Dusk & Summer

tom.
apr 16, 2005.
london, england.
I sat in the plush lounge at a table by myself, too weary and tired to speak. I had left my coat on seeing as the airport's central heating wasn't all that good, and my face peeked out from beneath the thick scarf that was wound around my neck. My sallow eyes were heavy lidded with sleep and my skin was pale.

I picked up the hot mug of coffee in front of me and brought it to my lips, sipping it slowly as it burnt my tongue. I sighed heavily after placing the mug back down on the glass table before rubbing my tired eyes and dragging a hand through my unruly hair.

My mind wandered to last night and I smiled, despite the slight headache I had from the strong Greek wine we'd drunk. Annabelle was so interesting to be with. I'd had so much fun last night, which only reinforced my dread of returning to America today and having to sort out somewhere to live, a lawyer, what I'm going to be doing with myself for the rest of my life...

I groaned outwardly without thinking, earning myself a strange look from the middle-aged man in a suit reading a newspaper at the next table over. I gave him a small, uncomfortable smile and quickly looked down at my hands again, before exhaling heavily and letting my head fall back. I shut my eyes which made my headache worse, so I opened them again and leant forward in my seat. I rifled through my bag quickly before pulling out a packet of aspirin. I fumbled to break two from beneath the foil, before lifting up my coffee mug and taking a gulp before pushing both the pills into my mouth and swallowing them with grimace.

As I put the packet back into my bag and zipped it up, over the intercom I heard my flight being announced. I quickly stood up and grabbed my bags before walking towards the exit of the lounge.

I found my gate number and queued up to enter the plane in a sleepy daze. Before I could even realise it I was being shown my seat in First Class by a pretty stewardess with dark hair. Luckily there was currently no one occupying the seat next to me, and I prayed it would stay that way.

I slumped down into my seat with a sigh, stowing my bags underneath the seat in front like you're supposed to. Then I leant back and shut my eyes, trying to block out the sounds of people shuffling past me towards their seats, stewardesses welcoming people onto the plane and that continuous drone of the engines starting up.

"Sir? Sir?"

My eyes fluttered open to see the same stewardess smiling down at me.

"We're about to take off, so if you could just put your seatbelt on for me."

"Oh." I fumbled to sit up straight, and peered down at my lap with bleary eyes. "Sorry, I must've dozed off. Sure thing." I said in a groggy voice, and she gave a small laugh.

"That's alright, sir."

She straightened back up and continued walking down the aisle, checking people's seatbelts as she went. I gazed around me. Everyone was now in their seats and the droning had got louder. I sighed and quickly did my seatbelt up. There was still no one in the seat next to me which I was grateful for, and I looked over it out the window.

Suddenly the engines roared, and the plane began slowly edging it's way forward on the runway. I sighed and rested my head against the back of the comfy seat as the plane slowly turned the corner onto the long, long stretch of runway before it began picking up it's pace.

That familiar feeling of my stomach being turned upside down began to appear as the plane kept getting faster and faster, before it was speeding down the runway until we left the ground in one smooth movement.

If I was honest, I'd always been a little nervous of flying. My hand was gripping onto the armrest a bit tighter than it should've been, and my jaw was clenched as we ascended into the air.

After another ten minutes, the seatbelt lights went off with a ding, and I quickly unbuckled mine and crossed one leg over the other in an attempt to get more comfortable.

"Mr. DeLonge, would you like some champagne?" The stewardess appeared by my side with a tray carrying a collection of tall flutes filled with bubbling champagne. I smiled and nodded.

"Thank you." I said as she placed it down on my table and moved forward to the people in front of me. I sipped it slowly and looked out the window again at the last fleeting glances I had of the city of London through the grey English fog filling the sky.

anna.
apr 16, 2005.
london, england.
I pulled on the soft, white linen trousers before slipping the long white smock on over the top. I hated my spa uniform but it was mandatory. The spa was a very upper class place.

I sat down at my dressing table and pulled my long, unruly blonde hair back into a chignon with a pinned quiff in an attempt to smooth it out. I left my face bare of any eye make up, and slipped my feet into the white flip flops before leaving my room.

"Morning." Mel said from where she was sat on the sofa, eating a bowl of cereal as I walked over to the kitchen-half of the main room and poured myself a cup of coffee.

