Noises

It had been just two days, and I had heard nothing but my phone ringing, and I knew exactly who it was ringing me, and the reason why. Since the night I’d given Josh my number, he’d phone, probably four times a day, and each time I answered, he’d ask if I’d yet decided to go out on a date with him, and each time I’d say no.

I know. You’re all probably reading this and wanting to slam your forehead repeatedly down on the keyboard, screaming at the screen: “Why, Hollie? Why would you say no to that?”

Well, it’s simple, really. I don’t know the boy. And still, I know you’ll all be crying by now, sounding even more frustrated. Basically, ladies and gentlemen, I, Hollie Caraher, do not date rock stars. So what - he isn’t that big of one, but if given the chance, he will be, and I didn’t want to be falling in love with somebody who wasn’t around for half of the year, did I?

Though, my constant complaining about him ringing was obviously annoying Megan, too, who by this time had a pillow cushioning her head and ears as she napped on the sofa. Well, I say ‘napped’, but she was still probably half awake whilst I was typing away on my laptop, curled up on the chair. The shop was closed today, mainly because of the horrific weather outside, but I wasn’t fussed. No work made Hollie a very happy girl.

However, when my phone rang again, I let out a frustrated scream, and Megan’s eyes opened. She took no time in crawling off the sofa, grabbing my phone, and shoving it in my face. She glared at me, and I swear I saw her hand shaking. “Answer it, and invite him with us this evening.”

I took the phone and pushed my laptop to the side, raising an eyebrow. “What’re you doing this evening?”

“What’re we doing this evening.” Megan corrected, then nudged my arm, is if reminding me that it was ringing. “We’re going bowling. Tom invited me.”

I rolled my eyes, and let out a quiet sigh; I didn’t want to go out with Joshua, never mind Joshua and the adorable couple that always manages to make me feel inferior. However, I answered the call and decided to just do as I was told; I didn’t want Megan to do any damage to me or herself.

“Hollie, listen, I know I keep phoning you, but I really just want-”

“Josh, shut up.” I snapped, and as I sent Megan an unimpressed look, I stood and wandered over to the kitchen area. “Megan wants me to invite you to come bowling with us. Megan, alright? Not me.” I huffed, opening the fridge and staring at what was inside. Not seeing anything that I thought would satisfy my stomach, I closed the fridge door and leaned back against the counter, my tongue running over my teeth.

“Really?” the singer asked, sounding a little taken back. “Well, I-I’d love to - tell her thank-”

“Megan! Joshua said thank you!” I called, interrupting him.

“I wish you’d just call me Josh.” he grumbled.

“I wish you’d stop calling me, but so far, that hasn’t happened, has it?” I retorted, looking down at my nails.

Josh sighed, but once again, he was interrupted. And this time, by Megan, who’d wandered into the kitchen area, running a hand through her hair. “It’s no problem,” she called, a bittersweet smile on her face. “We’ll come pick you up, too, alright?”

The singer made a noise, and it was obvious that he was surprised. “Well, thanks,” he chuckled. “What time should I be ready for?”

By now, Megan had took the phone, and I was glaring at the back of her head. Then, I turned, and busied myself by opening and shutting all the cupboards - loudly, might I add. I remember trying to dodge Megan as she attempted to slap my arm, several times.

After she’d finished, she flashed me a sweet-ass smile, and passed me back my phone. “We’re picking him up at six.” she told me, then left. I glanced at the clock, and after realising it was half four, I rushed over to the bathroom, dibbing the shower to be mine first.



The drive to the Franceschi’s was horrible. Mind you, it always was when I had to be anywhere near Tom and Megan, who, like tonight, were all lovey-dovey, even though Megan was driving. I felt like I was almost being pushed out though, because again, I was in the backseat, and what made it even worse was the fact that I’d forgotten to bring my iPod along, and because of the snow, Megan was forced to drive extra slow, resulting in us being late to Josh’s.

When we finally arrived, though, I turned my head to glance out of the window, and couldn’t help but smile the tiniest bit. Joshua left his house just a minute after we’d beeped, wearing tight, black jeans, black vans, a blue checkered shirt - which, to my surprise, was undone, with a plain white shirt underneath - and quite a large winter coat over the top. Oh, and let’s not forget the cap that had been sat, keeping his curly, half-shaved hair safe from any rain in the not-too-distant future. Well, you never know in England.

