metulji - jan peteh

Meeting the band

11:48

        just found this, what the hell?

Not too sure, i'll check it out

do you not think it's a bit strange?

A bit, but not really to be honest

what??

Will explain later

??

He left me on read after the last message. What the fuck? He was acting like this was a totally normal daily occurence. Something wasn't right, and even though I couldn't put my finger on it, I knew I would find out soon enough.

I did, however, save the photo from the post while I was there, putting it into my favourites in my camera roll.

~0~

The berating I received off my dad was pretty much exactly the same as the one I'd had when I woke up, only far more dragged out and with too much repetition. I didn't take much notice; I'd heard it all before. I was sick of this situation being turned onto me. Ocean hadn't even messaged back after I told her that I was home safe; Sanjay had told me that he was fine and that she'd severely overreacted. Of course, I didn't exactly take his word as fact - this wouldn't be the first time he'd ended up practically passed out on the floor, high as anything. Yet I knew that Sanjay would've pushed for her to come and get me, and only given in when she'd shove him into the car once it arrived.

Once he'd finally finished his drawn-out speech, I headed back to my room and broke down. Again. I was an emotional wreck today, nothing seemed to be going my way. I opened up my phone and viewed the picture in my gallery, reminiscing in how we'd completely let go, how he'd made me forget anything else even existed. It sounded stupid, that Jan made me feel that way after only one night, but I was developing serious feelings fast.

Speak of the devil; a missed call notification lit up my screen. Jan. I didn't even notice that my phone had turned itself off - I was too caught up in my memories. Noticing I'd stopped crying, I returned Jan's call, holding it to my ear and waiting to hear his voice. He picked up almost instantaneously.

'Lilia?' he said slowly.

'Lilia.' I replied.

'I'm sorry about the picture, I didn't know that they'd find-'

'Who's they?' I asked. I didn't mean to butt in, but the question had escaped my lips before I had a chance to silence it.

I heard someone sigh in the background, and a quick shush from someone else. Who was he with?

'Jan, what is this? What's going on?'

The other end of the line was deafening with dead silence for a few seconds.

'I didn't want to have to tell you this early, but here goes.'

It wasn't the first time I'd heard that kind of sentence - I practically recoiled at the thought of what could come next.

'I'm, well, in a band.'

What the fuck? All of this was about him being in a band?

'That's it?' I asked, relief washing over me like a cooling rainshower.

'That's it.' he confirmed.

'WHEYYY!' shouted the voices from the back again. High fives and laughs filled the call, and I couldn't help but smile lightly.

Suddenly, the sound muffled, and a notification flashed up onto my screen:

Jan requested to switch to FaceTime.

Shit, I looked awful. Still, I didn't want to hurt his feelings, and ruin my chances, so I took a deep, nervous breath and accepted. My face appeared on the picture, along with somebody else's.

That wasn't Jan.

A different guy covered my phone; his shaggy, chestnut hair bouncing as he ran. His lighthearted smile suggested that this was supposed to be banter between him, Jan, and whoever else was in the room with them.

'My God, Jan, how did you pull her? She's hot.' he joked. A hand repeatedly came into my view, probably in an attempt to grab the phone from the guy, but he kept moving it away, cracking up each time.

'Are you Jan's girl? ARE YOU??' he screamed down the phone. I assumed it was an inside joke, but I smiled anyway, my cheeks flushing bright red.

'If he'll take me.' I giggled, shortly before hearing an uprise of shrieks from everyone else in the room. The camera quaked as whoever was holding it thrusted it into the air and shook it around.

'Jure!' the guy shouted, throwing the phone to someone else. Two more people hit my screen, a happy-looking blonde and a brunette with long, curtained hair.

'So you did score!' the blonde, who I assumed was Jure, cackled, presumably at Jan, and then received a slap in the face from the brunette. Jure picked up a cushion and smacked it, hard, directly over the other's head. After giving the blonde a midly irritated look, the other person took the phone in his hands and stared hard into my eyes. It was almost like he was sizing me up.

'Hey guys, at least let me see.' exclaimed someone else from above where they were sat. The camera was tilted up and I met eyes with a guy with deep, brown hair and thick stubble. He smiled and waved at the camera. 'Hello!' he laughed, his kind features glowing among the jokey attitudes of the rest of Jan's friends.

Putting an end to the chaos, Jan finally came into view. He'd finally retrieved his phone from the others and I watched the corners of his mouth rise as he looked at me.

'AWWW!' everyone shouted.

'So, yeah, that's the band.' he concluded. A slight whisper tainted the silence, so quiet that I couldn't make out the words. 'Shut the fuck up, Bojan.' he added, giving a sarcastic look to someone out of the frame. But when he turned back to me? There was no hint of anything crude, nothing except pure joy on his face. Looking into his face forever would've been the perfect fate.

I would find it very hard to cry again after that.