𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐒𝐢𝐱
✦ ˚ * ✦ . .˚ . ✦˚ . ˚ . ✦ ˚ . ˚ . ✦ . ˚ * ✦
˚ *
𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝟐𝟔 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒, roaming the earth in search for a purpose. But it was at that moment, where I woke up and Alex's closed eyes were the first thing I saw, was where I realized that I was finally living.
I gazed at him as if he placed the very stars in the sky. I gazed at him as if he was so well tangled in my soul that it was impossible for him to be unloved by me—because he was—
Every spectrum of my soul was covered in him. In the air I was breathing, in the blood in my veins. His touch remained in my skin and it felt like little stars danced across the most vulnerable parts of me.
Parts of me he'd seen now. I uncovered—not only my body to him, but my fears and desires, the place I come from, the depth of every word I had uttered throughout my life. And what made our unknown horizon of life stretch out and aim higher was the fact that he received all of those details so effortlessly, as if he'd wanted them all along.
As my thoughts deepened, Alex's eyes cracked open with a stillness I giggled at. "Well, I'll be damned. What I gorgeous sight this is"
"Woke up with your British self on the right side, didn't yeh?" I responded, mocking his accent. He rolled his eyes teasingly and rolled over so he was resting on his back.
He began stretching and the silky bedsheets covering his chest gave me a peek at his veins flexing as his arms rose higher and a small whimper escaped his lips.
Once he was done —and my mouth finally closed itself— Alex gazed down at me with a heavy lidded face and a snarky smile only he could pull off that early in the morning.
"Ready for another day of play-acting?" He uttered.
"No. Is there any way we can stay locked up in this room and not face anything or anyone?" I complained, burying my face in the pillow.
"We could... but that would make us a bunch of fraidy-cats, wouldn't it?" The way the words left his mouth made me reconsider whether he was joking or just being his plain, normal self with his interesting choice of words.
"I guess. And you do have a show tonight" I yawned, shifting to my side so I was facing him again.
"And I want yeh there" He nodded, his eyes darkening with nothing but truthfulness and I could feel it lingering through me.
"I have nowhere else to be" I whispered.
"Even if yeh did, I'd still drag yer bum straight to that venue" He cocked his head to the side and I burst into laughter. He joined in a few seconds later.
Our laughter ceased and the tension exacerbated. Our breathings matched one another, we were both in synch and I was inching in closer to his face.
But they say that when things go too well something unconventional is bound to happen.
And it did.
Before I could even bat an eye, a voice called out Alex's name. We both looked at each other with a terrified expression. And then the door swung open.
"Fuck me" Alex cussed and hid under the covers. I widened my eyes and thought that there was no way in hell anyone wouldn't be able to tell that there was a person hiding under there.
Jamie walked in the room and I covered my bare body with the bedsheets, hoping he wouldn't be able to see anything. I could hear Alex breathing next to me under the sheets.
Jamie gazed at me and gave me an apologetic smile. "Pardon me. Didn't mean to intrude in such way. I packed something in Alex's suitcase since mine ran out of storage and I need it"
He pointed at Alex's luggage sitting on the floor, neatly zipped up. I nodded as he bent down to unzip it and poked through Alex's belongings. He grabbed a button up shirt and closed the bag.
I feigned a smile at him as he stood up. I hadn't even noticed he was shirtless. "Someone's cold. You've certainly got a lot of coverlets" He said pointing to the bundle next to me that sprawled across the mattress.
"Yeah" I chuckled falsely. "I get cold very easily" I shrugged, wishing for nothing else but for this moment to be over.
"When yeh see Alex tell him to shake a leg" He said before dashing out the door.
I remained quiet for a moment, hearing Alex fumble around through the sheets. He came out with his hair looking messy and an expression of relief.
"Close enough, huh?" He chuckled, taking lightness into such a confining occurrence I had gone through with one of his band mates.
"What the hell does 'shake a leg' mean?" Was the only question dwelling on my head.
"It's like telling someone to step on it" He explained but that didn't clear my mind. I made a confused expression.
"Put yer skates on?" He kept going but I was very much troubled still. "Chop chop? Hurry up?"
"Oh. Well you could've just said that from the start, I'm not a walking thesaurus like you"
"Shall I be offended or just carry on?" He arched his eyebrow at me. I rolled my eyes with a smile and stood up from the bed, clutching the bedsheets around my body.
"What are yeh hiding exactly?" That made me turn around. He was still lying on his side. I felt a rush of adrenaline and the echo of the electricity zinged in the air.
"I've your body memorized by now. Haven't missed a single detail" He explained sternly, yet I could admire the affability of his words just perfectly.
"You creep. Did you also count my moles when I was sleeping?" I said jokingly, but his eyes shifted in a way that made me gasp. "You did, didn't you?"
"Sue me, Elaine" He grinned from ear to ear, standing up to retrieve something from his luggage. I peaked at his carefully folded clothes, making up another teasing comment in my head. But I decided to spare him, for once.
