Davey was the last person in our group to turn 21 and we all went out to a club when that day finally came. There was a little secret about Davey that all of us knew. He wasn't quite Andy Stitzer from the 40 year old virgin, but he was a 21 year old virgin. Being the good friend that Kevin was, he was determined to not let that be the case any longer.

"Davey, I want you to know that I only have one job for tonight" Kevin said, "I'm going to make sure that you get laid if it's the last thing I do"

Davey wasn't initially too comfortable with the idea, but Kevin was persistent and eventually, it wasn't too difficult to convince Davey that he should have sex on his 21st birthday.

Davey, Kevin, Riley and I were sitting at a table on the balcony. Kevin was clearly unhappy with the conversation that Davey and I were having.

"If you're thinking about her this much, you should call her or at least send her a message on Facebook" Davey said

"I don't know" I responded "I don't feel like there's much of a point. She's in Miami now, there are boys in Miami that she's probably hanging out with right now. There's no point in me putting myself out there for her when there's a certainty that she's going to shut me down"

"What the fuck are you doing?" Kevin asked me

"What's wrong?" I asked

"It's Davey's birthday, why are you talking about depressing shit?"

Kevin then directed his attention towards Davey.

"Davey, do you see those two girls over there?" Kevin asked. There were two beautiful girls in tight black dresses, one with blonde, curly hair and one with long straight dark hair. "Which one do you want?" Kevin asked, "The blonde one or the brunette?"

"What's the plan here, Kevin" Davey asked

"The plan? Michael is out of town, so you and I go talk to them, we'll buy them a couple drinks, dance for a few songs, take them back to my place and then a few hours later, we'll make them breakfast" Kevin responded matter of factually.

"Shut the fuck up" Davey responded laughing.

"I'm serious" Kevin said, "Let's just go over there, talk to them and see what happens"

"That's not fair to Riley and Torrey. They came to hang out with me on my birthday, It's not right to ditch them" Davey desperately argued

"Don't worry about me" Riley said, "I am 100% on board with you getting laid tonight"

I could notice that Davey felt a little uneasy. He definitely liked the idea of talking to those girls but he was nervous at the same time.

"Davey, just remember you don't have to feel forced to do something you don't want to do" I reassured him.

"This is my birthday present to you Davey, don't let Torrey get in the way of my birthday present to you" Kevin said. A part of me was really furious with the way that Kevin spoke about these girls like they were gifts or objects, but there was no getting in the way of Kevin tonight

"You can use Michael's bed" he said to Davey, "You're not going to regret doing this"

"Alright let's go" Davey finally said to him.

Kevin and Davey walked over to the two girls and there was definitely a difference in the way that Kevin and Davey approached them. Kevin was confident and Davey was careful with his words. The truth is that Kevin can afford to be confident and Davey had to be careful. The two of them could talk to a girl in the exact same way, and since Kevin is a more attractive man, it could be seen as being confident and brave and bold. Davey is a handsome man but does not look like Kevin, so if the girl he's talking to doesn't have any interest in his advances, it would be seen as repulsive and creepy.

For his part, Kevin was the perfect wing man and he had best intentions for Davey. Everything was going according to Kevin's plan. They started talking, Kevin made sure they knew that it was Davey's birthday as he felt it would increase the likelihood of his plan coming into fruition. Kevin and Davey both bought them drinks and they sat, chatted and flirted with each other for about an hour.

The girls excused themselves and went to the bathroom together like girls do when they're at places like this. Davey was happy with how things were going and was starting to feel a little hopeful. Kevin assured him that things were going well. Kevin had his eye on the blonde and Davey had his eye on the brunette.

"Alright friends, I'll be right back" said a drunk Davey as he excused himself to use the bathroom.

"We'll be waiting, buddy" Kevin responded.

A few seconds after Davey was gone, Kevin could feel the blonde girl's hand on his thigh.

"So Kevin" she said, "How do you feel about coming over to our place right now?"

"That sounds like exactly what I want to do" Kevin replied, "Do you guys want to get another drink first?"

"No we're good" she replied, "we don't need to spend anymore, we have drinks at home, we can drink there"

"That sounds awesome" Kevin said, "Let me go get Davey"

"Actually" said the brunette across from Kevin, "We were hoping it would just be you"

"What do you mean?" Kevin asked

"I think you know exactly what we mean" the blonde chimed in.

