Hey everyone! So I have been thinking about the story and my expectations for it. I think that from now on most of the story will be from Alex's point of view. Every now and then I might put something small from Marissa's point of view, but for some reason I can write for Alex a lot better than I can for Marissa. So everyone should really enjoy this post. I have included the long awaited Marissa and Alex conversation. Well, part of it, not all of it. I found a spot here where I could leave you all hanging! I kept on writing long past what I had expected though and I can't really find a spot to split it in two. So you will get most of it! I hope you enjoy!
Part Five:
Alex:
Should I answer, what should I do? I didn't say anything to answer her question.
"You know what. Don't answer that yet. Like I said it is better if we do this in person. I'll call you tomorrow when I get a flight and everything. Bye." She quickly ended the conversation, I could tell she was regretting asking the question.
All I could say in return was, "Bye." I didn't know what I should have said. How could I tell her that the only other person I ever even think about is her, that I dream about her, that she is the first person I think about when I wake up and the last person I think about when before I finally fall asleep. How could I tell her that she is on my mind more than anything else?
If I had told her everything that I was thinking the conversation would have been had over the phone. I wanted to tell her in person so I could see her reaction, so I could tell her exactly everything I feel for her. Of course I hadn't been seeing anyone. Had she been seeing someone? Is that why she asked? She is probably seeing her ex again, or was with him for a little while. I could never even start to understand her relationship with her ex.
Well it is Monday, about noontime. That gives me a good thirty hours until she will be here. Whoa…wait…her…here…tomorrow? I thought about it for the first time. She was going to be HERE…TOMORROW! I need to clean and do laundry, oh gosh I have to do lots of laundry, and I have to go to work. Oh gosh, I have so much to do before she is here. I wasn't quite sure if I was panicking enough. I am so nervous about how everything is going to go with her, I just need to be truthful.
I jumped out of bed and got all my dirty clothes in a pile. Oh whoa was that a big pile. I had to go down to the basement of my building to start on laundry. I have so much of it… it will probably take me until tomorrow to finish. I put two loads in and wandered in a daze back to my apartment.
I sat on my bed staring at the wall. I was thinking that things might actually go back to the way they were before. It was a good feeling, to know things were looking up. Now they just have to be up, not just looking up, and everything will be amazing. When I see her tomorrow and can hug her and hold her and touch her and kiss her, which is when everything will get better.
After I had done a few loads of laundry it was about 4ish. I had to leave for work in an hour so I could be there by 6. Since it is Monday it is Open Mic Night. It is always the same acts trying to make it big, some bands are good, other great, and some terrible. My favorite is a new band, The Agendas, who started playing at the Wharf about a month ago, I really think they will get signed. They are the definition of Alternative Rock.
I went to the basement to get one of my clean shirts and pair of jeans. I settled on my blue Nashville tee and a pair of Rock and Republic jeans. I went to take a shower and then got ready for work. I left at 4:45, it takes me about half and hour. As I walked I thought about her and what it will be like once she is here.
I had to wait another twenty four hours before seeing her, at least. I've waited eight months, I think I can wait another twenty four hours. When I got to work someone had already opened up. The only other person with a key is my boss and he is NEVER here.
"Hello, who the hell is in here?" I asked as I walked in.
"Hey Alex. Good to see you have things under control. How are you?" My boss asked as he walked out of my office. "How's the club here doing?"
"It is good, everything here is going good. What brings you here?"
"I wanted to check up on you. Make sure everything was okay, make sure my club was still standing."
"Yep, it is. How long are you here for?"
"Not long, I just got a new club up in New Hampshire on the beach. I was driving up there to check it out, see what needs to be done to it. I hope to open it by June. You know, I'll need a manager up there? You interested in living and working at a beach in the summer and in the winter live here in Boston and run this joint?"
"There are beaches in New Hampshire? I'm still trying to get over that part of the topic." I spoke exactly what I was thinking, I never knew there was water in New Hampshire.
