You've Got Me, Right Where You Need

It was a Tuesday that Zahra met the love of her life. His name was Oakley Dibbs and he was a model. A late one. The shoot he was scheduled for started an hour and a half earlier, and he stumbled through the door looking like he had just woken up. I had my face glued to a book, but Zahra squeezed my knee making me look up. I laughed at her dumbfounded expression and went back to reading. He walked right up to the desk and smiled right at her.

“hey I was supposed to be here like an hour ago but my alarms stopped working” he half smiled and I could see Zahra gripping the seat out of the corner of my eye. A door bust open next to us and a very angry looking photographer walked out. “hey sorry, ill be there in two sec’s” the photographer shook his head and went back inside. “im Oakley, Oakley Dibbs” he smiled and extended a hand out to Zahra.

“im Zahra” she said. Well it was more of a squeak. I looked up and they were both just smiling at each other. I coughed once and she looked at me. “oh this is um… this is…”

“im violet”

“nice to meet you” he smiled and shook my hand too. “I better get going, im late enough as it is. It was nice meeting both of you” he smiled once more before running walking off.

I looked at Zahra who was just sat there, a stupidly massive grin on her face. I shook my head and carried on reading. For the rest of the day she told me how beautiful she thought he was. I just laughed and listened. At about 4ish Oakley came out of the studio, looking pretty much the same as he had before he went in.

“have you got a pen?” he asked me, so I handed him one and he scribbled something down on the paper he was holding, before giving it back and tearing a piece of paper of and handing it to Zahra. He smiled and said bye, but only I replied. When I looked at Zahra she was staring intently.

“zee, what is it?” I asked and she handed over the paper as a reply. At the top was a phone number and under it read:

None of this wait 3 days to call crap
I really wanna hear from you soon
Oakley x

I looked up at her and she the biggest smile on her face. we both screamed silently and bounced up and down in our chairs until Ella-May told us we could go home. We walked home sawing our arms happily when I suddenly remembered the thing I had needed to tell her all day.

“zee, keep Saturday free, josh has given me tickets and back stage passes for their gig” she started to jump up and down excitedly and clap her hands.

“ahhh this day just keeps getting better” I smiled at her, and then said goodbye so she could catch her bus. I couldn’t stop yawning the whole way back because I had woken up so early that morning again. By the time I was back home, I flopped down on the sofa ready to fall asleep, until liana burst through the door.

“I don’t supposes your free on Saturday?” I asked her as I was just about to go to bed.

“whys that babe?”

“well josh has given me 4 tickets to their gig”

“damn, sorry babe, Freddy’s taking me out. Ill see if I can get out of it” she winked and boffed off to her own room. I sunk down onto my bed and pulled out my phone so I could ring Charlie. She didn’t answer so I sent her a text asking if she could go before tried to get to sleep again.

Charlie replied to me at lunch time the next day saying she couldn’t because she was going with Ali to see his parents, and that was closely followed by liana calling and saying that Freddy really wanted to see her that night. I sighed putting the phone down and turned to talk to Zahra, but she was to busy talking to Oakley on the phone. I coughed once and she quickly ended the call. “sorry” she said sheepishly.

“its ok. Well its just you and me on Saturday hun”

“what are we gonna do with the spare tickets”

“I don’t know” I shrugged, and then Sonnie walked into the reception.

“You alright love?” he smiled. I nodded, not being able to form a sentence for some reason and he just chuckled at me. “so I was wondering if you wanted to go out on Saturday, cause like last week we stayed in, I mean we don’t have to but…”

Zahra suddenly sat up straight in her chair next to me. “she would love to” she smiled and Sonnie looked at her like she had gone mental.

“I would?”

“yes. See we have spare tickets to a gig and want you to come”

“what, the three of us?” he questioned sceptically

“no, im bring a friend of mine, it’ll be like a double date sort of thing”

“ahhh, sounds awesome, text you later yeah?” he smiled again and waved before heading off. “later guys” he called and then it was just me and Zahra. I just looked at her and she smiled.

“what? At least that way we use up the tickets and you get to go out with Sonnie, and hopefully Oakley will come. Plus im to nervous to hang out with him on my own. Pleaseeeeeeee” she wined so I said yes just to make her stop.

Saturday night soon rolled around and me and Zahra were in my room figuring out what I should wear. Well actually it was more like Zahra was telling me what to wear. Apparently it would be to hot to wear what I wanted, so she put me in a burgundy coloured vest, blue skinnies and matching vans. she did my make up too claiming I needed to look good for my “first date” with Sonnie. I didn’t want to upset her so I let her do it, but then regretted it once I realised it would be halfway down my face by the end of the evening. I had never been to a gig before, and I didn’t know any of their songs so I had no idea how this evening was going to turn out. But I had no time to worry because Sonnie was banging on the door and when I opened it he rushed upstairs claiming he needed the loo.

Even though Zahra had been talking to Oakley pretty much nonstop all week she was still nervous about meeting him. When he eventually arrived she was to scared to answer the door. I led him inside to where she was before running up to see what was keeping Sonnie.

