Friendship

John was walking along the street, feeling that he was right where he was supposed to be. His belonging to the time and situation was almost tangible. He had left work about an hour ago and was walking in his half elegant, half sportive shirt enjoying the sun rays falling lightly onto his arms and face. It was a cool summer when the temperature didn't get over 25 degrees and you could walk rather briskly without sweating or feeling uncomfortable. 

He noticed the green trees and pigeons flying in the air. Normally, he didn't like pigeons and was a firm believer in killing them all, but today they were just birds whose flying resonated with his sense of liberty. He never noticed the usual traffic jam in the streets, crossed elegantly between the angry cars as if they weren’t even there and continued looking around at the beautiful architecture from 18th century. He adjusted his pace to the rhythm of music and realized that his breath was joyfully agitated and for a moment he thought that if there was ever any movie made about his life, he would like this moment and this song to appear in it. 

The back pockets of his jeans were deep enough and the tickets to the latest concert of his favourite band nicely fitted in without revealing its presence. The upper part was covered by his shirt so no-one would ever notice anything. John tapped the outside part of his pocket and felt the tough piece of paper there. 

He had discovered that the band was playing just the day before when he overheard a colleague talking about it. The second that the information crossed the air to arrive to his ears, he was already opening google and searching for the tickets, his eyes so absorbed by the enthusiasm that he failed to see anything else around him. Ever since that moment he couldn’t think of anything else. He managed to buy the last two tickets and today he spent the whole day at work watching the clock to go and pick them up.

'Dog’s breath' was one of the first bands that he listen to independently despite his parents’ protests and developed a very faithful relationship to them. He could no longer remember whether it was him or Steven who first discovered the band. They used to argue about it, but now they just both laughed about it. When they were still teenagers, they would go either to Steven's place when his parents weren't home or they would lie in a park with the music was blasting to their ears. They learnt all their lyrics by heart and listened to them over and over and over again.

When John turned 17, Steven surprised him with the best birthday present imaginable. He had travelled all the way to London to buy a poster of that band that covered half of the wall. Steven passed it onto him without any sign of emotions, as if it were newspapers. John received it a bit reluctantly and as he opened the wrapping papers, his eyes filled with tears that made him feel ashamed and his voice betrayed him, so the obligatory Thank you came out in much higher tone and with his lips trembling. Of course, his mother was appalled, but he wouldn't have any of her complaints. He announced very clearly that if he couldn't have the poster on the wall, he would move out. His mother knew that it was true and eventually gave in. John still smiled at that memory. Noone has ever managed to give him a better present.

And now, more than twenty years later, the band would play again in their city. He didn't know that he was capable of the same emotions as back then when he was a teenager. He bought the tickets and almost couldn't sleep thinking that the next day he would go and surprise Steve with it.

On the next street, he turned left and appeared in front of their old school. Steve has never moved out of the neighbourhood. His parents had several apartments in the same building and they insisted on having their children close even though they were already adults. Steve got angry about it from time to time, but his laziness and comfort always won. The school looked exactly the same as 20 years ago. Maybe some graffitis were added. But John would bet that the place where used to escape to smoke was still full of cigarette butts.

John tapped his pocket again and aparted his gaze from the old building. The next song that appeared on the playlist was his most favourite one, a hit from 1990's that stayed on the toplist for the next five months and John's private toplist it stayed forever and would never be replaced. John started to sing along not caring about the people on the street. He slowed down because he was getting closer to Steve’s place and he wanted to hold onto this joyful feeling a little bit longer. 

It was 7pm, Steve would surely be at home already. John got to his building and tried to open the front door. He wanted to keep the surprise for as long as possible so he didn’t ring the bell. He was lucky, it was open. People rarely bothered to lock the door during the peak hour when everyone was coming from work. Third floor. John ran up the stairs so quickly that he needed to wait to catch breath a bit, he touched his pocket and was ready to pull out the tickets as soon as Steve opened the door. He knocked.

The door opened abruptly. The surprise made John back half a step. The furious face was almost difficult to recognize "Hey. What do you need?" 

"Hey, bro! How have you been?"

"Good, John. What do you need? Have I forgotten something?"

"No, no. You haven't forgotten anything. I just came here to greet you and to surprise you."

"You can't come to surprise people. I'm busy. Not everyone has a leisurely life without any responsibilities like you do. Some of us need to work hard and take care of our families." 

Steve turned his head towards the apartment "Leila, stop that noise. I told you to sit down and do your homework. You have half an hour."

"So?" was Steve's final question towards John.

"So I will come some other time after I have properly announced myself."