Short Story - Driving to the sound of indie bands

It's almost update day and I'm still without a tablet, hence, another content update. I'm kind of a sucker for writing, and I like writing every now and then. Not that I'm great at it, but I try. Anyway, this is a short story telling how and why Mike ended up in Little Penningam. Enjoy it. ====================Driving to the sound of indie bands =========================== Everyone has that one friend that one day will request the most absurd or unexpected thing. Mine just happened to ask me to go visit him and talk to a friend of his, and now I find myself driving down the road, in my red SUV listening to some indie bands. I don't know the name for most of them, the one playing now has a generic dumb name, something like 'The Trees' or something like that. Well, It all began a few days ago when he called me. Edward is one of those people that still call other people to talk to them, instead of sending them an SMS or what. He's one of those few that still has values when it comes to socialization. I like that. "Hello, Mike?" "Hey, Ed, how's it going?" "Quite all right, it's been a while, huh? How have you been?" Like usual, we go through all that "how are you", "how have you been" before getting to the point, but eventually, we finally do. "So, do you remember that one friend I've told you about? Derek." "Yeah, the lion, right?" "Yes, him! So... He's been acting up lately; can you help me out with him?" "Well, I guess... What's the matter now? Another date went wrong?" Apparently, this guy that hangs with Edward has a lot of problems with his feelings. I don't recall the whole story; this is something that stretches as far back as when I've met Edward in College. I was graduating and he was still getting to his second year, when he met this Derek guy and began telling me this guy's life. Someway, I feel like I know this Derek inside out, like if we've grown together or what; sometimes it even feels weird when Edward and I have a conversation without mentioning him, like if we're ignoring our friend and letting him out of the fun. Then I remember he was never my friend to begin with. Anyway, Derek had this one big breakup with that one other guy, that I like to call The Big Slap In The Face. The breakup, not the other guy. I think that life always has a Big Slap to give us, like a wake-up call to realize life is moving and you're lagging behind. Everyone has had their Big Slap In The Face, those who haven't, aren't living, and those who are and never had a Big Slap, maybe doesn't even needs one, but this Derek guy... He took his Big Slap In The Face and didn't "wake up" to life; in fact, he's even worse than before, apparently. Now he goes on, thinking that everyone means to do him some kind of harm or deceive him even further. The way Edward talks on how he's set him up on at least 10 dates through the last years and none worked out, feels like this guy kind of gave up on living or something. "Not really, I've tried talking him into going out with other dudes; turns out I'm out of dudes to recommend, and since he's not really into gals... I'm totally out of options." "Well, you didn't recommend me." - I said, laughing and hearing Edward's laugh follow after that. "Hah, if only it was THAT easy... But hey, I have this one plan, I need your help with it." There we go. Edward was always a guy with big plans. He's a goof and sometimes doesn't looks that serious about things, but he's smarter than anyone I've known so far. I even think that he's smarter than me. We both joke that his least smartest move was majoring in Journalism, since he hates it and so far only got him a job with his father, which practically could've been done without a degree. Go figure... "Ok, what do you need me to do?" "Are you free to come to Little Penningam?" In fact, I've been for a few weeks now, having just lost my job, and I haven't began looking for another yet, and Edward KNOWS that. "Yeah, still no luck with the fuck-ups at GTU so far..." My former boss at Green Technologies United decided to fire me because, well... when you do your job and no one else does theirs, YOU'RE the weird one in the group. Since this whole company is pretty much a start-up from some college grads, they'd rather be with someone they're friends with and have known for a long while than someone that actually does their work. In other words, nepotism kissed my job good-bye. "I've just been working on my own things here and there, but you know me." "Yah, I know you... So, can you come?" I didn't know what Edward was planning, nor how it involved me, but I knew that it involves that Derek guy, or at least, I think it does... Guess that I won't find out until I get there. I've never been to Little Penningam, so, I'm thinking long green meadows, cows everywhere... Maybe I've been on the road for too long now. But I'll find out what all this is about soon enough, I'm just passing this "Welcome to Little Penningam" sign, listening to even more of these indie bands... I think that this one is called 'Red Parade' or something like that.