It wasn't until about 2 o' clock did he finally wake-up and he immediately checked his phone.
1 missed call
May
Drew quickly called her and let out a sigh of relief when she answered
"Hello?" she asked
"Hey I'm sorry I didn't get your call" Drew apologized
"Hey it's fine," she laughed "But, I do wonder, why didn't you pick up?"
"I fell asleep right after I got home, well first I found your letter." He admitted
"Oh, that's good, I didn't want to it get into the wash" she said awkwardly
"Neither would I, I-I really appreciated what you wrote." He said honestly
"Is that all?" she asked sounding upset
"No I just- I don't want to say something stupid" he said
"Well, what did you think about it?" she coaxed him
"I felt like you really out thought into it, like you meant every word," he said
"Oh, I-I um. I'm meeting with Allen and Diana in a few minutes, I should go"
"No! This is exactly what I was not trying to do, I sound like an idiot but, that letter meant everything to me, May." He said earnestly
"Thanks, that's good. But, I really do have to go, I-I'll call you tonight or tomorrow morning okay?"
"Tonight" he demanded
She laughed softly the sound ringing in his ears, "Tonight" she agreed.
"Bye"
"Bye."
The pattern for weeks followed as such, Monday and Tuesday she called and texted, Wednesday she would send pictures along with texts, calls, and emails, Thursday she would call and text, Friday and Saturday they would Skyoe for hours, and on Sunday she would email them.
By the time the three month mark had hit everyone was fully in 'I miss May' mode, as Dawn had come to call it. So she and Paul had been secretly planning something special. As one of the days had been going by in the café which held Ash, Misty, and Drew, who certainly had been moping lately.
"Hey!" cheered Dawn as she entered the café holding hands all smiles. "What's your issue?" growled Misty.
"Well you should open these," said Paul handing the three of them envelopes.
"No"
"Friggen"
"Way" they said together staring at what was in them. Upon further inspection one could tell that they were airline tickets.
"Maylene, Reggies wife has a brother who is in charge of ticket distribution at an airport and pulled some strings and got us tickets to Rome." Explained Paul
"And my mother's friend has a summer house in Italy that she gave me the keys to!" Dawn shouted.
"So that means we get to visit May?" asked Drew hopefully. At the sight of Dawn and Paul's nods he broke out into a huge grin and pulled out his phone to tell May as Misty and Ash cheered
"No!" Dawn yelled at Drew, "We want it to be a surprise!" she pleaded as Drew put away his phone. "Fine, well when do we leave?" he asked
"Tomorrow." Paul said "We will stay for one week no more no less" he finished "Only a week?" Ash whined.
"Sorry, we were trying for two but the women told me her son was moving in after two weeks but once we leave he has to get it ready." Dawn said apologizing
"So shouldn't we go pack?" asked Misty. The group nodded and went there separate ways after thanking Paul and Dawn.
The next day, Rome, Italy. May's hotel.
The group walked in and headed to the front desk and asked the women if she knew what room May was in.
"Are you her friends?" the group nodded and she gave them the number. They went up and knocked on the door and when no answer came they went back down to the lobby.
"How do we find out where May is?" Drew asked out loud.
As if he had been godsent a man walked over and asked "Are you looking for May Maple?" he asked
Dawn nodded and explained they were friends and were visiting. The man laughed and introduced himself as Allen Ginsberg "Your friends had some talent, many of our collegues have been begging her to work with them."
"That's great but, do you know where she is?" Drew asked imapatiently. Allen unfazed by his rudeness explained the situation "May has been insistent on paying for at least part of the room so when we aren't working on the gallery she is across the street at that resurant singing, and playing." He said with a fond smile
"She what?" they asked cofused. Allen looked taken aback and spoke "She said that her part time job is at a resurant in La Rousee" Misty was furious "She never told us!" she huffed
"Well if you want her she is across the street at the 'The Dratini' it was nice meeting you feel free to come on one of our photo adventures." He said as he walked away. The group looked between each other and nodded as they made there way to the pop culture restaurant across the street. When they entered they could hear the opening chords to a song only Drew recognized.
Flashback
Drew and May were sitting in her dorm as she attempted to help him with his Calculus homework, trying and failing, might I add.
"So if I want to find intrest then I do P= IRT?" he asked
May sighed, she, quite frankly, was very aggravated with Drew not following. "No the equation is I= PRT"
"Oh, sorry." Drew said sheepishly. May sighed and spoke "Look what do you when your in your dorm trying to study?"
"I usually listen to some music on the radio." He said. "It helps me concentrate" May nodded and turned on a station on the stereo system in her living room.
On it came some song by Lady Antebellum as she and Drew sat down again. As time went on Drew thankfully was finally getting the information and they had gotten through all of the problems without a problem.
As they sat in silence as he did his Biology homework, a required class, and May was putting together more pictures for a project in her still life photography class when a song unfamiliar to Drew came on.
Deciding since he didn't know it, that he wouldn't like it he went to turn it off when May slapped his hand away. "No I love this song!" she scolded. "What is this anyway?" he asked after he took his hand away.
"You've never heard it?" May asked, "No I don't think anyone has." May rolled her eyes and told him the name
"It's 'Sober' by P!NK" she explained. The name was familiar as he grew to actually like the song as time went on
"It's Sober by P!NK" Drew told them when he noticed there confused glances. They walked through the restaurant following the music until they came to stop when a stage entered there sight and rest assured, May was standing there and began singing the first lines not even noticing them.
