Status: Completed.

My Escapade

Imagery

Thursday came all too soon. I had been trying to occupy myself to keep from thinking of it, but that only made the time pass by faster. Before I had even realized it, it was Thursday, and I was scrambling to get prepared, if not physically, but mentally. Mr. Cranford let me leave early to get ready, and I rushed home to take a shower.

As I took a shower, dried my hair, and put on my clothes, I sang as many anti-love songs as I could think of—I Don’t Love You by My Chemical Romance, Fuck You by Cee Lo Green, Boston by Augustana, Sorrow by The National, Liar Liar by Never Shout Never, Bulletproof by La Roux, and plenty of others. As much as I tried, though, I still felt the dread of liking Jaxin even more creeping up on me, enclosing me in its fist. I shuddered as I pulled on my shoes at the thought of what a disaster this could be, how it could ruin my career.

The doorbell rang, interrupting my thoughts. I looked through the peephole and saw Jaxin fidgeting with the pocket in his flannel shirt. He was wearing a red-and-black checkered flannel, black jeans, and black slip-on Vans. I opened the door and smiled at him. “Hey.”

He smiled widely at me. “Hey there. You look really nice.”

I looked down at my yellow dress with little flowers on it. “Oh, this? I only like it because it has pockets.” I laughed, mostly at my own awkwardness and stupidity, and closed the door, checking to make sure it was locked. I checked that I had my phone, keys, and wallet in my small purse before smiling at Jaxin and gesturing for us to go.

“Well, how’ve you been these past few days?” Jaxin asked as we started down the sidewalk. “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to keep in touch too much, The Escapade has been busy. Music video planning and stuff.”

“I’ve been okay.” I nodded. “But it’s been boring. Tell me about this music video thing.”

Jaxin stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Um. Well, it’s for our single, ‘Imagery.’ We haven’t started filming yet. But it’s going to be really, really exciting.”

I racked my brain for the song he was speaking of. I vaguely remembered reading the title. I read something about how they were releasing the song and video together. “Oh?” I raised my eyebrow. “A big hit, now? You sure?” I nudged him with my arm, smiling.

“I like to think so,” he teased.

“Alright, alright.” I nodded. “What’s the video about?”

“Well, it has the shots of the band performing and then it has a storyline, like most music videos. We’ve already got the shots of us performing. The story is pretty much, there’s this guy who likes this girl. She’s really shy with people she doesn’t know, but she’s really outgoing with her friends, and he knows this, because he sees her with her friends sometimes. So he acts out and tries to get her to notice him. He tries to pass notes to her, tries to spray paint the parking lot, and even puts a banner on top of the school, all kinds of stuff. So he gets caught and goes to the principal’s office. When he comes out, he sees ‘I love you’ written on the wall. And there’s the girl, holding a can of spray paint.”

I have to be honest, I squealed a little. Just a tad. “Awh! That is so cute!” I gushed. I cleared my throat. “Erm. I mean, that… that sounds pretty cool.” I nodded meekly.

He laughed. “I thought it was cute, too. I didn’t come up with it, though,” he added. “Zack did.”

I nodded. “Huh. Zack must really be the romantic type.” Which was far from the truth. I could remember Zack being about as romantic as toilet paper. Which might’ve been why Mike and Jaxin usually got all the girls in high school. Doug had been going steady with this other girl for a few years, while Zack had usually been single.

Jaxin laughed, probably thinking the same thing I was. “Not really. Just a good imagination.” He looked at his phone for a second, then stopped at a nearby building. “We’re just gonna stop in here for a second. The guys need to talk to me.”

Fuck. I don’t think I can handle four people thinking I looked really, really familiar at once. How many people can I fool? “Oh. Sure.”

Jaxin could tell I was nervous, but he misread it, thinking I was nervous because I was meeting famous people. “It’s alright. They’re cool.”

I nodded. “I’m sure they are.” As far as the guys went, Jaxin had been my closest friend in the band, and I had been pretty good with Mike and Zack. Doug had always been really quiet. But the other night, Mike had been drunk enough to believe my story, and I hoped he was just as naïve sober.

We entered the cool building, and I felt my heart rate increase, trying to remember my cover. Where did I grow up? What’s my middle name? Do I have siblings? I wiped my sweaty palms on the back of my dress.

“Hey guys,” I heard Jaxin say as he walked into a room on the left. I heard them reply as I cautiously entered the room. Doug and Zack were on the big red couch with their respective instruments, and Mike was lounging next to them, tossing his drumsticks up in the air. I smiled at them as they stared at me. “This is Alison.”

I waved, half expecting all three of them to stand up, point, and shout, “Liar, liar! We know who you are!”

Keep your imagination in check, Nimrod.

“I remember,” Mike said, nodding. He smiled. “Nice to see you again.”

Doug nodded in agreement. He probably didn’t remember me too well from the wedding, since he had been too busy trying to hook up with my best friend.

“Am I the only one who hasn’t met this chick before?” Zack demanded.

Ah, Zack. Brash as ever. Or maybe just stupid. I laughed to myself a little.

“So, why’d I need to come here?” Jaxin asked, leaning up against the wall.

“We promised we’d take a video of us performing the song and putting the video up tomorrow, didn’t we? As a taste?” Mike tapped his feet on the floor.

“Shit,” Jaxin groaned. “I forgot.” He turned to me. “Do you mind? It won’t take too long…”

“Shouldn’t we make her wait outside?” Doug asked. He grimaced and turned to me. “Sorry, nothing personal. But we’ve worked really hard to keep this from getting out, and for the song to leak now…”

“Come on, man,” Jaxin said, nudging him. “Alison’s cool. She won’t leak it. Right?” He looked at me with those sparkling green eyes, and I felt my stomach bottom out.

I nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Of course.”

Jaxin turned towards the guys. “See? Come on, let’s do this.” He grabbed the red acoustic guitar that was propped up against the couch, and sat down on the little seat across from the couch.

“I’m not needed for this,” Mike said with a sigh to me. “Since this is acoustic. So I’ll just beat on my legs.”

I laughed.

“Hey, Alison, right? Yeah. Can you turn the camera on?” Zack gestured to the camera set up on a tripod.

“Sure,” I said, and walked over to it. Tucking my red hair behind my ears, I peered at the camera and turned it on and pressed the red “Record” button. I gave the guys a thumbs-up and retreated farther behind the camera, in case my magical skill of tripping over air suddenly came upon me.

The guys started strumming the guitar, and a feeling of nostalgia washed over me as the oddly familiar tune floated through the air. I couldn’t place where exactly I had heard this tune before, and as Jaxin started singing the words, it became increasingly obvious to me that I was very familiar with this song. “In the dim imagery of my dream, I saw you and me, shining brightly.”

And then it hit me. It was the song. My song.
♠ ♠ ♠
OH LOOK. AN UPDATE. OMFG.
... D:
I know, I know. I said I'd update over Winter Break. >>
I HAVE SPRING BREAK NEXT WEEK.
SO,
I should definately be updating then.
I have an 85 in Bio. I need to bring that up 5 points. So I HAVE TO make an 87 or higher on my test Thursday. SO, I probably can't update 50 Myths until after then. :/ Sorry, loves.

Thanks to JW94 for commenting.
More comments maybe? D: I mean, I'd like to know that I'm not just putting out this story for, like, 3 people. I'd still do it, of course, for those 3 people, but, come on. Motivation. :3

--Kat