Love That Leaps Without A Shove

eleven

It was four am and I could get no sleep. Every mechanism in my head was ticking annoyingly, giving me no peace whatsoever. I hadn’t even put pajamas on; I had just curled up around the soft blankets and waited until sleep would take me but to no avail.

I stretched my arm out and dialed the room service number, ordering two beers and after that, I just waited, doing nothing. I flipped the tv on and there was some documentary about world war II so I watched it like a zombie, lying on my stomach and resting my head on my hands.

I checked my watch, realizing it had been more than half an hour since I had ordered the damn beers… I guess Hitler made time pass quickly? Annoyed at the delay, I got up and opened my door, checking the hall for any sign of a man carrying booze that belonged to me. Three doors down, I saw the room service cart and the man talking to somebody. I leaned out more and saw that Joe was standing there, talking to him and leaning against his door. I was guessing the dude was some kind of fan, since he had a weird shaggy haircut and looked like he was very thankful for serving one of his idols.

I leaned out further and being the klutz I was, stumbled and landed loudly on my knees. Joe and the hotel guy both turned to the source of noise and stared at me.

“Ah… hello,” I whispered.

“Hello ‘mam,” the dude said, focusing his attention back to Joe.

“I’m waiting for my beer here,” I stated, huffing and puffing while pretending to be cool since I had just fallen to the floor.

“Actually, could you just bring my order to her room too, we’re friends,” said Joe, motioning towards me.

Ha, nice. Wait. What did he…? Bring his stuff to my room? He wanted to be in my room, with me… and him, in my room of all rooms and he didn’t just want to stay in his own room all alone oh no he wanted to be with me, unsupervised and with alcohol.

I snapped out of it when he strolled barefoot to my room, with the man patiently pushing the cart of food behind him. When he passed by me and entered my room, the dude winked at me, apparently mentally congratulating me for what he thought was the typical business musicians and girls did in a hotel room late at night. Yeah.

The door closed and I opened my beer using the night table.

“Smooth,” Joe mumbled in between bites of food. Looked like a steak.

“That’s how I roll,” I said, taking my distance and staying on my bed, as far away as possible and staring at the tv. The only sound was silverware and the tanks in the documentary, bombing cities, that echoed in the room.

“Tonight was a once again a fiasco,” he said and set his plate aside, turning to me.

I looked at him. I was going to be honest. “Can I ask you something?”

“I guess…”

“Why would you ever marry her?”

His gaze wandered around himself as he looked down, sighing as his back fell against the mattress. “Sometimes, you meet people and you feel there’s a click there, that they’re unique and special and make you feel happy… complete, you know?”

I know, I felt that with you motherfucker. “Aha…”

“And when I met Elyssa, well, she never was interested in me before and there she was, smiling at me and that’s how it happens.”

“Yeah Joe but… she treats you like shit and everybody around her.”

“When you love somebody, you compromise and have other priorities. Its not always fun and games.”

“She hits you for fuck’s sake!” I said out loud.

He looked so sad and broken. “Things will get better; she’s just stressed about things.”

“And what if they don’t? Will you just keep on being with her and being miserable? What do you gain from all this?”

“Can you understand its not always about gaining? This isn’t a childish relationship just about fucking, its about setting down rules and staying with somebody forever and fucking forgetting about what you want but what makes the other person happy, Lily! We’re not going to be in our twenties forever.”

I crossed my legs and stared at him, he had his eyes closed and one arm under his head. I couldn’t believe we were actually having this conversation, being open about everything at last. Maybe we should be 100% honest then.

“Remember that stupid little deal we had made when we were kids?”

He laughed. “We weren’t kids, stop making excuses. And yeah, I remember, marrying each other if we hadn’t been married by the age of 25. Sounds pathetic come to think of it… desperately wanting to tie the notch like that, taking anybody.”

“You’re not anybody Joe.”

He opened his eyes and turned to his side, facing me. “You’d actually do that?”

What did I have to lose at this moment? Nothing. “Yeah, in a heartbeat.”

His eyes were stone cold. “I recall you being the one that never really wanted to be exclusive
Lily, this is kinda two-faced. I mean, how can you want to marry someone when back when we were together, you’d cringe and pull away if I kissed you in front of people? How do you think that made me feel?”

“You probably felt like I feel right now. Horrible, unworthy… alone, incapable of ever being loved and useless.”

“I’m getting married in less than two days.”

“Leave her. Marry me, be with me and you know it would be amazing, there was always that thing that felt different with us.”

“I love her, I want her to be my wife,” he whispered. I bit my lip as silent tears fell down my face, staining my cheeks and smudging my make-up. He crawled towards me, holding my hands and kissing my face.

“Don’t be like this baby, please.”

He hugged me and cradled me in his arms. I forgot about the beers I had been planning on drinking ‘cuz right now I was right beside him, skin on skin except not under the circumstances I had been aiming for. Here we were, me crying like the fucked-up alcoholic I was and him comforting me.

He kissed me tenderly somewhere in my hair and I felt myself falling asleep then and there, clutching onto his shirt for dear life, like an infant that couldn’t cope without holding onto a piece of its parent’s clothing, with tiny little hands. He smelled like the most beautiful, spicy and soothing man in existence. Like pepper and fruits together…

When my tears dried up and I could only taste them in my mouth, I fell asleep completely, relishing the fact that I had a body beside me that loved me… just not in the way that I did.

**

“Hello?”

I moved slightly and got cozier around the heat source.

“Lily? Open the fucking door! Are you there?”

That was an annoying voice.

“Hello? Wake the fuck up!”

I woke up and realized someone was banging on my door. I closed my eyes again and snuggled against the pillow. I was probably having the best sleep of my life, relaxed and peaceful and everything I could have ever asked for. I had a nice pair of arms locked around me and from what I could tell; there was a nose breathing on my neck.
WAIT.

“Its Elyssa, open the door now!”

I sat up straight in a millisecond and looked to my right. Joe FUCKING Perry, sleeping like a baby. Oh holy crap, motherfucker.

“Joe wake up, Elyssa is outside,” I whispered.

He was about to mumble something but I took a pillow and covered his face, so nothing could be heard.

“ONE SECOND ELYSSA… I’M… NAKED,” I shouted as an excuse and resumed to waking up the idiot.

“Joe, please wake up now because your future wife will not like the fact you slept on my bed with me in it… and you’re not even wearing a shirt.”

He rubbed his eyes furiously and gave me a confused look when the knocking on the door started once again.

I grabbed him by the arm, pulled him out of bed, took his shoes and shirt and pushed him and everything he owned into the bathroom. He locked from the inside and I ran to get the door.

“Oh, hi Elyssa, sorry about that but I had to get dressed,” I said. She was standing there, already in perfect attire and make-up while I still had the same clothes on as last night.

“You’re wearing the same clothes,” she seemed to notice as well.

I mentally kicked my brain so it would work faster. “Yeah, well, this is between us but I had some… fun last night.”

She raised an eyebrow but mostly looked disgusted. “Have you seen Joe?”

“No, I haven’t seen him since dinner last night.”

“Well… then if you do see him, tell him I’ll be out and he’s not allowed to see me at all, wedding customs and all.” She spun on her heel and pranced off, I shut the door immediately and sighed in relief.
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Sorry for taking ages, here's a small chapter, do enjoy!