You know how you get those next day jitters the night before the first day of school, or maybe your first day of work? That's exactly what I have now.

After I'd left Cat at the coffee shop, I'd gone home and fixed myself some microwaveable macaroni and cheese—the finest of foods for an 'up and coming pop star'—watched some TV and went straight to bed around ten. Then, it hit me that my album was going to drop in two hours and I suddenly had a lot of nervous energy. I've been fidgeting around in my bed for the past hour not really doing anything.

My mind wanders to Cat for some odd reason, and I wonder what she's doing right now. She could be asleep or having a sleepless night like me. From various sleepovers I used to have with the girl, I remember that she had always had problems hitting the sack due to always being too energetic. A smile carves its way onto my face as I remember spending time with Cat at Hollywood Arts along with everyone else. I rarely keep in touch with Andre and Beck, usually just a random Skype chat whenever there's a birthday or gig here and then. I wonder if Cat keeps in touch with everyone, even Jade.

Before I know it, I've completely erased myself from reality and in my dreams I see only the calm ocean.


Text messages are a pretty cool thing, don't get me wrong. You can get a message across so someone far away without seeing their face or hearing their voice. Phones have come a long way and that's awesome.

What's not awesome is receiving text messages at four o'clock in the morning.

I pull myself out of my bed and practically drag myself to the opposite side of the room. I always put it on the dresser so it won't distract me when I'm trying to sleep, but now I'm starting to regret that decision. The dresser seemed a million miles away. My phone buzzed again, again, and again. Whoever this was, the situation better be freaking important.

I enter my pass code to see only messages that an unidentified number had spammed me with. I scrolled through them.

3:45 am- Is this Tori's phone?

3:51 am- Hello? Is anybody home? :)

3:54 am- I wonder if food items feel like they have homes.

3:56 am- But they get eaten a lot so I guess they feel betrayed and closed in. Bummer for them.

4:00 am- Tori?

4:10 am- I'm hungry.

The bright light stings my eyes and I yawn as I read two other messages sent, one with over three smiley faces sticking on the end of it. From the complete random subject changes and texts at this ungodly hour, I'm assuming it's Cat. I text her back to confirm so and she enthusiastically responds yes (with multiple exclamation points, which I found painful to look at). I ask why she had to text me at four in the morning and she said that she didn't have a good answer. I say 'okay?' and then set my phone down, thinking the conversation is over.

I crawl back into bed and stuff my face back in the pillow. I breathe deeply into it and close my eyes. I feel relaxed and comfortable, ready to drift to sleep when—

Give a little time to me, we'll burn this out,

We'll play hide and seek to turn this around,

And all I want is the taste that your lips allow

My my, my my, give me love

Are. You. Kidding. Me.

Grumbling, I stumble out of bed and head towards my phone, which is currently blaring Ed Sheeran at unbearable volume for four in the morning. I pick it up, not caring to check whom it is because I already know who.

"What?" I growl into the phone. You can't blame me. I only went to bed a few hours ago.

"Oh," Cat says from the other end, "Is this a bad time?" she giggles.

"Oh, no," I say sarcastically, "It's only four-thirty. This is the perfect time to have a conversation." I think she hears the malice in my voice because she stops giggling immediately and apologises repeatedly, so much that I barely have any room to squeeze in an 'It's okay' (because it really was something silly to get mad over, especially when I knew Cat wasn't trying to do any harm) but I eventually do.

"So Cat," I say softly, "Not to be rude or anything, why are you calling me?"

"Well I was going to go to sleep but then I realized that your album was coming out so I stayed up all night long until it came out. Then, I spent like two hours listening to the songs on repeat and all of them reminded me of you and then I remembered that you sang them and I wanted to congratulate you on the album because it's really good and I remembered I had your phone number and I texted you on my roommate's phone and you texted back but then you stopped and I realised I still hadn't congratulated you and that I also wanted pancakes. Congratulations, Tori!" By the end, she's breathless but I can feel her happiness for me through the phone. I smile and I know she's smiling, too.

