Afire Love// ed sheeran

Story of Us

Dedicated to Hams again. You may have beat my challenge on trivia crack but you are still the best match maker in our school xD

-Alyssa

How things change in two months. It may seem like such a small amount of time but in reality, your whole life could be completely different in those two short months, 60 days. 

My life was no different. In two months, my life had made a complete turn around. Somehow, I had been able to dig myself out of the deep dark abyss that I had fallen into. I began working at a small shop in lower Manhattan named Intrique. I was running on a daily basis, the feel of the cool breeze calmed any stress that lingered. I hadn't heard from Julliard but I knew the process would take a little while and I wasn't stressing too much about that. 

Another thing, I was talking with Zayn on basically a daily basis. We weren't dating or anything, just good friends. It felt like he understood me more than a lot of people did. He talked to me about music, was funny, and seemed to genuinely care about me. He didn't bring up any past pains, including Ed. 

Mentioning Ed, I hadn't seen him since that day when I bumped into him on the street. Taylor didn't bug me about him anymore, knowing full well that a simple discussion wouldn't change my outlook on that situation. I had heard a quick piece of an interview of Ed on Z100. He was discussing his music and how it helped him heal spirtually and how it described the last few years of his life. 

Lie, I thought to myself at that. He didn't even know what his life had been a few months earlier. The songs, they meant something to him of course. But he connected the meanings of the songs with different memories. Every song that he had written for me had been given to someone else, another memory of his past lovers intertwined in the lyrics. 

But other than that interview, my attention had slid from Ed and whatever was happening in his life. I didn't text him a congratulations when he was nominated for a grammy. I didn't text him at all; I had erased his phone number. To be honest, it didn't quite matter because I had his number memorized but I tried to fool myself into thinking I had forgotten him. 

My life revolved around work, my violin, and running. Nothing else mattered as much as those things. 

***

I looked up at the sign of Intrique, smiling. The shop was small and homey, a furniture store in the populated streets of lower Manhattan. It was not unpopular to watch Beyonce or CEOs of million dollar businesses roaming through the store, pointing at everything they were going to buy. I pushed my phone into my purse as I walked in and waved to one of my co-workers, Elena. She had long flowing brown hair and a set of brown eyes to match. She was wearing a white dress that complemented her tan skin. 

"Hey!" she said, waving back at me. I went into the back room, put my purse in my locker, put my name plate on and went back out into the show room. 

In the far corner, a pregnant woman that looked just about ready to pop was examining a brown leather sofa with her tall husband. She laughed as he kissed her cheek and they went back to looking at the sofas. 

"So, anything from Julliard yet?" she asked, looking at me with excitement etched into her eyes. She had been asking the same question for a straight month and a half, expecting each time to get a 'yes' but instead, getting the same glum 'no'. 

"Nope," I replied, standing behind the counter, leaning my arms on the smooth granite. I looked over at her with a sad smile playing on the edges of my lips. 

Elena was one of the first people I had met when I had first began working at Intrique and how glad I was to meet her. She was so sweet and helpful. She guided me through the first few days of the jobs and from there, a friendship had blossomed into a beautiful flower. She was always someone I could turn to for help or just some advice. She reminded me a lot of Taylor. Elena was one of my first friends in New York that I hadn't met through Ed and once I had become friends with her, a sort of giddiness started to sprout within me.