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Post by the_admin on Jun 18, 2004 8:00:58 GMT -5
I’ve never really been the typical Dutch girl. Obsessed with the English language, trying to learn new words every day and figuring out the meaning of certain proverbs. I even took notes in English, my coursework would be written down in my school diary in English, and I’d sometimes add English words to Dutch sentences, making my parents look at me like I was some kind of freak. A second was the fact that I’d never been accepted in my family; I was different, had my own ideas and opinions and looked differently. I didn’t get half of the attention my other siblings got. I had to do everything on my own. My sister had lived my life for me, her deeds had somewhat influenced my life. Everything she did was accepted by my parents, and all she did was great and brilliant. When I had an idea, however, I’d be classified as a loony. My ideas were impossible, weird and never achievable. How my sister got everything on a silver plate, I had to work my arse off to get what I wanted. To achieve something in life.
It was a huge relief when I graduated at age sixteen. I hated school with a passion; the rules you have to follow, the people who think that they know you through and through and think they know what’s best for you. I had enough of it. But sure enough, I had to go to school till the year I turned seventeen. With no idea what to do with my life, I ended up doing a four year-course in multimedia. For the first couple of months, it went just fine. I did as I was told, got projects to work on, on my own and had my freedom to do what I wanted. But as the months passed on, I figured that this wasn’t what I wanted to do. I had my whole life in front of me, and what was I doing? Wasting my time in school, doing something I didn’t like. I mean, I liked it, but it wasn’t my passion. If I finished this course, I’d end up doing something that I didn’t want to. I’d get miserable, stressed and probably kill myself. I had nightmares of myself working somewhere, under the supervision of a boss, following strict orders and practically being a slave to the rest of the world.
As I turned seventeen later that school year, I decided that I wanted to quit my course. With not a lot of support of my parents, I finished the first year, and got a couple of certificates that meant nothing to me. My mother persuaded me into getting a job. If I was going to be living at home and under her roof, it was either school or a job. School was out of the question, I’d seen too many school in my life so far. I’d been to three different primary school from the age of four up to twelve, moved three times between the age of ten and sixteen. I’d never stayed anywhere long enough to make lifelong friends. In fact, if I’d bump into anyone of my first primary school, I’d probably won’t even recognise them. This was one of the reasons why I had been clinging myself onto the internet. During my last year in high school and the first year in college, I’d been on the internet searching for friends who I could turn to anytime, anywhere. And I did. Funnily enough, my online friends were mostly spread around the United Kingdom, with the odd exception of Switzerland and Belgium.
In the day time, I’d work in the local lunchroom, serving food to business men and getting pinched in the arse every so often. And even though it was hard work, I loved it to bits; I had my freedom, I had the chance to plan in my own work days and my free days. But most of all, I earned quite a bit of money with this slavery. When finishing work, I’d have my dinner with the rest of the family, having the occasional chat with my dad about computers and with my sister about the weird clients she had that day in the hair salon which she owned. At night I’d tell my stories about the lunchroom to my friends online. They were the only people – to me – who’d actually listened to me and found my stories interesting. Over the next four or five months, I worked in the lunchroom, making as much hours as I could possibly physically and mentally cope with. Gradually, my body would ache everywhere as I got home. But I didn’t care. In those past five months, I’d been making plans for the rest of my gap-year.
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Post by the_admin on Jun 18, 2004 10:12:54 GMT -5
At the beginning of my job as a waitress in the lunchroom, one of my mates offered me to come over to hers, stay there at her place for a couple of days. The idea alone to leave my home and my family behind me for a couple of days made me smile. To get away from the daily grind. A short holiday, you might say. These ideas soared and ended with the spending the rest of my gap-year over there. These ideas got talked through for months, and we made the decision to let me come over, staying at hers for a minimum of two months and getting a job, which she was going to help me with.
The more the ‘day of judgement’ approached, the more I was dreading to go. What if something was going to go terribly wrong? What if I didn’t get a job over there, and I’d end up with no money? What if my friend changed her mind in the last minute? When my parents dropped me off at the airport, I chook all those thoughts out of my head and gave my mum a hug and my dad a kiss on his cheek. It was time for me to check in and board on the plane. As I stood in the queue for the passport checking, all my doubts came flooding back again and before I knew it, the man behind the desk asked me for my passport. I handed him my identity card, flashed him a smile and walked on, to the small conveyor belt on which I put my hand luggage and walked through the scanner. I picked up my baby blue hand bag and straightened my jacket, throwing back my shoulder length brown hair as I did so. I took a glance on the plane ticket; gate D16. I let out a sigh, looked around for the signs and paced on to the first electrical belt. It didn’t take me any shorter than fifteen minutes to arrive at gate D16. There were a few rows of black, plastic chairs, a few televisions with CNN on, and a hell of a lot of people. I took a seat on one of the hard plastic chair, right next to a smelly, fat man. It wasn’t like I had a choice; all seats were taken. “Passengers for flight EZY5102, please board at gate D16.” I heard a woman’s voice say through the intercom. She repeated the message in English, then went on ranting in Dutch and French. One of the air hostesses grabbed the microphone at the small desk, the girl next to her had crossed her arms in front of her chest and she looked quite moody into nothing. “Will the passengers with boarding pass numbers one to thirty come forwards, please?” She asked politely. She nudged her colleague in the ribs, the girl turned her head, gave the older air hostess a dirty look and checked her blonde hair in a small hand mirror. The air hostess with slightly red hair sighed, and began ripping the first boarding passes. I looked at mine; it said I had number thirty-five. I opened my bag and searched for my phone to switch it off. Just a second before I was going to press the ‘off’ button, I noticed I had a text message. ‘Hey, hope you have a safe flight and I’ll see you in an hour or so! Love, Ruth x’ I smiled to myself. I was going to see her in an hour, away from Dutch grounds, my family and all the daily grinds. “Passengers with boarding pass numbers 30 to 60, please step forwards.” The air hostess said, and pushed her moody colleague aside. I plucked up my belongings, threw the phone back into my bag and made my way to enter the queue. A small kid ran around my legs. He looked up with the most blue eyes I’ve ever seen in my whole life, I smiled at him. I saw his eyes growing larger and he ran off, yelling, “Mamma, mamma!” I laughed softly to myself and handed the ticket to the friendly, red headed air hostess, who ripped it in two, looked at my passport and flashed me a smile. I let the air in my lungs slip out of my mouth between my teeth and threw my head in my neck and moved it from the left to the right, making it crack two times. I walked through the pneumatic gateway and entered the plane. Flying with EasyJet meant that you could sit anywhere you wanted, so I picked a good seat at the aisle next to a young mother and her child, two rows removed from the first row. I clicked my seatbelt closed, and waited for what to come. I closed my eyes for a moment and quickly thought things through. I heard someone closing the door of the plane. There was no way I could go back now. Both of my hands found the armrests and my nails dug in the soft black leather. As I opened my eyes again, I heard the motors of plane started running and spinning around, the kid that was next to her mother grasped for her mother’s hand, her eyes filled with fear. “First time on a plane?” I asked softly, looking at the lady next to me and nodding towards her child. She smiled at me, looked at her kid and nodded. “She’s never been on a plane before, we’re going to visit her daddy in London.” My mouth formed an ‘o’ as I looked out of the small window, seeing the ground quickly moving under us. As the plane lifted off, I felt all my intestines sink to the pit of my stomach. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep very soon with the soft turbulence and humming of the plane.
