They sat on the grass in Washington Square Park, Jordana with a sketchpad and Wesley with his ukulele. Wes wouldn't be able to identify exactly how many times they have done this before, though it wasn't always at that particular park. Sometimes it was in Union Square, sometimes in Central Park, other times in Riverside. She still looked the same too, as when they first started doing this, in high school. They had a big group of friends then, they'd spread out on the lawn somewhere and hang out for hours. Jordana always wore Chuck Taylors that she decorated herself with doodles all over the fabric. The current ones were pink. She wore a pair of ripped jeans with them and a loose peasant top. Her hair hung down in waves to the middle of her back, the last few inches of it a vibrant purple, the rest her natural caramel brown color. Her legs were folded to the side and her head was tilted too, as she sketched.
"Come to the wedding with me," Wes finally said out loud after watching her for a long time, his fingers idly plucking along on the strings. Jordana looked up at him.
"What?" Her eyes squinted.
"I think you should come to Garrett's wedding with me. As my date." Jordana's expression still showed confusion. They were just friends, they had never dated, never hooked up, in the nearly nine years that they've known each other. "My platonic date. Cause I think it would be more fun if I had a friend to hang with," he clarified.
"Umm..." she pressed her lips together, her brow still scrunched. "Aren't you in the wedding? Am I going to be hanging out all alone if I come?"
"Ok, yes, I'm the best man. But that's just the ceremony. Once the ceremony is over, the rest of the night, the cocktail hour, and the reception... you'd be really cool to hang out with." He didn't want to go alone. Mark currently had a girlfriend who was coming as his date and he didn't want to be a third wheel. And Jordana was really cool.
"You're not gonna play?"
"We might play a song or two, but we are not doing a whole set or anything. Garrett and Lexi really don't want that. They want to enjoy their wedding together, not with him on stage and her in the audience." He wasn't going to repeat to Jordana what Lexi had said about not being able to keep from jumping Garrett if he played any more than a couple of songs. "And you'd know other people there, my brothers and my parents. It'll be fun."
"When is it?" Jordana didn't seem completely convinced yet.
"Exactly 4 weeks from today. It's at the Sunset Terrace at Chelsea Piers at 8 pm." Jordana still looked undecided. Wesley started playing a song, jumping in on the second verse of it. "There is no other one who can take your place."
"Oh my God stop that," Jordana rolled her eyes.
"I feel happy inside when I see your face."
"Don't you dare bring Weezer into this!"
"I hope you believe me, 'cause I speak sincerely, and I mean it when I tell you that I need you!" Wes continued singing despite her protests.
"Fine, fine, just stop, for fuck's sake!" She was looking away. He knew the song would get her. Especially if he got to the chorus and sang the part 'you're my best friend and I love you.'
It was their song. He'd never used it before in a manipulative way like this, but they'd always quote it to each other at other moments in life, especially over text. Bad breakups, fights with parents, which happened a lot on Jordana's side, anytime either of them felt down. They would never just outright say the words 'I love you' to each other without the context of the song, but it was ok when it was to music.
****
"So you are finally going on a date with Wesley, after all these years?" Joey asked, sitting on her bed, watching her do her makeup.
"No, it's not a date. We are not starting anything. I'm just coming to his brother's wedding with him," Jordana explained, carefully applying mascara.
"As his date," Joey smirked at her in the mirror.
"As his friend," she glared at her little brother's reflection.
"Don't you think he's hot? I mean, I've always thought he was hot," Joey admitted. "He's got those crazy blue eyes that I don't even know how you just look into them and not melt."
Joey wasn't wrong about Wesley's eyes. They were definitely incredible and sometimes still caught her off guard. They were always so incredibly contrasting to his nearly black curls. But she's known him since they were fourteen, since they first started high school and found themselves in the same group of friends, back when he was a lot shorter, skinnier, had braces, and wasn't selling out concert venues all over the country. The second and third albums that Ellis Brothers put out were a lot more successful than the first. Their songs were definitely maturing with them, becoming a lot more about the lyrics instead of just being fun and catchy.
"We're friends," Jordana reiterated to her brother, inspecting her face in the mirror.
"And you, you're a fucking hottie too, sis. He's going to take one look at you in this dress and he's going to have all kinds of dirty thoughts," Joey looked her in the eye through the mirror. He picked out the dress for her. Joey always had a lot more fashion sense than she had. He even helped her find shoes that were elegant, had the smallest possible kitten heels and convinced her that she could totally do this. If it wasn't for his help, she would have possibly resorted to wearing her Chucks, like she did for her high school prom.
"Thanks," she was genuinely thankful to Joey for all his help and his compliments and for the fact that they've always been such good friends too, even with the four-year age difference.
