Hello Little Girl

Chapter 7

Wendy had no way of knowing that John’s thoughts had been following along those same lines. It had been a couple days since their midnight chat and Goddamit; he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Band practices were getting shittier-which was saying something-as the gig loomed closer, and it wasn’t out of nerves about the performance as it was fear of John making a fool of him self in front of a bunch of birds. Namely Wendy. 

Shit.

He took a drag off another cigarette, even though he knew Mimi hated him smoking inside. His fingers strummed mindlessly on the neck of his guitar. He’d been a little more experimental with playing lately. He found it was more fun to make up words to songs instead of going along with the original lyrics. 

John’s knowledge of chords was limited, but he worked with what he knew, and practiced a lot.

He strummed lazily, not really playing anything. It was so easy these days to drift off without realizing what he was doing. Anything from the smell of cigarettes or a black cup of coffee reminded him of Wendy. It was the color of her hair, the scent of her breath. He was getting all dreamy.

John shook his head. Wasn’t that something birds did?

He set down his guitar and left the back room. Mimi wasn’t home, so he puffed smoke from his mouth eagerly as he wondered into the kitchen. She probably would have shouted at him for that. 

He rummaged around lazily, searching for a box of biscuits or something to snack on; anything to distract him from thinking all these soft thoughts.

And where were his glasses?

John paused, trying to recall where he put them. Probably upstairs somewhere. Humming and inhaling more smoke he shuffled out of the kitchen and up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

His room wasn’t messy in the least, but it still took him five minutes to find the thick frames under his bed. The world became a little sharper when he jammed them on his face. Retched things.

He didn’t wear his glasses as often as he knew he should, like Mimi wanted him to. They looked absolutely ridiculous, and besides, birds didn’t like them.

John made his way back down stairs humming lightly and was about to continue his search for food in the kitchen when there was a knock at the door. He paused with one foot in the kitchen.

It would be easy to pretend no one was home and ignore them, but then again, Mimi might have forgotten her keys. Any second now she might start shouting.

Grumbling, John made his way to the door. Part of him was hoping it was Mimi and not one of the band, but another part had been enjoying the loose rules of the house when his Aunt was absent. Bracing himself, John quickly swung the door open.

Both he and Wendy were surprised by what they saw. Not only was John not expecting her in the least, but she looked much more…girlish than usual. He was very conflicted.

She smiled weakly at him in greeting, but couldn’t tear her gaze away from his face.

“Hi” John finally said, sounding surprised and therefore wildly out of character. He took a quick second to compose him self. “What are you doing here?”

That was more like it.

Wendy almost panicked when she realized what she looked like and how he might think she had done it for his benefit, but tried not to let it show. She raised an eyebrow. “Just thought I’d pop in and say hello to your lovely Aunt.”

John laughed and leaned against the door frame. “Well I’m sorry to say she isn’t home.”

“It’s a shame to hear that.” Wendy replied, with more than enough snobbishness to match her attire.