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Post by the_admin on Jun 19, 2004 7:18:17 GMT -5
Filling up gaps
The flight didn’t took any longer than an hour. I walked through some last passport checks and off to the conveyor belt to search for my big, blue suitcase. In the distance, I saw my suitcase coming closer, and I pushed my way through some people in front of me to fetch it. Putting it on its wheels, I pulled it behind me and paced slowly to the arrival room where Ruth would be waiting for me. A smile swiped across my face as I saw a girl with dyed red, long hair waving her arms about like a mad woman. Her baby blue eyes started to twinkle even more when her arms found my body to give me a tight hug that pressed all the air out of my lungs. It felt as if a weight was lifted from my shoulders as she let go of me. And in a way, it was true, because not only had Ruth lifted herself off from me, which cut down the weight on my shoulders instantly, I forgot all my problems at home and completely got lost in this new world that opened right in front of me. “Oh God, it’s so nice to see you! How was your flight?” Ruth ranted on in the fastest way ever possible. My head still buzzed from the flight and this wasn’t exactly the moment to ask me a lot of questions. Not to mention in such a fast way that I could hardly understand anything of it. Ruth took my suitcase over from me and guided me through the airport on English grounds. “It was okay, thanks.” I softly muttered, more to myself than to Ruth, a faint smile spread upon my face. Ruth looked at me with a sly eye and out of the corner of her eyes. She suddenly stopped in her tracks and dropped the suitcase. She took me by the shoulders and looked me in the eye. “Are you okay?” She asked me, her left eyebrow pulled up as she asked it. I took her hands in mine and looked around the airport. “Yeah,” I said and paused for a couple of seconds. “I’m great.” I turned my head to face her again, a giant smile plastered on my face. I let go of her hands. “Well, good!” She replied, took the suitcase and dragged it behind her, the wheels softly squeaking as it strolled behind us.
Ruth’s house was nice; she lived on her own and had an apartment somewhere close the heart of London. I got the spare bedroom; it was big, had a double bed with bed night cabinets on either side and a closet twice as big as the one I had at home. The walls were painted a white colour that tended to a vague shade of yellow, the frame that surrounded the window was painted a wooden, brown colour that contrasted the white on the walls. The door had an impressive replica of one of Andy Warhole’s paintings airbrushed on it. I let out a sigh, dropped the suitcase next to bed and let myself fall on the bed that deeply bended under my weight. My eyes rolled around the room again to let it sink in that I was going to spend the next few months my nights in this room.
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Post by the_admin on Jun 19, 2004 10:12:28 GMT -5
The first couple of days, Ruth and I spent settling in, doing some shopping for the things I’d forgotten, such as an extra tube of toothpaste and pyjamas. I have still no idea how on Earth I could’ve forgotten a pyjama, seeing that you sleep in it, unless it’s really warm. Which seeing the time of the year, mid September, wasn’t the case. I got used to the fast speaking Ruth within a few hours, because she couldn’t stop talking in the first place. In those days, I found out that Ruth actually was the only person who talked so fast and much, which was pretty handy, because in that way it was easier for me to follow the rest of the world talking to me. One night, when we were having dinner in a noodle bar somewhere close to the London Eye, the subject of jobs came on the table. Ruth slurped in a noodle and wiped her mouth with the white paper napkin. “So, when are we going to start looking for a job?” She said after she’d swallowed the noodle and took a sip of her diet coke in a can. I chomped on one of the huge shrimps that were in my noodle box and shrugged. “We need to hurry, I’m starting work again the day after tomorrow.” She added lightly, and tried to get a piece of chicken out of the box, which she failed in and it fell right back into the cardboard box. I could barely suppress a laugh and pricked the chopsticks into another shrimp. Just as I was about to open my mouth and stick it in there, it fell off the chopsticks and onto the table. Ruth, at that moment, was drinking her coke, and I think I could actually see the coke coming out of her nose as she laughed. “Did you ever actually tell me where you work?” I asked my friend, as soon as she stopped laughing. She threw the empty can of coke in the bin behind her and thought for a short moment. “Hmm, no I don’t think I did.” I gave her a look as if to say, ‘tell me then’ and made the hand gesture. “Well, you know that I always talk about the music industry, don’t you?” I nodded in respond. “I work for Universal Islands.” My jaw dropped to the floor at this moment. She laughed softly. “It’s nothing special, just doing the typing up work and sending emails and stuff.” She fiddled with her fingers as she seemed to think. “That I have a lousy job, doesn’t mean I’m not in the good books with my boss.” Her cheeks flushed a vague shade of red. My eyes widened as she told me this. “How do you mean?” She turned her head away from me and was suddenly very interested in the large pole right outside the window. “You getting off with your boss?” I asked bluntly. Her head flashed back to me, her eyes on the edge of popping out of their sockets. Her look softened and she looked down on her hands, twisting the ring around her finger round and round. “Well?” I asked demandingly. I was dying for some fresh, hot gossip. She slowly turned her head up to me. “We like each other, yeah.” I let out a small laugh and leaned back in the chair I was sitting on. “We’ve been on a couple of dates, too.” Now this was getting interesting. I leaned back on the high table and looked at her with large eyes. “So, what’s his name and how old is he?” I asked her. “Ryan Marsden…” She sighed dreamingly and started to stare. I waved my hand in front her face to get her back to earth. “What?” She asked confused. “Oh. Yeah. He’s 35.” I screwed up my face. “Ruth! You’re like, 18!” She shrugged. “Is he married?” She rolled her eyes. “He’s married!” I yelped, looking around me after that to see if anyone noticed. “Does he have any children?” She shook her head. “Okay, good. One person less to hurt.” She looked at me in disgust. “How do you mean?” I rolled my eyes at her and leaned forwards over the table to her. “You’re getting this man to cheat on his wife with you!” She shrugged again and sighed. “So? It’s not hurting me, is it?” I leaned back in the chair and we said nothing for a good three minutes. Then I burst out laughing. Ruth looked at me strangely. “What?” She asked me confused, pulling up an eyebrow. “You doofus.” I shook my head and smiled. “Can’t you get me a job at Universal? I mean, you’re the one who’s screwing their boss.” “Oi! Watch what you’re saying, young lady!” She laughed and stood up from her chair, throwing away both our noodle boxes in the bin as she did so. She linked arms with me and we walked out of the bar, still laughing and joking.
