I woke up suddenly to the sound of a loud thumping on my door. I jumped out of bed and scrambled around trying to put my clothes on quickly. As I was pulling my shirt over my head the banging stopped and I heard Stoo and Justin talking on the other side of the door.
“Are you sure this is her room? Maybe we got the number wrong.” Stoo said. I pulled my jeans up and buttoned them, and then went to the door, tripping in my hurry.
I opened the door to see them just turning to walk back down the corridor.
“Told you this was the right room.” Justin said smugly to Stoo who simply scowled at him. “I’m guessing we woke you up!” he added, looking back at me. I felt myself blush as I realized I must look pretty shit right now, especially as I hadn’t bothered to take off any of my make up from last night, meaning I probably looked like a panda! “Tell you what. We’re heading down for breakfast before we head out. Finish getting ready and meet us in the dining room thing when you’re done.”
“Ok. I won’t be long.” I assured them.
They went off towards the stairs again, while I retreated back into my room. I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My previous assumption had been right, I looked like shit… and a panda. I got some toilet paper and wet it, and then tried to get rid of all the excess makeup around my eyes. Without proper remover stuff it was kind of difficult, and when I finally gave up I still looked like I hadn’t slept in weeks because my eyes were so dark, but it wasn’t quite so bad now. I found a pack of gum in my pocket and decided that would do for now, until I could brush my teeth properly when we got back.
Once I was sure I had all my stuff in my pockets, I left my room and got the elevator back down to the ground floor. I stepped out of the elevator and started walking towards the dining room, staring at the ground as I went, and walked straight into someone else. I felt coffee splash a little over me, but I knew the rest of it had gone over the person I had walked into.
“Oh my god. I’m so sorry! Jesus are you ok?” I stuttered finally paying attention. I saw Frank Iero in front of me and stopped dead. He was laughing slightly.
“It’s totally fine. It was a complete accident.” He told me, rubbing his coffee stained shirt. “Hey. You were the kid at the party last night, with those two guys.” I nodded, trying to brush a stray dreadlock back from my face. “Glad to see you got a room last night then.”
“Err yeah. We were pretty lucky.” I said quietly. I knew my face was bright red.
“Your face still looks so familiar. God, I have no idea why!” He laughed slightly. “I guess-”
“Francesca Armstrong!” I heard Justin yell, interrupting whatever Frank was going to say. “You’ve been fucking ages! We want to started heading back at some point today!” he laughed at me. It was only then that he really noticed Frank still standing next to me. Frank was now looking at me oddly again. “Oh sorry. I didn’t realize…” Justin apologized to Frank, who seemed to snap out of a daze and look back at Justin.
“It’s cool. We just ran into each other… literally.” He gestured to the stains on his shirt and jacket. Justin laughed.
“Anyway. I’d better head up to my room and finish packing, it seems like you want to leave soon anyway.”
“Yeah. It was cool meeting all you guys.” Justin nodded to him, giving him a handshake.
“You too dude.” Frank replied. He turned back to me and put his hand out for me to shake. “And you Frankie… Armstrong.” He said my last name slightly quieter as if he was reminding himself of something. He let go of my hand and walked towards the elevator.
“What was that about?” Justin asked.
“What was what about?” I played dumb.
“You know… that!”
I just shrugged and walked towards the dining room, trying to ignore the way Frank had looked at me. Stoo was still eating… I say eating, it was more like stuffing his face with however much food he could fit into his mouth in one go.
“Nearly ready Stoo?” I asked, laughing slightly at his puffed out cheeks, he just nodded.
It was only five minutes later when Stoo had finished eating, and after the pair finally gave up trying to get me to eat, we could get back to the station and start heading home.
***
I couldn’t stop yawning for pretty much the whole train journey back. I didn’t get why I was so tired, despite not getting into bed until pretty late last night, I had actually had a pretty good sleep. We got back to the station where Stoo’s car was parked, and I then wondered how Lee had got back from here last night, seeing as we all came in the same car. I asked Justin and he told me that Lee would have probably called Ben to give him a ride back. I sat in the back of the car on the way back, my head resting on the cold window, just watching the cars opposite as they sped past.
I thanked Stoo as I climbed out of the car, he was taking Justin home, and then going to his own house, both of them planning to shower and get changed before maybe coming back to have band practice with Ben and Joe.
I unlocked the door and walked straight into the lounge. Ben was playing on the Xbox, while Lee was crashed out on the sofa watching Ben play.
“Hey guys.” I said, letting them know I was there.
“Oh hey! So, was the after party worth abandoning me?” Lee smiled.
“I’m sorry.” I apologized, sitting next to him, “I would have come back with you, but I got pushed back into the toilets and told we were staying there for an hour. I didn’t really have much of a choice.”
“It’s fine Frankie. Honestly. I just wish I hadn’t left so soon, I would have loved to go to that after party!” he told me, pulling me closer and planting a kiss on my cheek. “So who’d you get to meet?”
I tried to think back, remembering everyone as I started giving him a list of them all.
“Don’t worry though. Stoo got pretty much all of it on camera. You’ll get to see it all soon.” I added with a smile.
“Oh I’m so glad to hear that I’ll be able to watch my friends be the luckiest people at that We Are The Ocean gig!” he chuckled.
“Where’s Hannah?” I asked Ben, surprised to see she wasn’t here already, what with her usually being attached to Ben when he’s not at work.
“She’s at her mum’s helping her get dinner ready.” He replied, pausing the game so he could turn to me. Oh god! I completely forgot I was meant to be going to dinner at Hannah’s mom’s house. “I’ve been told to get you there between around 3:30 and 4.” He added. I nodded, relieved that I hadn’t missed it or anything. “Want a go?” he asked holding the Xbox controller up to me.
“Err. What’re you playing?”
“Need for Speed, Carbon.”
“What?” I do sometimes feel really stupid when I’m completely oblivious to things that other people know about as if they were an everyday thing.
“It’s a racing game. Car races and whatnot.” He explained.
“I’ll give it a try.” I said, taking the controller off him. “Although this could go worse than Guitar Hero…”
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Ok, so its not been as long as it was for the last update, but it's still longer than it should have been, so I'll try and upload another one tomorrow to make up for it a little.
But yea, sorry yet again. I'm trying desperately to get back into the swing of things.
So, I hope this chapter is ok.....