"Thanks, Cat." I tell her. It's silent for a moment. My stomach makes an awkward gurgling sound. "Hey," I interrupt the silence, "Pancakes sound kind of good right now. Meet me at Charlie's Pancake Factory in fifteen minutes?"

"Kay kay." She breathes into the phone. I want to ask her if she keeps in touch with anyone from our old group, but before I'm able to form the first word she's gone.

I run a hand through my hair. I glance at my jeans from yesterday hanging over a chair in the corner of the room. Shrugging, I grab some cash and head out the door in my lollipop pajamas.


I want to marry a pancake and have little adorable pancake children.

If you've never had Charlie's Pancakes, it's time to book your little tush down to L.A this instant and have some now. It's like a fluffy party in your mouth.

Cat and I are seated in a blue booth in the corner of the 24-Hour-Restaurant munching away happily on the heavenly food and just enjoying each other's company. The keep in touch question of mine is momentarily forgotten as we ask each other about other things and I learn a little bit more about her.
Cat's studying acting at a local college and has been in two plays within the last four months and has an agent and a manager. She was dating a person named Sam up until about five months ago when she found out Sam was seeing someone from one of the casts behind her back. I don't know what to tell her other than "I'm sorry," and Cat shrugs it off, saying how she never felt comfortable with Sam anyway, but her eyes water slightly. I don't question her why about the subject.

I share a story about a boy named Drew who I'd dated for a while before he dumped me for no reason, but I don't think I make her feel any better because she excuses herself to use the restroom and doesn't return until after I've finished my pancakes.

Cat puts on a smile as she eats her food and gives a story about an embarrassing audition and I watch and listen intently. Err, I try to. For some reason beyond me, I my eyes flicker to her lips, which are curled around her fork, almost sucking it. She scrapes remnants of whipped cream off her plate with her finger and her small, pink tongue tentatively licks the cream off. Cat pauses when she notices me staring and blushes, proceeding to wipe the rest off herself with a napkin.

Her eyebrows fly up. "Sorry, do you find that gross? My parents used to tell me not to do it in public, but I can't help it." She smiles nervously at me.

I shake my head. "No, no, it's fine." I stutter out. I don't understand what made me stare. Maybe it was the colour of her lips, which seem to be redder than they were yesterday. Not that I was looking at her lips yesterday, either. It's just something I noticed. I cringe when I notice I'm trying to cover up the reasoning for my thoughts.

Please ignore me.

A waiter with an overwhelming amount of acne brings us our bill and I try to hand him the ball of cash I'd kept in my pajama pocket.

Cat bats my hand a way and holds out a twenty-dollar bill for the guy (his nametag says 'Kip') to take.

"I woke you up early, the least I can do is pay." Cat says, batting her eyelashes at me. I hate it when she does that to me. I huff, stuffing the cash back into my pocket. Kip takes the bill, leaves our receipt and swiftly walks away. Involuntarily, I yawn, feeling sleep trying to control me.

We walk out of Charlie's Pancake Factory together and I wait for a car to pick Cat up. It's around six now and the sky's starting to get brighter and I can see her better. Her dimples are slightly showing, which means she's smiling a little. Cat gives a little hum before telling me, "This was nice, Tor. Thanks for getting pancakes with me."

A sleek black car pulls into the parking lot and honks at us. Cat's ride.

She turns towards me and opens her arms. I step into her and my arms wrap around her. She's really short so I have to bend a little, but she's warm and soft and that makes up for it. She feels like home. Cat's hand rubs against my back as she whispers in my ear, "This really was nice, Tori." And she hugs me for a little more, swaying from side to side. I don't realise that I'm halfway asleep until my body loses control of itself and my full body weight leans into her.

"Oh, God, Tori!"

The first few chapters are going to be a little boring (and short), but, you know, they have to fall in love and stuff and that takes some time. And just for future reference, YES, this is a Cori ROMANCE, not a Cori friendship.

If you have any feedback, if you could kindly drop it off in that little box down there that would make my day.