Ruth phoned her boss the next day, hearing the news that someone called in sick, which meant that there was space for me to replace the sick employee. We spent the rest of the day shopping our legs out of under our bums, getting me something formal for the job interview. Ruth and I took the tube to the Universal building, somewhere just out of London. It was an enormous building with at least thirty floors. Ruth pushed open one of the glass doors with metallic coloured bars on them for us and walked through to the desk where a secretary was sat. “Hey, Julia.” Ruth said politely and flashed a smile. The lady looked up at Ruth and smiled back, then looking over at me with a questioning look on her face. “She’s here for a job interview with Mr Marsden.” The lady nodded and signalled for us to walk on to wherever we were going. “Can’t she talk or something?” I asked sarcastically and looked over my shoulder to the secretary who was fiddling with some papers. Ruth pushed the button for one of the three elevators to come down and looked at me from the corners of her eyes. “You nervous?” I shook my head. “No, not really.” I was lying like Bill Clinton had when he denied having an affaire with his secretary, but it helped me to calm down my nerves. “Liar.” Ruth remarked as we stepped in the elevator after a few business men in steamed suits had come out of it. We went all the way up to the eleventh floor, where the elevator doors slid open noiseless. The long hallway with white walls and several doors on either sides was in front of us. Men walking around with papers in their hands, a lost lady here or there getting a cup of coffee. I was stood glued to the spot, and Ruth gently pushed me in the back to get me moving. I let the air in my lungs escape through my teeth. “Don’t be so nervous, he’s a nice guy.” A small nervous laugh escaped from my mouth. “I bet he is to you. I wouldn’t say he’s a bad guy if his hands crawled up under my skirt either.” Ruth elbowed me between the ribs. “Ouch! What did you do that for?” She looked at me sternly as I massaged my ribs.
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Post by the_admin on Jun 19, 2004 10:12:51 GMT -5
“Ssst! No one is actually supposed to know, y’know!” “Oh right, sorry.” I apologised as Ruth knocked on a door and waited for respond. When a growling sound was heard, Ruth pushed the door handle down and led me into the room. A man was sit behind a large, wooden desk with a flat-screen computer on it and a pile of papers. The room itself was quite calm qua interior; the walls were light and the huge windows behind the man were giving a large amount of light so no lamp was needed. The wall on the right of the man was covered in paintings of unknown artists, the other one had the destiny of being covered in framed signatures of famous people. The wall opposite of the man had a single bookshelf on it, filled with dusty books about - as far as I could see - laws and other not interesting subjects. I heard the door fall closed and Ruth walked over to the man behind the desk, sitting on the edge of the desk and smiling down on the man, revealing a too large amount of bare flesh. “Ryan, this is Emma, the girl I told you about on the phone the other day.” Ruth pointed at me and signalled for me to come closer. I took a few steps nearer to the desk and folded my hands casually behind me, my purse dangling on my shoulder. The man looked up from his computer and took a quick glance at me before his face broke into a smile. He stood up from his large leather chair and stuck out his hand. I was forced to come closer and took his hand. He shook it gently. “Ryan Marsden.” He politely said. “Emma Taylor.” He smiled again, and released my hand from his firm grip. “Please, sit down.” He said and pointed to the smaller leather chair on my side of his desk. I sat down and looked at Ruth, who was still sitting on the edge of the desk, just watching every move he and I made. Smoothing my black skirt and folding my hands on them, I looked up at the man and didn’t know what to say for a moment. He opened a drawer and got a pile of papers out of it. “Ruth, will you please all copy these three times and send them on the mail? The address is on the post-it on the first page.” He handed the pile over to Ruth, who stood up and gave a disappointed look to her lover boy. She huffed offended and made her way out of the office. He rolled the chair closer to the desk and quickly typed something into the computer. “So, Emma…” His voice trailed off and he smiled at me, looking at me from top to toe. I tucked a strain of escaped hair nervously behind my ear. “I can call you Emma, right?” I nodded and gave a faint smile before looking down. “You came here for a job, am I right?” Again I nodded shyly. “Well, someone called in sick, has this awful disease that no one really cares about if I tell them other than his family so I will spare you that, and I can offer you a job to replace him for a couple of months. Does that sound okay to you?” I bit my lower lip. “Yes, but what does the job comprise?” I asked. “Ha, now you ask me something. I think you’ll like it.” He said mysteriously. “You into pop music?” He asked in return to my question. “Yes, why?” I thought I was going to end up with the same sort of job that Ruth had. That certainly had nothing to do with pop music. “You’re going to be working with a pop band.” I screwed up my face. “How do you mean?” “The band’s TV plugger appears to be sick, as I told you, and you’re going to be the one who’s going to replace him.” My eyes widened and I had to suppress a hand that flew to my heart to keep the beating in control. “But I have no experience whatsoever!” I yelped excitedly. “I’ve never done anything like this before. Are you sure that there isn’t anyone else who would be better at this job?” Ryan shook his head. “No. All the people working around here are busy and I really don’t have the time to interview a load of people.” He explained. “Besides, Ruth has been telling a lot about you, and you seem to be perfect for the job.” He concluded. I replied with a short, “Oh,” and Ryan stood up from his chair. “I welcome you to the Universal Islands staff, Emma Taylor.” I quickly followed his example and shook his hand. “When can you start?” “When can I start?”
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Post by the_admin on Jun 19, 2004 11:23:55 GMT -5
A comment would be nice btw, I have the feeling I'm writing this for myself...
I know I haven't been the most faithful writer in ending stories, but I have the whole thing planned out and practically spread out on my desk to type it (imagine: post-its with ideas and such...) up. I promise you here and now that I will finish it. Just leave ONE lousy comment on it. Don't care if it's good or bad. I can learn from my mistakes.
