Chapter Text
Tuesday
For the final time, I looked around the apartment. My apartment. In New York. I could hardly bring myself to believe it, but it was where I lived now, along with my best friend Emma, and also my friend Jodie, though she was only living with us part time.
New York was a major move for me and Emma (Jodie had been going back and forth from the UK for a couple of months now, though how she manages it with a salary from working part-time in a clothes shop, I’ll never know), as I had been offered a great job at a leading US music magazine. However, the thought of coming over here by myself was petrifying, so I managed to convince Emma to come with me after promising to be her slave for life.
“...And here’s the keys.” I snapped out of my daydreaming long enough to catch the object that was falling into my hands. “Anything else you need?”
“No,” I replied, transfixed by the shiny golden metal thing in my palm, mere seconds before someone attacked me from behind.
“Ohmigod dude, this is AWESOME!” Emma screeched down my right ear without any prior warning. One thing about Emma – you need to be a ninja at all times when she’s around.
Carefully, I tried to peel her off my back, with little success. “I know! Trust Jodie not to be around for this...” I heard a camera go off somewhere behind me, and the unmistakable sound of Jodie being unable to control her laughter.
“I am always around,” she tried to be serious, but she couldn’t keep that smile off of her face. “Anyway, did you really think I’d miss your first day in your brand new apartment in New York? This means photo time!” Several more pictures were taken before I managed to wrestle the camera out of Jodie’s hands and take a few of her.
We carried on like this for a few minutes, stealing the camera out of one another’s hands, until Emma decided to tickle me to the ground and place her foot on top of me. “Run Jodie, save yourself! Go and warn the others!” Of course, she did the complete opposite of that, and collapsed on the floor in a bundle of laughs, desperately trying to get any sort of oxygen into her body. “Oops,” Emma said as she helped me off the floor, “I think we may have killed Jodie.”
The sight of her was enough to set me off, but luckily I recovered quickly. “Hey, you promised to get us coffee.” Our kettle was broken already (five minutes and twenty-two seconds after buying it), and we pretty much bribed her into it (by threatening to send an extremely bad text to everyone in her contacts).
“I... I... I didn’t say I would get you coffee,” she dusted herself off, “I said you’d get coffee.”
“...I don’t get the difference.” Neither did I, but there was still time to send that text...
“I mean I’ll show you the coffee place because there’s no way I’m becoming your personal coffee slave.” For a second, I thought I saw something glimmer in her eyes, but it was gone before I had a chance to look.
Deprived of caffeine, Emma huffed. “Fine then! Just get me something inside me that’ll wake me up!” So all three of us walked out the door, ready for our first adventure in New York.
All the while we walked, me and Emma couldn’t help but be amazed at the place around us. Even though we weren’t in the main hub of the city, there was still a certain electricity to the place; I could feel it humming all over.
Luckily for the sanity of all three of us (Emma had started complaining about the colour of her shoes from her lack of caffeine), the trip was only short, and soon enough we found ourselves standing outside somewhere that wasn’t a Starbucks, but was a medium-sized place called The Best Drip. It was fairly modern, but still had a homely feel to it. I fell in love with the place instantly.
Confidently, Jodie strolled up to the counter, us two in tow. Everything inside just felt so real, making me doubt whether my initial impression of New York was wrong.
“Hey,” a guy behind the counter greeted us, flashing a dazzling smile towards Jodie. His medium-length chocolate brown hair was slightly ruffled and looked soft and touchable, so much so in fact, I had to stop myself from going and stroking it. I instantly waited for her to go red, but surprisingly she didn’t.
“Hey Alex,” she smiled back at him. “These are the two I was telling you about before.”
“The ones that were threatening to send...”
“Yep,” she turned around to give us an evil stare, “those two precisely.” He looked back at us two with his dark, mesmerising eyes, and I swear I heard the smallest gasp escape from Emma’s mouth.
With yet another amazing smile, he introduced himself. “Hey, I’m Alex, also known as Coffee Guy by most of these fine folk in here,” he rolled his eyes suggestively and I nearly had to suppress a giggle. “So you two are the ones who’ve been terrorising poor Jodie then?”
