Neither Will nor I mentioned the feeling when our hands briefly came into contact. He had probably not felt it and I probably had let my gift get away from me. I convinced myself of that as we headed back to the apartments. "I wonder will Tulip still be annoyed with me." I muttered as I unlocked the door.
"Judging by the loud High School Musical going on in there, I would say she's over it." Will said as he followed me in. Sure enough, Tulip was dancing around with Crystal. I knew Crystal preferred not to dance so the musical must have been on with a while for Crystal to be dancing this enthusiastically.
"Woohoo!" Crystal laughed as she threw herself down on our sofa. She glanced at the clock we hung up last night in the kitchen. "Wow, half twelve already! Right, I will be down with clothes and make-up in twenty minutes once I have called Phee and Yves to come over."
"Why?" I said blankly. I played with the edge of my much underused book on Mandarin Chinese. I was planning on being a vegetable in my room until about ten o clock at least watching YouTube videos and reading my book under a pile of blankets.
"To get ready for tonight! No one under my hand is not going to shine tonight." Crystal said. She seemed to be picturing the four of us girls as gorgeous personified. Deduct me from the picture and I would be happy to let her little fantasy continue.
"Crystal…" I began but she shook her head at me.
"No buts." She said and swept out of the apartment saying "And you gotta be out of here in twenty Will. Unless you want to get in on the glamourizing."
I threw Will a pleading look but he stared straight ahead, refusing to meet my begging eyes. "Ok. Have fun Willow." he said with a little smile. I could see he would have preferred to stick around but the threat of cosmetics was heavy in the air.
I was this close to growling but he quickly followed Crystal out. Exasperated, I decided to focus my attention on my flat mate. Tulip saw me looking at her as she was sitting down to turn on the TV. She raised a tweezed eyebrow. "You know you're forgiven for the assault, right?" she said as she played with the remote, trying to get it to work. "Anyway, I'm getting back at you today. Say hello to the right end of a straightener Wills."
By the time it was half ten that night, my hair was straight for the first time in weeks, my nails painted for the first time in months and eyelashes curled for the first time in years. My legs were waxed, face painted (Oh, I mean made up) and I smelt like a "baby prostitute" to quote Mean Girls. I didn't see why Crystal's hair got to stay curly just tamed and perfected into beautiful curls of a dozen different colours. I silently fumed in my simple turquoise dress as Tulip was carefully pressing on a set of eyelashes. That was the only battle I won. The eyelashes over my eyes were actually MINE.
She made a delicate little o with her mouth as she slowly pressed the lashes into place. I gave up being friendly and went into the main living area where Xav, Phee, Yves and Will were waiting, playing with a deck of cards. I felt Will's eyes follow me as I went to sit down beside Phee. She was actually ready while Crystal was still dousing her hair in a year's worth of hairspray in the hopes it would not poof after an hour in the sweltering club heat.
"Two down, two to go. Nice to see you cutie." Xav said as I glowered at him. "I bet you five dollars Yves Crystal will be next."
Yves rolled his eyes and continued dealing out the cards. We managed to get through two rounds of go fish before Tulip and Crystal emerged. I had to avert my eyes from Xav as he stared at his soulfinder. The adoration was practically physical. I noticed Will avert his eyes too but Tulip seemed happily oblivious as she had one final look at herself in the mirror.
"Ready to go now?" Phee said as she brought all the cards together. I had a feeling that she had been through one too many rounds of go fish.
"Yep." Crystal said. She walked purposefully over to Xav and hoisted him up off the sofa by the hand. "Let's get cracking."
Tulip did a little happy dance and half raced out the door. Everyone followed suit down the stairs as I quickly locked up. By pure luck, we managed to wave down two taxis within ten minutes, all the soulfinders nabbing the first one. But as soon as we got a taxi Tulip decided to "practice". Since she was up front, she practically begged the taxi driver to rise up the radio. A lot. And she "practiced". Each song with a lovely array of high and low notes for Tulip to attempt. Key word: Attempt.
"Thank God." I heard Will say under his breath as we got out of the taxi. I stifled a giggle but Will's smile made it clear he heard. We quickly joined everyone else to line up and easily slipped in beside them. Even though it was only half eleven, the music already vibrated the concrete path below us. The club was underground and as we descended, the excitement of everyone was to be felt in the dozens of voices already yelling to be heard above the heavy thump of this week's number one.
"We can still escape." Will said into my ear. "Go and buy a bottle of champagne and celebrate on the streets like real New Yorkers."
"Indeed we could." I replied, pursing my lips with thought. "Yet I do believe I am required to sing tonight?"
"Ah yes. Oh the fun." Will said with a glint in his eyes.
"What fun indeed!" Xav yelled, not even slightly embarrassed to have been eavesdropping. "But we need to drink first my two Will's. No one can sing quite as good sober as they can drunk."
The "two Will's" scowled in reply as we entered the club. Already, the dance floor was three quarters full and the bar mere feet in front of us had a group of drunk looking college students. One girl leered at Will as we walked by. I nearly glared at her until I checked myself. What. The. Actual. Hell. Who was I? Because right now I was acting like a clumpnugget.
Thankfully, we managed to grab a spacious booth and everyone plonked themselves down. "I shall return with provisions!" Xav yelled dramatically. "Order fair maidens."
I actually had no idea how Crystal stuck him. Nevertheless, Tulip, Crystal and Will called out their orders. Over the heavy music around us, Phee and Yves were too absorbed in one another to notice. After Tulip bit Phee's shoulder, much to her shock, their attention was gotten and order's went in. "The second Will?" Xav said.