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Post by Kolakube on Jun 19, 2004 11:29:20 GMT -5
No your not..... I'm reading it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tis v good, MORE!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by the_admin on Jun 19, 2004 12:30:02 GMT -5
The following week went rather fast; I got introduced to the company, showed around almost every corner of the building, met tons of people, and saw even more faces of whom I had forgotten their names two seconds after I met them. The day of meeting the band I was going to work with, approached, and with a tingling feeling inside my tummy I stepped in the office of Ryan Marsden. He welcomed me with another one of his firm handshakes and told me to take a seat. “The boys will be a bit later than expected. I apologize in their name.” He gave a small nod and sat down in his leather chair, that creaked under his movements. He observed me for a bit, I could feel his eyes burn on my skin. “You excited?” I shrugged. “Not really. I don’t even know the name of this band.” He smiled faintly and folded his hands upon the desk. “Oh, well. They’re quite famous around here. Don’t know if you ever heard of a band called Busted?” I cringed as I heard the name. I closed my eyes as shut as possible and tried not to think back to the time when- “Oh, hello James!” Oh God. Mr Marsden stood up from his chair and walked around the desk, probably walking up to the lad called James. I slowly stood up from my seat, and turned around in the slowest manner as possible. “Emma, come and say hello to James, Matt and Charlie.” I cringed even more when he named them one by one. I hid my face as much as possible by looking down to the floor. “Come on, we haven’t got all day you know!” As soon as I looked up, one of the boys, the one with blonde hair and blue eyes, started laughing hysterically. The one with dark, almost black hair followed his example and clutched his stomach while laughing. Mr Marsden only looked sheepishly from me to the two boys laughing. The only one left of the boys, tall guy, blonde hair, brushy eyebrows, also known as Charlie, shrugged and looked the other way. Almost as if he acted like he didn’t know the other two boys. “It’s you, puke-girl!” The blonde one, James, exclaimed, in between taking breaths from laughing. I cringed once again at the thought of what had happened only a couple of months ago. I can still remember it as if it was yesterday; it was on a Saturday night in April. Me and a friend of mine had decided to go out clubbing in Amsterdam for some kind of weird reason. I didn’t get what we were doing in Amsterdam at first, because I liked the clubs we normally went to. After a bit of questioning, I found out that my friend was a total Busted maniac, knew that they were in the country, and took the chance to go to Amsterdam, to see if we could spot them there. And yes, we did. Oh hell yes, we did. It is the most embarrassing moment of my whole life. We were dancing, sweating and drinking. I hadn’t eaten much that day, and you know what comes from that. No food and a lot of alcohol don’t mix. I felt the puke rising up in my throat, burning its way up to my mouth, and in my way to look for the loos, I bumped into someone and puked over him. And that person happened to be Charlie from Busted. My friend had screamed so loud, I could hear her over the music. She started jumping up and down, hugged Charlie, and smeared the puke all over the place. I saw Charlie blushing like mad, and I felt my own cheeks starting to burn as well. Our eyes met very briefly, and we both looked away as quickly as possible. I think he didn’t want to get reminded of the time I fucked up his new t-shirt. I bet he burned it, too. “So, how’s the stomach going? Feeling better now?” Matt laughed and hiccupped. “Come on, lads. No time for jokes now.” Ryan said, trying to suss the moment. “Anyway, guys, this is Emma, your new TV plugger.” James’ eyes grew larger and he burst out laughing. “She? Our new TV plugger?” He asked shocked. “Better watch our shirts, mates. Before you know it, you’ve got puke all over you!” I decided I had enough of it and gave him an evil eye. I think it quite scared him, seeing that he immediately stopped laughing and straightened his back, elbowing Matt in the ribs on his way.
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Post by the_admin on Jun 20, 2004 3:43:01 GMT -5
filling up gaps again....
It went silent for a moment, Charlie rolled his eyes and jogged James. I could see James mouthing a ‘what’, Charlie on his turn nodding over to me. James sighed, rolled his eyes and took a step forwards. “Sorry,” he muttered, “welcome aboard.” He stuck out his hand, I took it loosely and shook it. “There, now. Off you go.” Ryan said and gave me a light push in the back. “What? I’m meant to come with them now?” I asked. I thought this was only going to be a short meet up and then I could go home again. “You said you could start straight away.” Ryan stated. “Off you go!” He repeated and made a hand gesture towards the door. “I’ve got more things to do than chat with you guys, how much I enjoy it.” He added sarcastically.
“I apologize for Matt and James.” Charlie whispered as we walked down the hall, to the elevators. “They can be a bit childish sometimes.” He added and slowed down his pace so the boys couldn’t hear us. “You’ll find that they’ll loosen up once you get to know them, though.” “It’s okay.” I smiled. “Never expected to end up with you lot.” Charlie laughed softly and put a hand on my lower back to steer me into the elevator. While Matt and James were sharing their inside jokes with each other, Charlie tried to start a proper conversation. “So, tell me, how come you’re working here all of the sudden? I thought you lived in Holland?” I could hear James and Matt’s conversation soften, and the laughing died away. “I did live in Holland. I’m just spending my gap-year over here.” I looked at Charlie, who had had a completely puzzled look on his face. “And you thought, ‘Hey, let’s go work at Universal’?” I shook my head. “No, friend of mine works around here, and introduced me to her boss, Mr Marsden. He said I could replace your sick TV plugger.” “Aha, I see.” The conversation ended right there and then. James and Matt resumed to their own conversation and the elevator doors slid open. There was a silver-grey sort of van waiting outside the building for us, and Charlie opened the door for me to get in. Matt and James thankfully piled up on the last backseat, while Charlie and me sat down on the seat in front of them. “Right.” Charlie said and opened up a bag that was next to him. “Here’s the schedule for the coming week. The schedules for the weeks after that will be emailed to you by someone at the office.” I nodded and took the three pages of paper. As I let my eyes roll over the dates, I came to a stop at today’s to-do’s. “CD:UK?” I asked, while we were already on our way to the CD:UK studios. “Yep,” Charlie replied. “It’s the only thing we’ve got to do today. Rest of the day off.” He thought for a moment. “I think it’s got something to do with you. They don’t want to burn you out on your first day.” He added with a wink and put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. “Just a twenty minute drive, but I need my sleep.” He said softly as he drifted away. A head poked in between the headrests. “Beauty sleep, you mean.” Came the voice of James, Charlie’s fist resultantly flew to the headrests and James let himself fall back onto the seats behind us. I grinned to myself; this could be fun.
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Post by the_admin on Jun 20, 2004 5:54:50 GMT -5
I took a glance at my watch; 12.30, just in time. As the guys got their hair and make-up done, I waited in the corridors for them to get their guitars and do their thing on stage. The place was packed with screaming girls and the odd boy here and there. The crowd went even wilder when Matt started the first note on his guitar and started singing. The two other lads filled him in and I secretly stood tapping my feet and enjoying what I had in my eyesight. Even though I hadn’t heard much of their music so far, I liked what I heard and with a smile plastered on my face, I picked the lads up from their dressing room. “I thought that went quite well,” James remarked as he jumped in the van, the sweat dripping down his temples and a big sweat patch on the back of his white t-shirt. “No, I hit the wrong note.” Matt puffed and climbed over James in the backseat. “No one noticed.” Reassured James. “I thought it was brilliant.” I exclaimed excitedly, still with that everlasting smile on my face. “Thank you,” Matt said, putting the headphones on his head and listening to some kind of booming sort of music. James hit his little pillow into shape and nestled him into a comfortable sleeping position. It went quiet for a minute or so, until I felt someone aside me moving. Charlie lay relaxingly on his side, looking at me. His eyes set on dreamingly. “Look, err, Emma.” He started, and wiggled about to get more comfortable. “We’ve got the rest of the day off. You want to come over to mine and we get to know each other a little better?” He almost whispered the words. I screwed up my face. “I mean,” He laughed at himself. “We’re gonna be around each other a hell of a lot, we might as well get to know each other.” My look softened and I smiled. “Sure.”
