3652 Days of Julia

He picked me up and spun me around, his face exploding in a warm smile.

“It’s finally happening,” he breathed.

Carefully he put me down again, and picked up the boxes full of our things.

“I’ve never been to London, you know?” Matt said to me as he helped Oli load our things into Oli’s car. “Not once. We’re finally, finally getting out of here. We’re leaving Jules!”

I smiled.

They were all so excited.

It was hard to believe that after being here for six years that Oliver and I were finally leaving, at the age of 22 and 23, to the city – London. Unfortunately, part of me did not share the same intense enthusiasm that Oliver, and everyone else for that matter, had about this decision to move so far away from where we had grown up together in the awkward years of our adolescence.

We were leaving with the rest of the band. Curtis, Matt, Matt and Lee. I was anxious about moving to London, my preference was to move to Paris. But, Oli and the rest of the guys couldn’t speak French, nor was the music scene as broad and welcoming there – nor was their record company there. At the end of the day, I was moving for Oli, and making him happy was all I felt I should be doing after being sick for so long, and putting him through absolute hell.

“Sam!” I called when I saw Curtis’s girlfriend, and my best friend, arriving.

“Jules! How excited are you?” She called to me from across the street.

She walked onto the grass connecting mine and Oli’s homes, embracing us both with a smile on her face. She and Oli began to jump up and down in excitement as Curtis helped him load the rest of our things.

“It’s really happening!” Oli yelled again. “We’re packed, we’re going!”

I walked up to the door of my home, where Tom, Oli’s mother, and my mother were all standing. My mother had tears in her eyes as I hugged her goodbye.

“Be safe baby.” She told me as she kissed the top of my head, pulling away. “And have so, so much fun. You deserve it.”

I smiled and nodded, kissing Tom on the cheek and hugging Oli’s mother goodbye.

“Look after my boy honey.” She whispered to me as she let me go.

“I will.” I smiled.

After we said our goodbyes, Oli helped me into the car along with Matt and Lee, with Curtis and Sam and the other Matt in Curtis’s car.

As we pulled away from the curb, leaving Sheffield forever, I couldn’t help but feel the tears roll down my cheeks.

Oli leaned over from the driver’s seat and kissed me as we got onto the highway.

“I love you so much.” He said to me.

“I love you too.” I smiled.

“Everything will be better when we get there, I promise.” He whispered to me as he began to accelerate. “You won’t be reminded of any of that stuff again.”

We drove there in high spirits, smoking and sipping vodka (save Oli) and laughing and listening to music – being youthful, and happy, and most importantly - healthy.

“Do you know how to get there?” I asked Oli as we entered the outer suburbs of London. We had an apartment in the West End, as Lee’s sister owned a terrace duplex with four apartments in total that she was leasing to us all.

“No…” He trailed off, looking over at me momentarily with a look of uncertainty.

“You could have looked up directions before we came.” I said, rolling my eyes and sighing, annoyed at his inability to plan anything.

He pouted at me, and I glared at him, opening up the glove-box in hope of finding a GPS.

“Where’s the address? Lee?”

After successfully entering the address, after four hours travelling up to London’s West End, we were finally in front of our new home.

I lit another cigarette, sitting in the car beside Oli as he turned off the ignition, staring with wide eyes at the place we were about to call home. As I exhaled, Oli took my hand, in a gesture of what I assumed was support.

“It’ll all happen here baby,” he mumbled in my ear. “No past to haunt us, no bullshit rules or school. This is our future.”

I smiled and kissed him on the lips, unbuckling my seat belt and getting out of the car.

Sam ran over to me with Curtis and Matt trailing behind her.

“Is this it?” She asked. “It’s actually not as bad as I was imagining.”

I laughed, “who said anything about the inside?”

“That is, unfortunately, very true.”

We laughed, and Oli took my hand as we walked up to the stairs. My stomach erupted with nerves, unsure of what to expect. We rung the apartment of Lee’s sister, and waited for her to come down.

She was not what I expected to see. Her ravenous black hair hung around her hips, her eyes were encircled with black kohl, the whites of her eyes matching the pale tone of her skin.

“Hello,” she said, her voice soft and enticing. “I’m Hannah.”

She smiled, her cheeks erupting in a mild blush. She was shy, and very pretty.

Her hands ran down her sides, revealing the curviness of her body.

“Umm, I guess I’ll go grab your keys and show you all where you’re staying.”

I could tell I instantly liked her, but in the same degree, I could see Oli could too. His eyes did not move off of her as she spoke, handing us each keys and showing us to our apartments.

I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach as I followed Hannah up the stairs, with Oli trailing behind me. I turned around, seeing him stare at Hannah’s ass in her tight jeans. I slapped him on the arm.

“Ouch! What the fuck?” He cried, demanding Hannah’s attention.

“You know why,” I whispered in his ear, smiling at Hannah.

Hannah opened the door, and I had to hide a major smile from creeping up my face. It really was lovely. Much nicer than I expected it to be. The floors were wooden, the walls were bricks, surprisingly, it looked almost like Ashton Kutcher’s apartment in What Happens In Vegas, only bigger, and slightly more exclusive.

I expected Oli to hold me, and kiss me, and act all excited like his was minutes ago. But he was staring at Hannah.

“So, do you live here?” I asked her as we walked out of the apartment to get our stuff.

“Yes, I do actually,” she smiled. “Only when I have school. On the days I don’t, I stay with my parents.”

“Oh, okay.” I muttered.

I helped Oli move our furniture from the car into the apartment. Well, if helping means doing it all myself whilst Oli stood and spoke with Hannah, watching me. Eventually he helped me, taking vast amounts of stuff in order to, what I assumed to, impress Hannah.

****

Three hours later, everyone congregated in mine and Oli's apartment.

I sat on the floor, a cigarette lit in my hand, a Corona on the ground beside me, sitting in Oli’s lap. Lee, Curtis, Sam, both of the Matt’s, and now Kate, Chloe and Isabelle – the guys’ girlfriends, who had joined us from Sheffield later that day – were all in the open space of the apartment, drinking and eating and smoking.

“Well guys, tomorrow we go to our first recording,” Matt called. “I’m so fucking excited!”

We all laughed as he fell from the counter top, drunk already.

Everyone sat around, a joint was lit and passed around us – and, as it tends to do, within a matter of hours, everyone, myself included, was so stoned and inebriated that not even I noticed Hannah entering the room.

That was, not until I found her and Oli next to each other in our room the next morning.