“It’s not our fault, we were made to! It’s the kettle’s fault!” Nice going Emma. Even I think you’re clinically insane now.
Alex looked back at Jodie. “...So I’m guessing she’s Emma then?” A grin exploded onto her face, as well as mine. Emma, however, looked slightly more offended by this.
“Yes I am, and if I don’t get any coffee within the next twenty seconds, I will hold the lot of you hostage, got it?”
“Right ahead of you,” Alex turned around and grabbed three cups before handing them to me. “Don’t worry, she’s not the first person to threaten me over lack of caffeine,” he winked cheekily at me, and I followed Jodie to a spare table in the corner.
After two sips of the hot, smooth coffee, I just had to ask Jodie. “So what’s the deal with Alex then?” Her eyes widened, almost like a cartoon character. We were lucky that she didn’t spray her drink over us all.
“W-what do you mean?” Her gaze became erratic, jumping between me and her own cup of tea constantly.
I rolled my eyes at her. “What’s the deal between you and Alex? I mean, you guys seem...”
“Oh my God Sophie, just say it!” Emma screeched, thankfully for us a lot quieter than usual. Clearly the caffeine was starting to kick in, just not fast enough. “Are you guys together or what?”
Almost in an instant, Jodie’s cheeks flared bright red, a telltale sign that there was something she didn’t want to tell us, either because it was embarrassing or she thought we’d tease her about it. “Um, no,” she mumbled, nearly inaudible to both me and Emma who were sitting mere centimetres away from her.
“Well it’s obvious that you two have something going on,” Emma kept pushing.
“No,” Jodie replied, almost sounding like she was disheartened, “he’s just my friend here.” Silence passed between us for a couple of seconds. “Anyway, it wouldn’t matter if I was interested, Vanessa’s all over him as it is.” She pointed behind us to a girl who was currently waiting on a table, and she had long flowing blonde hair that was pulled back into a tight ponytail, a pop of colour on her plump lips – and possibly the shortest skirt I had ever seen anyone wear.
Emma, not being one for subtlety, voiced her opinion immediately. “Pssh, her? She looks like a prostitute.”
Jodie raised her eyebrow. “And you think that’s not what guys go for?”
“Not the good ones,” I added in, “looks don’t count for everything, you know.” She stared at me like I was crazy – what, it was the truth. Well, at least it should be, not to mention any names...
“Trust me, you won’t be saying that in a week’s time,” her face dropped massively, but she quickly composed herself when she saw Alex making his way over.
“So have you mentioned to these two yet about Saturday?” At that moment, I was screaming in my mind for Emma to keep her mouth shut, knowing that she wasn’t known for thinking things through before letting the words out of her mouth.
“Oh, no, not yet.” Quickly glancing at her watch, Jodie jumped up from her seat. “Sorry, I’ll have to tell you guys later, I’ve got to head to work. See you Alex.” While Jodie made her way swiftly towards the door, Emma started talking to Alex, causing every muscle in my body to tense up.
“What’s this about Saturday then?” I couldn’t tell if she was trying to flirt with him or intimidating him. However, Alex failed to notice this and just flashed another dazzling smile at us, which I did not mind one bit.
“Oh, me and my band are playing this set, and Jodie said that you guys might be interested in coming along.” My eyes lit up, along with Emma’s – a cute guy who was in a band! What could be better? Well, as long as the music was decent, but Jodie wasn’t into any of that shit in the charts, so it could only be good.
Before I could answer, Emma replied. “Yes! We’d love to!” A bigger smile spread across his face.
“Cool.” He looked back at the counter, where a queue of people was starting to form. “Well looks like I’ve got to go and serve all those happy people. I’ll see you around.” We watched him walk back, and Emma raised her eyebrows at me, saying ‘I LOVE this place!’ I definitely had to agree with her.
So me and Emma stayed in the coffee shop for a little longer, trying to adjust to how things worked over here, but soon we decided that we should go out and properly explore the place that we were now living in – by finding out what good shops there were.