To be honest, I never expected Charlie’s house as big as this. I still thank God every day that Charlie was the first to be dropped off while Matt and James were still asleep in the backseat. We walked up the drive way, where a normal, silver, family Volkswagen was parked. Everything seemed to look so normal, not like you see on MTV Cribs or whatever at all. Even though the house it self was big, it wasn’t the size of a villa. Just a normal house, maybe a bit bigger than the average house. He lived there on his own, as he told me, and he loved the space, although it could get a bit lonely sometimes. With his shades on his nose, he pushed the key into its lock and opened the front, white, door that led into a small hallway. A small cupboard was stood under the hat stand, on which Charlie hung my jacket. He put his keys in the top drawer of the cupboard, and walked in front of me through the hallway door and into the living room. It wasn’t messy, but it wasn’t very neat either; just some random cans of coke and beer spread on the table, a pair of shoes next to the brown leather couch and an empty crisp bag laying on the couch. “Excuse me for the mess.” Charlie said and picked up the crisp bag and some cans to bring them to kitchen. “Make yourself at home.” He called from out of the kitchen. I sat down, and looked around; a few colourful paintings on the wall, a bookcase right behind me and a wide-screen TV, with a complete DVD/stereo installation underneath it on the floor opposite of the couch. “You want something to drink?” He asked, and I heard some clinging glasses. “Coke please, if you have that.” I heard a ‘tshh’ from a bottle getting opened and the carbonic acid escaping. He came back with one glass filled with the brown liquid and the other one water. “There you go,” He smiled and handed me my coke. I took a small sip and put it on the table. “So, tell me, why did you decide to take a gap-year?” He asked as he fished a cigarette out of the packet he had in his back pocket. He offered me one, I declined. He took a long drag and blew it in small circles into the room. I told him my story about not what to want in life, and the shit course and my family. He took this all in, whilst smoking his cigarette and enjoying it as if it was the last one he was ever going to smoke. “And I ended up here, in London, on your couch, sipping a coke.” I finished, smiling and bringing the glass to my lips. “But enough about me, how about you?” I asked and took a sip. I got nearly his whole life story, ending with how the band was doing at the moment. “Sounds like fun.” I concluded and took mine and Charlie’s empty glass and stood up. “Want some more?” He shook his head. “No thanks, I’m fine.” He smiled. “You’re getting comfortable around here, don’t you?” He asked. “Speaking of which, where do you live now?” I gasped. I should’ve phoned Ruth to tell her where I was and how it went. “What? Something wrong? Did I say something?” I put the glasses back onto the table and fished my mobile phone out of my purse. “Hey Ruth? It’s me, Emma.” I announced as soon as she had picked up the phone. “Emma! Where are you? How did it go? Who’s the band?” She rattled on. I listened to her while looking at Charlie on the couch; he was sprawled all over, his arms over the backrest and slumped down, looking back at me. I grinned to myself. “You know you couldn’t stop talking about Busted one time?” I heard her gasp and scream. “Oh my God! You’re what!” I laughed at her out burst. “I’m the TV plugger. And to answer your question about where I am right now, I’m at Charlie’s.” I thought she was getting a heart attack right there and then. “Ruth?” “Yeah, yeah, I’m here. You’re at Charlie’s? What are you doing there?” I told her about the getting to know each other, she laughed at me and was sure that he was going to try something. I told her I was sure he wasn’t. We went on like this for a couple of minutes until I decided that I had enough of it. I hung up on her and resumed to bringing the glasses to the kitchen. Charlie closely followed me and took the glasses off me to put them in the dishwasher. “Do you have any idea at all how to work this thing?” He asked me, as he looked at the machine with one eyebrow pulled up. I laughed, asked him for the dishwasher soap, put it in the right place and closed the door. Twisted the button on it and pushed the other button to start it. “Thank you, must remember how you did that.” I laughed softly and looked at my watch. “I think I should be going now.” Charlie turned to me and looked at me for a second or two. “Why?” He asked, rather bluntly. “Because, it’s time for me to go home. I need to look through those schedules.” Charlie’s eyes shot from the left to right, as if he was searching for something. “But. But you can do that here too!” He exclaimed, pleadingly. He took a glance at his own watch. “I’ll make you dinner. Please stay. Just for another couple of hours, please. I don’t want to be alone again tonight.” He tried. “Charlie, you can’t cook. You said that yourself.” “I’ll order something in. Now,” He grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me to the living room. “get your arse back there and send your friend a text that you won’t come home for dinner.” I was a bit taken aback by this, and did as I was told; I texted Ruth that I wouldn’t come home for dinner.
Charlie got us pizza for dinner. Under while enjoying the pizza, we were watching The Green Mile on DVD. I swear I could see Charlie wiping his eye as the film came to an end and he muttered that had he something in his eye. “I never got the change to look at the schedules.” I said as I picked up my purse and got the papers out. “We’ll look together,” He said and took over the papers. “Right, as you can see, we’ve got a few interviews tomorrow, Top Of The Pops, Smash Hits, etc. The title ‘TV plugger’, doesn’t mean you only do TV shows. Not with us anyway.” He explained, his finger running over the papers. “Don’t look ahead too far.” He advised. “The interviews all take about an hour or two, including photo shoots and bullshit like that. So that’s one full day of boring stuff.” He sighed and put the papers on his lap. “Am I allowed to go home now?” I asked sarcastically and nudged him on the shoulder. He nodded, stood up and gave me the papers back. “We’ll pick you up at 9 tomorrow morning.” He said and pulled me up from the couch. We silently walked to the hallway, he got me my jacket and slid it over my shoulders and I turned around to face him. It was only just now that I noticed that he was a head taller than me. He looked down on me, smiling faintly. His hand ran over my cheek, caressing it softly. “Thanks for staying with me tonight.” I took his hand, lowered it and let go of it. “It’s no biggie. I had fun. Thanks.” He licked his lips seductively, and took a deep breath in, wanting to say something. “I’ll better be off now.” I said and turned the door knob, opening the door. “The bus’ll be here in a few minutes.” He said, “You sure I don’t have to bring you home?” I shook my head. “No, I’ll be fine.” I smiled and turned to walk out the door. “Hey, Emma?” I turned back on my heels, he took hold of my upper arm and pulled me forwards. He gave a delicate kiss on my cheek, then let go of me. “Safe journey home.”