The bathroom door was open and he wasn’t in there so I checked all of the rooms only to find him sitting on my bed. He patted the spot next to him so a sat down. “you alright?” I questioned

“yeah, I was urh, I was just wondering if maybe, you don’t have to say yes, its just Freddy’s got liana over, and I don’t wanna disturb so may could I possibly crash here tonight?” Sonnie wasn’t his usually cheeky self right now, he was stumbling over words and all sorts. I just smiled at him but he got even more paranoid. “what?”

“nothing” I said slowly. “And yes, that’s fine” he smiled the most brilliant smile before he grabbed my hand to pull me downstairs. “you two ready?” I called form the hallway. They emerged a few seconds later looking like naughty school children. Me and Sonnie just laughed and we all headed off. As soon as we were out of the door Sonnie grabbed my hand and laced out fingers together. He looked at me almost as if he was seeking permission so I just smiled and we walked along in a content silence whilst Zahra and Oakley chatted animatedly in front of us.

By the time we were at the venue it was almost time for the guys to go on. We pushed our way through the crowd and somehow managed to get to the barrier. Zahra was next to me and Oakley was next to her, and Sonnie was behind me, his arms wrapped firmly around my waist. For a first gig experience, it was a very good one. Now that I had actually heard their songs, I actually really liked them. Josh saw us straight away and throughout the night would pull stupid faces at us.

When it had finished we made our way out, through the crowd of girls with multi coloured hair and clothes that were far too small and tight. We found the door backstage and I found max lying on the floor all sweaty. “Violet” he shouted and held onto my leg. “Joshy is just in there” he smiled but still he held onto my leg.

“Urh max, can I have my leg back?” I giggled and he let go. We walked into the dressing room and I saw josh talking to a few guys I didn’t know but he stopped when he saw me.

“Violet, hey” he smiled and pulled me into a hug.

“Hey josh, you remember Sonnie right?”

“Oh yeah, hey man” josh nodded and Sonnie nodded back.

“Hey man, awesome show, you guys sounded amazing”

“Thanks” he smiled and I caught sight of Hanna in the corner of my eye talking to Zahra. She waved and I waved me over, and I left the two boys talking about boy’s things. I sat with Hanna and Zahra for most of the time I was there, but I wasn’t contributing to the convocation much. I was just watching josh and Sonnie talk. They seemed to be getting along really well and for some reason it made me really happy.

I sat talking to dan for a bit which was nice, but he was soon dragged away by some guy whose name I didn’t know. Sonnie and I made eye contact from across the room, and he started making his way over. I yawned and he held his hand out to me, which I took and he pulled me up.

“Tired?” he questioned, putting his arms around my waist. I huffed and rested my head on his chest, wrapping my arms around him too.

“Yeah”

“Let’s get you home yeah?”

I nodded and he held my hand, dragging me out of the room. Out of the corner of my eye I could see josh watching me. I quickly waved to him, but was dragged out of the room and soon walking the streets with Sonnie. He peeled his hoddy and placed it around my shoulders when I began to shiver, and then took my hand.

“So urh, liana told me about the insomnia”

“Oh” its not that I didn’t want him to know, it was just I wanted to be the one to tell him. And since when did I give permission to liana to tell everyone what wrong with me?

“Oh sorry I-“

“No, no it’s fine” I cut him off “I just…”

“She just wanted to make sure I didn’t get you home to late”

“Yeah I get it”

“She said you’re all ok now though?” I just nodded and he squeezed my¬¬¬ hand tighter. For some reason I didn’t want to lie to him. I didn’t want to tell him everything was ok when it wasn’t. We made it back to my house and we went into the lounge. We stood there in awkwardness for a bit before I thought I should break the silence.

“Can I get you anything?”

“Nahhh im good” he smiled and sat down. “It’s late, you should get some sleep” I nodded realising the truth in his words, but for some reason I didn’t want to.

“Ca-can I stay with you for a bit?” for some reason I was nervous. I didn’t want to come across as needy but I really didn’t want to be on my own.

“You don’t need to ask babe” he smiled and held out his hand, which I took and he pulled me down next to him. He wrapped his arms around me and I snuggled into his chest, feeling his heartbeat quicken. We sat in silence and soon enough I could hear sonnies breathing become shallower. I looked up and he was fast asleep. I tried settling down myself, and I fell asleep a few minutes later, only to be woken up at 10 past 4 the next morning. Me and Sonnie were in the same position, and I carefully menouvered myself out of his arms, being careful not to wake him.

I was so frustrated with myself so I went and sat on the front step like I usually did when I woke up early. I sat for about 5 minutes until I heard footsteps behind me.

“Hey, what you doing?” Sonnie asked. He sounded sleepy, but there was a hint of worry under it. He sat down next to me and too my hand in his. “You alright?” I tried to say yes, but the words got stuck im my throat. The tears began to form in my eyes and spill over the edges. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, his voice laced with concern.

“I can’t sleep” I croaked out quietly. “For the past week I haven’t been able to and it’s getting worse.” I looked up into his big blue eyes and I gave me the courage to carry on. “Im scared” I finally admitted the tears falling faster. Sonnie let go of my hand and wrapped this arms around my waist. He rocked me back and forth slowly shushing me trying to calm me slightly. We sat in silence watching the sun rise and after a while I calmed down and he kissed my forehead lightly.

“You don’t need to be scared babe, we’re gonna get through this. Together”