged before getting back on to our original topic. "So you really think I should go for it?"

"Dude I think you should one-hundred-per-cent go for it!" He cried. "Mostly because you've always wanted to get with her but also cause it would be a fucking ace story! Finally getting with the girl of your dreams after like fifteen? You can't even write that shit!"

"Evie thinks it's a bit of a stretch. Like, I don't actually know her or anything," I recalled the last time I'd brought it up when I'd visited Evelyn.

"Do you even know what type of music she likes?" She'd asked."No . . . actually remember that time in geography when she came into the class singing that random R'n'B song? What was it called again?" I asked, struggling to remember a Stacy story for the first time ever.

"How would I remember that?" Evie laughed in annoyance. "And besides it was so long ago; she was like fourteen! She's probably totally changed her music tastes. Remember when we were obsessed with Busted?"

Of course I remembered. Using hair gel to give myself a sideways Mohawk for the school picture was one of my ultimate regrets in life. God damn Busted.

"Hahahaha!" Joe cackled, interrupting my story. "Does your Ma still have that picture up in the living room?"

"Yup. Right on the wall as soon as you walk in the house," I groaned, embarrassed.

"Surely you can easily find out what music she likes? Do you nae have the radio on at work?"

"We used to but now Jerry won't let us. He's scared the news will keep going on about politics and Brexit and shit and we can't offend anyone for their political beliefs."

"Of course. Because why wouldn't he say that," Joe hissed. He hadn't met Jerry but already hated him with a passion.

"What I do know is that she really isn't into space as much as me and Evie are."

"That's because nobody on earth is! Get it? Earth? Planet joke."

"Fantastic," I nodded.

"Look, the point is you don't have to know her now. Just get to know her through work. It's not creepy. I don't get why Evie's so against it," He said, handing me a perfectly cooked burger.

"Thanks. I guess she doesn't want me to get hurt or anything but honestly I'm just so tired of playing things safe!" I yelled before putting my food in a bun and tucking in.

"You hardly play things safe. You're always doing stupid stuff."

"Let's not go there," I puffed. "Speaking of which though, you've been behaving yourself lately. You're surprisingly calm right now," I noticed.

"That's only because I'm sober to be honest," He laughed. "I only start freaking out when I have a beer. Is this what getting old is? When a chill out beer does the opposite for you?"

"I thought being sober would be the hard part!" I laughed. "Are you not freaking out about the baby?"

"Meh," Shrugged Joe. "The way I see it, I'm going to be shitting myself for pretty much forever once it's born. So I might as well stay calm while I still can."

It seemed like flawed logic but I was glad that he was doing fine. Even I wasn't having a beer today because I didn't want to be the only one.

"Good for you, buddy!" I patted him on his back, though that only annoyed him as it interrupted his eating of his own burger.

I let him finish eating and then promised to keep him up to date with my pursuit of Stacy. Though I didn't expect that my next move would end up with him getting involved . . .

 *

I'd now been working with Stacy for about two weeks but I hadn't really gotten to know her as well as I'd have hoped by this point. There were a number of reasons for this.

One was that she was actually hard working. She'd taken to the job far better than I ever had and actually seemed to be enjoying herself.

Another reason was that Jerry was still cockblocking me at almost every turn.

There was one instance where a man came into the office and walked straight up to my desk.

"You here for a van?" I asked nonchalantly. If you can imagine me swinging on my chair with a pencil in my mouth then you'd have this exact scene.

Before the man could answer, there was the sound of three bangs on a window at the other side of the room. I looked over to see Jerry at the window, with a handwritten sign that read "Don't Assume!"

My eyes rolled dramatically.

"Sorry sir. How can I help you today?" I corrected. I didn't look back at him but I knew Jerry was grinning like a cheeky chimpanzee.

Finally, I was able to talk with her about things that weren't work related, just before the weekend.

"What a week huh?" I asked as we both walked together through the car park. If she didn't have her own car I'd have been offering her a lift every day.

"Oh it wasn't that bad," She giggled with what was now a trademark smile.

"How are you finding being back in Aberdeen?" I asked as we reached our vehicles. "Is it as good as you remember?" I asked jokingly. No one would describe living here as good.

"Ah it's been alright. It's been good seeing family and stuff. And there's less Weegies so that's a plus!" She laughed; clearly not a fan of the Glasgow locals who she'd spent the last little while living with.

"It must be good seeing all your friends from school again too right?" I suggested. She'd now turned to face me and her back was leaning against her car so I was quite certain that she wasn't desperate to get away from me.

"It's been ok," She spoke softly, looking down at her feet. This was an unexpected reaction.

"Just ok? Come on! I thought you'd be loving it. You had loads of friends in school!"

"Well . . . let's just say that when you move away you find out who your real friends are."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't realise that," I said. In hindsight I really should have known that.

 In my, admittedly rare, conversations with the formerly popular people from school, I'd managed to figure out that a lot of them were, deep down, just like me and Joe. Just trying to fit and be seen as cool as they could be. So they all hung out together even if they didn't like each other like a swarm of wasps protecting the queen, with the queen being popularity.