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Post by the_admin on Jun 20, 2004 6:41:24 GMT -5
Ruth was already in bed when I got home. I silently took off my jacket, kicked off my shoes and tiptoed to my room. “Emma?” I heard her ask, softly. A door creaked open and Ruth’s head poked out of the gap. “It’s only me.” I smiled. “I’m going to bed now, have an early morning tomorrow.” I explained and crept in my own room, got undressed, pulled the too big t-shirt over my head and dived into my bed. The alarm went off too early for my likings and I practically hit it through the room. I knew I had to get up, and so I did, looking at myself in the mirror. I sighed; my hair was messed up and was standing every way except the good one. My eyes lay deep in their sockets, and I noticed some small bags under them. I sighed again, disgustingly at myself and made my way to the bathroom where I brushed my teeth and did my hair and make-up. Ruth was already gone; off to work, she had to start at eight, which I thought was outrageously early. What could there possibly be that had to be done so early? With this thought I walked through the apartment, grabbing an apple and started to eat it. When my phone vibrated in my pocket, I knew the van was outside waiting for me. So I bit the apple stuck in my mouth, slid on my jacket, grabbed the schedule and ran down the short stairs. “Good morning, malady.” Matt said, bowed and hand gestured into the car. “Thank you, kind sir.” I replied sarcastically, and stepped in the car as graciously as possible. Matt sat next to me, to my disliking, and rubbed his hands together in the way only he does. “So, I heard you had a pretty good night at Charles’ place the other day?” He asked teasingly and grinned like a maniac. I just sat there, my hands delicately put on my lap, my eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. My head turned to face him. “Excuse me?” I said, almost as a whisper. I looked in front of me, to the back of Charlie’s head, who sat as still as a statue. Probably as shocked as I was. How did Matt know this? “Well, I saw you two getting out the car the other day at Charles’ place, so I figured that-” “Shut up, Matt.” Charlie suddenly snapped out of nothing. He sat turned on his seat, a very evil look in his eyes that even scared myself. I looked around, from Charlie to Matt and then noticed jerking shoulders right next to Charlie. Shoulders that belonged to James. It was that it was silent it the car, otherwise I never could’ve heard the almost girly giggling that came from James’ direction. “And what are you laughing about?” Charlie snapped at James, and hit him over the head. “Nothing,” James squeaked. “It’s just, don’t you think it’s ironic that you and puke-girl-” “Emma, thank you very much.” I butted in. “- are getting off with each other after she puked on you and-” “I thought I made it clear that nothing happened.” Charlie said seriously, and turned back on his seat. He puffed and turned his head to the window. “I agree with you, James. I think it’s quite ironic.” Matt continued the conversation. “Matt, dear?” I began. He turned his head to me slowly, and gave a small nod. “Have you ever seen a girl’s fist from up close?” He shook his head. “Then I’d better watch out what I said if I were you, because you’re about to experience something totally new.” He flashed his head back into normal position and said nothing for the rest of the drive.
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Post by the_admin on Jun 20, 2004 7:46:25 GMT -5
“I was just taking the piss, Charlie!” Matt screamed and waved his arms about like a mad man. He was, probably. “You know I was!” Charlie and Matt were having a loud row in the hall of a huge hotel where the interviews would take place. Charlie furiously paced back and forth a few metres, the steam almost coming out of his ears. I was sat in one of the chairs, watching James scribbling down some autographs for girls who, somehow, knew that they would be there, Matt and Charlie were fortunately out of sight of the girls. I listened carefully to the conversation between two furious men with too much money and too little real friends. As I did this, I observed James, who was smiling politely to all the hyped up girls and getting his picture taken every so often. You wouldn’t say he was so childish when you looked at him, but he really, really was. As far as I knew anyway. I saw James waving goodbye to the fans and he came walking over to me, that faint smile on his face, and counting the marble tiles on the floor. “Are they still fighting?” He asked me worriedly, and sat down in the chair next to me. I made the humming sound and swiftly looked at him. “Why is Charlie so mad about this? Matt was for one only taking the piss and nothing happened between you two, so what’s all the fuss about?” I shrugged and sighed. “I don’t know, James. I don’t know. I just hope they make up soon.” James agreed with me on this and watched the people walking past us, leaning with his elbows on his knees. He turned his head to me, “You know, Emma?” “What?” I asked. “You’re a pretty nice girl.” He supported this compliment with a soft slap on my knee. “Come on, we have some interviews to do.” He said as he pushed himself up and jerked his head in Matt and Charlie’s direction. I stood up, following his example. “Are you gonna say it, or am I?” He noiseless pointed at me with his thumb. “Okay then, here we go.” I said and took a deep breath. We neared the two lads still fighting over nothing. I stood in between them and threw my hands up in the air. “Enough!” An awkward silence fell and Matt dropped his stressed shoulders. “There’s some work to do.” I added and signalled for all to walk with me.
The first one on the list, was Top Of The Pops. They had set up a hotel room as for what looked like some sort of castle. The photos would be taken first, interview after that. Matt, James and Charlie sat lined up on the bed, getting their make-up done. I squatted down in front of all three and looked up at them. “Now, listen to me. Please behave, don’t be mean to each other and don’t try to hit each other’s brain in, okay?” James obligingly nodded, jogged Matt and Charlie in the sides to make them nod as well. “Yes, mumma.” Matt added totally redundantly. I gave him one of my now infamous evil eyes to shut him up. He screwed up his face. “You know you really scare me with that.” “That’s what it’s supposed to do, doofus.” I pushed myself up by leaning on James’ knees and straightened my back. “Now get to work, that money ain’t getting added to your bank account for nothing.” I smiled sweetly and clapped my hands. “Chop, chop!” One of them groaned, the other two moaned and sighed. I figured that it was Charlie who groaned, seeing that it was quite a low voice. The photographer positioned the three in front of the camera, took several photos and put back his equipment into the cases and boxes. James lay spread out on the bed, with Matt and Charlie on either side of him. I just stood in the corner of the room, waiting for it all to be over. The journalist had a whole list of questions and I was dreading the time it would take for the boys to answer them. James got excited over one question the journalist asked about Michael Jackson, Charlie on his turn over new electric guitars and Matt got totally pissed off by the question on him and his drinking. Personally, I thought it was quite funny, James and Charlie seemed to think that as well. But I stopped laughing as soon as I got the message that I would be spending the rest of the day with a really edgy and moody Matt. “The bitch. How dare she ask me such personal questions!” He huffed and stormed out the room as soon as the interview was over. I saw Charlie laughing and he even hiccupped once. He let out a long deep sigh and shook his head in entertainment. “I love when he goes mad like that. That face is truly worth a picture.” He whispered in my ear and found my hand to give it a gentle squeeze. “The down side is, though, that he’s gonna be pissed off for the rest of the day, but I think that’s worth it.” He let out another laugh and followed, shaking his head, his friend James, to the next room where Smash Hits was waiting.
