When You're Around

The sun, it shined outside the walls that held me captive. The constant rays of tiny light flashed my eyes with loud screams of joy and happiness. Its beauty filled my hungry eyes with its illuminating, surprising wonder. I was in utter awe at how such a beautiful force of nature could make a simple human feel both completely at ease and so lost at the same time. Thoughts still raced in my mind and, yes, I was trying to focus on the guitar in at my feet and the blank paper in front of me; however, as hard as I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to look away from the glowing window. I had nothing to say about my situation, yet sound was able to leave my parted lips as a sigh of pure content.

My heartbeat seemed to pick up in speed for some unknown reason, as it did any other time my eyes laid rest on a new found beauty. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back onto my couch I had occupied and tried to focus on the task in hand. My first tour had ended just two days before and, instead of going on vacation, I wanted to head right back into work.

Music had to become my main focus until I was given a movie offer or found a script that I was really into. The empty notebook had been lying in front of me for maybe over half an hour and I had yet to pick up the pencil that lay dead beside it.

The only thing that was able to pull me out of my pitiful state of focus was the loud ringing of my cell phone. I recognized the ringtone at once because it was the first song I successfully recorded and my best-friend, Lou, had claimed it as hers.

“L.A. lights never shine quite as bright as in the movies
Still wanna go?
'Cause something here
In the way, in the way that we're constantly moving
Reminds you of home”

“Yes, Love?” I answered lazily, trying to sound like I was at least thinking productively. Yet, knowing Lou she was going to pick up on my tone rather quickly.

“Are you still stuck?” she asked from the other end. From sounds of the low music playing in the background, I knew she was still in her room just down the hall from where I sat.

“If you’re just calling to start a conversation, why don’t you get your lazy ass out of the room and come here?” I said with a laugh. I was only teasing her because I knew she was still slightly hung over from our celebration the night before.

Lou had just received the news that her novel ‘The Beast Within’ was going to be turned into a Hollywood movie directed by none other than Robert Rodriguez. As my congratulations gift, I treated her to a girls night out with private V.I.P. access in Avalon. It had taken a lot of persuading and a little bribe money to get it but in the end it was all worth it.

Her laugh was heard both from her room and the other end of the phone. Once I saw her room door starting to open, I closed my phone and closed my notebook to hide the fact that I hadn’t moved an inch from where I started. I looked up and watched her groggily drag her feet over in my direction. Her hair was messed up, her glasses were just seconds from falling off her nose, and her face was flushed of any color.

“Whoever invented alcohol was a jackass for not finding an ingredient to prevent hangovers,” she muttered as she plopped down beside me. I stifled the laugh that threatened to break from behind my cage of teeth and I put my hand over her forehead.

“Maybe you should’ve just figured you weren’t going to hold your liquor as good as other people,” I teased, knowing all too well that she could hold her alcohol better than anyone else I had known. It was like that girl had a second gift.

Lou rolled her eyes and swatted my hand away, “I’m not even going to correct your highly ignorant statement no matter how wrong it is. All I will say is you’re the one who couldn’t finish all of your shots.”

I allowed my laugh to escape its prison and got off the couch to walk over to the kitchen. After looking in both the freezer and refrigerator I noted that not only did we have nothing in either of the two, but my stomach was just seconds away from attacking my liver in order to survive the morning. It growled in agreement when I made up my mind to go out and buy something to sustain me long enough through grocery shopping.

“Hey, Lou, I’m going to go out and find something to eat,” I said, walking from the kitchen and back into the living room where Lou had fallen asleep once again. I rolled my eyes and walked to my room to get ready. After dressing in a pair of shorts, a simple shirt, and a hoodie, I quickly walked into the living room to find the shoes that I remembered leaving there the night before.

However, I didn’t remember wearing heels to the club. But, then again, I didn’t remember much from the night other than having more fun than I had in weeks. Sighing, I slipped on my heels, mainly because I didn’t feel like walking back to my room for sneakers.

I looked back at the passed out Lou and then walked out the front door. A mental grocery list in my head, my wallet in my hoodie pocket, and my car keys in my hand were the only things I carried with me on my journey for food and then the grocery store.

Not even those things could prepare me for what that day would bring.