I don't wanna be the girl who laughs the loudest
Or the girl who never wants to be alone
I don't wanna be that call at four o'clock in the mornin'
'Cause I'm the only one you know in the world that won't be homeAh, the sun is blindin'
I stayed up again
Oh, I am findin'
That's not the way I want my story to end
She took the mic off the stand and walked through the crowd all around the restaurant so everyone could enjoy her amazing voice.
I'm safe up high, nothing can touch me
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside, you're my protection
But how do I feel this good sober?I don't wanna be the girl that has to fill the silence
The quiet scares me 'cause it screams the truth
Please don't tell me that we had that conversation
'Cause I won't remember, save your breath
'Cause what's the use?Ah, the night is callin'
And it whispers to me softly, "Come and play"
But I, I am fallin'
And if I let myself go I'm the only one to blameI'm safe up high, nothing can touch me
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside, you're like perfection
But how do I feel this good sober?
It wasn't until she had gotten to the bridge did she finally see them standing in the middle of the restaurant and stopped short of her stride and got lower and tears pricked her eyes and once the chorus was to start she snapped out of it and began walking backwards facing them back onto the stage as she broke out into a grin finishing the song. Comin' down, comin' down, comin' down
Spinnin' 'round, spinnin' 'round, spinnin' 'round
I'm lookin' for myself, soberComin' down, comin' down, comin' down
Spinnin' 'round, spinnin' 'round, spinnin' 'round
Lookin' for myself, soberWhen it's good, then it's good, it's so good 'til it goes bad
'Til you're trying to find the you that you once had
I have heard myself cry 'never again'
Broken down in agony, just tryin' find a friend, oh, ohI'm safe up high, nothing can touch me
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside, you're like perfection
But how do I feel this good sober?I'm safe up high, nothing can touch me
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside, you're like perfection
But how do I feel this good sober?
Applause rang through the room as May bowed and walked to the band explaining she needed a few minutes for people she knew had walked in. When the group noticed her walking to the table they had been seated at Dawn and Misty jumped up and ran to her pulling her into a hug as they cried out of happiness.
When Ash and Paul were finally able to give her a hug she turned towards Drew and held her arms open waiting for him to come and when he did he grasped onto her for dear life. "That was amazing" he said into her hair
"Hello to you to." She laughed as she forced herself out of his arms until she was fully looking at them with a huge grin on her face. "What are you doing here?" she asked
"I got plane tickets from some family and we are staying at Dawn's friends, mom's place for a week" Paul explained. May grinned and began speaking again "I'll talk to Diana and Allen and see if I can get the week off and I can come and go from this place whenever," May said
"Oh, yeah when did you get a part-time job?" asked Misty angrily "Oh, I always had one I only worked every once in a while though." She explained
"Why didn't you tell us" Misty seethed. May shrugged "IT never came up." The group satisfied with her answer began serenading her with compliments on her performance until she insisted that they tell her about how college had been going.
The rest of the night was spent telling May of all the things that had been happening in La Rousse while May would also tell stories of her 'photo adventures' as she called them. "Look tomorrow is the only day I have to be in so why don't you guys some along it's just for me to take a few human life photo's, the models will come and we can leave in an hour." May said after she hung up with Diana.
The group agreed and went their separete ways for the night.
The next day
"This is the studio we have been using for our human life section of the gallery, Diana and Allen really want me to have a little of everything." May said as they walked into the room she would be taking pictures in.
"May!" a feminine voice called. They looked over to see a middle aged women walking towards them with a bug smile on her face. "Are you ready to meet the models, May?" she asked after introducing herself as Diana Arbus.
"Yeah, it's okay my friends are here right? Allen said it would be okay" she asked. Diana nodded and pulled May over to the group of people about their age.
"Everyone this is May Maple she will be the photographer for today, I'd like for you all to introduce yourselves." Diana called. The group began one by one introducing themselves to May
"Hi I'm Nicki!" a short giddy girl said
"Nice to meet you I'm Alex"
"You better take good pictures of me, Brianna Roselyn" one girl said snobbily while making eyes at Drew.
After about 15 people the last boy walked up and introduced himself. "Hi I-I'm Brendan, I really like your work and I am really excited to be able to do this." He said earnestly shaking her hand
"No problem I always love to work with people who know of my work, it introduces some sort of connection, which I feel make the pictures more life, like" May said
They spoke for a few minutes about May's work and much to Drew's annoyance and jealousy he even hugged her once he had to go get ready.
"Alright I want Nicki, Alex, Amanda, and Giussepe for the first picture!" May called once everyone was ready to start.
"Alright Nicki I want you to get ready to jump on Alex's back once I call go., Okay?" she asked the small girl. Nicki nodded and began talking to Alex to tell him what to do while May went over to Giusseppe and Amanda.
"You two, if it's not a problem, please get into a position as if you are about to kiss eachother." May explained. They got into the position and May went to her camera and knelt down and tilted her camera up as she called go.
Once her call came Nicki began running and right as she jumped May took the picture. The pattern went on for an hour until May had all the shots she need and sent the models home.
"So ready to go?" she asked her friends.
For the entire week they hung out nonstop and had teary goodbyes when they had to leave.