"Yeah, Hampton Beach, it is on the ocean."
"Whoa, New Hampshire has a coast line?"
"Yep, 13 miles from tip to tip and 26 miles of road."
"Oh… umm, I will think about your proposition. A good friend of mine is coming into town tomorrow and I think I might have to talk her."
"Hey, if she wants to work the place with you that would be great. It is a big place for me, the help would be great."
"Like I said, I would have to talk to her first."
My boss walked around a bit more and then started talking again. "It would be a strictly show venue. Maybe an Open Mic, once a month, so what is that three a year. Big names, the last people who ran it had some older bands, like from back when. I was thinking about making a scene place, like I did here." You want to drive up with me tonight? We'll be back first thing tomorrow morning because I am flying out to California. I'm still looking for a somewhat decent manager at the Bait Shop, after my last one, decided to move to Boston."
"Hey, Nat. I needed a change of scenery. What else can I say?"
"I know Al. It is hard to replace someone who helped such a great place take off. You are good at that. You revived this place with in two months and well, now up in New Hampshire, you can get that place off the ground…"
"Maybe, I can't promise anything because I myself am so unsure of everything that is happening."
"Understandable, understandable. So what do you say, you want to join me for a trip up to New Hampshire for the night?"
"Umm… sure, I've never been to New Hampshire, when will be leaving?"
"In an hour. You won't need any clothes, we'll be back later tonight."
"Okay, but can we stop by my place, I'm doing some laundry and I need to switch the loads."
"Yep that is fine Miss Kelly."
We waited for a few more minutes until some of the employees knew I was leaving for the night. My boss brought me by my place and I switched the loads.
Within an hour we were arriving at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. We were greeted by a fairly new and quite expensive sign. It looked somewhat run down, all the shops and restaurants were boarded up.
"This place may need a bit more reviving then the Wharf did…"
"No, it is winter, no one is here in the winter that is why it will only be open three months out of the year."
"Oh, okay…" I looked around and soon after passing the sign we arrived in front of a huge building that stretched for two blocks. It was blue and old, I could tell that it might need to some… life."
The former owner let us in. Inside the concert hall it was gorgeous. A nice stage, enough seating for at least 1,500 people, sky boxes, a bar, enough bathrooms, the place was like a palace that just needed to be spiffed up a bit.
"So who is your friend Nat?"
"Oh, this is Alex, she is the manager at my club in Boston. She does a good job of opening places up. She revived the Fisher's Wharf in two months and helped make my club in Newport Beach, California, one of the hottest clubs in the OC."
"So, will you be managing this club here?"
"Not sure yet. I would like to, but there is someone I need to check with first…"
"Gotcha…"
The meeting lasted another hour or so. Before I knew it we were heading back to Boston and it was about nine. The drive back took us an hour once again. My boss dropped me off at home and told me to enjoy the week, off. He said I looked exhausted and I need to rest and think about the offer for the new place.
I walked up to the third floor, where my apartment is and slowly let myself in. I was getting slightly more nervous as time went on. She is coming soon, in less than 24 hours, she will be here tomorrow…Just thinking about it caused me to get butterflies in my stomach. I did the final two loads of laundry and went to bed. By the time I was actually in bed ready to fall asleep it was almost midnight. I was exhausted and had no more energy, I was so thankful that my boss gave me the week off.
Marissa;
I shouldn't have asked her if she was seeing anyone, it isn't any of my business anymore.
"You know what. Don't answer that yet. Like I said it is better if we do this in person. I'll call you tomorrow when I get a flight and everything. Bye." I quickly ended the conversation, she could tell I was regretting asking the question.
All she said was "Bye," before I hung up unexpectedly.
When I got off the phone with her I immediately started packing a bag. How long was I going to go for though? We never talked about how long I would be there, maybe we should see how it goes, play it by ear. I finished packing with in two hours. I sat in my room on my bed waiting, what should I do.
