I wrote 7.3K words yesterday for Nano *cheers loudly* -- hopefully updates every second day from now on :)
Chapter Twelve
I feel the warm embrace of Alex's arms before I notice the heavy metal tune disturbing my morning sleep in. I reluctantly unwrap myself from the tentacle of arms holding me against his warm bare chest. I lean across and grab his cell phone off the side table.
His co managers name flashes across the screen before fading to the missed call screen, ops. The screen then fades to a picture of us smiling happily on the beach from our trip to Australia back in the summer. I'm surprised he'd use this photo since I look half mad, but considering it's his favourite place, I can see why too.
"Alex, you've got a call."
"Let it go to voice mail." He groans as he tackles me back to the bed. With his warm body pressed up against mine, it's hard to push him away and deny the urge to cuddle him and fall back asleep – but being the responsible adult, I feel like I have this unspoken duty to wake him up.
"It's Steve-o," I say. "He's called you like, three times."
"Hmm," he mumbles something incoherent before soft snores can be heard filtering out of his mouth. I don't usually like it when people snore, but Alex has a soft cute one that somehow melted my heart instead.
Seconds later, his phone starts buzzing and playing the same screechy tune. Instead of calling his name, I poke abdominal muscles with his phone until he's irritated enough to take the deceive from my hand and answer it.
"Hello?" his sleep voice rings through the air.
I hear another voice shouting down the line which makes me wince and move back slightly. Whatever Alex has done, I certainly don't want to be in his shoes this morning. I tried to drag him to bed early, but we got caught up on watching a horror movie which played into the early morning. I knew this would happen, even though he promised it would be okay.
"You said departure would be at eleven," he grumbles with annoyance. "It's very early in the morning, stop nagging me about where I need to be so I can sleep for five minutes." He runs his fingers through his mop of black hair, which makes it stick up in different directions.
"Alex." I poke, "It's ten thirty."
"Shit," he grouches. "That late?"
No other words are spoken to Steve-o, instead he taps on the red circle which ends the call between them. Bed sheets and pillows go flying into the air as Alex scrambles out and starts scrounging for his clothing. He throws my discarded clothing up in the air before finding his black Fall Out Boy t-shirt and ribbed skinny legs tossed over a chair near by.
"Do you want a clean shirt?" I ask.
"I took all my spare shirts, remember?" Alex used to keep a spare set of clothing here in case he'd spontaneously stay at my apartment, which would be frequent when he was in town recording music but one night he threw up all over his spare clothing and never brought a set back here because he was leaving for tour.
"I have a spare pink band t-shirt," I tease, remembering our phone call from early onwards.
"That'll do." He casually nods his head.
"Really?" I ask with surprise.
"Only if you sign it with a cute message."
"You're so on!" While Alex packs up the remainder of his gear, I grab the pink t-shirt with my masked face from the bottom draw from my side table. There's already a black marker resting on the floor from where I discarded my notebook last night.
"What should I say?" I call out.
"Anything you want," he swiftly yells back.
"Don't tempt me like that, Ally!" I tease.
I scribble a few different messages in my notebook before I actually attempt to write something on the shirt. Instead of marking the image on the front, I turn to the back and start copying out my little message once all the words have come to mind.
'Dear Alex,' I start, 'Nights are short, roads are long, and time is always against us. But with you by my side, I feel half invincible and half unworthy of your grace. But when you whisper those words like, I love you. I remember that in our own little bubble, you love me for more than what reaches the skin, but flourishes my beating heart. I love you, Sienna xo.'
After such a thoughtful message, it saddens me to write Sienna as the sign off name. But I push that sadness away and focus on spending those last few seconds with Alex before he runs out of my life once more to be on tour. Moments with Alex are slim, yet so precious at the same time.
"Done with the shirt." I rush into the kitchen to see him shirtless and standing in the kitchen with an apple in his mouth.
He takes a bite and chews before asking, "Can I read the message?"
I blush up at the thought of it. "Read it on the plane, you'll appreciate it more."
"Only because you've asked." Alex places the apple on the table and then slips the shirt over his head. Despite the bright pink colour being and odd sight on him – any colour would be strange considering his all black themed wardrobe. But he looks good, well, he'd look good in anything.
"See you soon," I say.
"You certainly will. I'm looking forwards to seeing your beautiful self at the award show." He smiles eagerly.
"Ugh, that's if you get your outfit organised first," I remind him once again.
"Already wrote a reminder." He holds up his muscly arm to show the squiggles of black marker.
"Good, because I want us to look great on the night."
"You will."
"And so will you!"
Alex swings his bag over his shoulder, and takes the apple back off the counter. He gives me a long, yet quick kiss before swirling out the front door. I poke my head outside just to be sure nobody else has seen him leaving my apartment. The great thing about this place is that people were either out early or in late – no in-between. Everyone kept to themselves and I respected that greatly.
I close the door and return to my quiet apartment. With sleep clearly riddled from my body, there's no chance I'll be able to get back to sleep now. I search out my laptop for something to do on there. With social media, there's always something to do.
