Colder Than My Heart

Thursday, July 3rd. Dallas, Texas.
“Okay,” Alex began stroking his bottom lip as he stared thoughtfully at the paper. “I think this is more of a chorus than a verse,” he commented picking up the sharpie and pulling the cap off the end. Sarah didn’t have a chance to give her opinion as she watched Alex draw a large black arrow from the verse in question down to the bottom of the next chorus.

“You sure?” She asked raising a single thin eyebrow. Alex looked up at her and smiled before turning the sheet to face her. While Sarah’s eyes quickly glanced over the alteration Alex quickly ran through the new lyrics in his head. He sang sweetly at Sarah, trying to show her he knew what he was talking about. As soon as his mouth opened she stopped and listened.

“Take your first class ticket and your beggar’s heart, you’ll strip her of everything, say ‘you’ll go far’, but how can she be sure? She’s left her cases by the door,” he began with his eyes shut as he focused on the words. “Another unsung story of a girl with dreams just trynna break out of society, but little does she know,” he finished. Sarah studied his face as his body relaxed and his eyes reopened. Alex caught Sarah smiling and did nothing less than to return it.

“You’re better at this than I’ll ever be,” she complimented, but something about her soft tone made Alex feel sympathetic towards her. He knew about her confidence issues but he also knew she was an amazing lyricist. She was just suffering from a small amount of writer’s block and criticised everything she wrote. Sighing lightly Alex snatched one of Sarah’s hands up in his own. She tilted her head slightly as she watched Alex.

“I don’t want to hear that,” he said softly as their eyes met. She felt slightly embarrassed under his gaze and felt almost compelled to turn away. “You, fair lady are an amazing writer. Just believe in yourself,” he added a wink to the end of his sentence causing Sarah to grin wildly.

“Thanks Alex,” she almost whispered before he dropped her hand and turned the paper back so both of them could see. Sarah turned back to the paper and bit down on her lip. She mused as she picked the sharpie up and tapped it against the table.

“I think it needs a rhythm behind it. You know like a riff of ‘whoa’ or something,” Sarah suggested finally putting her ideas in the open for Alex to comment on. He glanced up to her, chewing the inside of his cheek slightly in thought.

“Yeah you’re right with that. Definitely,” he agreed sitting up in his seat and allowing Sarah to scribble down a side note. As Sarah moved away and replaced the cap on the tip Alex read over her words. “Something with whoa in it,” he chuckled as he read aloud to himself. Sarah simply shrugged as a smile made her way on to her lips.

“Can you think of a better way to put it?” She teased causing Alex to bubble with chuckles.

“I couldn’t write better if I tried.”

Almost hours into their third writing session of the week and neither were showing signs of giving up on the song. As Alex’s eyes strained to focus on what was around him, only then did he realised quite how dark it had become. Looking out of the blinds next to him he saw the night sky rolling towards him in a deep shade of purple. He took to his feet as Sarah stretched hr arms above her head. Alex couldn’t help but notice how her much her shirt rolled up exposing the majority of her abdomen. He bit down on the inside of his lip and quickly moved past her to flip the light switch. Sarah yawned loudly and slumped on the table before her.

“Sleepy?” Alex teased as he opened the fridge and took two water bottles from the top shelf. Sarah simply nodded in reply, tossing him a tired smile. Alex returned the smile watching her as she slowly sat back up in her place and smoothed out the knots forming in her hair. He swiped up the bottles and took a seat directly opposite from her and sat one in either of his large hands on the table before her. “Grape,” he began looking pointedly at one hand. “Or orange,” he did the same to the other hand.

“Grape,” Sarah decided folding her arms over the table gently.

“Hm,” Alex looked thoughtful for a moment. “You have good taste. I should ask you what to pick more often,” he nodded pushing the orange bottle of vitamin water towards Sarah and unscrewing the cap on the purple bottle. Sarah looked at Alex with her mouth agape. Alex couldn’t help butgiggle let out an extremely manly laugh at the look on her face. She was adorable. “You don’t believe I’m that much of an asshole, do you?” He asked softly as he broke the seal and pushed it towards her before taking the other bottle back. Sarah shook her head whilst laughing to herself.