I called my mom's travel agent to book a flight to Boston. It leaves here at 10 AM and arrives there at 7 PM, it seems so long because of the time difference. After booking the flight I had nothing to do. I decided to go sit on the beach, and watch the tide turn. It was something I started doing for when something big is about to happen. I sat there for two hours just looking at the water. I walked up the pier after a while and ended up going to the Bait Shop. I had not been there in a while, mainly because it reminds me of her. I took a seat at the bar and ordered a soda, yep that is right, no alcohol. I've been trying to curb the drinking, lately when I am happy I haven't needed it.
Alex:
I clutched my pillow as I slept, as I pretended it was her I was holding on to. It helps me sleep better at times.
When I woke up the next morning, it was 10 AM. She hasn't called me yet about when she is going to be here. I turned on the TV to MTV2 once again. Every time I turn it on this station the music playing reminds me of her, and yet again it does today. The new Bell X1 video was playing, a band that she and I both love.
I got up and wandered into the kitchen to find that I had no food and a total of three beers left.
As I was walking to the market that was a few blocks down my cell rang, it was her.
"Hello?"
"Hey… I got a flight, for this afternoon. I should be there, about seven tonight your time."
"Cool, is there anything you want from the market, I'm on my way there, and I have no food…?"
"Umm… no it doesn't really matter."
"Okay, I'm looking forward to seeing you. Is there anything you want to do tonight, when you get here?"
"Umm… well talk obviously, but, do you want to go to dinner?"
"Sure, I'll find somewhere good that we can go to."
"Okay, cool. Well I'm gonna go, will you be there to pick me up?"
"Of course, you said 7, tonight right?"
"Yea…"
"I'll be there."
"Okay, talk to you then Alex."
"Yep…"
"Bye…"
"Bye Marissa."
I hung up the phone and walked into the small bodega to get some of the essentials, Fiji water, Lucky Charms, milk, Cherry Garcia, chips, and some more beer. It was a quick trip, like always. I brought the stuff to my house and then set out to Blockbuster for movies. What should I get, I thought? What movies does she like?
I picked up a movie called DEBS and another, oh I can't remember the name. The DEBS one looked good though, hopefully she will like it.
When I got back to my place after shopping for movies it was close to two in the afternoon. Four and a half hours until I am leaving to go pick her up, until I see her again, until my life will change…
I wish we could go back to the beach and sit and watch the tide turn like we did on Valentine's Day, but there aren't any beaches in Boston, and it is quite cold here. At some point I'll have take her to that beach up in New Hampshire, and we can watch the tide turn there. The beach there seemed really nice… it would be cool to work and live there…
For the first time I started thinking about the option my boss gave me about going to the club in New Hampshire for the summer. It looked promising, I could work my magic, get some great bands, sell-out every show, jam the place packed, it could really work. I sat on my couch with a pen and notebook writing down all the bands that would NEED to come and revive the ailing club.
Rise Against
Rooney
Rachael Yamagata
The Killers
The Thrills
Death Cab for Cutie
The Subways
AFI
Reel Big Fish
Bell X1
Iron and Wine
Michael Tolcher
Frou Frou
The list went on, I had a stunning number of bands on the list. I figure to really get it big to have at least two or three bands a week. I thought of all the ways to get the club back on its feet. I made lists of things for four hours. Before I knew it, it was six. I had to get ready, in half in hour. I jumped up and ran in the shower. I shower quickly and dried my hair for fifteen minutes. I pulled part of my hair back a bit and let most of it down. I put on a simple band tee and jeans. I didn't want to look like I was trying to hard, I just wanted to look simple.
I was leaving my apartment a little bit late. It was 6:45 and I was pulling my car out. I never take my car out, because it is impossible to get a spot near my apartment, but it is worth it for her. I drove as quickly as possible to the opposite side of the city. By the time I got to the airport and got a parking spot it was 6:10.