"I'm taking a shower" His lips pursed as he headed for the bathroom.
"But I wanted to take one first!" I opposed. He turned around with a cruelly mocking expression.
"I called it first" Alex raised his shoulders, placing another feigned sympathetic mask on his face. He walked to the door and stepped inside the bathroom.
"Alex, get out of there and let me take a shower" I took an attempt at seeming tough and demanding but he satirized me relentlessly.
"No can do" Alex shut the door and I heaved a sigh in annoyance towards him.
"I hope you slip and fall!" I exclaimed through the door. I heard the water begin to drip down to the tiles.
"Lovin' the encouragement, babe!" He yelled back and I resigned from persistence. I chuckled, looking down.
———————————
The bright orange light above us flickered from time to time. The opaque colors covering the walls in the VIP room the guys had reserved seemed to be mirroring the ornamental of their latest album.
They were all exhausted and simply wanted to let go of preoccupations after yet another successful performance of theirs. I agreed right away, of course.
"So this is the album cover?" I questioned, pointing to a file on Matt's laptop. He nodded and clicked on it. The image depicted a white car parked in an empty parking lot.
It was so simple yet the details knew just how to portray everything in the same balance.
"We think it's a Toyota Corolla" Nick chimed in, crossing around the wooden table we all surrounded.
"You think?" I remarked, watching Matt shrug at my inquiry.
"We're not exactly sure. I took the picture around 2019. It seemed picturesque" He responded, signaling the image upon us.
"And appropriate for the record" Nick finished for him. I nodded in understanding.
"It does fit pretty well with the style you're aiming for" I commented.
I fixed my gaze on Alex. He had his hands set on his hips, seeming so interested in our ongoing conversation. His lips slowly curved into a smile.
"There's something that suggests it's surveillance. I like it and I think it influenced a lot of the lyrics" He explained, taking another sip of the elegant bourbon he'd ordered earlier.
"Well I can tell you guys put your heart and soul into this record. It's amazing and I'm incredibly proud of you guys" I said sincerely.
"Yeah, there's no one that knows how my internal dispute took a toll on me better than Elaine" Alex uttered with a faint smile, once again hiding that side of his only I'd had the pleasure of witnessing.
"I did suffer it's consequences" I heaved a purposely exaggerated sigh and they all cracked a grin.
Alex's heavy stare dwelled into me. I tried my hardest not to get slurred into his irises but it was hard.
I was beginning to contemplate the idea of giving in to his unconscious actions when a rhythmic vibration cut me off guard.
I lowered my eyes to find Miles' contact name projecting on my phone screen.
"I gotta take this. It's Miles" I announced and the boys all told me to go and not to worry. I walked away, making sure I was out of earshot from them.
Glancing at Alex one last time, my finger slid across the screen and answered the call.
"It's been five days, Kane. If you hadn't called me right now I would've gone to the police station with a picture of you and a description of what you were wearing the last time I saw you"
"I'm still locked up in Alex's basement but he brought me water today" He conversed. I giggled, glad that we could both joke around this way.
"How's London?" I inquired, a smile flashing across my face.
"It's been better than okay but we need to have a confab about yeh and Alex" He hummed.
I glimpsed back at the table where the guys discussed more incognitos about the album, focusing more on Alex, who was the man in question as of that moment.
"Let's just say that the last few days have been..." I trailed, not being able to select the right word.
"Brimmed with contingencies?" Miles suggested and I agreed that that was a way of summarizing it to a slight extent.
"Somehow" I heaved a sigh, tracing my eyes across the marble floor. "He's a different person, Mi" I beamed.
"No, he's always been that person. He was just really outstanding at pretending he didn't stand an interest upon yeh, come hell or high water" I heard shuffling through the other line and assumed he was lying on his couch.
"In some measure, I am happy he hadn't shown me this side of him before, or I would be ensorcelled and out of my mind with him by now"
"Even more than yeh already are?" He chuckled and I shrugged my shoulders, even though he couldn't see it.
"I guess. But it's not the kind of love that you see in movies or poets used to write about. It's not that deep-settled. And I don't want to force it either. I simply want us to adjust to our own pace"
"Sounds decent. Finally Al got his wish granted. He wouldn't shut up about yeh for the life of his"
"What do you mean?" I drew my eyebrows together.
"Every evening while I was still in L.A. he'd come to my place and our one-sided conversations were nothing but him complaining about the way yeh were so annoyingly precious to him"
"It seemed foolish to me that he'd sit around in my couch, drunk from that bourbon I don't know how can even drink, and not doing anything to get yeh by his side"
"But then again this is Alex we're talking about. Ever since I've known him he hasn't backed out of anything. And every man gets his wish"
I listened closely to his ramble, creating a mental picture of Alex taking an obnoxious attempt at drowning his thoughts about me with alcohol, yet somehow still rocking that look.
Stupid enchanting Turner.
"I hadn't expected that" Was all I said, too caught up in my train of thought.