“Thanks. Now what else do you think needs doing?” Sarah asked gesturing to the paper in between the two bodies. Alex simply shook his head as he took a sip on the bottle in hand. Pulling the plastic from his lips he swiftly moved his tongue to wipe away the sticky liquid before replacing the cap on the bottle and placing it on the table.

“Nothing,” he answered finally. Sarah’s eyebrows rose to her hairline as she took in Alex’s words.

“Nothing,” she repeated as if it were the stupidest thing he could have suggested.

“Nothing,” he answered finally with a shake of his head. “Not now anyway, we can write again tomorrow. But right now I would like to hang out with everyone else on this bus,” he explained looking rather sure of himself. Sarah couldn’t help but bite her lip to suppress her laughter as she noticed the amused look on Alex’s lips and his arms folded over his chest.

“There’s only me and you on this bus,” she countered.

“Sweet, now come and watch TV with me,” he replied as he took to his feet and instantly made his way through the bunk area. Sarah watched as he disappeared behind the narrow hallway and rolled her eyes before taking to her feet. Following where Alex had wandered off to she found herself in the back lounge. Looking around she saw a ‘V’ shaped white sofa in the corner. A table similar to the breakfast table in the front lounge was located to her left with two chair, also white, facing each other on either side. She turned ninety degrees to her right to see Alex bending over beneath a decently sized television stuck to the wall. On closer examination she saw Alex was in fact looking in a small cupboard containing various DVD cases. Some were copies of others which caused her to frown.

“Why do you have doubles?” Sarah asked when Alex pulled away from the cupboard with a sleek black remote in hand. Turning his head back to the cabinet he responded with a mere shrug.

“Fans buy us them and bring them along to the shows,” he explained as he leaned forwards and pulled out a white case before examining it. “I mean honestly, do you think I’d be the type of guy to buy Mean Girls?” He asked with an arched eyebrow as he held up the box so Sarah could see Lindsay Lohan vividly on the cover.

“Yes,” she answered simply with a definite nod and a serious look on her face.

“Then you are a very good judge of character,” Alex praised before throwing the case back in the cabin and closing it while Sarah laughed quietly. Turning back he shot her a quick grin before falling back onto the sofa and pointing the remote at the TV before it flashed on. Sarah slowly walked over to the couch, sitting down more elegantly a foot or so from Alex and watching the moving pictures before her.

“It feels good to not have to strain my eyes trying to make out the faces in a picture,” Sarah commented causing Alex to look towards her.

“What do you mean?” He asked looking at her expectantly but only receiving a shrug in return.

“The TV in our van sucks. The antenna barely works and all the channels we get have stupid lines going through them,” she explained.

“Hey be thankful you even have a TV,” Alex pouted. “Back when we first played Warped we didn’t,” he reasoned.

“Yeah but you hit it big early,” Sarah argued back. “Try being the only girl in a van of eight people,” she tried.

“Touché,” Alex smiled. Sarah grinned and stuck her chest out in mock triumph before turning back to the screen. Alex watched over her for a brief second longer. If you were to ask Alex if he thought Sarah belonged where she was he would have certainly disagreed with you. The small amount of sun left leaking through the slats in the blinds bounced off her eyes and made them dazzle. Her skin, the porcelain retained a permanent glow even when shadowed and Alex found himself in total disbelief. Looking back up to her eyes one more time he tried reading her thoughts but she was completely transfixed on the display before her. Girls like Sarah, funny, talented girls with goddess-like features that were able to hold conversation, belonged on the front cover of magazines. Not in the back of a beaten up old van surrounded by sweating guys. Alas, it was just another quality that fascinated him about her. Keeping this in mind, he turned back to the screen.