Tonight it's Fate

Part One

Jeff laughed. "That's just part of it, though. You go out together and make the best of what happens. If you connect during that then it's good. If she storms out... then maybe not the best."

"Oh, you think? That's some solid advice, dude."

The sarcasm snapped in David voice and Jeff laughed. "I'm tryin, man. Maybe you need to hit up Anicée again. Wasn't she all hot to get you set up a few months ago?"

"Yeah, but she reamed me on the two date thing. She said if she's going to set up one of her friends with me then I have to do a third date, and then no hard feelings either way. I just... I don't like being the non-committal guy in the band now. Like, what's wrong with me? Can I not figure my shit out and just settle already?"

Jeff shrugged. "You've had reasons to wait... it's not like you've had the easiest relationships in the past, and," he hesitated, "you know, whatever happened in 2007."

David scoffed at the statement, taking a drink of the water Stacey had brought over. "Yeah, let's not go there," he said.

"But why not? I mean, I know you've never told anyone about it, but that's like five years ago now... you still can't tell me?"

David resettled in the chair, shifting to cross his legs. At the time he'd had good reasons to not bring up what he'd gone through, because it seemed like everyone else was going through too many tragedies in their lives, and he had no want to add to it. Now those reasons didn't hold up and it was his best friend needing a clue into the past. He half shrugged. "You really want to know?" he clarified.

Jeff nodded adamantly. "I do. I feel like there was a lot of shit happening with everyone that year and you got left out of the group and it wasn't fair." He took a breath, his gaze intense when their eyes met. "Dude, I know," he stressed the word, "something happened with you and you were too polite to bring it up... but sometimes it's better for us to know what's going on that to have to just speculate."

David smirked slightly. "And what were you speculating? Any awesome theories?"

He shook his head. "Mostly we figured it was family stuff. I mean, we know you're private... we all get that way with stuff, but you take it to another level."

He nodded, shifting again in the chair as Stacey came over with their drinks.
"Anything else I can get for you guys?" she asked.

They exchanged glances and David shook his head.

"Nope, we're good," Jeff told her.

"All right, enjoy," she said with a smile before walking away.

They each raised their glasses then, taking drinks and letting the hum of the bar wrap around them before continuing the conversation.

"It wasn't family related," he finally said. "It was more of... what the fuck am I doing with my life? And am I really happy with it right now? And... I feel like shit for no reason so I'm just going to spend three months in bed and not deal with any of it." He punctuated the statement with a long drink and Jeff stared at him with raised eyebrows.

"Dude."

He nodded. "I know." He looked down at his drink for a moment before continuing, "But Julie came out and helped me get back on track," he said, thankful for his sister's support. "Turned out it was mostly a thyroid issue and once medication for that was figured out it was smooth sailing again." He shrugged to make light of the situation. "There was some other stuff too, but that was the main thing."

Jeff shook his head. "I never would have guessed that."

"Yeah, me either, but it took like one blood test to diagnose. The doctor said it's actually super common and now I just have to take some supplements when it feels like things aren't quite right."