She is probably waiting for me, I thought as I walked into Logan Airport. I didn't see her yet. Oh gosh, my hands, they are shaking. I went to look at the screen that tells you where flights are. She said she was taking a flight, oh shit, she didn't tell me which airline. I was standing there dumbfounded. I was looking for a flight from LAX that would arrive at 7. There was only one, from American Airlines. I went and stood by baggage claim eight. The conveyor belt had already started up and bags were coming out. Still, no sign of her… Maybe she changed her mind, maybe she didn't come after all. I took a seat on a bench with a perfect view of the gate where she would be coming from. As minutes passed there were less and less people coming out and less and less bags on the conveyor belt. I didn't see any designer bags yet, knowing she travels in style. I was getting really nervous as I sat there. Another five minutes passed and still no sign of her. I got and walked around a bit, in hopes to find her.
Marissa:
When I got home after going to the Bait Shop I went straight to sleep, I was going to have a long day tomorrow. I climbed into bed and clutched my pillow, as I pretended it was her I was holding. It is something I tend to do a lot at night.
The next morning when I woke up at 7:30 I called her.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Hey… I got a flight, for this afternoon. I should be there, about seven tonight your time."
"Cool, is there anything you want from the market, I'm on my way there, and I have no food…?"
"Umm… no it doesn't really matter."
"Okay, I'm looking forward to seeing you. Is there anything you want to do tonight, when you get here?"
"Umm… well talk obviously, but, do you want to go to dinner?"
"Sure, I'll find somewhere good that we can go to."
"Okay, cool. Well I'm going to go, I'll call you I guess when I arrive. Will you be there to pick me up?"
"Of course, you said 7, tonight right?"
"Yea…"
"I'll be there."
"Okay, talk to you then Alex."
"Yep…"
"Bye…"
"Bye Marissa." She was the last to speak and I hung up the phone after she muttered my name softly.
I made sure all my stuff was packed and if it wasn't, well hopefully Boston has good shopping. I ate a bagel and packed my car. My mom saw me doing this.
"Umm, darling, where do you think you are going?"
"Boston, for a little while."
"Thanksgiving is on Thursday. You are not going ANYWHERE."
"Mom, I'm sorry but I need to do this. I don't think you will understand so I'm not going to tell you anymore. My flight leaves at ten, so I kind of have to leave now to get to LAX.
I've said it once, but I will say it again, if Caleb kicks while I'm gone, and you need help counting your cash, give me a call, you know the number."
I went inside the house to grab my last bag and my purse and left. I didn't say another word to my mother. I pulled out of the drive way and had to hurry to get to the airport. I got there and was able to check in and run to the gate. They had already started boarding. I was late. I got there just in time.
"Almost missed it miss. Have a safe trip." The attendant said as she swiped my ticket and handed it back to me.
"Thank you."
The flight was long. I took my iPod out and turned it on. I put the entire thing on shuffle to keep me occupied during the flight. They plane had TVs and on one station they were playing the Valley. I decided to sit and watch it for a little bit. The flight went by so quickly. Before I knew it the captain was over the intercom.
"Hello again, this is the captain speaking. It is 6:50 local time, in just a few minutes we will be making our final decent into Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. I hope everyone had an enjoyable flight."
The plane landed and by seven I was walking off the plane. I hope to hell she is here, I don't want to have to wait. I walked out to the baggage claim area and there was no sign of the blond hair blue eyes beauty. I got my bags off the conveyor belt, they were the first ones and I decided to take a seat on a bench the faced out towards the parking garage.
I waited for twenty minutes, and still no sign of her. It was almost 7:30, should I call her and see if she is on her way. I don't want make her feel bad though… I sat there for a little while longer. She still isn't here yet. I decided to call her and see where she was.
I pressed down the number one impatiently. It started to ring and, all of a sudden I heard a phone start ringing behind me. I turned around and watched her answer her phone.