As soon as the singer opened the door and climbed in, he was greeted by Tom and Megan’s ‘hello’s, but the smile from my face was forced to leave, and I blinked, turning to face away from the singer, who’s cheeks and nose were already pink from the cold air outside. After he closed the door and buckled himself in, he and Tom introduced themselves to each other, and Josh had mentioned something about seeing or knowing his brother, but I didn’t care enough to remember what else had been said. Josh then sat back in his seat, sniffled, and looked across at me, a smile appearing on his face.

“Won’t you say hello?” he murmured, his hands on his knees, which is how I noticed he probably had a habit of sitting like; he sat the same way on the Saturday at the bar, when I saw his band.

Wait. What? Hollie, you seriously need to erase your brilliant memory.

I stared at Joshua for what seemed like five minutes, but in reality, was only about 30 seconds, before I waved, slightly. “Hello.” I muttered, then turned my head to look out the window.

The whole car suddenly fell silent after that, and I could almost imagine the look on Josh’s face: confusion. Confused as to why I was so short with him, maybe, after we went out to buy muffins together? It was all very simple to me; like I’d said, it wasn’t a date, and just because I came home with a smile on my face and he left with my number, doesn’t immediately make us friends. Which, in many ways, sounds ridiculous, but I still wasn’t about to get any closer with him.

It took us twenty more minutes until we reached the building we were to play a couple of games of bowling at, and once Megan had found a good parking space, I had unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned forward, my eyes staring at myself through the rear-view mirror, my hand reaching into my bag and pulling out some lipstick. Hey, it may have just been bowling, but I wanted to look nice. I pursed my lips, feeling them part slightly as I slowly covered them in a blood red colour. Out of the corner of my eye, I could feel Joshua’s eyes on me, but I did nothing about it.

After I was done, I put my lipstick away, and everyone filed out of the car. Josh got out on the other side, with Tom, and Megan shot me a glance that evidently told me to behave myself, before she walked off to grab Tom’s hand and pull him inside. Me and Josh followed silently after.

Once we were inside, Megan gave in the coupons she had for us, and we collected our shoes, which I hated. They were just ugly shoes in general, and were too dangerous for me; they were so slippery. I was the first to get my shoes on, with Tom second, Josh third and Megan last, and then, we walked down to our alley.

I probably would’ve warmed up to Joshua a little more if it had been going the way it had, but when I saw four other boys on the alley besides ours, waving at us - well, Josh - like lunatics, I began to glare at the singer. Megan and Tom hadn’t seemed to notice, and they walked over to our alley, beginning to type in our names: Tom, Megs, Hol and then Josh.

Josh waved back, enthusiastically, his mouth opening to speak as he turned to me, but when his eyes saw how unimpressed I looked, he frowned. “You know, if you continue to frown, your face will stick like that.” he muttered, then grinned, looking up over my head to speak to Megan and Tom. “Guys, these are my band mates.”

Of course! I wondered why, for a split second, I had recognised one of the taller dark-haired boys, who, like the others, was standing up right and grinning at us, although he had a bowling ball in his hand. My eyes scanned them for a moment, before I glanced up at Josh, who had began to introduce them.

“That’s Chris, Max, Dan, and Matt.” the singer said, pointing to each one of them. The boy I had earlier recognised was Matt, and he nodded to me, politely, before looking up at the screen. Noticing it was his turn, he walked up to their alley and bent his knees, rolling the ball with such force, that he got a strike.

I smirked at this, and when Josh shot me a look, I shrugged it off and walked over to pick up a bowling ball.



Just two hours had passed, and the games were already finished. I had learned a lot from being neighbours with the rest of You Me At Six, like the fact that they all enjoyed a good party, but most of them hated snow, or that Max was the most noisiest and Chris was most quiet. Either way, I seemed to get along with them better than I had with Joshua, which was a shock to Megan - who had won the game, by the way.

She’d been dancing around our seats for the past five minutes, singing that she had beaten us, and my only reaction was to chew a sweet I’d bought from the counter. The night hadn’t been as eventful as I expected it to be, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to Megan when I stood up and shuffled my way past the arcade and towards the toilets.

Upon entering the toilets, my eyebrows rose. They were posh, with a delightful smell, and tiles everywhere. I pulled a snooty face, as a personal joke, and after taking a piss, I washed my hands and touched up my make-up, then fluffed my hair a little, before leaving the restroom. But, before I could even walk through the arcade, I had been forced to stop by a body on the floor, and once I looked down, I narrowed my eyes.

