Simple As This - A Jake Bugg Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Seven - A New Beginning

Everything hurts - from the steady pounding in my head right down to the aching in my feet. The sudden pain wakes me up, and I reluctantly awake, opening my eyes to find the mess that is -or, was- out hotel room. What happened?

"Jake." I whisper, shaking his shoulder a little bit. "Jake, wake up."

A cold wind bites through the room, making me shiver. I pull the covers up to my chest, feeling the warm sheets against my bare skin. Where are my clothes, and how did they get off?

"Jake." I shake him again, to which he stirs.

"Hm?" He mumbles, his eyes still shut.

"What on earth happened last night?"

Now dressed, I rub my eyes as I look at the clock above me.

"Jake, get up. We've got fifteen minutes." I mumble.

"Do we have to go?" He whines, rolling to the other side of the bed.

"It's your album signing, so yes. Yes we do." I laugh, picking up discarded clothes and other unrecognisable items from the floor as I pace the room. I'm wearing my pastel pink jumper, denim skinny jeans and vans, and my hair is up, unfortunately bringing more attention to my face, which bears no makeup.

"Come on, we have to go!" I stand by the ajar door as Jake hops round the room trying to get his trousers on quickly, which makes me laugh.

"Okay, coming now!" He rushes, grabbing his phone off the table at the last minute. We practically run into the taxi, Jake fumbling to get ready whilst answering phone calls. We're already ten minutes late.

"My head is killing me." I lean on the window, the speed bumps on the road not really helping with my headache.

"You should've told me. You could have stayed at the hotel." Jake smiles a little after he looks up from texting an angry publicity team.

"Meh," I shrug. "I'm good as long as you're here."

Jake smiles. "Katie, look." He points to something in front of us.

"What?" I straighten my neck to look out of the windscreen of the car, and gasp at the sight in front of me. It looks as though at least 1000 people are here to see Jake. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting that many. Maybe a hundred, but never this many.

"Jake, you never told me you had this many fans." I breathe.

"I honestly didn't expect this many people to come." He breathes back, obviously excited.

An echo of screams from teenage girls rings through the taxi as we speed through the barriers and into the shopping centre, Jake holding my hand the whole time.

"God, I look terrible." I laugh at my bare face in the reflection of the rear-view mirror.

"You look fine." Jake reassures me, squeezing my hand as he plants a kiss on my cheek. "You ready to go?"

I grab my bag from the middle seat. "Ready as I'll ever be." A sudden adrenaline rush comes over me as hundreds of screams and cheers fill my ears once me and Jake are out of the car. Jake waves, and the crowd (the majority of them girls) just about goes crazy. He leads me into the back entrance, and we both take a minute to get our breaths back.

"Jake, this is so crazy." I smile.

"I know." He smiles back, leaning his back on the wall as he lights a cigarette.

After Jake's little cigarette break, we make our way inside. Inside the small HMV store is racks full of Jake's album, posters, and all the merchandise a fangirl could ever imagine.

"How's everyone gonna get in here?" I look around the pokey store, there's probably only room for 100 people at a time.

"We'll have to let them in a few at a time, I guess." Jake shrugs. How is he so laid-back about this? I'm stressing out, and it's nothing to do with me.

"Ready?" Someone who I assume is part of Jake's management team walks over to us.

"Yep." Jake smiles a little as the person walks into the room where the rest of the team are.

"Jake, do you want me to go?" I ask, gesturing towards the door.

"Why would I?" He smiles,pulling up a chair next to him and tapping it.

"If you say so," I smile and lean my head on his shoulder as we await the first crowd of fans.

-- Later --

"Pizza?" Jake asks, his phone in his left hand whilst his right is in mine.

"Sure." I smile as he starts to dial the number for the room service downstairs. As we enter the hotel room for the second time, the look of amazement on both our faces is enough to make us exchange looks, then laugh. The room has been cleaned. Everything is tidy. Everything is neat. It's nothing like it was this morning.

"Wow, Jake. Look at this." I run over to the bed, picking up a small parcel from the pillow. "They left mints!" I cheer. Jake chuckles.

"New sheets." Jake smirks. "You know what that means." He winks, embracing me.

"Room service!" The maid calls once again, knocking on the door for the fifth time. Her voice growing more agitated is enough to make me laugh, and Jake's hand over my mouth is the only thing stopping me from breaking out into laughter.

"It's outside." She sighs a few moments later, and Jake's hand moves as soon as we hear her footsteps fading down the corridor. As soon as it does, I have an outburst of loud laughter, which makes Jake smile.

"You look cute when you smile." He takes both my hands in his. "You always look cute."

"Jake." I blush, pecking his lips once. "You know there's better looking girls than me."

"No." He squeezes my hands. "No. I don't know. Or, I don't know them anyway. Because they probably don't exist. I love your eyes, and the shape of your lips, and the way you dance, and your music taste, and the way you dress, and I love you."

"I love you too, Jake." I lay down again, so that I look up at Jake as my head rests in his lap.

His hands fake through my hair, massaging me. It feels great.

"Move in with me. We could get a place wherever. I'm bored of Nottingham." He shrugs.

"But..Jake." I tear my eyes away from his. "It's your hometown."

"Don't get me wrong, I love it. But I want every day to be like today. We can get a flat, or a house. Our little place."

"Really?" I smile, pushing myself back into a sitting position.

"Yeah. Somewhere close, so you won't be too far from your parents.." He smiles again. "It can be ours."

"Are you sure? I don't want you to change because of me." I look down, still unsure.

"As long as you're happy, I'm happy."

"Well, I'd be happy to move in with you, then." I can't help but smile as he embraces me once again. We're getting our own place. And I can wake up to him every morning. And I can hear him sing every day. And I could lie in his arms forever.