"Hey, where are you?"
I got up and walked up behind her. I hung my phone up. "Behind you…"
She turned around and looked at me. It was silent, like the first phone conversation, but worse, because it was in person.
Alex:
I still didn't see her, I looked at every conveyor belt for all the flights from LAX in the last hour. Still nothing. I was getting scared, did she really decide against it, I was looking forward to seeing her, a lot. I went back to number eight and just waited. My phone started to ring. I saw that it was her and answered it immediately.
"Hey, where are you?" I asked, and I got no response right away. I think she hung up. Then from out of no where, behind me, I heard it. Her. Her voice…
"Behind you…" She said softly. I turned to her.
Neither of us knew what to say. The silence was terrible, I wanted to say hi, but wasn't sure how to. It was like I forgot how to speak altogether. It was awful…
I finally broke the silence. "Hi…"
"Hey…"
"Let's get your bags and put them in my car. Then we are going to this great restaurant called Fire and Ice tonight for dinner. We have a reservation at eight. It was the earliest I could get." I started rambling. "Then we can go back to my place or the club, what ever you want to. Tonight at the club is a band called Doves. They are quite good, they're music is amazing and—"
"Shut up…" Marissa said blatantly. "You are rambling, not good. Let's go to the car, we can talk in there. By talk, I mean an actual conversation, where you allow me to speak as well."
"Sorry, I'm just really happy to see you…" I slowed down and looked at her and our eyes met. I looked into the emerald green eyes, the catch me every time. They were just as beautiful as the last time I looked into them.
"Me too…" She said as a small smile came across her lips. Oh those lips, it took every once of strength I had not to kiss them right then. We continued to stare into each others eyes.
"Right, your bags, my car…" I said shaking my head to regain focus. "Let me help you."
She showed me her three huge suitcases. I wasn't sure to take this as a good or bad thing. I was hoping she brought a lot of clothes because she wanted to stay awhile. Hell, she could stay forever.
"You have quite a few bags."
"Well, I wasn't sure how long I was going to stay. I didn't buy a return ticket, because I didn't know how long it would take us to talk…"
"Right talk…" I said completely forgetting the two of us still had to talk. "Of course. Come on, let's go." I said as I took two of her bags and leading the way to the car.
We walked to my Jeep in silence. Neither of us knew how to say what we wanted to. I had so many things running through my head but picking one out and talking about it seemed like an impossible task. I was never this nervous, about anything. When I got nervous or upset I went for a run, right now I really can't.
We both got in the car, it took me a second to start it. I looked over at her and she was looking out the window. I stared at her for a second, taking in her beauty. I wanted to just tell her right then that I loved her, that I had for so long, and that I always would. It wasn't that easy though. If I did come straight out and say that I would have to deal with the repercussions. She would probably take the next flight to LAX and head home without even replying. I couldn't scare her off.
We went back to my place to drop off her bags. That is when we started talking. She was the first to break the longing silence.
"We have an hour until dinner, do you want to talk a bit right now?"
"Sure, umm… let's go sit on my couch. Do you want anything to drink, water, beer…?"
"I'm fine, thank you though." I came to sit next to her on the opposite end of the couch. "You can have something if you want though… don't drink because of me."
"No, I'm fine. Don't worry about it…" I was being quiet, really quiet, I hadn't been this shy since I first met her. I didn't know how to go about anything back then. I always fumbled when she was around. She makes me do that, she makes me nervous.
"So you called…?"
"Yea, I did, didn't I?" I paused and looked down. "I had been thinking about you and I was thinking about how I left everything. I never really gave you a chance to say anything... I just left, I know now that I shouldn't have done that."
"I let you walk away. I didn't try to stop you and explain myself. I should've, I should've tried. You gave me everything, and more… I gave you nothing…"
Once we started talking everything went a lot easier. We couldn't stop talking, everything just came from our mouths exactly how we meant it. There was nothing to hide from each other.