I open my Twitter and Skype account. I find my sister's bubble is online, so I call her while flick over to Twitter to find someone to direct message. Someone posts on my wall and I decide to message them based off their cute kitten icon.
Hannah quickly accepts the call, so I set my computer up on the couch with my blanket in tow. Whilst being curled up, I flick on the television for some background noise so the apartment doesn't come across as too quiet.
"Hey." I wave.
"Hey yourself, you look like shit." She giggles and points to the messy flop of tangled blond hair around my face.
"You don't look to crash hot yourself," I tease back.
Hannah's hair is just as messy, but in a slightly more wild motion because of the extremely messy bone sitting on the top of her head. I can only see the top part of her body, but from the lilac shirt with small white paw prints, I know she's still wearing her pyjamas despite being propped up in the lounge room.
"It's too early to care about your hair," she insists. "What's up? You never call this early." The reason I never call this early is because she's never really online at this time – usually off with her friends or at school, so I would always have to call later into the night when everyone is home in the house.
"Alex just left and I can't get back to sleep, that's all."
"Oh, Alex hey?" She winks.
"It's too early to figure out what you're trying to imply," I dismiss.
"Feed my curiosity, what awesome events are you attending? Have you decided on a dress for the music awards? Last time I asked Lucy she showed me a pretty fishtail design, but she's been M.I.A since and rather moody when I ask," explains Hannah.
"I have a small party tonight with people." I shrug, "I got an invite from one of the host's friends because they were too scared I'd say no. I might give it a pass though, don't feel like partying." With Alex gone and the stirring feelings of Nathan, partying seems like the last thing I want to do. And to add, I don't want to go by myself.
Hannah shuffles on her spot so that she's sitting up instead of laying down. "Can we just swap bodies so that I can do all the fun cool stuff you don't want to?" She begs.
"One day, if you're lucky and play your cards right, I might hire you as my shoe cleaning." I poke my tongue out.
"Maybe I'll upload a YouTube song and see if I can get famous as well."
"Pesh, of course when I like it and share it to the world," I encourage.
"Too bad I can't sing like you!" She huffs with annoyance.
"Maybe you could follow Lucy's footsteps with fashion?" I offer, "That's something you have an eye for."
"Mom wants me to attend school close to home, but I want to be in a cool city like you," she explains, "If I get stuck in this town, I'll be upset."
"Just focus on your exams and applying to college and worry about everything else later. If you decide to move away, Mom and Dad aren't going to be mad, just a little upset but that happened when I flew the coop."
"Mom just." She shakes her head, "Has a way to make you feel indefinably guilty."
"She totally does." I nod my head.
"Just do the world a favour and go to the party, even if it's just for me and then let me know how amazing it was!" She continues to beg with hand actions.
"For you, I will."
"Clothing advice?" I ask.
"Something sleek and sexy, like that new black dress you showed me the other week."
"I have way too many black articles of clothing." I point out.
"So?" She disregards, "It's all about those cute little black dresses, red lipstick and the accessories you pair with it. Everyone's going to be looking at your mask instead of your outfit."
"You're right." I nod my head.
"Take me to your wardrobe!" She demands.
"Is this to help me or so you can fulfil your wet dreams?" I chuckle.
"Eh, both." I throw the blanket away from my body and walk into the bedroom with my laptop. I place it on my bed and fix the screen so that she can see my room properly. I start pulling out different dresses to which she easily dismisses until one catches her eyes and she screams with excitement.
"That's the one!"
Seconds later, Mom comes rushing into the room with a panicked expression on her face.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
"Just chatting to Riley about clothing, she's going to a social party tonight," she quickly fills Mom in.
"Aw, that sounds really exciting, Hun."
"I haven't really decided if I want to go. I mean, I don't want to show up by myself and Alex is away on a plane by now," I say.
"You don't need a man to walk into a party," she pulls on her toughest, strongest voice.
"No, but I need a friend so I'm not that loser standing in the corner by themselves," I point out, "I don't want to be there without someone to talk to." I've been through plenty of high school parties where it was just me, myself and I – that's not how I imagine spending the next couple of years.
"Parties are all about making friends through."
"What century are you leaving in? People in Sienna's field throw parties to maintain their social standing while flashing off their riches and one of a kinds. Those are the kinds of parties you make enemies at," Hannah says.
"Thanks for the help, that certainly makes me want to go even more now." I frown at the two of them.
So far I've managed to avoid making anyone hate me, just because I keep low enough not to make friends, but active enough I'm there for my fans and any other kind of social appearance that needs to be made. Making friends with a false identity is way too much lying for me to handle. For a while it's been myself and Alex's friends.
"Can you ask someone?" Mom suggest.
"I don't-" and then his name came to mind. I don't know how I would go convincing Nathan to come to a social party with me, but it seems like it's worth a shot. If I've learnt anything, it's that I need to start branching out and making my own friends in this environment. Sure, Alex, Nathan and Lucy will always be my dearest friends, but when they are off busy with life, I need someone else I can reach out for.
Perhaps it's time to get myself gussied up for a good first impression on new friends. I'm sure I can start a conversation and talk about fashion – that's what most people want to talk about, right? Worst case, there's always shoes.