Right Now, I'm Anyone's

I remember wishing that my phone would just stop ringing, long enough for me to go back into my dreamless sleep. It was vibrating away, on the bedside table where I’d left it the night earlier, before my talk with Dimitri. I didn’t want to talk to anybody during that.

I brought out my hand from the covers, grabbing around the table top for my phone having decided that answering it and satisfying whoever was on the other end was the better option. My fingers came into brief contact with it and I gripped on to it clumsily, pressing the accept button without checking the caller and held it to my ear.

“Hello?” I mumbled, tiredly.

“Leila? Finally!” It was Johnny. “I rang about a hundred times to see if you were okay, but you weren’t answering your phone to me or Georgia.”

“My phone was completely out of my hearing range, sorry,” I said. Technically, that was true; I put it on silent and left it in my bedroom while I went into the living room.

“I’m so sorry, Leila,” Johnny sighed. “That was kind of a disaster in the making.”

“It’s alright.” Lie. “It was just a huge shock, you know?”

“Yeah. I knew I should’ve told you ab-”

I pulled myself upright in my bed, and another voice cut him off on his end. “Johnny, shut the fuck up, everybody else is trying to get some more sleep.”

“Fuck off, it’s half three in the afternoon!”

It was his voice, I knew it was. My chest strained ever so slightly when he responded again. I didn’t even realise you could miss somebody’s voice. I felt like a complete imbecile for missing his. Johnny muttered another fuck off at his brother, before I heard him clambering around.

“Anyway,” he said, his teeth chattering violently. “When are you working next?”

“Monday,” I grumbled.

“Don’t worry,” Johnny assured. “He was surprised too, but I doubt he’ll do anything to upset you. I’ll set Jake and Zara on him if he does.”

I laughed weakly and sighed. “Its fine, I just think it’s going to be awkward seeing him every day.”

“Course it will be,” Johnny laughed. “For everyone, I suppose.”

I laughed and Johnny said he had to go and see if Jake needed any help with Edie. We said our goodbyes and he hung up. I slipped my phone into the pocket of the yellow hoody – which I’d fallen asleep in again, I might add – and huddled my body tighter into it. I got out of bed and padded around my home; Dimitri and Georgia were out, it seemed.

I sighed and slumped down into the couch, not bothering to switch on the television. I just stared at the ceiling above me, for once, not thinking at all. When could I possibly do at home, alone, to keep my mind off my issues? Oh yeah, absolutely nothing.

I knew I’d end up driving myself insane if I stayed inside, sitting around doing nothing. I had to get myself out of this place. I pulled my phone back out of my pocket and looked through my phonebook. Johnny? Too risky; Dean might come along. Levi? Works Sundays. Maddox?...Perfect. I pushed the dial button and waited patiently.

Five rings later. “Hello, my little pal.”

“Hi, Maddox,” I laughed. “Are you doing anything today?”

“Well, as I am in total high-demand, my schedule is totally full,” he paused. “Of fuck all but sitting around and eating. This is what my life has become.”

“Bane of all our lives boyo,” I mumbled. “Anyway, fancy meeting up in town or something?”

“Sure,” he snickered. “We can go make fun of old ladies in Marks & Spencer, and beat all the pre-teens at Guitar Hero.”

“Okay,” I laughed, already going through my wardrobe. “Meet me at HMV in half an hour.”

Maddox agreed and I put my phone down on the end of my unmade bed, thankful for a distraction.

*****

“Fuck off! You absolute, bloody, fucking arsewipe!” Maddox almost screamed at me. I laughed at him and hit the two final notes on the Guitar Hero console. I’d beaten Maddox at least four times at that game, and he was being childish about it. He kept insisting I cheated – even though there isn’t really a way to cheat on Guitar Hero – and sulked when a little girl of about nine said he wasn’t good at it.

“Oh, come on, Maddox,” I laughed, taking the guitar off over my head and smoothing down my white vest. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

I handed the guitar off to the next player – a spotty boy of about thirteen – and pulled my leather jacket back on.

“I don’t wear knickers,” he grumbled, unable to hide his smile. He flung his arm over my shoulder and said, “I’m normally really good at it.”

