;Laughter Is The Medicine I Need | Jimmypop;

I was standing in the back of the over populated comedy club, awaiting dreading my turn. I've never been the nervous type, but I could feel the beads of sweat starting to form at the center of my palm. My boyfriend Daryn had somehow convinced me to try stand-up because apparently, I'm funny. Well, unfortunately I agreed and now I'm counting down the seconds before I go up to publicly humiliate myself.
"You going up there soon?"
I didn't respond. The resulted in a jab to my ribs. "What was that for?" I tried not to draw attention to me and this strange man by talking as quietly as I could, but the person performing was garnering plenty of laughs so no one noticed us.
"I know you heard me. No need to ignore the unwanted."
This weird guy was standing a foot or two away from me. It seemed too close since I'd never seen him before in my life, but somehow we were talking as if we had known each other for years and were hugging. Volume wise, anyways. "Isn't that the point? That you're unwanted because you're being ignored."
I heard him pout and lift his arms to cross them, but I didn't look. "Okay, so we've established that you're smarter than I am. Let's move onto the subject of why you're so afraid of going on."
"Did Daryn put you up to this?"
"Who's Daryn?"
I turned to face him and said simply and nonchalantly, "My boyfriend."
His face fell ever so slightly and I realized he'd never met Daryn and this was his sad attempt at flirting. Well, at least I didn't have to endure anymore of it.
"Well, you look so scared."
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious and making me feel worse."
"If it's that bad, I can take your place if you want."
"Seriously?"
"If you're really as worried as you seem, it might not be safe. The audience will get guts all over them when you explode. Besides, I don't mind making a fool of myself. It's basically what I do for a living."
I turned my body slightly to the left and hugged him and soon felt all my tensions float away. "Thank you," I whispered lightly in his ear. With all the noise surrounding us, I didn't know if he heard me, so I just moved back to my side of the wall and leaned back, as relaxed as can be.
Before I knew it, someone was calling my over to tell me I was almost on. Before I could freak out, I explained that, "This guy is going to take my place." He shrugged and pulled the guy next to me away and asked him all sorts of questions I couldn't hear.
Less than two minutes later, he showed up on stage and appeared in front of the microphone to introduce the guy going on. "Ladies and gents, put your hands together for our surprise guest... Jimmy Franks."
Upon hearing his name from his spot beside me, he leaned in and kissed my cheek and ran for the stage. I reached up and when my finger touched the part he kissed, I felt a tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach.
"You're not causing laughs." Daryn was standing next to me with a reassuring look on his face.
"I freaked and convinced some guy to take my place. Do you hate me?"
"Hating coming from me and anything to do with you will never be in the same sentence. If you don't want to do something, don't let me convince you otherwise. I just thought you'd have fun."
I leaned in and kissed his cheek lightly before turning my attention back to the stage. The guy, my savior, turned out the be a pretty funny guy and the audience definitely enjoyed his set more then they would have mine.
At around 10:30, I was walking hand in hand with Daryn a few blocks away from the club. We had left not too long after the headliner started. Too political for my tastes.
The cold winter air was biting at my skin, so I reached into my over-sized messenger bag and pulled out a black and grey striped scarf.
"Cold?"
"Duh. Aren't you?"
I gazed at him and he seemed like he was made of stone. He hand wasn't warm, but it wasn't cold either. All he did was shrug in response.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple of guys leaning against the outside of a building. I didn't pay too much mind to it until I realized that the building was the comedy club and that one of the guys was Jimmy. I felt my cheeks flush was embarrassment when he smiled and waved.
Should I wave back? Would Daryn get weird about it? Did I even want to?
Without allowing another thought, I waved back at him and turned back to Daryn. His head was down so he hadn't even noticed, but my adrenaline was pumping as if I had just committed a crime with a cop walking around.
I looked back at Jimmy and winked as if to say, 'We got away with it.' I heard him say something to his friends and they laughed so I turned back to face forward. I figured he was making fun of me and I didn't watch them as they pointed and laughed. Next thing I know, he's running after us.
"Need something, buddy?" Daryn put his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. It was kind of uncomfortable, so I pulled away a little.
"Oh, no. I just wanted to give this to your girlfriend, but I didn't see her after the show. So here." He handed me a neatly folded napkin, so I put it in my pocket. I smiled and he ran back to his friends.
"So high school," I said out loud, not thinking.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing. Just being weird."
After a moment of walking in silence, Daryn asked, "Aren't you going to read it?"
"Right now?" He nodded. "Why? Do you want to read it?"
"Do you not want me to read it?"
"And then you ask me why I say the situation is so high school. Fine, let's read it." I pulled it back out of my pocket and as I unfolded it, I walked towards the nearest street lamp to see better. Daryn caught up and I read. "Dear mystery funny-lady, too bad you got scared. I'm sure you would've been hilarious. Maybe next time. If you get scared again, I hang out here most Thursdays. Nice to meet you and good-luck being funny, Jimmy."
"That's it?"
I nodded as I read the last part to myself, "Ps. Too bad about the boyfriend." I looked up and shrugged. "I guess he was just trying to make me feel better about my epic failure."
"You didn't fail!"
"But I didn't even try. Isn't that worse? Maybe I'll come back next week. Worst comes to worst, I'll take him up on his offer to swoop in and save me again."
"You know, I can save you, too." I saw my boyfriend's eyes fall to the ground. I slipped the napkin back in my pocket and hugged him.
"Let's get out of here." With that, we walked around to the back of the club and got into his car.
_{picture + last paragraph.}

When we made it back to my apartment, I invited him up.
I went to bed right away and lay down until he joined me.
But even then I hadn't stopped thinking about the last line written on the napkin.
Or the way I felt when Jimmy's lips touched my cheek.