“Josh, what’re you doing on the floor?”

The singer looked up at me from under his black cap, and he began to get up, shrugging his checkered shirt back into position. “When you left for the toilet, Megan insisted that her and Tom join forces with the boys for another game of bowling.” he paused, licking over his lips, quickly. “I decided to come over and wait for you. Besides,” he shoved his hand into his jeans’ pocket, pulling out several pound coins. “I have enough for a few spins at the arcade games.”

As much as I had planned to just ignore the boy, or at least try to, my guard was let down with all those shiny coins, and although I was screaming to myself that I shouldn’t have, I nodded. It was only a few pointless games, right?

When Josh noticed that I’d agreed, he began to grin, and the two of us wandered around the large arcade, my lips pursed as I glanced around at them. My eyes landed on a lot of things within the first five minutes, and it was evident to Joshua that I was quite a fan of games, and I had to admit, we had our fair share of laughs for the hour that we were left in the arcade together. Yes, an hour.

Now, though, I was stood outside the simulator, in the center of the arcade, which seemed like a big, grey van, with no windows, and only two slide doors - one of each side. Josh was counting his coins whilst I glanced around at the other games we’d recently been playing on, and finally, he shoved the coins in and slid the door open, waiting for me to get in first.

I smiled at this; it was the second time he’d been so polite, and I thought it was quite cute. I climbed into the simulator and sat in the seat farthest, so he could just climb in next, without walking to the other side. Once he was in, he closed the simulator door, which enveloped us in complete darkness - well, that was until the giant screen lit up, and music blasted out of speakers beside our heads. Instinctively, the two of us flinched, jerking forward, our groans loudening when our temples collided.

Then, with our hands covering the spot we’d just hit, we both began laughing. It was quite an awkward laugh, but I didn’t mind much. It took only a minute for the pain to subside, and then we were leaning forward and hitting each other, arguing over which video we wanted for our simulator. Despite me continuously battering his arm, though, he ended up pressing the button that lead to the haunted goldmine. I huffed, and sat back in my chair, but it took me by surprise, and I yelped when the simulator began to jerk, as if we were in the carriage in the mine, riding a rickety track.

To be honest, the whole four minutes of the simulator ride was just full of laughter - we were laughing so hard that I had warned him that I might have very well peed, but I hadn’t, of course.

Getting out of the simulator was the problem. We had been viciously throw from one side of the simulator to the other, so that when the screen turned off, we were soon enveloped in darkness again, and it was safe to say that I just didn’t want to move. And, it wasn’t because of Joshua being in the same carriage as me, so don’t get your hopes up. It was simply because I was battered and bruised and my ribcage felt as though someone had kicked it, hard, several times. But Josh seemed to be in the same situation, and I remember seeing his silhouette fall back into his chair, tiredly.

“That was fun.” the singer breathed, finally, filling the comfortable silence.

I could only grunt in response, though, and shrugged my shoulders, effortlessly. I couldn’t find enough energy to even reply; the simulator had really done me in, and apparently Josh. I heard him groan as he sat up again, muttering something about him not wanting to move, but that he was very uncomfortable.

Well, he wasn’t the only one.

After a minute or two, I forced my body into a sitting position and pulled back the door on my side, wincing at the sudden, harsh light that had done a good job of making me curse, loudly. I got out, successfully, though, and after Josh had, as well, we walked up to the desk and got our original shoes back, putting them on in silence.

“Josh!”

The two of us looked up, then got to our feet. It was Max, who was grinning as he approached us, with Megan, Tom, and the rest of the boys behind him. Once he was close enough, Joshua leaned over to clap his friend on the back, grinning softly. And I just stood there, making a face when Megan raised her eyebrows. She was seriously expecting me to do something with Josh? Well, it didn’t surprise me.

“Your coat,” Max muttered, passing the singer his winter coat, which looked quite heavy. When Josh took the article of clothing and thanked his friend, I managed to croak out a few goodbyes to the boys, but it made me frown, as when they left, Megan had turned, pointing at Josh, who was currently pulling on his coat.

“We’ll take you home, alright?”

The singer froze, and then began sorting out his collar, smiling a little. “Thank you.” was his soft response, his eyes glancing to the entrance. It had been snowing for a while, now, and there was probably inches of it on the ground. “Hate the snow.” he added, quietly, following me, Tom and Megan out.

He wasn’t the only one.