"I don't want to assume and be wrong about this" Kevin said

"I'll lay it out for you then" the brunette said, "we want you to come over to our apartment and have a threesome. You don't have to feel weird, we do this all the time"

This was very difficult for Kevin to turn down.

"What about Davey?" he asked "It's his birthday, I can't ditch him"

"Look, just make something up. We'll give you our address, tell him we had to go home for some reason, make something up, and then come over in about 30 minutes"

It didn't sound like a great idea to Kevin. He found himself thinking about how Davey would feel about that. He excused himself from the table and headed to the bathroom to meet Davey. Davey met him halfway.

"Kevin, where are you going?" Davey asked

"I came to talk to you" Kevin said

"Yeah? Alright what's up?"

"Look Davey" Kevin started, "They're not really interested in anything happening. They were just two friendly girls who wanted to talk but didn't really want to do anything else"

Davey was a little disappointed because he really thought that this was going to be the night.

"So" Davey started, "They weren't really into me?"

"They weren't into either of us" Kevin responded.

"That's not true Kevin" Davey said, "Both of them were into you, even the girl that I was talking to. I thought I was imagining it but they had to be into you"

"They weren't" Kevin said, "They were just not into doing anything tonight. They just wanted to hang out"

"Why did they talk to us for that long then?" Davey asked

"We were buying them drinks" Kevin responded.

"So where are they?" Davey asked

"They went home" Kevin said. "But look around, we're still hanging out, there are a lot of beautiful girls in here. I'm still your wing man, I'm still going to give you that birthday present I said I would"

"I appreciate that Kevin, but I think I'm just going to go home"

"Don't do that, Torrey and Riley are still here, it's still your birthday, let's do some shit" Kevin said

"I'm just not feeling it anymore Kevin" Davey said, "Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do, I really do, but it's just not working"

Riley and I were still hanging out on the balcony when Davey and Kevin walked back out to meet us.

"How'd it go?" I asked Davey, "I saw you talking to those two girls, what were their names?"

"It doesn't matter" Davey replied

"Doesn't matter?" I asked

"Their names don't matter because those girls don't matter" Davey responded, "I don't want to lose my virginity to a random girl who happens to be at the right place at the right time, okay?"

"That's fine" I responded, "Like I said, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do"

"They both wanted to fuck Kevin anyway" Davey said.

"Big fucking surprise" I responded. Kevin tried his best to hide it but Davey saw right through him. In case you were wondering, Kevin was so disappointed in the fact that Davey didn't have sex, that he went home by himself that night instead of the girl's place.

"I'm going home, Torrey" Davey said

"Alright, let's go" I replied, and we all went back to our homes.

It was unfortunate that Davey was so unhappy on his birthday. The two of us had a lot to drink and luckily for us, we lived walking distance from where we were. We got home, turned on the TV, and decided to watch a movie before we called it a night.

"I don't live in the same world as the rest of you" Davey said, seemingly out of nowhere.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him

"We live on the same planet, but we don't live in the same world"

"I'm way too tired and way too drunk to figure out what you mean. You're going to have to be a lot more specific than that" I said

"Life is different for me than it is for all you guys" Davey said

"That's a little dramatic" I responded, "Your night wasn't that bad Davey, you just hit on a girl and she didn't respond back"

"I'm not just talking about tonight, Torrey, I'm talking about my life" Davey started, "I've had a whole life of falling for girls, shooting my shot, and getting rejected. I don't live the same lives that you guys do"

"What makes you think my life is any better?" I asked, "I'm not Kevin, we live the same lives. I couldn't tell you how many times I wanted someone who didn't want me back. That's just life"

"But it's on different levels" Davey responded, "I mean, do you think Kevin and Riley realize how lucky they are? They live their whole lives with everyone being nice to them, wanting to have sex with them, or even just wanting to be seen with them and be their friend. It's so lonely being an ugly person"

"You're not an ugly person, Davey"

"But you can't blame me for believing that I am. After years of being a person who chases after people and have nothing to show for it, I just want to know what it feels like to be wanted" Davey said, "As more and more time passes me by, I'm beginning to believe that it would never happen for me"

Davey gets depressed and into moods like this from time to time. Like I said before, I truly believed that Davey was a good looking man, but sometimes how good you look depends on how confident you are. Davey was not a confident person. There's really nothing I can do or say to comfort him or make him feel better, all I can do is be around and let him know that I'm close if he needs me.

The thing about Davey is that he's too hard on himself and he cares too much about people think. He doesn't take many chances because, God forbid, someone found out he tried hard at something and didn't succeed. It's not easy to convince someone that they're better than what they think they are when they're constantly in a battle with themselves and have a faulty voice in their head that keeps telling them they're not good enough.

