My mums last purchase was a pair of headphones from the apple store, which was not quite a shocker. She always had listened to her ipod as if it was a religion of some sort. Her headphones would usually go through trauma cases, dropping them in the sink, losing them, she frequently went to go buy pairs. I was also slightly glad she went to the Apple store, it was always fun for me to relax at the store and browse. I had always enjoyed spending to much time stealing wifi from the store when we went on the ninth year trip to Paris.Entering the store the usual birch coloured benches displaying the metal computers gave a welcoming sight to the regular scene I was used to, reminding me of home.
I wasn’t so sure who to ask about my mum, ask I went up slowly to ask one of the managers. This activity would be the usual to me soon enough as my awkwardness quickly was wearing off. The very tanned (slightly jealous of this) man had told me that he had seen someone but it was around three days ago. It was a long time off for her to stay in one city, I did not hold my hopes up. As I re-examined my situation I browsed through the dozen of computers.
“You looking for one to?” A high pitched voice had asked as my head turned around.
‘Nah, just browsing, wasting time.” I had responded
She had dark curly hair, her bangs straightened as the rest of her dark chocolate shaded hair curled. The aluminum spotlights showed off the natural shine her hair held as her yellow eyeshadow framed her hazel eyes. She was rather short, wearing flats and having a cherry coloured short dress on, wearing a beautiful pendant around her neck.
“You around here?” Her thick accent shown through, as she was clearly from around the city.
“Hehe, can you tell that easily, yeah Im from around bristol.” I smiled as I had told her, I always had hated my accent.
As soon as I told her my phone began going off, as I quickly reached in my metallically clad purse to grab it. I flipped it open putting the speaker next to my earring dazzled lobes.
“Hello Lovely!” As I immediately recognized the tone, it was Calvin’s.
“Hi hi, how is your bloody leg, both literally and swearing word ways.”
“Better, when we went this morning the doctor said that if I barely moved I could be in walking shape in like a week!” I was very excited to hear that, seeing as that was one less week till I could see him and share more experiences with him, and my friends in general. I walked out of the store as I walked past stores displays, heading to the beach, laughing and sharing what had happened today. It was like the old times, which was a good and bad thing, I didn’t know if I wanted to continue being the best friend like the past or more. I knew inside I truly wanted to be more, but going this way would never end up well.
–
I had gone out to a quant little cafe, complete with sweets as I ordered a serving of cheese cake and sat down on the lush deep red chair slowly eating the white cake. The blue walls were relaxing as the local art was hung up on various spots of the wall detailing the artist and there location as I could here deep conversations of the local citizens around me. I missed my friends, I hated eating alone. It reminded me of days upon weeks of eating alone in the Cafeteria, feeling like a utter nobody. I was paranoid that people would look at me and immediately judge me, thinking, oh look at that english girl isn’t she lonely. I wish I could have someone to discuss what I was supposed to do next, I was currently lost. I stared down at the checkered black and white floor as I saw a loose paper resembling a flyer on bright orange paper, my cold hands picked it up as my cheese cake waited to be finished.
My deep blew eyes scanned the paper, reading its typical Arial text. The flyer was for a local band, meeting at a local hotspot around town I was guessing. I was roughly considering going. I needed something to take my mind off of everything I had to worry about in my life, a night of distraction was not horribly bad of a thing, seeing as I did not have much of a lead on where to go next and my stress levels were about to combust. I quickly finished up the cake soon enough seeing the bare white porcelain dish left behind on the glass top table as I left the chilly cafe heading out onto the streets.
I decided to spend the rest of the day looking for my mum, I felt bad not caring enough. Maybe she didn’t WANT to be found, I just thought about this. What if I did find her, would she be terribly upset that I had found her, that she had to deal with me. Maybe she had left to get away from me, from her husband and to start a new slate. Looking could be the exact thing she did not want me to do. None the less I prevailed, being stereotypically a teen, I wanted answers for myself, not for her satisfaction. Spending the rest of the day searching the hot streets and palm tree filled ways of Lisbon looking for a runaway love.
The familiar sunset was upon me as I soon asked for directions to the local hotspot the band was playing at. I entered what appeared to be a very chic bar mixed in with a stage for performers. The place was packed as red, blue and yellow lights adorned the stage, crowd awaiting the bands appearance. I headed over to one of the seats of the bar, its brushed aluminum chassis yielded reflections of the stage as I sat upon the wooden stool, ordering a drink. I never drinked, but I was incredibly thirsty so I ordered one, seeing as if I ordered water it would stand out among the people in the dark room.