"I will get something myself after I go to the toilet." I said primly. No way did I trust Xav with my drink. I bet if I ordered a coke with a shot of vodka I would get a vodka with a shot of coke. Xav shrugged and headed off. Once I was done in the toilet, I managed to grab a young bartender, with two stretched ear lobes, at one end and he nodded as I yelled out my order. When my drink was ready, I went to hand over the money when a hand came from behind me and paid. Thinking it was Xav, I turned around to give him a piece of my mind when I was met with a stranger.
He was a few inches taller than me and a few years younger with high cheekbones, crinkled dark blonde hair and a healthy complexion. He grinned broadly at me as I looked at him with confusion. "Christophe." he said, nearly proudly.
"Willow." I replied after a brief hesitation. Remembering he paid for my drink, I smiled up at him. "Thanks for this." I said raising my glass.
"No problem. I will see you around." He replied confidently and with that, he turned away, raising his own drink as a goodbye of sorts. I wondered how he got that. He looked no more than eighteen. I was contemplating this as I drank on the walk back to the booth only to be grabbed by Tulip who half fell into me. "Singing time!" she crowed and a chorus of cheers erupted behind her. Crap! I had hoped to be pissed out of my mind before this had to go down. Judging by a few glassy eyes and slightly unsteady walks, it seemed like most of us had already a bit too much in the system. Even Yves had an extra shirt button open as he went to sign Tulip and I up.
Though this part of the club was soundproofed, the walls still shook. There was a mist hovering around the stage, dry ice presumably, and an array of chairs and tables scattered around it. Oh geese... How was I going to be able to do this? Sensing my I-gotta-fecking-escape vibe, Will whispered in my ear. "I have never heard you sing but I can say with confidence, she," he said jerking his chin to Tulip chatting with a girl by the stage. "Is much worse."
I laughed and went to rest my head on his shoulder. I jolted my head back at the last second. I caught a frown briefly come across Will's face before it flicked back to an easy grin. We all sat then and I twisted my ring nervously as the first person, called Malcolm, got up to sing "Waiting for Superman" by Daughtry. Awfully. It even got through drunk ears as Crystal grimaced and Phee clamped her hands over her ears, too drunk to be discrete about it.
This was the reaction to most acts. The person's friends tended to whoop and cheer while everyone else give an obligatory weak round of applause. I had to go line up once Tulip got up on stage to murder "When I find love again" by James Blunt. "Oh when I FIND LOVE AGAIN, WHEN I FIND LOVE AGAIN." She "sang" over the track. I nearly considered going over to the guy in charge of the song soundtracks and persuading him to turn up the volume to drown her out. While insanely clever, Tulip was completely and one hundred percent tone deaf.
"Song?" the soundtrack guy said from behind his laptop.
"Explosions by Ellie Goulding" I replied. He tapped at his laptop for a few moments and nodded to me. When Tulip was finished I walked to the centre of the stage and stayed quiet until I heard the music.
And I was me, Willow, singing to my father. My real father. My mother singing to her soulfinder. My father singing to her. Me singing to whoever my soulfinder could be.
"Explosions, on the day you wake up needing somebody and you've lost them. It's ok, to be afraid, but it will never be the same." I sang as the atmosphere of the club became sombre. There was near complete silence as people listened. I nearly choked up as every line meant something to me, beyond the chorus. I could feel a few tears across my cheeks as I remembered how everything had changed so dramatically the day my mother had gone. Nothing was ever the same for my father or me again. I was not sure could I ever take that again if I lost my soulfinder. I wanted to close my eyes but someone kept them open.
Will. He never took his eyes from me the entire song. I could feel his stare on me, as though his look alone held substance and it un-nerved me greatly. As soon as it ended I barely noticed the crowds cheers as I quickly left the stage, blended in a little with the crowd and headed for the fairly quiet cut off corridor to the toilets and emergency exit. I. Needed. Air. I. Needed. To. Be. Alone.
I pushed through the emergency exit, not bothering to prop it open for my return. Between the song and whatever was stirring inside of me, I was an emotional wreck and it was all because of Will.
As if summoned I heard the heavy sound of the emergency doors opening out onto this surprisingly clean side street. "Willow?" he gasped as he grabbed something to prop the door open. "Are you ok?" He came over to me and without hesitation hugged me, his arms folding all around me. The confusing emotion stirring increased tenfold from the intensity during the song.
Desperate to calm myself down I whispered, "Please let go. You are confusing me so much." I was nearly begging.
He stiffened but leaned down to talk in my ear. "You think this is a one way street? What I am feeling is so indescribable right now Willow I cannot even explain it to myself." He laughed humourlessly. "What is this?" he nearly said more to himself.
"Any words to put to it at all?" I asked. "It would really help."
"Joy." He breathed. "Fear, danger, happiness, sadness, nervousness." He pulled back slightly to look at me. In that moment it felt like both of us lost control of our own bodies. I doubted he told himself to start leaning in and I certainly did not tell myself to gently tilt my head to the side and back a little to meet his lips.
And it felt like everything.
Author person again,
You are probably sick of me calling myself that but I like saying it :D This is one of my favourite chapters yet and it is the longest (over 2300 words, just saying...)
Btw. I do not own the lyrics to "When I Find Love Again" by James Blunt or the lyrics to "Explosions" by Ellie Goulding.
Hint for the next chapter... Well, it is a bit short. And someone may be asked out... But will it be met with a yes?
And Happy Valentines Day! Decided to upload today as a Valentines treat :D