"The truth is, I don't really want to be like Kevin" Davey admitted, "Kevin may have sex with more different woman in a couple months than we would in a lifetime, but he never feels anything with any of them. Or even if he does, we never find out about it because nothing substantial happens. I want what you and Hailey had"

"Hailey and I didn't really have anything" I said, "We just had one moment"

"That's all I want" Davey replied, "One moment like that"

When Davey said that, I made a decision that if ever I saw a potential situation for Davey having a moment like that, I would make sure he got it. I just had no idea that his moment would be with the same person that I had my moment with.

* * * * *

Saturday, Sept 22, 2018 (7 Days before the arrest)

It was less than an hour after our show at the Ale Chambers, while Adam called me to talk about the incident with Javier, that Hailey walked up to Davey and struck up a conversation with him.

"Is this seat taken?" Hailey asked as she got closer to the young man sitting by himself at the bar.

"Nope" Davey replied, "Have a seat"

"Thanks a lot" Hailey responded as she sat down next to him. There were a couple moments of silence as Davey awkwardly stared at his phone, rummaging through his news feed on Facebook.

"My name is Hailey" Hailey said to him.

"Thanks, my name is Davey"

"Thanks?" Hailey asked

"I don't know why I said that"

Hailey wasn't aware of this but she was in a little bit of a disadvantage for this interaction. She had no idea who Davey was, but Davey was quite aware of Hailey.

"You guys were really great up there" Hailey said

"Thanks a lot" Davey responded, "and thanks for coming, we don't usually get to perform too many times so we're grateful to whoever shows up"

"Oh, I wanted to be here" she responded, "I work with Torrey's sister at a nursing home, so I've seen Torrey play. I thought it would be interesting to check him out in a setting where he isn't forced to sing old-timey songs"

"Yeah?" Davey replied, "How is he at the nursing home?"

"How is he?"

"How is his performance at the nursing home?"

"He's great" Hailey responded, "It's obviously not a very active audience, but the residents who are able to pay attention to him really love him"

"I know what you're saying, people naturally seem to be drawn to him" Davey said, "What do you think?"

"What do I think of what?" Hailey asked

"What do you think of Torrey?" Davey asked

"What do you mean? As a singer?"

"Sure, what do you think of him as a singer"

"I don't know" Hailey responded, "I'm not an expert, I think he's fine"

"I think he's a good singer" Davey responded

"Yeah, he's good" Hailey responded

"This is unrelated to what we're talking about but he's also a very good person" Davey said, out of nowhere.

"He seems like it" Hailey replied.

"He really is, we've been friends for a very long time, ever since we were children, he's been with me through thick and thin" Davey

"Okay" Hailey replied, "Yeah that's great, he seems like a great person and a really good friend"

The conversation temporarily came to an abrupt end as Hailey didn't really know what to do with the compliments that Davey started throwing towards me.

"Torrey is the best person that I know" Davey said one more time.

"Why are we talking about Torrey?" Hailey responded

"Would you like something to drink?" said the bartender, interrupting the flow of the conversation.

"Yeah, I'll take a Moscow Mule please" Hailey replied

"You can add that to my tab" Davey told the bartender

"Are you sure?" Hailey asked

"Yeah" Davey replied

The bartender walked away, leaving Davey and Hailey to get back to their conversation.

"I'm a little bit curious about you?" Hailey said

"What do you mean?" Davey asked

"I hope you don't think it's rude of me to ask, but you guys just played a great show and there are a lot of people who want to meet and talk to you guys, so why are you sitting at the bar by yourself?"

Davey looked around and saw Kevin and Michael being flocked by pretty girls who came to the show and Riley being sought after by boys, resulting in her not having to pay a dime for a drink.

"I don't know" Davey responded, "It's not rude to ask, I just guess that I'm not like the rest of them"

"What do you mean?" Hailey asked

"I don't know what I mean, I'm just not in the mood to be turned down by anyone right now"

"That's a pretty pessimistic view if you don't mind me saying that"

"That's a little rude" Davey responded

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Hailey asked

"No"

"Do you think I'm cute"

"Do I think you're cute?" Davey asked

"Yeah, do you think I'm cute?" Hailey asked again.

"Here's your Moscow Mule?" The bartender said as he handed Hailey her drink and interrupted the conversation again.

"Thank you" Hailey replied.