"Morning." I replied, my voice still a little husky from the early morning wake up.

"So how was last night." She asked me with a smirk, as I came and sat down beside her. I couldn't help the large smile spread across my face as I sipped my coffee.

"It was nice." I said, and she snorted into her cereal.

"Only nice?"

I knew she was recalling the hour and a half I took getting ready, not to mention the half hour before that I spent making her help choose what dress to wear.

I shrugged but couldn't rid the smile from my face.

"So where did he take you?"

"To a Greek restaurant on Notting Hill." I said, and I couldn't help the excitement leaking through my voice as I turned to face her. She placed her empty bowl on the coffee table before turning to face me with an equally excited smile on her face.

"Really?! Wow."

"I know! And he paid for all of it. He wouldn't let me pay for anything, not even the taxi ride home."

"Aww." She replied, covering her mouth with her hand. "That's so sweet."

"I know." I said, setting my mug down on the table before smiling happily as I brought my legs up onto the sofa and wrapped my arm around my knees.

"Did he kiss you?"

My smile faltered a little, and I shook my head hesitantly.

"No."

Mel exhaled loudly. "Well why didn't you kiss him?!"

I looked down at my hands twisting together in my lap awkwardly as I shrugged again.

"He wouldn't have wanted me to. He's just separated from his wife, he isn't interested in me like that."

"If he wasn't interested in you then he wouldn't have asked you to dinner!"

"He asked me as a friend. As a thank you for showing him around London, nothing more."

"No way. He's interested." Was all she said before she stood up, picking up her cereal bowl on the way to the kitchen. Butterflies appeared in my stomach as her words sank in; the slight hope that what she said is true filling me. I don't think - well, I don't hope - he realised just how much I liked him. Which was so very odd considering I barely knew him. Considering when I first met him he was buying jewellery for his wife.

"Doesn't the age thing bother you at all?" Mel asked me, filling a glass with orange juice before returning the carton to the fridge. Another smile spread across my lips as I tucked a strand of hair that had come loose behind my ear.

"No, it doesn't bother me." I said. If I was honest, I found the fact that he was nearly ten years older than me quite sexy. He was like, this sexy older man, with so much more experience in everything than the immature boys I'd gone out with in the past. I sighed and glanced up at the clock on the wall above the TV.

"I better leave for work." I said, standing up and stretching. "Just need to go brush my teeth."
I walked into the bathroom and grabbed my toothbrush, squeezing toothpaste onto it before wandering back into the living room.

"Are you seeing him today?" Mel asked me, and I could feel my mood deflate slightly. I shook my head and managed to say through a mouth filled with paste, "No. He's gone back to America."

I walk back into the bathroom quickly before she could ask me anymore on the subject. When I emerged I grabbed my jacket off the hook on the back of the door.

"Where's Sam?" I asked Mel, realising I hadn't seen her tough looking, skinhead of a boyfriend for a few days.

"Visiting his mum." She told me as I untucked my jacket collar and did the first few buttons up before slinging my handbag over my shoulder. I nodded in response before my eyes fixed on something dark hanging up on the back of the door. I reached up and took it down, staring at the dark hoodie in confusion for a few seconds before remembering. It was Tom's, he gave it to me the other night, when I was cold.

I smiled as I held it in my hands, before hanging it back up on the hook.

"See you later." I called to Mel who was now running herself a bath.

"S'later." She replied, and I left the flat quietly, still smiling to myself.

tom.
may 9, 2005.
encinitas, california.
"Morning, Tom." My lawyer said quietly as I entered the large, spacious office. Fifteen minutes late. I gave an awkward smile and sat down beside him, glancing up through my eyelashes at Jen sitting opposite me. She looked away awkwardly, and I rubbed my weary eyes as the familiar twinges of pain shot up and down my spine. My back had always been bad since I'd slipped a disc a couple of years ago during a Blink tour, but it'd gotten a lot worse recently. Since everything happened.

I rolled my neck a little as the solicitor began to speak.

"Okay so now that Mr. DeLonge's here we'll pick up from where we left off yesterday..."

I allowed my mind to wander as he became that familiar drone in the background. I wasn't taking in a word that was being said. I let my lawyer do all the work.