“Hey Emma!” Matt called after me. I was walking way ahead of the lads, wanting to go back in the comfy car. He passed me, bent to lean on his knees to catch his breath and then came back up. “Care to go to the pub with me?” I pulled up both of my eyebrows. “I’m serious.” He said as if he could read my mind. “Just for a friendly pint or two.” He searched for my eyes. “I’ll pay.” He added, as if that would do the trick. I let the air in my lungs slip out of my mouth and looked over my shoulder to Charlie, who, I must say, looked a bit down. I almost felt sorry for him, even though I didn’t know why he was looking so sad. “Oh, I don’t know Matt. We’ve got to work tomorrow.” Matt shrugged. “Okay, was worth a try.” I started walking again, but Matt grabbed my wrist that made me stop in my tracks. “But if you’re not going with me because you want to look after poor Charlie, he can take care himself perfectly.” James passed us, I noticed a slight bounce in his step. Charlie closely followed, he flashed me a fake smile and walked on to the car. “Okay, I’ll go with you.” A smile appeared on Matt’s face and I found a light twinkle in his eyes. “Great,” He said and he jumped up one time to run to the car. “You coming or what?” I shook my head at this and paced slowly to the car.
“Right, we need to get out here.” The car came to a hold, and Matt swung the car door open. “This isn’t a taxi, you know. You can’t just stop wherever you wish to.” James remarked. Matt got his wallet out, pulled a five pound note and handed it to James. “Keep the change.” He added a wink to it and got out of the car, pulling me with him on his way. “Bye!” I managed to say before Matt resultantly shut the door closed and made my arm link with his. “This going to be so much fun.” Matt said excitedly as we watched the car drive off and turned to the street we were in. “Okay, this is what we’re gonna do. There’s this pub just around the corner that I always go to and everyone respects each other there. I can get pissed without anyone knowing.” He grinned. “And I’m only here to drag you home?” Matt looked offended at me and pulled up his eyebrows. “No, you’re here so I won’t have to get pissed by myself!” He said as if it was so obvious that even a monkey would’ve seen it coming. “Anyway, let’s get a move on, because if we’re gonna stand here forever, we’re never gonna get there before closing time.”
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Post by the_admin on Jun 20, 2004 8:59:28 GMT -5
Matt hold open the door for me at the pub and we sat at the bar, waiting for our pints. “What’s up with Charlie?” I asked, and took a way too big sip from the beer. Matt shrugged. “I dunno, there’s always something up with that guy.” “What did you tell him?” I asked suspiciously. “What makes you think I told him something?” I gave him the ‘obviously-you-did’ eye. “Nothing! I just mentioned that I was gonna ask you if you wanted to come with me. I swear!” He put his hands up in the air in mock surrender. “Why are you so worried about him anyway? I thought you didn’t like him.” “I never said I don’t like him. I said, or actually, Charlie said that nothing happened the other night. That has nothing to do with liking each other.” “Aha! So you do like him!” Matt concluded for himself. “I don’t fancy him, if that’s what you mean. I think he’s a nice guy.” I protested and drank my pint. Matt hummed for a bit and seemed to think. “So I still have a chance?” I was on my way to swallow, and nearly choked on the beer. “Sorry?” I managed to bring out, croaking. “I mean, if you’re not going out with Charlie, and you don’t fancy him or anything, then I have a chance right? That’s if you don’t already have a boyfriend.” “How many pints exactly have you been drinking while I was blinking?” One corner of his mouth curled up and he started playing with the beer mat. “You can’t be serious.” “Just imagine this; if, that’s if, I fancied you, would I have a chance?” I couldn’t suppress the laughter anymore and it all rolled off my tongue in one go. “What’s so funny about that? You never had a guy swearing his undying love for you?” “Was that undying love you just told me?” I tried to say, which more came out as a gurgle. “No, but you know…” His voice trailed off. “Well, would I?” He came back to the point. “Maybe,” I mysteriously said, smiled and looked down on my hands holding the glass.
After an hour or two, Matt and I strolled out of the pub. Not completely pissed. Thankfully. I learnt my lesson way back in April, and played on safe with a few cokes after the beer. Miraculously, Matt had followed my example and we walked hand in hand through the dim lit street. I wasn’t really looking where we were going, I was looking down on our feet, that simultaneously stepped over the dark tiles. Matt pulled me around the corner, and I looked up at an apartment building. He let go of my hand, opened the door and walked down the hall to the third or fourth door on the right. There, he opened the front door that led to his apartment. “The cleaner came round this morning, so it’s all nice and clean now.” Matt commented, more to himself than to me. I had no idea what I was doing at Matt’s apartment so late at night. A glance on my watch told me that it was nearly midnight and I should be home. I hadn’t seen Ruth properly in two days. Not mention spoken to her. But for some odd reason, I didn’t have the urge to go home. I didn’t want to go home. Not only were my legs too tired to take one step more, I felt even more comfortable around Matt than around Charlie. Which was weird, because Charlie had taken my side at first sights. “You want coffee?” He asked and held up two mugs in the air. I nodded and sat down on the somewhat lived-through couch. “I’ll bring you home after the coffee if you want.” He said as he put down his mug on the table and handed me mine. My hands encircled the mug, it was nice and warm. “No,” I said, out of the blue. Matt kicked off his shoes and pulled his legs on the couch. “You mean you want to take the bus? It’s quite late and I don’t want to see you get hurt. There are some dan-” “No, I want to stay here.” I said calmly, blowing in my mug. He took his mug of coffee and took a careful sip. “You’re right, it’s dark and late and it’s probably even more dangerous to walk you home than to take the bus.” He thought for a short moment. “I’ll crash on the couch and you can take my bed, the bedroom’s over there.” He vaguely pointed to a door until he saw my look on him. With the mug close to my chest, I practically stared at him. I think it got him a tad nervous, because he started to look around on the couch. “Get up.” He ordered, and when I was off the couch, he dug his arm in between the seats and the backrest of the couch. “Aha!” He yelped and held the remote control triumphant in the air. “I’ve been looking for the damned thing for ages, man!” He said, as he switched on the TV and flicked through the channels until a music channel came on. He rested back in the couch, slumping a bit. I found myself putting away the coffee and cuddling up to his chest. He seemed a bit taken aback at first, but eventually let his arm slip over my body and started to stroke my hair. I felt his head move, and rested it upon mine, after giving a soft kiss on my hair. My fingertips found the print on his black tee, and traced the white outlines of the text. “Emma?” I lifted my head up to face him and smiled faintly, my eyes slowly blinking. “I think I know why Charlie was so mad at me for taking the piss.” He paused for a moment, not sure if he had to say it or not. “It’s because I told him that-” I put my index finger on his lips and he shut his mouth instantly. I brought my head up to his and kissed him softly on his lips. I ripped myself off of him and looked him in the eye for a small second to see if there was any doubt. He looked at me blankly, then put his hand behind my head and pulled it to him, to continue the kiss where it had so abruptly stopped. His tongue forced my mouth to open, and it found its way into my mouth, gently massaging my tongue. The kiss lasted for what seemed like hours and hours, until Matt pulled away. He smiled, gave another small kiss on my lips and moved his hand to my back, under my top and started stroking my bare back. We sat there for hours, until the sun came up and Matt decided to walk me home.