"I don't think you're cute" Davey replied

"Oh" Hailey responded, taken aback.

"Puppies and babies are cute" Davey said, "You are beautiful, you are enchanting, I am enchanted by you"

"Wow" Hailey responded, "That's a lot more than I thought you were going to say, that's very sweet"

"But there's nothing I can do about it" Davey replied.

"Why not?"

Davey took a long pause for dramatic effect.

"Hailey, I know who you are"

"You know who I am?" Hailey asked.

"Yeah, I've actually heard a lot about you and I heard you were coming to the show" Davey said, as he slowly began to realize how strange it must have felt for Hailey to hear those words

"Really?" Hailey asked, "How come?"

"Torrey's been talking about you, and he was really hoping that he would be sitting where I'm sitting right now and doing what I'm doing right now" Davey said.

"Torrey's been talking about me?" Hailey asked

"Yeah, he was saying there was a cute girl who worked with Laurie who was going to be at the show and he mentioned your name" Davey confessed.

"Well, I think you're cute and I think you're interesting" Hailey finally said.

"I really appreciate that and I get what you're saying" Davey replied, "and to be honest, I probably wouldn't have a chance with a girl like you again, but I can't do that to Torrey"

"Just because Torrey happens to think I'm cute?" Hailey asked.

"Torrey's not going to like me saying this, but do you remember that night that you and Torrey had before you moved to Miami?" Davey asked

"Wow, you really do know a lot about me" Hailey replied.

"I only know what I've been told" Davey said, "And from what I've been told, you and Torrey hung out at Kevin and Michael's housewarming party, and that night meant a lot to him"

"I was so drunk that night, I barely remember it. I mostly just remember being pissed off at my friend for ditching me" Hailey recalled.

"It meant a lot to Torrey" Davey said, "He fell in love with you that night, so much that he went home and wrote a song about it. Not many people know that the song is about a real person, but it's named after you and it's about you. We just didn't play it tonight because he felt weird about playing it when he knew that you were going to be here"

"He wrote a whole song about me?" Hailey asked

"Yeah"

"That's so weird" Hailey said, "I know he's your friend, but I'm sorry, that night didn't mean the same for me as it obviously did for him. I have no interest in him the way he does in me"

"Look" Davey said, "Torrey's right, I see what he sees in you and I also believe that you're probably the most beautiful girl I've seen in person, but there's nothing I can do about this"

"You need to love yourself a little bit more" Hailey said

"What do you mean?" Davey asked

"You're obviously a loyal and good friend, but sometime you're going to have to do what you want to do and do what's in your best interest"

"I don't know" Davey responded, "You might be right, but I don't know"

"I have no interest in Torrey. It's nothing personal, like you said, he's a great guy and I'm sure he's very kind, but I'm not attracted to him at all"

"Okay" Davey replied

"What I'm saying is that I'm interested in you and I'd like to talk to you more and get to know you better. If you're not interested in me, that's a little hurtful but that's fine, but I'm not going to be with Torrey anyway, so there's no way that you should feel like a bad friend or that you're getting in the way of Torrey and I, because you're not"

Davey thought about the words that Hailey said and after he initially put up a fight, it didn't take much to convince him that she was right. Davey had never had an opportunity to spend time with a girl like Hailey before, and he decided that he was not going to let it slip.

"Alright let's talk" Davey said.

They talked for about 20 more minutes and had a couple more drinks before Davey felt confident enough to ask Hailey a question.

"What would happen if I kissed you right now?" Davey asked

"I would kiss you right back?" Hailey replied.

Davey leaned in and kissed Hailey for a second before pulling back.

"We shouldn't do this here" Davey said, "Torrey's going to be so mad at me if he sees this"

"Then let's go" Hailey said. "Let's go to my place. Close out your tab, I've got drinks at my place and they're free"

Davey paused for a second, contemplating one more time if this was something that he should go through with.

"I can promise you that nothing is ever going to happen between Torrey and me" Hailey responded, "You're not being a bad friend to Torrey. If you want to hang out with me tonight and you're letting your thoughts of Torrey get in the way then you're just being a bad friend to yourself"

That was all the convincing that Davey needed. So while I was talking to Adam and getting ready to drive Javier home, Davey went home with Hailey. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that it didn't hurt when Davey later told me about the contents of their conversation, but Davey is my best friend. If being with Hailey makes him happier than not being with Hailey, there is no way I'm getting in the middle of that.

A Nuclear Family - We Can Still Be Friends