It's Not A Question But A Lesson Learned In Time

After a hellish three hour flight, a far too long overlay time, and another frustrating six hour flight, I was finally landing in London, Heathrow. I was nervous as hell at seeing Hannah again, and meeting Ben, the guy I would be living with for a while. I felt sick from the thought of what my dad would do when he realized I was gone, and I was dead on my feet from not sleeping for the entire journey.
I texted James while I was waiting for my stuff to come out on the conveyer belt thing, just saying I had made it this far. He replied quickly basically saying good luck, and that the next time he saw me he would kill me for leaving him.
The one thing I was still waiting for was to hear the reaction from my dad. I was slightly worried about it in all honesty.

“Frankie!” I heard a loud dilute American voice call. I smiled to myself as I whirled around and saw Hannah pushing through the vast crowd towards me. She was still the same as I remember her; Long black and purple wavy hair, thick eyeliner framing her brown eyes, a metallic multicolored ring through her lip and her typical kind of clothes; colorful shirts and skinny jeans and an old pair of, originally white, chucks that we had all drawn on to make them less boring. As soon as she was close enough she practically launched herself on me in a tight hug, almost flattening me to the floor.

“Han. Let the poor girl breath!” An English voice laughed from behind us. Hannah finally released me from her death grip and stepped back. “You must be Frankie.” The stranger smiled. He was tall and quite slim, a hat covered most of his brown hair, and there was a silver ring through his lip. He was wearing plain black skinny jeans, a bright blue hoody, and black and white checked Vans.

“How did you ever guess?” I smirked
“Just a hunch. I’m Ben.” He said putting his hand out for me to shake. “I’m the guy you’re staying with.” He smiled.
“Awesome.” I was unsure of what to do next, so Hannah suddenly perked up again.
“Let’s go get you back to Ben’s place. You can check out your room, drop of your stuff and I guess want to relax for a bit, it’s probably been a real long journey for you.”
“Yeah. That’s sounds like a good plan.” I nodded in agreement. I turned to pick up my duffle, before realizing Ben had already taken it and was walking in the direction of the exit.

I offered to sit in the back of the car on the way to Ben’s, Hannah had informed me that it would take about an hour to an hour and a half to get there, so I figured I could try and get some sleep on the way. It was around two fifteen, pm, here, so the eight hour time difference was really taking its toll on me, I’d been up since half seven yesterday morning. It would be around eight am back home. There was no way dad would be up yet, especially if they had gone out drinking after the gig last night. I had a while yet to relax before he found I was gone. Joey normally woke us up at around 9am at the latest every morning on weekends, but he was at a friend’s, so he probably wouldn’t be home until after lunch, so there was no way he would be the first to realize I wasn’t there. That made me feel slightly better. I would hate for him to be the one to find the note I left.

“Frankie?” a soft voice drifted through my head.
“Mmm?” I heard myself mumbled in reply.
“We’re here.”

I opened my eyes and waited for them to adjust. Ben was just getting out of the car. I climbed out too and looked at the surroundings. The road we were in adjoined to the main road, where I could see and hear a constant stream of cars. I looked at the house in front of us, it wasn't huge like my house back in California, but it wasn’t exactly tiny either. It seemed to be just a general, average sized house.

“It's not exactly much. And probably nothing compared to what you’re used to back home. But a house is a house right?” Ben smiled at me.
“It looks fine.” I smiled back.
“I dropped Hannah off at home en route here, she said she’s sorry but she had to get to work so she’ll see you tomorrow.” He told me as he went around to the trunk and started to get my duffel bag out.
“Oh right that’s cool.”
“And I don’t know if she told you. But I live with another guy as well, Joe, he’s in my band. I just thought I’d let you know that there isn’t just some random guy walking around my house.”
“No Hannah didn’t say. But I didn’t exactly give her much warning that I was planning to come out here.” I replied as he started to lead me towards the front door.
“Joe!” he called as he let us into the house. He signaled for me to walk straight down the hall while he shut the door and hung his keys up.
“In the kitchen!” I heard a voice yell back.
I stood awkwardly at the end of the hall, not sure what to do.
“Come on through.” Ben told me as he walked past towards what I assumed was the kitchen. I followed him and then stood in the doorway, realizing I had walked into a room of three other guys.
“Frankie right?” a tall guy with black hair and a blonde fringe asked me.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“I’m Stoo. That’s Justin,” he introduced himself, and then pointed to a shorter black guy with dark dreads. “And that’s Joe.” He added pointing to another guy with his head in the fridge, who waved a hand in my general direction in his own way of greeting.
“Hi.” I nodded in a way of greeting.
“Just a word of warning. These guys will probably be here a hell of a lot. We tend to practice here.” Ben told me. “So sorry in advanced for any excessive noise.”
“It’s cool. It’s not like I’m not used to it.”
“Good point.” He nodded. The other guys didn’t seem to understand, I guess Hannah had told Ben who I was in more detail than the other guys.
“What’s your band called?”
“The Famous Class. “
“Cool.” I smiled.
“Oh. I’ll just show you your room.” He added as he suddenly remembered I had only just got there.

He grabbed my duffle bag, which had previously been left in the hallway, and walked upstairs, leaving me to follow with my back pack. He pointed out various rooms to me en route to my own, mainly his room, the bathroom and Joe’s room, which was next to mine.

“It’s not really that big. I hope it will be ok.”
“It’s perfect. Thanks a lot for letting me stay here. It’s probably not exactly convenient.”
“It’s no worries at all. Hannah said you needed somewhere to stay and I have a spare room, so it’s no problem.”
He left my bag by the bed, which was situated along the wall furthest away from the door, under the window that had a view onto the street out front.
“I’ll just leave you for a bit. You probably want to get some sleep or something.”
“Thanks.” I nodded.

He left, shutting the door behind him, and I had a proper look around the room. It was furnished very simply, but I liked it. There was a desk next to the wall to the left of the door, and there was a built in wardrobe on the wall to the right. I decided I would unpack later, so I kicked off my shoes and just collapsed onto the bed. It didn’t take long to fall asleep again.