Who knew being popular was so hard right?

Of course I'd still never felt an ounce of sympathy for any of them. Until now.

"Oh it's fine. I still have a lot of my old friends anyway though so I've had a few nights out with them and stuff. It's just weird seeing them all grown up now. Some of them are married with kids and stuff and I'm just . . . here," She opened her arms to the now empty car park.

"It's not all bad here," I assured her. "You're not alone you know. I'm in the same boat," I smiled.

"Thanks. So do you have any plans this weekend?" She asked, changing the subject to a more cheerful one.

This was it. The chance I was waiting for.

"Not much."

Fucking idiot.

"Oh," She nodded.

Thankfully for me, I was able to recover myself and actually go through with my dream plan.

"Actually, do you want to do something? Like get a drink tomorrow night or something?" I asked, hoping it wouldn't lead to a heart attack. "I'd invite everyone else from work but I honestly don't want to associate with any of them!"

"I would love to," She started excitedly before her expression turned to one of uncertainty. "But I dunno. Wouldn't that look a bit like a date?" I couldn't tell if she was testing the waters or just trying to let me down gently.

"It doesn't have to be!" I said on autopilot. "You can take some of your friends along if you want. It would be cool to hang out with everyone from school again."

Well that was a lie.

"I doubt they'd go for that. They're pretty much stuck inside these days with their new families, which is fair enough I guess."

"Well about Joe and Evie?" I offered. "They'd love to catch up!"

"Were they in geography too?"

"Yeah! I told them that you were working here and they both said how awesome it was! It could be like the school trip reunited!"

"Would they even want to?"

"Definitely!"

Maybe.

"Well . . ."

It took a bit more persuading but finally she agreed. The final winning argument was just letting her pick the bar we went to. It didn't seem like a bad suggestion, considering me and Joe were probably still unwelcome at the last one we had chosen.

Now it was time to get my friends to crash my date.

There's a sentence I never thought I'd say.

*

"I am so in!" Joe cried. "This could actually be brilliant."

That was easy.

I had invited my two best friends to my flat, hoping that plying them with coffee and crisps would entice them out. I really wasn't worried about convincing Joe because he was always up for some ridiculous behaviour. But Evie was another story.

Evie had a strange relationship with the girls from school. Though she kept up with one or two of them, she really had a lot of resentment towards anyone who wasn't at least civil to her in school. I could see where she was coming from with that attitude but I was hoping she'd set her vendetta aside for my sake.

"I am so not in," She groaned. "This is the stupidest idea you've ever had!"

"I really don't think that's accurate," I whispered to myself.

"What's wrong with just meeting a nice girl that isn't Stacy Sinclair?" She asked.

"Nothing! But I don't want a nice girl, I want this girl! You know how bad I wanted this before. Don't we owe it to childhood to try?"

"By triple dating on her? When we've never even had a meaningful conversation? You have to admit that this sounds like the shittiest night out ever!" She made a valid point unfortunately.

"Evie, please. You know we'd do it for you," Joe pleaded my case.

"Why are you so into this?" She barked at him.

"Because my night's out are going to be severely limited soon! So I want to see as much car crash action as I can!" He laughed. I wanted to scold him for it but he was on my side so I decided against it.

"Wont Angie force you to stay home?" Evelyn asked, probably hoping he hadn't considered this yet."As long as I don't get too drunk and have to sleep on the sofa again she'll be fine. It'll give her peace to watch her shit TV shows anyway," He shrugged.

"Please!" I begged again. I knew that Stacy would cancel if it was just me and Joe. That would definitely be weird. "You never know, it might turn out that I don't like her after all!"

She stared at my attempt at puppy dog eyes for what felt like a life time before she finally scowled loudly like an angry wolf.

"Fine!"

"Yes!" I cheered like I'd just scored a goal in a game of football.

"But I'm not staying out too late and I'm not going to pretend she's the goddess you claim she is."

"That's totally fine. You won't regret it! Just think, you might even have fun and make a new friend!" I gleamed.

"I doubt that very much."

"Just please don't be moody," I risked saying. Evie is honestly the friendliest person I've ever encountered so I couldn't fathom why she was being so dismissive of this. Though I knew it was practically suicide to call a woman moody to her face.

"I could hit you in the face," She admitted. "But I won't. I promise I'll behave. But I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not, and you shouldn't either. Just promise me you'll be yourself."

"Evie, I promise you I will," I replied sincerely. If things did go the way I wanted it to then I wasn't going to spend my life being someone else.

And so it was set for the next evening. Me, Joe, Evie and Stacy in the same room for the first time in ten years.

What could possibly go wrong?

________________________________________________________________________________

Ah yes. My favourite question to end a chapter with!

Who is excited to see all four characters together for the first time in the story? The next chapter is going to dive straight into it with no flashbacks this time so we wont have to wait long!

And what do you think is going on with Evie? Is she just worried about her friend getting hurt or is there something more going on here?

And finally the most important question . . . is R 'n' B still a thing?