Being There Read Online Free PDF Page A

fear lacing his tone. “What the hell is all of that?”
    I was utterly embarrassed but the cards were on the table, and I had to explain. “We are, but I like things ordered, so I asked for all event details so that I could see what’s going on and plan accordingly.”
    “Okay,” he dragged out as he exhaled. Loudly , I might add.
    I jumped in quick to respond, seeing panic take over his features, “I can do this myself, if you have other things to do.” I was trying to be polite, hoping that he would see I was not as scary as I seemed but without a second thought, he jumped up.
    “Great!” He spoke up excitedly as he was leaving the room.
    I slumped in my seat, knowing the planning was going to be a handful and I was going to have no help. But just as he was about to exit, he looked over his shoulder and smiled, “I’m just kidding.” He walked back to the table and leaned on the edge, no doubt planning to insult me again. “I’m not sure I trust your judgment when it comes to music anyway. I think you need my help.”
    I rolled my eyes and I pushed a list over to him, which contained DJs, bands and music genres. “Well, here’s where we need to start then. What type of music do we want?”
    He took the list and started back for the door as I watched, “You coming or what? We have places to go, so let’s get a move on.” I decided to follow his lead out of the doors, not knowing much about my partner, other than the years of rumors attached to his name, let alone where we were heading next.
    I had known of Drew for years, but as kids, we never ran around in the same circles, but his reputation always preceded him. The legend that was Drew Alexander had only grown the older we got. Depending on the source, he was either a sixteen-year-old legend who could get any girl he wanted, or he was a complete asshole who treated girls like trash. Needless to say, I had never been one to champion one idea over the other, because there was no way we were ever going to be among the same group of friends anyway. But suddenly, I found myself tasked with working with the lothario extraordinaire and, despite my nuance of superiority, he made me a little nervous and I wasn’t sure what to do with that. I didn’t have the feelings of butterflies in my stomach or any of that crap, it was more concern that if he pissed me off, I might have to hit him and that would do nothing but cause me problems. I was just going to have to suck it up and work with him for this event and then we could go our separate ways.
    Drew drove the two of us around all afternoon so we could meet with potential entertainment for the Gala and I discovered he was easy enough to talk to, but it was clear that we didn’t have much in common, save for our rolls playing soccer.
    “Favorite band?” he had asked, while I changed his radio.
    “Today? Jet.” I had told him without thinking twice.
    “And tomorrow?”
    “Who knows? It all depends on my mood,” I stated flatly. It’s true, my music varied so much that I could barely keep up with it. I wasn’t into a specific genre, I either felt the music or I didn’t.
    “What about you,” I asked, deciding to attempt participating in a conversation with the guy.
    “I prefer the classics,” he said, before rattling off a few names. “Anything from The Beatles, Zeppelin, Dylan,” I returned my gaze out the window, watching the city pass by, “Nirvana.”
    “I hate to tell you, but Nirvana isn’t classic, yet” I said shaking my head, but never looking at him.
    “So you were listening?”  He asked, impressed with himself to have garnered my attention.
     
    We decided to start our search with the DJs and after the first three, I mentally checked out. I was ready to forego music all together because each showed us video clips of events they had covered, and if I had to hear a snippet of the “ Cha Cha Slide ” one more time, I might have snapped. But the worst part was that not a single one