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Post by Kolakube on Jun 20, 2004 10:29:28 GMT -5
This is fabulosotantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!
more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more
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Post by the_admin on Jun 20, 2004 14:47:57 GMT -5
“I’ll call you later, okay?” He let go of my hand as we stood at the portal of my apartment building. He took his shades off and gave me a kiss. “Have fun today, whatever you’re going to do.” I smiled, waved him goodbye and entered the building. I opened the door with the key that I had and gave a yell into the apartment. It was an early Sunday morning and Ruth’s weekend had started the day before. “Your parents phoned, Charlie phoned and I phoned you as well. Where on earth have you been?” Ruth said. She sounded a bit moody. “I’ll phone my parents later, I’ll see Charlie tomorrow and I was at Matt’s.” Ruth rolled her at me. “Are you just doing the round or something? Shagging every Busted member?” “Ruth! Nothing happened between me and Charlie for Christ’s sake! We’re just friends!” I practically screamed. “And why did you spend the night at Matt’s?” Ruth questioned. I growled at her and let out a massive sigh. “Are you my mother? I just spend the night there, we kissed. Okay? Happy now?” Ruth’s face suddenly broke into a smile and she started screaming her head off for some odd reason. “My best friend’s going out with Mattie Busted!” I rolled my eyes once more and made my way to the bathroom to take a shower. An hour or so later, I walked back into the living room, seeing Ruth lazily lying on the couch flicking through the channels on TV. My hair dripped and left trail of wet patches on the carpeted floor behind me as I walked over to the phone. I dialled the number of my parents at home, hoping that they would be home and not out to go and see my sister at her hair salon or something silly like that. “Hello?” Went my dad’s voice. I greeted him back, “Hi dad, it’s Emma. I heard you rang?” Dad mumbled something into the background and not a second later I was on the speaker so mum could listen too. “Hey, honey. We were just wondering how you were because you haven’t called since the day you left?” I was bound to end up telling the whole story – including every little detail – if it was up to my mum. “Yeah, sorry about that, have been a bit busy around here.” I replied, in the hope that mum would only ask me with what and how I was and would hang up after that so I could join Ruth on the sofa. “Oh, with what? You got yourself a job already?” What did I tell you? “Yes, I did actually, I’m working as a TV plugger for Universal Islands. You know, the record company?” I explained very shortly. “Yes, we know what Universal Islands is. Does it pay well?” My dad asked, I knew he was going to ask something like that. “Yes, it does.” I replied. “And I’m doing just fine, I’m alive, I have food to eat and I enjoy myself around here. Now, if you will excuse me, mum, dad, I have some work to do. Busy, busy, busy! Love you, bye.” I said, I wasn’t really feeling like having an hour long conversation with my parents. Okay, so I hadn’t phoned them in the past few weeks, and they must’ve been quite worried, but I hadn’t gone away for nothing. “Oh, okay, we’ll phone you soon, honey! Bye!” Mum said, she sounded quite disappointed, to be honest. “We love you too.” Dad added and the line went dead. I sighed and put the phone back into its cradle, to walk over to the sofa and joined Ruth. Before I was sitting and actually found a comfortable position, the mobile phone lying on the table started vibrating. Ruth and I exchanged a look. “It’s your phone, I’m not picking it up.” She said. I rolled my eyes at this and leant forwards to grab the phone. “What is it with you people today! Can’t I just have ONE fucking day off!” I screamed, pressed the phone to my ear and heard a laughing person on the other end. “Well, I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you nice day off, I’ll phone back later when you’re more capable of talking normally.” Charlie said. “No!” I yelled, laughing myself too now. “I was just- I was, talking to myself and just erm-” “It’s okay, I understand.” He laughed. “Anyway, I was wondering if you had anything to do today, other than sitting on the sofa and glaring at the TV screen.” He asked. “How did you- How did you know I am sitting on the sofa watching TV?” I stuttered, quite scared that he was looking at me or something. “Wild guess. You’re the type of lying on the sofa watching TV on your day off.” He explained. “I’ll just take that as a compliment, won’t I.” “You do that. You got anything to do or what?” I thought for a moment. Spending the rest of the day watching TV or spending the rest of the day watching TV with Charlie? “Depends on what we’re gonna do.” I said. “I just want to have a quiet talk with you, under while enjoying some early lunch in the park. How about that?” He suggested. “Hmm, sounds okay to me.” I decided and already stood up to walk to my bedroom to pick out some clothes. “Good. I’ll pick you up in about an hour. Are you ready by then?” “Yup, see you in hour. Bye.” “Bye, bye.” He said and hung up. I flicked through my wardrobe and picked out some flared jeans and a nice warm, bright yellow top that actually hurt your eyes when you looked at it, with long sleeves. Dried my hair, put it in a high ponytail and applied some make-up. I watched myself in the mirror and concluded that I actually looked quite okay. “You on a date?” Ruth asked, while she leaned against the door post and looked at me. “No, just having a business lunch with Charlie.” “Hmhm.” “What! It’s nothing, Ruth. Just lunch. In the park. With Charlie.” The doorbell buzzed through the apartment. I looked at my alarm; who could that be? If it was Charlie, he’d be half an hour early. “I’ll get it.” Ruth said and turned to open the door a bit further down the hall. “It’s Charlie!” She called and came back running in my room. “It’s Charlie! It’s Charlie!” She grinned like a maniac on drugs and bobbed up and down. “Hello?” Came a deep, low voice and Charlie poked his head around the door. “I just guessed you were in here, because that girl ran off as soon as she saw me.” He nodded in Ruth’s direction. “Am I really that scary?” I stretched out my arms to give him a hug and a soft kiss on his cheek. “No, you’re not. She’s just excited to see you.” Ruth blushed so madly, that I was really starting to think she’d end up as a tomato. “Shall we go then?” I asked. Charlie held out his arm so I could link mine in it and we left the apartment for what it was. Including a grinning, blushing and bobbing up and down Ruth.
Twisterdy twist coming up after the break. Stay tuned!
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