"Now yeh know, El" He laughed softly through the phone.
We conversed about different occurrences of these days we hadn't seen each other for an amount of time I couldn't quite figure out.
After a while I remember Miles allowing a sigh to escape his lips and saying that he had to go. I said my farewells and hung up.
Once my eyes shot back at the table, I realized that there was nobody there except for Alex, sitting on a barstool with his phone in his hands and that squinting expression he always seemed to have on whenever a technological product was handed to him.
"Where's everyone?" I asked, placing my hand on his shoulder. He shook his head, not glancing at me.
"In their rooms" He responded, absentmindedly.
"What are you doing?" I grinned, looking down at his screen and the way his finger couldn't find its way around the object in front of him.
"Need help?" I offered, once his frustration seemed to be contagious.
"I got it" Alex assured and I just couldn't believe him.
"Al, if you really do need help..."
"There we are" He chuckled. I furrowed my eyebrows and gazed down, only for my confusion to settle in deeper.
"You were just trying to attach a picture to an email?" I cocked an eyebrow. "Wha- who even sends emails to—" I visualized closer, reading the contact name. "Their mom?"
"I do. That IMessage hogwash will never do it for me. I've tried everything and I can never getting working" He complained, turning his phone off.
"You're so old-timey. Are you even from this century?" I teased, wrapping my arm around his shoulder.
"Positively not. I'm a vampire and I'm 110 years old" He nodded with a straight face.
"Oh I can tell you're a vampire, alright. You almost bit my neck off the other night" I mentioned, pointing to the sight purplish colors of the hickies he'd left on my neck—which I had tried to conceal with makeup but failed miserably at.
"Those are exactly what my services are" Alex pointed at me with his index finger.
"Going around biting people's necks?" I arched an eyebrow.
"You'd be surprised how good yours tasted compared to others I've tried" He shrugged and I hummed.
"Is this seat taken?" I pointed at his legs and he looked up at me.
"Already sittin' on it, darling, pardon me. The floor's not taken though" He smirked and I rolled my eyes.
"Fucking cunt" I cussed.
"Hey. Don't insult me or you'll see" He raised his eyebrows at me and the curiosity invaded me.
"What will I see?" I defied him, inching toward his face.
"I'll bite your neck. And this time I won't leave a hickey" His arms enclosed my waist, proceeding to pull me into his lap.
"Oh my, Mr, Turner has me scared to death. Im practically shaking!" I mocked.
"You will be shaking soon. And not from being scared. That I can guarantee you, sweetheart"
My fragile brave façade disappeared. And in its place stood the piece of soul that he'd taken away from me that night. It was like seeing him shake it in front of my face as I tried to retrieve it, but I never got it back.
"Vampire got your tongue?" He mocked, flashing me a gleaming smile. "If not then don't worry, I'll have it soon"
I scrutinized him carefully, staring into the very same intricacies I had memorized little by little and proceeded to break character by giggling, he did the same.
"What'd yeh and Miles fuckin' Kane talk about?" He questioned, pulling me closer to his warm body.
"Oh you know, the usual. How's everything with him, when's he coming back, your heretofore obsession with me" I said purposely distracted.
His eyes widened and so did my sneaky smile. Alex cleared his throat, attempting to not look as bothered by my casual mention of the topic, but we both knew I had seen the flicker of his smugness for a split second.
"Oh darn, Miles told yeh that? That muppet will for sure suffer for this" He assured me and I giggled even more.
"Alex is obsessed with me, Alex is obsessed with me, Alex is obsessed with me" I taunted, watching him react to the slight bounces I took on his lap.
"You're so gosh-darned annoying, you know that, right?"
"Yes, but you're obsessed with me so I've you to stand my annoyance" I shifted more on his lap.
"Alright, squirt. I think you can take a break from getting all bouncy ball on me pants" He grunted, gripping my waist slightly.
"Make me" I lowered my hips just enough for his lips to part. I fell in love with that sight.
"Oh I'll make you, alright. And I'll give you three seconds to run" He uttered. I scoffed, thinking he was bluffing but when his eyebrows raised I knew I was in deep.
"1" He pointed his index finger at me. I got off his lap and onto my feet again, fixing my hem of my skirt.
"2" That's where I started running. I heard the squeaking of the barstool against the marble floor and picked up the pace.
"You didn't even get to three!" I exclaimed, looking back at him chasing me, his lips parted and messy hair bouncing with the speed.
"What's the fun in that, huh gorgeous?" He panted, as we ran through the wallow halls of our hotel, my giggles and his chuckles bouncing off the walls.
I looked ahead and noticed an obstacle, one that for sure would force me to simply accept my fate. I bumped into the wall before me and immediately glanced back at Alex.
"Gotcha" He mocked, hovering over me. I fixed my eyes on his and grinned from ear to ear.
"Oh no, what will the scary vampire do to me?" I said in an overly exaggerated manner.
"That's for you to find out, love" He said, reaching for my neck.