At first we managed to get ourselves a bit lost, though eventually I found our way, no matter what Emma says. We made our way into Hot Topic, and within three seconds on entering the store, I had lost Emma. It wasn’t a big deal, however, as she would find me when she was ready. And attack me in ninja style.
After checking out all the CDs and clothes, I decided to have a quick look at the magazines. While browsing through, I noticed Musique, the magazine that I was going to work at as band photographer, so I thought I’d just have a quick look through it to see what it was like – and my heart stopped. One of the bands that was going to be featured in the next issue was You Me At Six, also known as one of my favourite bands ever, and I was going to be the one photographing them! Before I could do anything else, Emma appeared by my side, and was intrigued when she noticed my lack of breathing.
“What’s wrong with you now?” Being unable to speak, I merely jabbed at the magazine, over and over again. Her eyes widened, and her thoughts became on the same wavelength as mine, before squealing loudly, and for once, I joined in with her, though seven seconds later we were told to quieten down. “Ohmigodohmigodohmigod!!! I LOVE you for bringing me here!!!” She pulled me into what was possibly the world’s tightest hug, and I couldn’t help but let the biggest grin stretch across my face, knowing that this was definitely the beginning of a very good adventure.
For the rest of that day, we just wandered around the city, trying to find more good stores, but when Emma started to complain that her feet were hurting, we quickly made our way back to our apartment. It still felt weird to say that, our apartment; it made me feel a lot more grown up than I actually was.
Not being bothered to cook (or able to, for that matter. Jodie was the best cook out of all of us, and the best that she could manage was pulling something out of the freezer), we called out for some pizza, exhausted from our first full day of living in New York. A couple of minutes after our pizza arrived, Jodie headed through the door, grabbing the best slice of pizza that was left (thank God Emma didn’t lick it like she was threatening to).
“Hey Jodie,” Emma said, her mouth so stuffed full of toppings that it was nearly impossible to understand what she was actually saying. Jodie just stared at her, unable to say anything.
“Hey,” she mumbled back in response, not making much effort to eat her own slice. We sat in silence for about a minute, neither of us wanting to ask the question. Unfortunately for Jodie, Emma does not have the gift of patience.
“What’s wrong with you? You were all happy before, now...” Emma cautiously waited for a reply.
Jodie sighed. “Just today... Vanessa came into the store, and she was buying all these ridiculous clothes and flirting with every guy within ten metres of her... sorry, it doesn’t matter.” And with that, she went and locked herself in the bathroom. Just when I had finished my cream soda.
I knocked on the door, trying to coax her out. “Come on Jodie, you shouldn’t worry about her. Only idiots go for girls like her.”
“Most of the male population are idiots, Soph. They don’t care as long as they get what they want.”
“Most guys actually want a relationship, not just a one-night stand,” I replied, “plus Alex doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would do that.”
“And if he is,” Emma shouted from the sofa, “just send him to me, and I’ll sort him it.”
I closed my eyes. “Not helping Emma!”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll just eat your pizza instead then.” Ignoring her, I focused back onto getting Jodie out of the bathroom.
“Look, not every guy in the world is the same, okay? You just have to know which ones are the good ones.” There was silence for a couple of seconds before Jodie spoke up.
“...You need the bathroom, don’t you?”
“No! Well... yes,” I admitted, “but that’s beside the point.” A few seconds later, the lock turned and the door opened, revealing a red-eyed and smudged eyeliner Jodie. Instantly I hugged her, hating how much she was killing herself over all this. For once in her life, Emma managed to look away from her food for more than three seconds.
“Stop worrying about it, and if it doesn’t go to plan, then you can become lesbian with me and Soph.” Luckily, this made Jodie laugh.
“That’s an... idea,” I laughed along. A couple of seconds later, I spoke again. “...Don’t suppose I can use the toilet now.”
“Yes you can,” Jodie chuckled whilst untangling herself from the hug, and I managed to sprint into the bathroom just in time.