The room had a very classic feel mixed in with modern. Its square hanging pendent lamps traded times with the old faded pictures crowded on the right wall along with the classic stools next to a chic art deco couch. The walls were painted black as one wall just had complete glass on one side, reflecting the hundreds of young people standing around in their dresses and polos. The floors were incredibly scratched, telling stories of the past.
My eyes just wondered around the room as I continued sipping my drink out of the clear glass, scouting for whatever I could. I felt incredibly out of place here. I was one of those people that on saturdays would just sit wishing she could be at a place such as this, not actually being there. The one that would come to school Monday morning and hear about the party that was on friday that I did not go to because I was afraid that I could not study and finish my homework. Now that I think about it, were all those missed parties in turn for work as important as I placed them to be. I was working for the future, sure, but was I replacing potential memories with future wishing, and were they ultimately important enough for those missed times. Maybe that was what this trip was for, finding it out, maybe a A star was not as incredibly important as the times I could have. Maybe I should thank my mum, even though she did not do it for me, she let me explore the great perhaps, and it was turning out quit well if I do say so myself.
A few minutes later the stage lights got brighter as the crowd got continually louder and louder. I passed my drink to the bartender as I hopped off the aged wooden stool and toward the crowd. I patted my black knee length dress, flattening it as I entered energetic crowd. I plan on letting my guard entirely off tonight, whatever this might entail.
The band appeared soon enough, there were three members, one girl and two guys, all dressed entirely different compared to each other. The female had pitch black hair, skinny dark navy jeans, striped shirt and gaudy jacket, which sparkled in the lights, her dark green eyes sparkled. One of the guys had toffee coloured medium length hair as his bangs nearly covered one of his eyes, cheeks flushed red. His bright white shoes contrasted against the dark hoodie as his gingham belt had a glare on the stage. The last member had short blonde hair, his baby blue eyes were like the sky in the morning, his striped zip-up had dozens of colours on it, reflecting the colours of the DJ stand he was by. The girl, a singer, the blonde a DJ it seemed and the toffee guy a keyboardist.
As they soon started playing, it was clear this was a electronic band, which did not bother me at the least bit. I had dozens of electronic bands on my Ipod, I was moderately happy that they were electronic. The stark beats soon started, making everyone soon start to move, the beats got louder, and heavier, if not catchier by the minute as the girls voice was striking. Her thought to be harsh voice was all but, it was very mellow and calm, contending with the harshness of the music behind her. Soon enough I was dancing, which I barely even noticed. It seemed out of place not to as the fluorescent bulbs soon enough were flashing, I had no clue what I had gotten myself into but I was far from complaining.
Minutes past, the crowd and I all but relinquished in energy. Soon enough, as I had not even noticed, a striking boy was staring at me. As quickly as I had noticed this he had looked at me, trading words without speaking. His dirty blonde hair moved across, forward, up, down as he was quietly dancing, whilst moving toward my direction. I soon enough flipped out my mobile, trying to catch its reflection to see if I looked decent, fixing my plain brown straightened hair. I was not normally anxious towards guys, as they all might be different looking but still the same idiots, little exceptions, this was one of them. His freckled faced glowed in the crowd as his wavy hair rustled in the slight breeze of the movement of the crowd. His dark black leather jacket was flashy as his grey tight fitting jeans struggled to moved and push against the grain of the crowd as I quickly tried to think of something to say.
“Hey,” his scratchy voiced called out beside me as he looked into my blue eyes, he was clearly from either Scotland or Ireland, I was bad at those types of things. Side note for me, he had long eyelashes, I was a tad jealous.
“Hey!” I had replied, as I thought about how bad of a reply that was, what do you say after that. I wished for the crowd to stop bumping into the two of us as the deep trance continued to play in the background, but i barely even heard as I was not focused on the music in the least bit.
“You from around London?”
“Nah, Gloucester. You?”
“Dublin.”
“Im really bad at being able to interpret accents!” We were screaming over the crowd, trying to ignore the loud noises.
“I couldn’t tell, seeing as you never guessed. I guess I have more guts than you!” He smiled, his pearly coloured teeth shined despite the current stage of near darkness in the room, his dimples showing as he laughed a few.
“Shut up!” I yelled back, smiling.
“Shut up? That is the least of my worries, if you want peace and quiet you are at the entirely WRONG place!”
As we continued to scream talk we soon lead to dancing. The deep beats were entrancing as the flashing lights flew across the room, skin to skin, body to body. This was not Lexi anymore, this was an entirely different person. I was not afraid though, whoever she was I was currently okay with it. Who cared who saw, no one knew me and I was in the moment, my mind didn’t care, maybe the trance caused this. Faster the beats started to play, as we soon began dancing even more, his hands grasped onto my dress, as his eyes stared into mine. The crowd jumping up and down, the band was over with but they soon just stood with the DJ as Paul Oakenfold was playing.