“Why even lie?” I laughed, rolling my eyes. “Shall we get a coffee or something? It’s so cold out here.”

I shivered and adjusted my purple scarf, tightening it slightly around my neck. My dark blue skinny jeans shielded my legs from the cold, but the vest was a bad idea, since my leather jacket wasn’t the warmest thing ever. Maddox and I walked to the nearest Starbucks, which just so happened to be completely packed, a couple of shops down from HMV.

“I’ll have a tea,” he said, holding the front door open for me and following me inside. I made sure he shut the door, just so the employee’s didn’t have a fit over it like they usually did. We waited in the seemingly endless line for a good fifteen minutes before we got the opportunity to place our orders.

Once Maddox and I had collected our drinks, we quickly made our way up the stairs to the additional seating. Maddox ran across the room and dove onto a plush cushioned couch before another couple could even get to them. The couple shot him an evil look while he sat; his body sprawled over the entire couch, waiting for me.

“You’re so rude,” I smiled, sitting down where his legs where seconds ago. “They got here first.”

“Ah, true,” he shrugged, taking a slurp of his tea. “But those who snooze lose, as it were.”

I laughed. People that didn’t know Maddox personally would think he was quite literally a child in a grown man’s body. When I think about it, almost everything about Maddox was kind of crazy. His short brown hair always stuck up in random tufts all over his head, he always had this manic glint in his eyes and he, in himself, was just a little bit insane at times.

We talked for a while; he told me about one of the bands vocalists being really cool, and I told him how I’d gotten back in touch with old friends – Johnny and Jake. Later on, Maddox made a little confession to me that he fancied Jake’s cousin, Zara.

Who wouldn’t?

“I think Lee, Ryan and James are out and about today,” Maddox said. I stopped and thought for a second before I realised he meant Lee Wilson, Ryan Mellor and James Veck-Gilodi. Maddox pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and dialled a number.

“Alright?” Yeah, just wondering if you’s were out in central,” Maddox said, pausing for a minute while the person on the other end spoke. “Oh, that’s cool. We’re in the Starbucks around the corner, upstairs.”

He slid his phone shut and put it back into his pocket. I shot him a small, questioning look and he told me that it was Lee on the phone then; he, Ryan and James were coming to meet up with us for a bit. I nodded and went back to sipping my drink, taking my iPod out of my medium sized black tote bag and putting an earphone in. I pressed shuffle and put my legs over Maddox’s knees while we waited for Lee and co.

“I resent this,” he said, staring at my plain black pumps with a look of mock distaste.

“Why?”

“I am not a footstool.”

I laughed and dug my heel hard into his thigh, making him wriggle to get out of my foot’s way. I laughed again and drank the last of my caramel latte.

“Oh, Leila, isn’t it?”

I looked up at the sound of somebody’s voice saying my name. It was just Ryan, closely followed by Lee, who I assumed to be their guitarist – James – and somebody else. I smiled at Ryan and Lee in turn and got up to give them a hug each. James just sat down opposite where Maddox and I were and watched.

“This is James Amadeus Veck-Gilodi,” Ryan said, kicking James in the ankle on his way to sit on the left hand side of him. “But, you can call him Tit-Wank.”

James laughed and threw a punch at Ryan, before turning to smile and nod his head at me. He was a little bit less talkative than Lee and Ryan at first, but he was okay, once he started up. He had brown hair with an undercut shaved in, a nose piercing – like my own – and two small plugs in either ear. He was dressed in a Limp Bizkit shirt with the sleeves ripped off, revealing toned arms full of tattoos, and skinny jeans ripped at his knees, showing the pale skin beneath.

Lee sat on the other side of James, adjusting his sock hat over his long hair and straightening out his black shirt that said, “Straight Up Gangster” in gold lettering. I remembered that the other person was still here, and turned to look at who was sitting next to Lee.

“This is Dean,” Lee said, clapping him on the back. “Eye Witness’ vocalist and a good mate of ours.”

I tightened my jaw slightly and looked at him for what seemed like ages. Dean didn’t even bother lifting his head to look back at me – thank God – and kept his eyes either trained on the wooden table between us all or on Lee, Ryan or James. I’m glad he didn’t look at me; I probably would’ve run away again.

So much for a distraction.