I sighed heavily and ran my fingers through my messy hair, before glancing back up at Jen again with sunken eyes. These were the only times I got to see her anymore. In this solicitor's office while we fought for meaningless possessions that I didn't actually give a crap about.

My eyes met hers for a few moments before she looked away again uncomfortably. She looked thinner and paler. She had barely any make up on and her hair was pulled up into a scruffy ponytail but she was still my wife. She was still beautiful to me no matter what; no matter what happened between us and how our marriage was ending. I still loved her.

Forty-five minutes later I fell back to reality as I heard the solicitor sigh.

"I think we should leave it at that today. Tom doesn't seem up for this." He said, and everyone looked at me. I lifted my head off my palm groggily.

"Huh?" I said stupidly, and my lawyer shook his head before standing up and placing his hand on my shoulder.

"Shall we pick this up again next week? Is everyone free..Tuesday at 3 pm?"

We all nodded and agreed, before I left the room alongside my lawyer, taking one last look back at Jen as she slowly slipped her bag over her shoulder, talking quietly with her own lawyer to save herself from having to leave the building at the same time as me. I sighed heavily and rubbed my eyes as I left the building and said goodbye to my lawyer.

I climbed into my car and let the engine idle as I stared off into the distance. How had my life come to this? One day I was sitting at home with my wife, laughing at some stupid joke Mark had cracked. And the next, I was dissolving the supposedly "Until Death Do Us Part" vows that I had taken with Jen only little under two years ago.

I sighed heavily and pulled out of park before Jen could emerge from the building and see me just sitting there staring at nothing. As I drove down the hot, busy street a trickle of sweat ran down my neck before dipping into the loose collar of my t shirt and causing me to shiver slightly as it meandered down my back. The light shiver from the feel made a painful spasm shoot down my spine once again.

I flexed my tense fingers on the steering wheel and rested my head against the back of the car seat with a sigh. I wanted nothing more than to get home into my slightly cooler, air conditioned apartment and sleep for hours on end.

I glanced out the window at the rest of the traffic sitting stacked up beneath the sun's rays beating down on the crowded city unmercifully. It would take me twice as long to get home at this rate.

It took another 15 minutes for the traffic to thin out enough for me to start inching forward. Eventually it eased up completely as I slowly reached a less busy part of the city, and soon enough I was only a few minutes away from my apartment.

As I turned onto my street, the shrill sound of ringing filled my ears and made me jump. I quickly pulled my phone out of my pocket and glanced down at the caller id. International, it told me, and my heart skipped a beat.

"Hello?" I answered it, licking my suddenly dry lips nervously.

"Hi...Tom?" I heard that familiar light, cockney accent, and my lips curved into a smile of their own accord.

"Yeah." I said, knowing full well who it was already.

"Oh, hi. It's..it's Anna." She sounded a little nervous, and my stomach squirmed pleasantly. "...From London." She added, thinking I may not remember her.

"Hey Anna, how've you been?" I said, trying not to sound to eager as I parked my car in the garage of my building.

"I- good, thanks. And you?" I could hear that she was smiling as I answered.

"I've been better. Been sorting out the divorce and all that. You know." I said as I climbed out of my car.

"Have I caught you at a bad time? I'm sorry, I tried to time it so that-"

"No, no, you haven't caught me at a bad time." I interrupted quickly, wiping my slightly sweaty palm on my pants as I made my way towards the large front doors of my building.

"Oh. Okay. Good." She said, then there was a slight pause. "Well the reason I rang was because..erm...well..."

There was another pause where it sounded like she was actually trying to remember the reason she called me in the first place. A large, silly smile spread across my lips again as I pressed the button for the elevator and waited for it to reach the ground floor.

"...Because you left your- well when you leant me your hoodie- you know, that night I showed you around the city and I was cold so you gave me yours-"

My smile widened as she began to babble nervously. She was so sweet.

"-And well, you- I forgot to give it back."

"I see." I replied after a small pause, looking like an idiot to the woman getting out of the elevator as I passed her on my way in with a huge grin on my lips.

"So I- well, when you're in the country again..I mean..let me know and- and I'll come and...give it back to you." She finished speaking in a lame, quiet voice. I squeezed my eyes shut briefly as my cheeks began to hurt, I was smiling so much.

"I'd like that."