Lover's Dance

I’m not generally a patient person. If you knew me, you knew this to be true. I like On-Demand TV and ate a good amount of my meals from the microwave. Waiting just wasn’t something I enjoy; I was usually quite understanding when I had to, I just didn’t like it. So when a few weeks had passed and I still hadn’t heard from Josh, I didn’t like it.
Along with patient, needy certainly isn’t on my list of traits. I like my distance just as much as the next gal, and believe me I wasn’t one to pester a guy for attention. I’d called Josh once –maybe twice- in the last few weeks, and I didn’t plan to call him again for awhile. He never answered, and he never called. What probably confused me the most was the fact that, last time we were together, we’d had such a great time; I couldn’t have possibly done something wrong since then.
Then why hadn’t he called?
I found myself watching a lot of movies in my free time. At 3 o’clock I watched a sappy romance movie, then at 5:30 I was watching one of those psycho movies where the woman snaps and kills her husband. Either way, I was eating a lot of brownies. What else was I supposed to do with the time? If I wasn’t in the studio working on the album, fixing some lyrics that didn’t work for the album, or working on cover designs for the album, I was all alone while the others went to do something with their lives. I easily could’ve gone with them, gone anywhere really, I just didn’t want to. I wasn’t sad or depressed, of course not. I was just upset and confused. I would think about the feel of Josh’s lips and wonder if he enjoyed kissing me as much as I enjoyed kissing him. I sure wanted to kiss him again, but maybe the feeling wasn’t mutual?
If he didn’t like me anymore, the least he could do was call. Let me in on the memo, share his thoughts. I would’ve even taken a simple text, though it wasn’t preferred. It sucked to be left hanging, unsure of where you stood with a person. Was I supposed to sit around and wait for him to call? Or did he mean for me to forget him completely. Forgetting would be hard, I was sure of it.
“Hey Laney,” Jacob called from the kitchen. “Want some oranges?”
“No thanks.” I responded, taking another bite from my brownie. I sat crisscross on the couch, my hair in a messy bun in comfortable sweats while I looked over some lyrics, the bridge wasn’t coming out right so Jacob had agreed to help me with them. In a moment he was walking back over and jumping on the couch next to me. He snacked on some oranges and looked over what I’d written.
“I like that line, a lot.” He said. “’Two hearts lost, running on the same page’. I like what its saying.”
I nodded. “Thanks, I was thinking of going on with another book reference. I don’t know, almost to convey a storybook romance, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s good.”
I sat back and thought of a good second line. Casually, my eyes moved over towards my phone. It was silent, not surprising. I frowned.
“You okay, Laney?”
My eyes snapped back to Jacob, who was watching me knowingly. I smiled quickly.
“Of course!” I assured, laughing. “Just concentrating!”
He looked down sadly, probably knowing I was lying.
“Hey,” I said suddenly, looking to change the subject, “How about, ’Looking for a fix, a way to end the charade. A new page, a new chapter; two hearts beating faster. A prince and a princess, both hope to be saved’?”
He smiled gently, nodding. “Yeah, I like that. It’s good.”

I threw myself onto my bed, exhausted. After Jacob and I had worked on lyrics, Amanda had told us we needed to get into the studio that second to work on the third song. We hadn’t stopped working since, finally leaving sometime after nine. Count the twenty minute drive and the boys needing to stop by Burger King, it was 10:05 and I was just getting into bed. I rested my head on the pillow and almost cried, it was so comfortable. After a moment of debating, I decided I needed to put on pajamas and reluctantly got out of bed, heading over to my drawers and pulling out some soft cotton shorts. I peeled off my shirt and immediately decided I didn’t want to wear a shirt, so I didn’t grab a new one and instead stayed in my black bra. Knowing my feet get cold, I pulled on some knee-length socks just for good measure. I threw my hair into a high ponytail before, satisfied, I jumped back onto my bed and sunk into the soft mattress. I let out a sigh of relief, glad I could finally go to sleep.
I groaned, once wanting to cry, when my phone went off. Kicking my bed in protest, I sat up and grabbed my cell of the nightstand, answering it quickly.
“Hello?” I snapped.
“Uhm, h-hey. Delaney. It’s uh- it’s me. Josh.”