Before I knew it, it was 7:45. We had to leave if we wanted to get to the restaurant on time. It was a good ten minute walk away.
"Hey, I hate to cut the conversation short, but our reservation is in fiftenn minutes, and it is a ten minute walk away. We might want to leave."
"We're walking?" She seemed surprised.
"Well, we could take my car, but it is impossible to find good parking, it isn't that far away. It is actually just down the street a little ways. Half mile at the most, not even."
"Okay, well let me grab my coat and let's go."
We headed out to Fire and Ice for dinner. We started talking about Newport and the people there.
"So, how is old Seth Cohen doing?"
"Good, he and Summer are still together, which is a miracle. They actually both applied to Brown for next year."
"Did you say both of them applied to Brown? I didn't know Summer was really that smart… I don't mean to be rude, but—"
"No one knew she was. She got a perfect score on her SATs. It surprised us all. Trust me. It was pretty funny actually, Seth got really upset. It was so cute though."
"What about you? Where are you applying to?"
"I'm not really sure I am going to go to college. I got applications for a few places, but I never really saw myself going to college."
"What, you have to go to college. You would be surprised, you'd do really well at a lot of schools I think."
"You aren't going to college…" She remarked quickly.
"Marissa, I'm not really smart. I dropped out of high school after being kicked out of three. Colleges don't really like that on applications. Plus, I have my job here in Boston. I couldn't leave this, it has taught me too much. In a way, my work is like college, I have learned a lot from working as a manager of a bar for the last year."
"I don't know, I still have time. I might change my mind about applying, you never know I could end up going to school in Boston."
I wouldn't mind that at all. "Hey, Boston has a lot of good schools. Not to mention, you wouldn't be far from Seth and Summer." Or me.
"Yea, I never really thought about Boston until Summer and Seth applied to Brown. I know it isn't that far from here. I have two applications at home for Northeastern and Boston College."
"I think you could get into both of them, they are really good schools. A few of the Wharf employees go to Northeastern. It is actually right down the street."
"Cool…"
"Well, here we are. This is where we are having dinner."
"Nice…"
We walked in and were immediately seated in my favorite booth in the back of the restaurant. I had been here many times before and the staff knows where I like sitting. In the back it is really private.
Dinner was really good, we caught up a lot more. We talked about everything that had happened to the two of us. We left FiRE and iCE at about ten. On the way home we talked a little more. We walked home quickly because of the bitter cold weather. When we got back to my place we sat on the couch and she started to tell me more.
"It wasn't good really… when you left. I started seeing Ryan again." It was the first I heard her say his name the entire night. "I had missed him, missed being with him, missed everything about him…" She paused and looked at me. My eyes were starting to water at her sincere honesty. "Or, well so I thought. It was the idea of him I missed. The two of us, never really got along when we were together. It had been so long, I had forgotten." I let her talk, she needed me to just listen at the moment. I knew she didn't want to me to say anything. "It wasn't very good when we got back together… Before I knew it we broke up again."
She stopped talking and looked up at me, her eyes filled with unshed tears like mine. It was now time to share my story. When I started talking it was close to eleven and both of us had so much more to say.
"About three days after the bonfire, I got a call from my boss. He had a job offer for me. To revive a club of his. The catch was, it was here in Boston. 3,000 miles away from my friends, family—though there wasn't much of that—and everything I knew. I would have to start over again. I jumped at the chance. I needed to get away from everything back in Newport. It was too hard, you would always be there. There was no changing that. I thought if I left and started over again it would make everything easier. I thought that I could forget the fact that I had fallen in love with…" I stopped as I picked up on what I just said. Marissa's head perked right up and looked right into my eyes. I didn't know if I should continue or not. I decided I should. "You…"
She didn't say anything. She didn't blink, smile, frown, cry, shake her head, nothing. She was emotionless.