“Hey!” I yelled as he soon whipped around listening. “Wanna go on a walk?” I had asked, as I soon flipped open my mobile to see what time it was. The screen read three missed calls, all from Calvin, as I quickly ignored them, reading the time and putting the phone back into my pocket.
“Yeah, sure, I am fine with that.” As he quickly held my warm hand, leading me to the exit.
“I don’t want you to get lost!” He responded as he smiled.
Soon enough I was back out onto the familiar bricked street, as the moon was quickly on the west. The winding street curved as the metal hanging lamps near the businesses brightened the path both ways. The cream coloured decorated windows above the streets glowed as every living thing in them appeared to be asleep, a quite calm was dramatically different then I had been used to recently. I had entered single handed, and now I had a hand TO hold. I was not sure what I was doing, seeing as all this was quite not me, I would go with the flow. I never went with the flow, it was just something I was never comfortable with. Going with the flow you never know what could happen. Planned events were more my thing, but letting loose allowed me to have fun tonight, so I will continue doing what I have been doing for the night, nothing horribly wrong has happened yet.
–
“Why are you here?” I asked as we were walking down the street, I guessed we were going to the ocean front.
“Long story.” He laughed as he looked onward. I could tell he was relaxed, which made me feel like I could ask him these questions.
“I think we can both say we have time, obviously, or you would not be spending your time with me.” I asked, as I presented a loaded question, which I did with almost everyone I talked to when I first meet someone, asking a question to see their response but secretly meaning something else. In this cased I wanted to see if he would mention me and how I was not a waste of time. I am basically evil.
“True, what can I say your blue eyes matched mine, it would be a nice matching eye couple of course.”
“True, our eyes DO look incredibly matchy together, I sure hope it is not so matchy it turns tacky. Then we just could not be seen together.” I said sarcastically.
“Well fine, here begins my story, I am a bad story teller though, you have been warned.” He said.
“I shall be the judge of that.” I felt like a little kid, listening to stories, but I was more so excited. I prepared myself to whatever I was about to here, maybe his life could be more screwy than mine.
“Well a few months ago I was in college yes? So yeah it was basically a dream come true I guess, I had amazing friends, parents were as cool as they needed to be, and I was going to a amazing college, learning what I was so interested in, which was music, music theory, etc etc.”
“You sing? play? what!” He was into music, how damned my life was at this moment. Nothing beats a guy that plays music, I was officially wooed, as much as I tried to resist. Damn the one alcoholic drink I had consumed because that was what I will blame it on.
“Yeh well I play violin, since I was really little. My mum never made me but I just really though people that played it looked cool so I tried it out and have been in love with it ever since.” His irish accent said.
“Gr, hold on.” I replied as my hands quickly jumped to get the loud ringing nine2five ringtone, as I glanced at the LCD screen, Calvin was calling. I did not give it a second thought as I turned down the call, putting the phone back into my pocket. I could hear the rustling waves in the distance, swish, back and fro, calming my nerves.
“nine2five?” He questioned, joking around.
“Shut up I like The Ordinary Boys!” I yelled, as i faked slapped him. He quickly gave out a fake ow noise as the two of us smiled.
“Anyway back to where I started before someone quickly interrupted. So yes, I was in college, this is my last year. I had the most amazing friends I could wish for, they were always there for me, though I really did not have much of anything they needed to comfort me with. I loved my life, college was Monday thru Thursday, study on Fridays usually then party with my friends on Saturday. One day I went home to my little flat to visit my parents, I was not living with them since the commute if I lived with them would be incredibly long, I only had so many songs to listen to ya know.”
“Of course!” As we both gave a welcoming smile.
“So I got home and my parents were both sitting at the dining room table and staring at me. I knew something was up, they always did that when something negative had happened. They were like Luke sit down we need to have a talk, so of course I sit. I soon learned that my mum had lost her job, and so they could not afford to keep letting me go to that college. I had to find another. I found one here that was just as notable, but was not nearly as much. I still had to leave all my friends, favorite pubs, everything. I am not angry at my parents, just upset, I really haven’t seen any of my friends in ages it seems.”
“I am sorry to hear that.” My life was not nearly as screwed up as everyone else’s, I needed to get that into my head. Everyone has the same messed up issues as everyone else I learned, as I looked into his freckled rosy face.
“Hey it is fine, we are in one of the best places in the world, not the time to be all gloom and doom right. Anyways someone still has a story to tell.”
“Ugh fine, strap on the boring. So basically I was coming home from school one day and my mum is not there, i go to ask my dad where she left. He does not know, or he isn’t telling me. I was a tiny upset, I stole his debit card, and now me and my friends are on a mission to find her. Epic, I know.”
